October 2, 2024

EC Kim joins Hobbywing

Hobbywing has announced that top Korean Touring Car racer EC Kim will represent its motors and ESCs as part of his racing program with ARC.  Announcing their latest team driver, the multiple World Championship winning electrics manufacturer said, ‘We’re thrilled to welcome EC Kim to the Hobbywing Racing family!  EC has an impressive track record.  He brings a wealth of knowledge to the team and will be on-site, providing expert support whenever needed. We can’t wait to see what we’ll achieve together!’  Finishing sixth recently among the international entry at the Electric Singapore International Challenge (eSIC), on his move to Hobbywing Kim said, ‘I’m thrilled to officially join Team Hobbywing!  I’m eager to contribute and share my passion with the team and the Hobbywing community. I hope my future activities will be valuable and beneficial to both the team and all the Hobbywing users. Thanks to Nico, I am excited for the future!

Source: Hobbywing [hobbywing.com]


October 2, 2024

Xpress Execute XQ11R

Xpress has released details of its upcoming 1:10 Competition Electric Touring Car, the Execute XQ11R.  With the original XQ11 released in August 2023, the Hong Kong manufacturer also releasing a Hara Edition of the car earlier this year in collaboration with Atsushi Hara who raced the car at the TITC.  The XQ11R is an upgraded version of the XQ11 improving on a solid foundation with a number of upgrade parts.  A redesigned chassis plate with cutouts minimises the chassis plate bottoming during cornering.  The kit now also gets all new graphite suspension arms paired with a lowered shock mounting.

View more images and features list here


October 1, 2024

FEMCA Clarification on 1:12 World Championships

Following the release of the 2025 World Championship dates which we reported on yesterday and some resulting conversations about 1:12 not appearing on the list, our friends at FEMCA (Far East Model Car Association) have been in touch to clarify their position on the subject.  The governing body of RC racing that represents 15 nations in Asia and Australasia, the bloc has been tasked with bringing together the next 1:12 and next ISTC World Championship for IFMAR.  While the next 1:12 Worlds are due to take place in 2025, and the next ISTC in 2026, FEMCA after discussing internally & with IFMAR, that the prospect of jointly hosting the two World Championships together in China 2026.  While keeping Red RC updated on its progress, they would now like to publicly share these details with the wider RC community and avoid confusion especially within the 1:12 racing community.  Personally knowing all the people involved in putting together FEMCA’s exciting plan, Red RC is already looking forward their hosting of the championships .

Read FEMCA’s update here


September 30, 2024

IFMAR announces 2025 World Championship dates

IFMAR has published the dates for the 2025 World Championships with the latest calendar seeing one change of host country and 1:12 no longer listed.  The World governing body of RC racing, whose sole remit is the administration of each category’s bi-annual World Champion crowning, will have two new inaugural World Champions to add to their list as 1:8 Offroad gets it first World Championship race for Electric Buggy while 1:8 GT will now also get an official Electric GT World Champion, the 2023 Worlds hosting Electric GT as a ‘World Cup’ status race.  It will be 1:8 eBuggy that kicks off the 2025 calendar at the end of August followed by 1:8 GT in September, 1:10 Offroad in October, and 1:8 Onroad in December.  With 1:8 GT originally awarded to Peru, Chile is now set to double its efforts as it is listed to host 1:8 Onroad and now the 1:8 GT Worlds.  Club de Aeromodelos de Chile (CACH) will host the 3rd running of the GT Nitro Worlds with 2-months then to get ready for the race that decides IFMAR original World Championship category.  Having previously run with the ISTC World Championship, which is just over five weeks away in California, 1:12 became a stand alone championship after Covid but it looks likely they may come back together again for 2026 at least.  More news on this and the host track are expected from IFMAR shortly.

View dates here


September 30, 2024

Sobue wins ISTC Worlds Warm-up Race

Akio Sobue took the win at the official ISTC World Championship Warm-up race over the weekend, the Axon driver coming out on top of the small international entry to win ahead Xray’s Alexander Hagberg and Serpent’s Dominic Greiner.  With Finishline RC Raceway in Bakersfield, California, set to host the 12th running of the IFMAR World Championship for Electric Touring Car from Nov 5-10th, the official Warm-up race attracted 23 modified entries.  With reigning back to back World Champion Bruno Coelho and hotly tipped title favourite Michal Orlowski competing at 1:10 Offroad European Championships in Sweden, where they claimed a title each, it was 2022 Worlds podium finisher Sobue who set the pace throughout the event.  Topping all three qualifiers he secured the TQ ahead of Hagberg and former Nitro Touring Car World Champion Greiner and that’s how they ran & finished in the opening two A-Mains.  Hagberg took A3 from Greiner with multiple 1:10 Offroad World Champion Ryan Cavalieri getting a third that gave him fourth overall.  In Pro Stock it was Schumacher’s Ollie Payne who took the win.  Former World Champions Marc Rheinard and Atsushi Hara opted to not race and instead will begin testing at the track today.  Red RC will be travelling to Finishline RC Raceway in 5-weeks time to cover the main event.

Image: Serpent [Facebook]


September 29, 2024

Xray X12 ‘25

Xray has unveiled its latest 1:12 kit with the Slovakian manufacturer’s newest pan car featuring an all-new one-piece chassis design with more consistent handling in all conditions and improved tweak resistance.  The X12 ’25 chassis concept integrates with the front Tweak-Free Suspension and the rear Tweak-Free POD System to maximise performance.  The chassis plate’s edges are beveled for less drag on the track surface during cornering to improve handling and efficiency with special cut-outs for optimal flex characteristics.  The standard chassis is CNC machined from 2.0mm Swiss 7075 T6 aluminium.  A new 2-piece rear pod concept is positioned above the one-piece chassis. The new configuration is more adjustable with improved tweak resistance.  The new pod plate is used to set droop, pod angle adjustment and supports the side springs. All-new rear spring location creates more forward traction and lowers CG.  New lightweight aluminium bulkheads help lower CG as part of the new POD assembly, with the left side bulkhead adding a cooling fan mounting provision.

View the full X12’25 presentation here


September 27, 2024

MCD Octox 1:8 GT-E – First Images

Having announced plans to enter the 1:8 GT Onroad market in June, MCD Racing has just released first images of their impressive looking new Octox 1:8 GT-E.  One of 1:5 scale racing’s most successful manufacturers, they accompanied the images with the statement, ‘After two years of development, we’re excited to reveal the pictures of the new OCTOX GT-E!  With new molds for composite molding, gears, transmissions, suspension, and body shells all produced in-house, and final tests underway by our team drivers, the OCTOX GT-E is set for release in the first quarter of 2025.’

View more images of car here


September 27, 2024

Hobbywing XeRun XR10 PRO DR Drag Racing ESC

Hobbywing has released a new Drag Racing version of their very popular & successful XeRun XR10 PRO ESC.  Features a high-performance 32-bit M4 microprocessor, it uses software optimised and based on the world championship winning XeRun XR10 PRO G2S to provide the best control and performance for Drag Racing.  Compared to the XeRun XR10 PRO G2S ESC, the response time is reduced when the throttle acceleration is set to the maximum at 30.  The ESC comes standard with a 9900uF ultra-large capacitor. The capacitance is increased by nearly 9 times to ensure that the ESC voltage remains stable during extreme power output.  A frameless fan with patented technology is adopted to dissipate a large amount of air through the sides of the fan.  In addition, the internal power board is covered with a copper heat-conducting busbar to generate internal heat transfer to the integrated casing radiator.  The heat dissipation system ensures that the ESC is always reliable and in good heat dissipation condition at all times.

View more images here