The first-ever R/C onroad race event at the famous Circuit of the Americas F1 track in Austin, Texas took place over last weekend. Coordination on the part of HobbytownUSA Austin, the SouthWest Championship Series Committee, and several R/C racing enthusiasts at the Circuit of the Americas made this event possible. Both nitro and electric classes were run, which made for an exciting and unique experience.
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Last weekend saw the final round of UandesRC Opening Championship 2013. The UandesRC’s track is inside the University of Los Andes, located in the capital of Chile, Santiago. The final stage of the UandesRC Opening Championship started as a nice day, but the really low temperature conditions would made the correct choice of tyre compound crucial. The ranking previous to the final stage showed the first five positions with huge possibilities for anyone to become the new UandesRC’s Opening Champion. After a hard time in qualifying Alejandro Perez (Team Magic) TQ’d the 13.5T class with 15 laps at 5:12.349s, a new track record, followed by Tomás Ramírez (Xray) in 2nd and Nicolás Becerra (Hotbodies) in 3rd.
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Hobbico introduce their new Tactic line of standard-size servos for a multitude of applications. Available ranging from the TSX35 Sport Standard servo (0.16 sec/5.3 kg-cm) with plastic gear train up to the TSX65 Digital High-Voltage Ultra-Torque (0.13 sec/25.7 kg-cm) servo with metal gears, coreless motor and dual ball bearings, Tactic offers a solution for nearly every application. All servos come with mounting hardware and are equipped with universal-type connectors.
Click here to see the specifications of all servos
JConcepts introduce their new ball-cup assortment for Team Associated 1/10th off-road vehicles. They are of a heavy-duty design and come as wedged and rib type. The wedge ball-cup has an increased diameter around the turnbuckle which naturally provides a beefy cushion between metal and plastic plus the cups feature a longer boss which slides over the solid shank of the turnbuckle increasing the overall strength of the connection. Included is an angled version of the wedge which can be used on the outside of the rear camber link for increased clearance on the rear wheel and also to the inside which increases clearance around big bore shock springs. The rib ball-cup is a more traditional design but incorporates 3 ribs across the weakest point resisting bends and tweaks normally associated with hard crashes. A short, rib ball-cup is also included for servo to steering bell-crank connection. Both the wedge and rib ball-cups include an open top which allows for ball-end accessibility for quick and damage free adjustments and they come as 36-piece sets.
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Kyosho introduce the Inferno MP9 TKI3 ReadySet 1/8th nitro ready-to-run buggy. Based on the 2010 World and 2013 European Championship winning MP9 the buggy features a fully adjustable suspension with anti-roll bars, new oil-filled shock absorbers with threaded housings and dirt shields for the rear A-arms. The wishbones are located by suspension mounts with inserts for easy toe and anti-squat adjustment and the 3-differential drivetrain is quipped with lightweight gears and a high capacity centre differential. The buggy builds on a hardened aluminium chassis plate for increased durability and features the latest forward-biased weight distribution thanks to a front-mounted RC box. Included with the factory-assembled buggy come high-performance steering and throttle servos, a KT-201 2.4GHz FHSS radio set and a race-legal KE-21R engine with polished tuned pipe. The whole package is topped off by a pre-designed body shell, a high-downforce wing and grippy tyres on white disc rims.
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Following the 1XJ suspension mount for the XV-01 chassis Yeah Racing now release more option parts for Tamiya’s 4WD sport-level chassis. Available are 1XM split inner suspension mounts made from high-quality aluminium that are designed to replace the stock plastic parts with more durable items. When used in combination with the 1XJ suspension mount the rear A-arms show a greater toe-in for added stability during cornering. The split suspension mounts are also available as 1XJ version.
Source: Yeah Racing [yeahracing.com]
Tamiyablog.com have some information on forthcoming Tamiya kit releases available. Coming this Fall are two TT-02 based classic race cars in the form of the Zakspeed Capri Würth and the Porsche 99 Carrera RSR as well as the Monster Super Swift on M-05 chassis and the RR version of the DB01 intermediate-level 4WD buggy. There are no official pictures yet but the Ford Capri Würth was released as 1/24th scale plastic kit before and especially the Monster Super Swift looks to become a nifty piece of kit. As for the DB01 it is understood that the kit will feature a lot of new option parts to make the club-level chassis more race worthy.
Click here to view how the Monster Super Swift may look like
Italian company iRacing introduce a 2-speed gearbox for BMT 1/8th GT chassis. The set comes with all needed parts to upgrade the GT car’s single speed gearbox and includes a new layshaft, one-way housing, and gears beside all needed hardware. Also included is a threaded clutch bell with interchangeable pinion gears to help with fine-tuning of the gear ratio.
Source: iRacing [iracing.it]
