November 9, 2008

Leino surprises rivals in Thailand

Teemu Leino has surprised his rivals in Thailand by recording the fastest time in controlled practice as day one of the 1:12 scale World Championships comes to a close.  The flying Finn is debuting Xray’s new XII and was the only driver to record 39 laps over 8 minutes with his closest rival being CRC driver Jilles Groskamp who just missed out on 39 laps recording 38 in a time of 8:00.644.

Read the full coverage on our event site here.


November 9, 2008

EFRA publish 2009 Race Calendar

EFRA 2008 Approved Muffler list

EFRA have published the minutes from last weekends AGM that took place in Lyon, France. Contained within is the Calendar for 2009 that sees the introduction of a new indoor 1/12th and 1/10th scale electric European Championship which will take place in Collegno, Italy in January. Other events of note are the 1/8th scale on road World Championships in Lostallo, Switzerland that will be held from the 15th to 23rd of August. Due to the 1/8th scale Worlds taking place in Europe next year, there will be no European A Championships for this class. Next years outdoor Touring car Euros will be run in Luxembourg at the beginning of August, the 1/10th 200mm European A Championships is in Gubbio, Italy at the end of July and the World Championships for EP buggy will be in the beginning of October. It looks as if we will be extremely busy in 2009.

The full EFRA AGM minutes can be viewed here.

View the full 2009 Calendar here (PDF).


November 9, 2008

LRP SXX Competition prototype ESC

Seen in the pits at the Worlds in Thailand is the new prototype ESC from LRP, called the SXX. Much smaller than the previously available Sphere TC spec ESC, the new controller uses a metal plate set into a plastic frame, to which a heatsink fan combo can be applied but currently isn’t necessary for the 4 cell 1:12th scale class. The new ESC, which is also here in Nosram colours, features a revolutionary copper core cooling technology to keep the internals at a low temperature, while the controller software now has 10 power profiles to select from for finer adjustment of power delivery. Also new is what the company calls X.Brake which provides stronger braking, and it too has 10 adjustment settings which can be set by the 2 new externally mounted buttons.

Read the full coverage on our event site here.


November 9, 2008

New in Thailand – Xray XII

As mentioned previously on our news page as well as in our 1:12th scale introduction piece, Xray are the latest manufacturer to enter the market, with the XII. We were able to get up close and personal with the LRP X12 powered example belonging to Factory Xray driver Alexander Hagberg from Sweden. Already in it’s second version, following feedback from the team after a recent test at the RCS track, the car is in appearance at least very similar to other brands on the market. Chief designer Juraj Hudy, who has limited experience of the class, says that while the car may be similar in appearance to others out there, that is more a reflection of the state of development of the class which has seen chassis design developed to a point where extra performance can only be found in small refinements. Featuring a T-bar, which some believe would be more suited to a lower traction surface, as opposed to the trailing link design seen on the CRC and Associated cars, the cars debut later today will be closely watched by all racers and manufacturers present.

Visit our event site here for XII photos from Bangkok.

Click more to see the official promo photos… content


November 9, 2008

Edit RC D8/Lightning Hubs & Bearings

Edit RC have released a range of aluminium rear hubs for the Hot Bodies Lightning and D8 buggies. Available in 1, 2 and 3 degrees of toe-in, they have been made from CNC machined high quality 7075 alloy and they feature a durable, cool grey hard anodised finish. Also new from Edit are a complete set of high quality bearings for the same range of cars. The set contains all the bearings you need to give your Lightning a complete re-furb at a fraction of the normal cost.

Click more to see the bearing set… content


November 8, 2008

1:12 set to Crown new World Champion

So the stage is set for the 2008 IFMAR Electric Onroad World Championship here at the Radio Control Speedway in Bangkok, Thailand where there is great anticipation for what should be two thrilling World title battles. The first title up for grabs is 1:12th which kicks off tomorrow (Sunday) with free practice. One thing for certain is no matter what the outcome there will be a brand new champion of the world as defending Champion David Spashett has not made the trip to Asia to defend his title and although five times World Champion Masami Hirosaka is here, he will not race, opting to fully focus his attention on trying to lift his first ever 1:10 Touring Car title later in the week.

Read the full coverage on our event site here.


November 8, 2008

Shimo is Japanese 1/8th Champion

The JMRCA 1/8th scale Japanese On road Nationals took place last weekend in Keitune. Qualifying saw Mugen racer Keisuke Fukuda take pole position from Yasushi Takashi with Yuya Sahashi 3rd. The 45 minute final however saw problems for the pole man, who retired after 11 minutes giving Kyosho team driver Takaaki Shimo the lead which he extended to 1 lap over Yasushi Takashi by the end to take the title for the new M3.

Source: Kyosho [kyosho.com]


November 8, 2008

Xray enter the 1/12th scale market

Xray are to become the latest major competition RC manufacturer to enter the resurgent 1/12th market with the news that they will run a prototype of their all new XII at the 1/12 World Championships in Thailand which get underway tomorrow. Joining Serpent, who recently entered the market with the S120, the Slovak company will be out to impress on their debut in the category with the formidable line-up of Teemu Leino, Alexander Hagberg, Paul Lemieux and Martin Hudy all set to run the car at the RCS track.  We will catch up with the XII’s designer Juraj Hudy later to bring you more on Xray’s latest creation.

Source: Xray [teamxray.com]