Red RC

March 15, 2009

F1 RCGP Round 3 report

The 3rd round of the Japanese F1 RCGP series was held last weekend at the famous 1/8th GP track, KeiTuen Racing Speedway in Chiba. The unique part of the F1 RCGP is that the race will start in rain or even snowy weather conditions and there was no exceptions for this round. Track conditions was semi wet for the first round and most of the drivers started with rubber tires but apparently sponge tires were a better choice. Heavy rain started falling after lunch break and some drivers spread glue on the sponge tires surface which works pretty well. To win this round not only driving technique but right tire choice is extremely important. In the F1 GP class it was Miura Masayuki starting from 2nd who was in a different league managing to have a safe lead over 2nd placed Ishikawa Mamoru, who never got a chance to put any pressure on the leader. Yashima Sadaaki beat National off road champion Kimura Shinya to secure his 3rd place.

March 15, 2009

D-Drive Sports F103 Monocoque chassis

Japanese company D-Drive Sports have shown the first pictures of their new monocoque chassis that they are making for the F103. This is a two piece chassis that replaces the top and bottom chassis plates on the F103 and is made from Carbon reinforced plastic just like their front suspension arms. The chassis when assembled is very stiff and the servo is mounted with the standard Tamiya servo mount, but what makes this special is that the screws are anchored to the top of the chassis. Also the rear suspension arm bolt is also anchored to the top of the chassis. You can see from the pictures that you can use the standard Tamiya battery mounts, which simply fit between the two piece of the chassis.

Click here to see another picture

March 15, 2009

Diggity Designs B44 Super Flexy parts

New from Diggity Designs for the Team Associated B44 are a range of ‘Super Flexy’ carbon parts. Featuring a different design to the stock items, they allow for more twist to help create more traction on low bite, rough, bumpy and rutted tracks. There are 3 different parts available, a centre brace, a front upper deck and a rear upper deck, and they have been made from 2.5mm thick carbon fibre and are each sold separately.

Click here to see the other products

March 15, 2009

X-Games – Hot Bodies Cyclone 12X

The Hot Bodies Cyclone 12x is the updated version of the European Championship-winning Cyclone 12 chassis and although the indoor season in Europe comes to an end for the moment we would like to introduce this car to you. As with nearly every competition car the HB Cyclone 12x comes un-assembled and without body and tyres. A nice touch is the addition of the Hot Bodies dish rims that make for an unusual look since most of the current 1/12 scale rims are of a spoked type. The 12x is based on the Cyclone 12 and received some more or less visible refinements to make for an even better ‘circuit racer’ as Hot Bodies calls their on-road car.

Read the full review here

March 14, 2009

Josh Cyrul teams up with Shepherd Racing

Shepherd Racing have announced that multiple US National Champion and multiple World Championship podium finisher Josh Cyrul has joined their international racing team. From now on Josh will use the Velox V8 for all 1/8th On-Road scale events and of course will also race with the upcoming Velox V10 as soon as it is available. As he has many years of experience with nitro on-road cars, his feedback will help the company finalizing the design of the V10 as well as improving the V8. Josh will attend all major US events, the Pre-Worlds and the World Championship in Lostallo. He has sent us the following statement:

Heading into the 2009 season and especially looking forward to the coming World Championships, I am extremely excited to join Shepherd Micro Racing. The Velox 1/8 car has already more than proven it’s capabilities and I’ve been impressed with the car since the moment I saw it. Now, actually going through the kit and holding one in my hand I’m even more happy and looking forward to a great future with Patrick and everyone at Shepherd.

Additonally his company CEFX will take over the exclusive distribution of Shepherd Micro Racing products for North America. Soon the homepage will be updated with the full information about Shepherd products. We are sure that CEFX will guarantee a premium support for all Shepherd customers in the US. With the existing contacts to hobby shops all over the US, CEFX has the possibilty to ensure a wide parts availability.

Source: Shepherd [team-shepherd.com]

March 14, 2009

Yokomo sign World Champion Hayato Matsuzaki

Yokomo have announced the signing of current IFMAR 2wd buggy World Champion Hayato Matsuzaki. The former Hot Bodies racer joins IFMAR 1/12th scale World Champion and current double JMRCA National buggy Champion Naoto Matsukura as well as former European Champion Joern Neumann to create the company’s dream junior team. Fourteen time World Champion Masami Hirosaka, who has announced his retirement from competition, will oversee operations for Yokomo and has put together the current team in preparation for this years World Championships that take place in South Africa. The first race for the team is this weekend’s Cactus Classic in the USA.

Source: Yokomo [teamyokomo.com]

March 14, 2009

KO Propo PDS-2345 ICS Digital Servo

Debuting at the toy Fair last month KO Propo have announced that their PDS-2345 ICS Digital Servo is now available. This is their new regular sized high speed digital servo designed for electric touring cars. Pricing has come down on this servo due to not having the machined heat sink, while the gears in the servo are metal with their hybrid first gear and KO’s programming capabilities. Also now available is the company’s ICS Multi Setting Adapter & Mini-Z 2.4GHz Setting Card, which allows the users of the Kyosho 2.4GHz Mini-Z to program changes of the car. Includes the hand setting adapter, card and cable.

Source: KO Propo [kopropo.com]

March 14, 2009

John Ermen joins ATS Tyres International Team

ATS Tyres have announced that front running Dutch driver John Ermen has joined the ATS Tyres International Team. Alongside the National Championships the former Dutch National Champion will attend most of the international races this year as well as the main event of the season, the WC in Lostallo, Switzerland that takes place in August. John will continue to use his Novarossi powered Serpent chassis and will once again use Tornado fuels.

Source: ATS Tyres [atsmodel.com]