Round four of the Xray Racing Series Poland was held in Lodz with close to a 100 drivers signed in for the event. The track laid out with EOS-style was super fast with a few jumps adding even more challenges. Young Xray driver Bartek Zalewski absolutely dominated the 4WD class that he ultimately TQ’d and won from teammate Jakub Luczak 2nd and Bartlomiej Kramza (Schumacher) 3rd.
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Coming from Techra and made for the use with the Xray T4 and VBC Racing Wildfire range of touring cars is a rear roller universal joint set. Designed to provide long-lasting performance with a minimum of maintenance the driveshafts are made of spring steel with chromoly rollers and carbon steel roller diff cups for durability. The design also offers other advantages over the standard drive pin construction such as improved handling through bumpy sections.
Source: Techra [facebook.com/techrarc]
Sweep Racing have announced the release of their new V5 1/8th buggy rim. It is of a -0.6mm offset design compared to the previous V4 rim and also features 1mm lower inner ribs for an overall softer wheel that provides improved traction on bumpy surfaces while also making the inserts slightly softer. The V5 wheel is made of high-quality nylon material and it is available in white or yellow colour.
Coming from T-Works and made for the Xpress Execute XQ1 touring car is a mixed aluminium and titanium screw set. It includes a total of 104 fasteners with the red anodised aluminium ones being of the special UFO head design for improved visual impact. Using the set over the standard steel hardware will greatly reduce the overall weight while also lowering the centre of gravity.
Source: T-Works [rc-tworks.com]
MCD Racing from Turkey have introduced their all-new IBS internal bypass shock absorbers for their range of off-road and on-road large scale kits. An industry first in the large scale scene, the dampers feature a fully working piggyback reservoir that that acts as a volume compensator for the overflowing oil as the shock absorber compresses. Valves allow for precise compression and rebound control with the compression and rebound circuit featuring auto-adaptive dual-way check valves that allow the oil to by-pass independently. The all-alloy shocks come anodised for looks and wear, they are adjustable externally and come as 64mm or 47mm stroke off-road and 26mm stroke on-road variants.
After month of rumour on social media and certain news sites over the health of Hobbico, the company announced on the 10th of January that they are filing for restructuring under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code and that they are pursuing a process to sell or restructure the company. Hobbico will continue to operate the business throughout the bankruptcy process. Numerous companies across a range of industries (automotive, airlines, etc.) use this type of filing as a tool to get costs under control, create stability and build platforms for growth. Hobbico intends to use the bankruptcy filing and a possible sale of the business to reduce their debt, restructure their liabilities, attract new investors and position the company for future growth. Hobbico carefully evaluated this vs. a number of other actions and concluded this was the best path forward.
Capricorn RC have introduced the Dynamic upgrade kit for their 1/8th scale C803 chassis. The set consists in a total of three 2mm graphite plates that serve different purposes. The first plate raises the front bulkhead, bringing it higher from the ground in order to improve the steering response entering the corner and raising the corner speed. The other two plates raise the radio tray, so as to reduce the torsional flex bringing the two elements further from each other.
Source: Capricorn [capricornrc.com]
In what has come as a big shock, Yukijiro Umino has announced his departure from Japanese company Yokomo. Yukijiro, a top racer in his own right, is best known for his role as chief designer of the company’s touring car platform and for being Ronald Völker’s race engineer. One of the most successful partnerships in RC, the pair dominated the ETS for 5 seasons between 2010 and 2015, took numerous European, Reedy race and National titles and finally took a long awaited and well-deserved IFMAR World title back in 2016. Yukijiro has yet to announce his new destination but has released the following statement:
I wish to announce that after 22 great years with the company, from the 25th of January I will no longer be working for Yokomo. I want to give a big thank you to everyone at Team Yokomo, my co-workers, team and especially to Tom Yokobori for what has been an amazing opportunity. I also want to give a special thank you to Ronald Volker with whom I have worked so closely over the past 9 year and achieved so much together. And finally I want to thank my family for their support throughout this journey. I wish to let everyone know that, as I have always done, I will never stop challenging and never give up. See you all at the track soon.
