Following some apparent confusion over the new EFRA ruling that sees the length of European Championship and Grand Prix qualification heats to 7 minutes, EFRA 1/10th section chairman Franky Noens has issued a clarification on the rule 2.4 of these new guidelines. The updated ruling states that ‘a pitstop, refuelling is mandatory’ in a 7 minute heat, wording that was not initially included in the rule.
Click here to read the full clarification
Serpent have released the full details on their new 1/8th scale chassis, the 966. As we know from previous releases, and from our coverage at the toy fair, the car sports a most alloy rear end for precise alignment of everything and most of the changes focus around this area. The car also of course has a new chassis plate to cater for the new rear end, as well as new braking system which sees the mechanism as low as possible in the car, as well as other small improvements including updated RCC shock absorbers.
Last weekend saw the first ever Czech Masters race take place in Hrotovice, Czech Republic and the organizer confirmed 75 racers, including Martin Hudy, Steven Weiss, Ronald Volker and Michal Bok, all top European modified racers. Drivers were greeted with a 35×20 meter sized carpet track and the race was open to racers in Toruing Modified and Stock, as well as 1/12th. In modified, it was Vice World Champion Ronald Volker who won five of the six qualification rounds with his HB Cyclone to take TQ, edging out his friend Steven Weiss driving for Xray, with Martin Hudy and Michal Bok rounding out the top 4, also with Xray.
McPappy Racing has now released a number of new items for their Dart 1/10th scale oval racer. First up is a line of 0, 5 and 10 degree Caster Blocks, which feature 3 holes for the upper wishbone mount that allow you to choose how much camber gain you want ,while providing 0, 5 or 10 degrees of active caster. To compliment the new blocks are these precision machined, adjustable bumpstops that allow you to independently control exactly how far each front wheel suspension will travel. You can engage them just a little bit to keep your chassis from bottoming out, or you can engage them earlier to control how the car reacts in the corner. One of the biggest benefits of running bumpstops is getting more weight on the left front wheel in the corners. As the car enters the corner weight shifts diagonally to the RF wheel. The RF bumpstop engages and now the weight travels to the LF wheel. Then the LF bumpstop engages and applies weight down on the left wheel. Bumpstops also can prevent rolling and keep the car level in the corners. These bumpstops are slotted so that you can slide them forward or rearward depending on how much caster you are running.
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Following on from yesterdays announcement that Teemu Leino will participate at next months 3rd round of the ETS in Warsaw, Poland, comes the news that Andy Moore will also be participating in this great event. The former World and European Champion has raced at the Euro Touring Series before, most recently at the 2007/08 season finale that took place last summer in Andernach, Germany and is keen to come back for more action. The Hot Bodies driver joins an already World Class field of racers as the ETS makes its debut in Poland on the 6th – 8th of March.
For more information about the event and where it takes place go to the Series page on the ETS site here.
Racers can enter round 3 of the ETS by going to rcracecontrol.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.
Xray have released this LiPo tray for the NT1, which was designed to accommodate the lower weight of the LiPo receiver battery pack compared to standard NiMH receiver battery packs. CNC-machined from a single piece of solid brass, the tray is additionally black coated for protection and laser engraved with the Xray logo for authenticity. The slick, narrow design allows you to mount a lightweight LiPo receiver battery pack, and being made of solid brass, weight is brought to the lowest part of the car as well as to the car’s centre line. This makes for a more balanced car, as well as more stable and easier to drive through corners and over curbs. Traction rolling is reduced in high-traction conditions, and handling is improved in low-traction conditions.
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The 2nd round of the Japanese based F1 RCGP series, organised by Hideo Kitizawa, took place last weekend at the RC Stadium Sodegaura in Chiba under cloudy but not so cold conditions as round 1. In qualifying for the F1GP class it was Ishikawa who started from pole, but it was his Rush team mate Sato Nobuyuki that lead the race followed by Hiroshi Kamibayashi and Miura Masayuki. When the temperature dropped during the race it caused most of the cars to oversteer and the biggest casualty was race leader Sato who couldn’t manage to keep the pace and was overtaken by Kamibayashi who went on to win, with Nobuyuki taking 2nd and Miura Masayuki taking 3rd, while pole man Ishikawa ended the race in 4th.
