RB have announced a brand new buggy manifold named ‘Compact’, as it fits all the cars with different side guards and bodies where space becomes an issue. As a result, the manifold and the pipe are moved 5mm rearwards. Available in 192mm and 198mm, the fins have been removed to prevent the accumulation of dirt which would cause overheating.
Source: RB Products [rbproducts.com]
Last weekend we saw the 4th Round of the Catalunya Regional Championships held at the Alcarrás Track in Lleida. In what is becoming a habit, it was Team Associated driver Robert Batlle who took the win, to claim his 4th from 4, ahead of HongNor/Merlin racer Patxi Peñas in 2nd, and Associated/Merlin driver Alex Calatayud in 3rd, a lap back on the lead pair.
Source: Merlin [merlinfuel.com]
Hudy have released their quick camber gauge for 1/8 off-road cars, which allows for quick and easy camber checks for the most frequently-used wheel camber angles: 1, 2 and 3°. Lightweight, compact and easy to use it has been precision machined from premium-quality fiberglass material and individually inspected by special inspection tool to verify angle accuracy. Fine color printed for quick and easy recognition of camber angle it sports side cutouts to allow clearance for wheel axles.
Click here to see the tool in action
Pro-Line have released their Suburbs for use on 2.2″ buggy rear wheels. Available in the company’s M3, MX and MC compounds for loose dirt/cool surface, blue-groove/high heat and clay conditions respectively, they were used at the 2008 ROAR 1/10 Off-Road Nationals, by Ryan Cavalieri who dominated the 2wd modified buggy class. Featuring an inner and outer radius rib tread for increased corner holding and predictable side-bite, the internal carcass webbing resist tire expansion under acceleration and deceleration while the internal sidewall ribbing maintains sidewall structure in extreme traction conditions for greater corner control. The tread height is predictable, aggressive, and long-lasting for use on a variety of blue-groove track and surfaces where you would typically run soft compound tires.
Source: Pro-Line [prolineracing.com]
The Shizuoka show is on this weekend in Japan, and as usual the Japanese companies are out in force showing their new products at their home show. HPI Racing have released a number of new items, the most interesting of which being the new Racing 32 H-01 and H-02 chassis’, which as the name suggests is a new 1/32nd scale racer. The H-02 chassis shown above, is a full race spec version with carbon throughout and is essentially a tiny Cyclone 12X pan car, complete with foam tires. The H-01 is the RTR version of the same car and features lightweight plastics throughout and will come with a beautiful scale body and is supplied with a 2.4Ghz radio system, as well as a charger / workbench. Also new on the same stand from Hot Bodies is the Flux powered version of the World Championship winning D8 buggy. This brushless car is still only a prototype, but from the pictures you can see that it retains the mechanical brake system, has a composite plastic chassis and a forward mounted motor.
Click here to see the other products
The first round of the EP Off-Road Cup took place at the MRCmodels track in Moscow at the beginning of May. With 49 drivers in attendance, this years competitions will be held over 2 days, with the 2wd buggies, including the Slash, on the first day and the 4wd classes on the 2nd day. Saturday saw competitions held in 3 classes for 2wd buggy and two classes of Slash, Sport for stock out of the box models and Pro for drivers with optional parts, motors and batteries.
The Off Road Electric Section of AECAR were in contact to tell us about the unofficial warm-up race they are holding at the 2nd round of the Spanish Nationals in Bilbao on the same track as this summer’s European Championships. The event will take place on the 29th to 31st of May and is open to all international competitors with a full schedule in place for both 2wd and 4wd classes. If you are interested you have until the 22nd of May to place your entry, forms for which can be found here. Further information, including facilities, hotels, etc, can be found on the official event page here.
Team Orion team driver has a report on the 2nd Annual Tri State Off Road Championship was held last weekend at Hal’s Hobbies in El Paso. ‘There was a practice race on Friday night, the day before qualifying. During practice my car was not great, but I talked with my Dad on the phone, and we got it working nice on the very rough track. The track was super rough and dry and the key to winning was to be consistent. We changed the camber links a little and added negative camber for stability. I won the practice race Friday and felt confident going into Saturday. For qualifying Saturday, I TQ’d the first round by 2 seconds over Billy Fischer. In the second round, the nut on a rear outer hinge pin fell off (same thing that happened at Silver State) and ended the heat for me. In round 3, I TQ’d again, this time by 4 seconds over Casey Peck. This would make me TQ in the buggy class.’
