The Mugen name is a synonym for high performance nitro racing buggies for nearly two decades now. Becoming 1990 World Champion in the hands of Mugen’s Kohji Sanada, the Super Sport started the long line of winning buggies with the like of the aforementioned Super Sport, the Athlete and nowadays the MBX range of cars starting from the MBX-4 that hit the market at the end of the 1990’s to the all-new MBX-6!
We received a report from the Proline Cup which took place last weekend in Vejle, Denmark, the first time in many years there was a buggy race held indoors at a sports centre. There was 5 classes in total 1/18, Monster Trucks, Stock/beginners Starter, 2WD and 4WD. The track was a combination of carpet and smooth cement floor which took the competitors a little while to get used to, but was a fun challenge and the jump was built in wood and was a little squared and not quite natural, but worked well without crashing the cars.
As seen at the toy fair on the HPI Racing stand, the Japanese company has released this special machined lightweight 4mm thick chassis for the World Champion Hot Bodies D8 1/8th scale buggy. Strategically milled out to reduce weight in non-critical areas, you can drop some serious weight exactly where you need it while maintaining the integrity required for a stiff racing chassis.
Source: Hot Bodies [hbeurope.com]
Gene Hickersen sent us the following report from the 3rd round of the ROAR Florida State Off Road Series hosted by Hurricane R/C Club in Lutz Florida. This is usually the largest race in FL every year and 2009 was no exception with 196 entries. All of the best drivers in the South East were there to test their skills on the tight & technical layout at the world famous Lake Park track. Thursday night brought some rain, which kept the moisture in the track all weekend for the blackest blue groove I have ever seen. Team VP Pro USA was in attendance with myself, Joey Perez, and even Ryan Lopez driving down all the way from Georgia. Jason Rouna and JR Mitch from J-Concepts were there as well as Leon McIntosh from Pro-line and Ryan Eckert from AKA Tires and many other fast drivers from various manufactures.
After publishing the review of Traxxas’ Slash CORR racing truck last week now it’s time for an even madder machine: the Team Associated SC8. Developed during 2008 at Team Associated’s so called ‘Area 51’ and released towards the end of the year the SC8 is probably the most authentic race truck so far. Based on the Associated RC8T chassis it not only offers a very scale looking CORR truck body but also (according to Team Associated) “… scale specifications of the full-size short course race trucks. It’s all there, from the scale suspension travel, to the roll-cage tube diameter, to the functional mud flaps.”
Team Orion have announced that Cody King has joined their factory team. Cody has been a long running force to be reckoned with in the world of off road and can be generally found in the A-main at any race he chooses. Cody will be running Team Orion Alpha engines and Marathon receiver packs, as well as the company’s award winning LiPos and Vortex brushless motors in his various Kyosho buggies and trucks.
Source: Team Orion [teamorion.com]
Serpent have released details on their 2009 Mega engine line up, which are the result of continuous development in cooperation with Picco over the previous season to bring you some important modifications. The new line up is called DSIII and pricing on the Mega engines will remain on the very affordable level as before. The entire range has been given a makeover and full details on all the engines can be found below.
Following on from Saturday’s exciting truggy final in which the winner was decided in the very dying moments of the race, Sunday saw the turn of the buggy racers to have their finals. Starting off from pole position in the main Jared Tebo battled early on with Mike Truhe and Ryan Maifield, until Truhe made a break for it with his Losi 8ight. Mike controlled the race for a long time until Tebo managed to claw his way to the front in the late stages forcing the 2 of them to battle it out. With 5 minutes to go, disaster struck for Truhe having to retire with technical issues and following this it looked as if the Kyosho/Orion driver had it in the bag. Ryan Maifield had other plans though and was catching the leader, and when Tebo flipped the car and lost time, Ryan was right on his tail and after some close racing Maifield snatched the lead away and won by just over a second, with Tebo 2nd and truggy winner Ryan Cavalieri in 3rd.
Source: Neo Buggy [neobuggy.net]
