The 2nd African Cup GP On Road event took place recently and combined with it the IFMAR Pre Worlds Large scale discipline. The event saw 2 Australian drivers make the trip over to the race, which created a lot more excitement for the 1/8th discipline on it’s own, as they hadn’t seen foreign drivers competing in a club event since 2002.
UK based company Schumacher’s range of ‘narrow’ electric touring cars has come a long way, since starting in 1996 with the SST, which turned out to be a very successful TC platform. What followed was the exquisite Axis mid-motor cars that proved difficult to set-up but as fast – if not faster – than the SST range of cars. The current Schumacher TC platform is called Mission and has evolved from the Mi2(EC), Mi3 and Mi3.5 that went back to a more conventional design and suspension geometry compared to the Axis chassis. The latest incarnation is the Mi4 that offers the same race-proven suspension like the Mi3.5, introduced in 2008, but with a more LiPo-friendly chassis and bulkhead layout making it ‘future ready’, with more and more race meetings allowing the use of 7.4V LiPo batteries. We found out what the new UK tourer has to offer.
Titanium Racing have released these new F1 grade Ti6AL4V titanium double shoulder pivot balls to fit the modern range of Xray touring cars. A direct replacement for the stock items, they are precision manufactured, polished and colour anodized and are 50% lighter than the standard items.
Source: Titanium Racing [titaniumracing.com]
Sunday 19th July saw round 3 of the Action Model Centre supported 1/12th scale ‘Summer Shootout’ take place at Chesterfield, the home of 1/12th scale racing in the UK. The driver line up was one of high quality, despite the fact that 1/12th scale racing is relatively quiet over the summer in the UK. Pre-event favorites included the Hot Bodies pairing of Mick Farrell and Chris Smith, Corally’s Andy Sawyer and Serpent’s Peter Craig. Joining them in the hunt for victory was Mark Stiles, who has recently switched from Hot Bodies to the V-Dezign team. Mark immediately got off to a good start with his new chassis, being fastest in all 5 rounds of qualifying and took TQ by over a lap ahead of Mick Farrell and Chris Smith. Mark got a clean start in the A-final and went on to comfortably lap the entire field with an almost faultless run. Mick Farrell recovered from an early crash to finish 2nd, while Peter Craig improved on his 4th placed grid slot to complete the podium. With 3 of the 4 rounds completed, Mick Farrell heads the championship table by virtue of having competed in all of the rounds. However, a top three finish at the 4th and final round on 6th September would see Mark take the overall title.
Source: V-Dezign [v-dezign.net]
There was a dramatic outcome to the 2009 EFRA 1:10 200mm European Championships here in Gubbio, Italy this evening, with heartbreak for race dominator Dario Balestri and total joy for new Champion Dirk Wischnewski. Starting from pole Balestri’s Novarossi powered Team Magic was untouchable allowing the defending back to back Champion to lap the entire field, but in the final 10 minutes of the race the Italian suffered gearbox problems ending his quest for a hat trick of titles.
Read the full report on our event site here.
The Semi Finals have been run and the 6 drivers who will join the four direct qualifiers has been decided. In the Semi B Manuel Huber took a relative easy win over Dirk Wischnewski but the Semi A was a far more dramatic affair. Serpent’s Michael Salven lead for over half of the 20 minutes encounter but with 7 minutes to go and with a healthy lead his engine cut. This handed Mugen’s Guiseppe D’angelo the lead but he too flamed out with less than 3 minutes to go. Having benefited from the demise of Mark Green’s out of control Serpent 733 to move in to second, Martin Hudy came through to take the win from Gerhard Kandelhart. The other two qualifiers based on the next two fastest race times from both Semi Finals were Alexander Hagberg and Giorgio De Felici who come from the Semi B.
View our full event coverage here.
Dario Balestri will start tomorrow’s EFRA 1:10 200mm European Championships from pole position after the fourth and final round of qualifying failed to see any improvements from the front runners, Serpent’s Jilles Groskamp being the biggest improver going from 42nd after round 3 to a Semi Final place with 13th. Fastest for the round, which was overall slower due to the higher track temperatures, was Jerome Renaux who lines up a very impressive second on the grid.
View our full event coverage here.
The new O.S. 12XZ ABC 12F Slide engine features newly designed major parts that are designed to max out low- to mid-speed torque. Sporting a new crankshaft that features a counter-balancing shape and a more efficient intake port, the connecting rod is made of a new material, and the crankcase has been strengthened. Improvements have also been made to the liner ports, inner head and the 12F slide valve carb and it is supplied with a high-performance RP6 plug.
