Red RC

August 31, 2013

Avid caged diff thrust bearings

Associated and TLR owners can upgrade their diff with an Avid caged diff thrust bearing. The Avid caged bearings make working on your diff much easier, and you don’t have to stress out about losing one of those tiny thrust balls. You also won’t have to get your hands covered in black grease to build the thrust assembly. Avid offers 3 types of diff thrust for varying levels of cost, maintenance, and performance. Tungsten Carbide balls are more true in size and harder than steel, so they are smoother and last longer, but diff setting is still relatively easy. Ceramic balls are completely smooth and the hardest material they offer. This makes for the smoothest feeling, but the diff setting is the most narrow window of adjustment. Steel balls are the least expensive and easiest to set the diff. They do not stay smooth for as long as Tungsten Carbide or Ceramic so there is a small drop in performance for the lower price. Fits all B4.2, T4.2, SC10.2, SC10B and previous models along with TLR 22, 22T, 22 SCT.

Source: Avid [avidrc.com]

August 30, 2013

Yokomo B-Max4 III – First images

US Yokomo distributors A Main Hobbies just released first images on the upcoming B-Max4 III 4WD buggy. The updated kit will feature a topdeck-less aluminium chassis instead of a plastic tub chassis as used on the previous model. The drive train and slipper are also redesigned, the servo mount appears to be of a floating design as seen on electric touring cars these days and the kit will include carbon fibre shock towers, 12mm wheel hex adapters and a reduced amount of fasteners to make for a reduced all-up weight. More details will be released soon.

Click here to view the chassis without body

August 30, 2013

Dutch electric on-road nationals Rd5 – Report

The fast-flowing track of the MAC De Baanbrekers club in Rucphen was the venue to host the fifth round of the Dutch touring car stock nationals. Gaining enough points would mean the championship could be decided early in John Bruins’ favour with round 6 still to come late September. On Saturday most participants made the journey down South to get some practice before the event on Sunday, however the day would prove to be a complete wash out with only a few drivers been brave enough to go out in the rain. With the weather forecast for Sunday being overcast arriving at a dry track in the morning was a big relief to many drivers and the action got under way soon.

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August 30, 2013

Smokem Racing 417V7 conversion

Smokem Racing introduce the 417V7 conversion for the TRF417-series of electric touring cars. The design features a brand new motor mount that moves the motor 4.5mm closer to the centreline of the car. This greatly improves side-to-side balance and agility in quick direction changes. A new centre attachment point for the upper deck has been incorporated into the design for improved flex characteristics. The standard upper deck attachment points have been retained to allow racers to tune the flex characteristics according to track conditions. The conversion is a straight bolt-on for the TRF417V5. For the TRF417 and TRF417X, 1mm spacers must be fitted between the top deck and the front and rear bulkheads. The conversion allows to use of optional Tamiya or Smokem chassis for greater tuning possibilities.

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August 29, 2013

On the Grapevine – Beijing

After an enjoyable break from the skies, last week I returned to my travels with a journey that from the time I left my house in Ireland till the time I arrived at my other 2nd home (Hotel!!) ended up taking 27-hours. The reason for the long trip was because I was off to China where Red RC would cover its first FEMCA Championships. The event essentially crowns the champions of the Far East much like EFRA’s championships decide who is Europe’s No.1 driver and the ROAR Nationals determine who is top dog in the US/Canada. While FEMCA, which stands for Far East Model Car Association, has hosted the championships for many years across most of its 15 member countries, the 2013 1:8 Offroad event marked a very significant development for our sport in that it was the first sanctioned international r/c car event to take place in China. While pretty much every r/c car to hit a track around the world contains parts made in China, as a hobby r/c racing is almost non existent in a country that has a population of 1.4 billion people. Over the course of the week long event I got a very interesting insight into how that could all be about to change as the powers that be see potential in using r/c racing for the purpose of making education more interesting and interactive – something that can only be a win win situation for the growth of racing in potentially the biggest market in the world.

Continue reading On the Grapevine here

August 29, 2013

JConcepts TLR 22 motor plate & Scalpel shock limiters

After introducing the honeycomb design aluminium motor plate for Team Associated B4 based vehicles JConcepts now have the respective plate for TLR 22 based buggies and trucks available. Also new is a big bore shock limiter set for the Scalpel conversion kit. Starting with the motor plate, the part is machined from tough 3mm aluminium and features honeycomb shaped milled-out sections to reduce weight and in order to increase the surface for better cooling of highly stressed motors. The special design promises improved rigidity over conventional ‘slotted’ designs while keeping the weight as low as possible. The motor plate is available in blue and black colour and a direct replacement for the stock part.

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August 29, 2013

SkyRC RS16 charger & 17A power supply

SkyRC introduce the RacingStar RS16 charger and the eFuel 230W/17A power supply. Starting with the charger, the multi-chemistry device is of very compact dimensions and features a back-lit display and a single push joystick for flicking through the menu. With it’s 180W circuitry the charger can fill 1S to 6S LiXX, 1 to 15 cell NiXX and 2V to 20V Pb battery packs with up to 16A charge current while offering a heatsink design case, built-in balancer and an optional temperature sensor port. The DC charger is powered by 11V to 18V power sources and designed for the use with the new eFuel 230W/17A power supply as both devices can be stacked and coupled together using two dual banana plugs.

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August 29, 2013

Arrowmax silicone shock oils

Arrowmax have a new line of shock fluids available. The silicone-based fluids come in grades of 100cst to 900cst with fine 25cst increments for the 250cst to 600cst oils and are sold in 59ml and 110ml bottles that sport an easy to use non-dripping cap.

Source: Arrowmax [arrowmax-rc.com]