Anybody else race RC cars?

Tirpitz

Tirpitz

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Name
Adam
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posted a few pics of my cars in another thread but thought it might be an idea to see if there are any other racers on here??

this is my regular class 1/8th scale offroad :naughty:

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i also do a bit of tenth scale offroad (electric)

2wheel drive

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4wheel drive

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my drift car

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plus 8th scale onroad. 0 - 60 in 1.6 seconds :cuckoo:

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I never raced, only did RC's for pleasure.

My list of cars owned were:
race spec kyosho GP spider
HPI RS4 evo III
Tamiya mini cooper
Associated RC18T
Tamiya subaru brat
Tamiya mitsubishi pajero rock crawler

I always enjoyed building and painting them as much as running them!
 
its a pretty good hobby & racing isn't as daunting as it seems.
Yes the top boys are on another planet ability wise but everyone mixes pretty well & its a good social weekend (or longer!) away with the lads :thumbs:
i have to admit car prep isn't a big part of racing for me at the moment & i seem to turn up an one race meeting with my car still broken from the last one :shrug: i'll get more into it once we start doing it regularly again but the weather hasn't been too kind to us so far this year :shake:
 
I know that when i did my last build (the pajero) I went into so much detail to make it look like the real think.
Because it was going to be a rock crawler i locked both the front and rear diffs, added a working winch, raised the ride height by half an inch, put aluminum alloy wheels on and soft compound crawler tires. Finally I put a 55t motor in it.
The thing would climb hills beyond 45 degrees.

To the contrary my HPI RS4 was my speed machine with a .18 outlaw engine, two speed box and carbon fibre tuned pipe. like you say 0-60mph in 1.5 seconds - fantastic.

My last project I did was a second hand HPI F4.6 engine (from the savage) and port and polish it. Not content with that I then custom fabricated an intake manifold and turned it into a twin carb engine. Turned into a very expensive paper weight. Will try and find photos of it.
 
Nice RC's :thumbs:

Did some racing about 8 years ago now mainly 1/10 electric buggies .

Owned a few Team Associated 2wd's and a Losi XXT which I won a few trophies with, was great fun but just didnt have the time or money to continue :(

Still have an 11 year old Losi 2wd Graphite in my study as I write (which Ive just looked at and it badly needs a dust) :D
 
tenth electric has taken a massive leap forwards with the use of brushless motors & Lithium Polymer batterys.
you wouldn'tbelieve how fast & punchy they are now :thumbs:

for me as an old motocrosser i still like the 8th nitro offroad stuff
after all its still 2 strokes & dirt :D

once a year over the Easter weekend we do an indoor supercross style meeting with massive jumps & an invitation driver list that includes most of the worlds top drivers!

it gets covered by Motors TV & there are plenty of clips on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=neo+buggy+race&aq=1
 
Tirpitz said:
tenth electric has taken a massive leap forwards with the use of brushless motors & Lithium Polymer batterys.
you wouldn'tbelieve how fast & punchy they are now :thumbs:
Click to expand...

The brushless motors were just coming onto the scene as I 'retired' Ive still got about 5 or 6 Reedy brushed motors , probably worthless now but cutting edge when i was racing :D
 
I used to race a bit locally as a kid, last car i had (its still in a box at my parents somewhere) was a LosiXX with a load of carbon and graphite bits on it also had a mardave cobra (basic as ****!)
Gave up when i ran out of money to replace bits that had quite frankly worn out and given up the ghost after over use, as a sport its impossible (when your 11) to try to keep up with grown men pumping £££ into it when your trying to fund your hobby from your paper round, your on to a hiding to nothing, especially when you start to realise that you have no chance of racing against the top blokes in the club because you cant afford what they have.

Used to really enjoy it though!
 
Donot race but have one of these at the back of the cupbord waiting to get started again, been there for a couple of years now, I tried to start is a few weeks ago but no joy, think it needs stripping right down and cleaning.

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spike
 
This is not good ;) I spend a fortune on photography, and now find myself reminising about RC cars again - I used to race them back in the late eighties and have often thought about getting them 'restored' . I started with a couple of Tamiya things, migrated to my fav, a Kyosho Optima pro, then onto a Procat and a Topcat. I used to love all the tech talk - the oils to use, the spring rates, the turns on the motors.... pink dots, green dots.... (I'm getting sucked in again!!!)
 
if you're feeling nostalgic about Tamiya they have re-released some of the old classics like the Hot Shot & more recently the Rough Rider ;)
plus there is a thriving collectors scene complete with high prices for rare stuff on the many Tamiya forums or sites!
after many years of not really having their cars raced in the UK Tamiya have recently sponsored a buddy of mine called Lee Martin who has already won both 2WD & 4WD at the first round of this years national championship! :clap:

Jamie Booth was the original UK Tamiya driver & everyone remembers his modified carbon chassised Manta Ray from the 80's before he went onto drive for Schumacher. Jamie announced his retirement after many years racing earlier this year but i keep getting calls from him asking where we're racing next so i don't think he'll be able to leave it completely & i know he's now booked into a couple of rounds of this years nationals already :lol:

Schumacher have also (a couple of years ago) re entered the offroad scene with the 4wd Cat SX & the 2WD Cougar which i think has just been released.

the best site for offroad tenth with a busy sales section is oOple - http://www.oople.com/forums/

plenty of classic & vintage stuff on there too as some clubs even have race classes for the classics :thumbs:
 
Dont race, have a Kyosho DXII and a Hyper8.5 Pro in the garage though. Not been started for about 2 years :(

They'll go on Ebay soon I think
 
Heres a few shots of my HPI RS4 III before it departed onto pastures new!

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Thanks for the info Adam. I am being so sucked in! Jamie Booth, quite a legend, so he's still racing - wow!

Wish I could post a shot of my little racer - it was flourescent pink with black polka dots!! It even had P.T.O (please turn over) on the undertray for when I crashed!!
 
I have just started looking into cars as id like one for my birthday in November.
As a kid I loved the Hornet so was happy to see that it was out again, I asked for it as a kid but got a mini replica that was motor driven and only went forwards :lol:
Anyway now I have started looking into them im not sure the hornet would be suitable for woodland use and a truck would be better for handling tree roots. The main places id be taking it is the local park, woods (where there is a large crater from a wartime bomb strike so a fair few jumps etc) and the odd car park.
I think electric would be best, correct me if im wrong. They seem a little more novice friendly.

I don't want it to cost the earth, maybe £150 for the car. Can anyone give some advice or point me to a car that would fit what I would like?
Also what are the advantages/disadvantages to the 2 main types of controllers (trigger or standard)?

Thanks all.
 
Ooh this is bringing back some fond memories. Both of the two cars I have are Associated (B3 and TC3). Both are pretty heavily modified although I'm at the stage now that I am no longer racing and just use them occasionally out in the street or in car parks. Will sort out some pics for you later.

Liking the cars above, B4 is most familiar to me. 4wd 1/10 looks a lot like a XX-4 but you've got AE stickers on it so I'm guessing it's not a Losi?
 
its an Associated B44. the 4wd brother to the B4
just realised its sitting on skinny tyres in that pic (2wd fronts on the front & 4wd fronts on the rear) as that was taken just after i got back from the Belgian GP because we used the narrower tyres there to lose some grip!
looking forward to getting back out there this summer :thumbs:
 
Sold my LST2 last year. Just wasn't using it enough.
 
fond memories indeed



Schumacher Mission carbon chassis with lexus body shell

Tamiya Mad fighter off road buggy

Subaru Impreza

all electric :)
 
Yeah eletric is the way to go, haven't personally had much luck with the nitro cars so I typically stick to eletric. Went to the model shop today and am very tempted by a Hyper 7 though...

List of electric cars I've had:

Kyosho Optima Mid Custom
Associated B3 (Started with a 'Basic' and eventually bought a fully tricked out one)
Associated TC3 Factory Team
Yokomo MR4-TC Special (Wicked car, shouldn't have sold it)
 
the Hyper7 is a very old design now. pretty good as a first car or a basher but its not up with the best nowadays.
i see you're in Herts? there's a 2 day meeting of the National championships being held at Westmills farm near Ware next bank holiday weekend if you wanted to take a look
qualifying Sunday- finals- Monday

Offroad 8th Nitro or Rallycross as its often called is definitely the bigtime class at the moment :thumbs:
tenth electric is also seeing more & more drivers as LiPo batteries & brushless motors have made it a lot easier to compete :)
with brushed motors & the old cells you'd just never ever be as fast as the top guys but the LiPo & brusless revolution has really gone a long way to levelling the playing field :thumbs:
now everyone out there has the power its all just down to the driving but those top guys are still just SO good :lol:
 
Fond memories indeed :)

Used to race 1/10th back in the late 80's.
Started with a Tamiya Rough rider (they're worth quite a bit now I hear).
Moved to a Hotshot, then ended with an Associated RC10

.....still got them in the loft somewhere :thinking:
 
Tirpitz said:
the Hyper7 is a very old design now. pretty good as a first car or a basher but its not up with the best nowadays.
i see you're in Herts? there's a 2 day meeting of the National championships being held at Westmills farm near Ware next bank holiday weekend if you wanted to take a look
qualifying Sunday- finals- Monday

Offroad 8th Nitro or Rallycross as its often called is definitely the bigtime class at the moment :thumbs:
tenth electric is also seeing more & more drivers as LiPo batteries & brushless motors have made it a lot easier to compete :)
with brushed motors & the old cells you'd just never ever be as fast as the top guys but the LiPo & brusless revolution has really gone a long way to levelling the playing field :thumbs:
now everyone out there has the power its all just down to the driving but those top guys are still just SO good :lol:
Click to expand...

Yeah would just be for messing around. I don't intend to get back into racing properly so it needn't be a high spec car.

I might be tempted to check out the meet. Are you racing there then?

One of the main reasons I've put R/C on hold is because the move over to brushless is an expensive one that I cannot justify at the moment. I kept killing my brushed motors and the cells never lasted long with my 9 and 7 turn motors. When I've got some spare money I'll probably upgrade to the brushless system and see how it goes. Will be really annoyed if that dies on me too though.
 
RVF said:
Fond memories indeed :)

Used to race 1/10th back in the late 80's.
Started with a Tamiya Rough rider (they're worth quite a bit now I hear).
Moved to a Hotshot, then ended with an Associated RC10

.....still got them in the loft somewhere :thinking:
Click to expand...

if you still have them the vintage Tamiyas would be worth quite a lot, especially the rough rider :thumbs:

if you weren't too sentimental you could sell off the classics to fund buying more modern stuff you could use & updating wouldn't actually cost you anything :naughty:

Willenium -
no i'll not be racing at Ware. i've opted out of the Nationals this year as i don't really enjoy them any more. i just pick & choose between my local club (Slough) & some of the big 2,3 &4day meetings & maybe a couple abroad. Belgium & Norway planned so far this year:naughty:
only raced twice this year & i was rubbish at both so i desperately need to get out there & get some track time :bonk:
 
Tirpitz said:
if you still have them the vintage Tamiyas would be worth quite a lot, especially the rough rider :thumbs:
Click to expand...
Yes I'd noticed that they are gaining in value, but mine are definitly 'used' from what I recall :lol:
if you weren't too sentimental you could sell off the classics to fund buying more modern stuff you could use & updating wouldn't actually cost you anything :naughty:
Click to expand...
At the moment I'm rather busy at home to even think of digging them out, let alone thinking about taking it up again.......besides, a few more years down the line may add a few more £'s :D
 
Tirpitz said:
Willenium -
no i'll not be racing at Ware. i've opted out of the Nationals this year as i don't really enjoy them any more. i just pick & choose between my local club (Slough) & some of the big 2,3 &4day meetings & maybe a couple abroad. Belgium & Norway planned so far this year:naughty:
only raced twice this year & i was rubbish at both so i desperately need to get out there & get some track time :bonk:
Click to expand...

Ah ok. I've not been to a rallycross meeting but I'd expect the track is pretty big so I might not see much of the action at times, a bit like going to watch at Silverstone or similar. I used to have a battered Sinyih Tempo that I was going to rebuild with some Protech Ultrex parts but couldn't get any of the parts that I needed and ended up sticking it on eBay.

Tempted to get some bits together and start going to off road tracks. At the moment I'm trying to source parts to rebuild my TC3 as a miniature Golf GTI.
 
you can see quite a bit of the track from the ground with RC racing as you have to be able to see all of the track from the drivers stand :)

if you wanted to try & shoot some of the action you'd be better off getting close to a corner where the cars aren't going so fast. shooting RC is pretty difficult due to the small size of the cars & the high speeds involved so its either long lens or get as close as poss ;)

i've not been to one yet but the RC drifting scene looks pretty cool
its not massively well followed as its fairly new but the cars are built to replicate original drift cars & they try to include as much detail as possible including discs & calipers behind the wheels, Tailpipes (some of them even have a heat blueing effect!) windscreen wipers & door mirrors! they even keep the ariel inside the body so not to spoil the effect :thumbs:
 
ive had a few of the motor driven tamiya cars (toyota celica, Beetle Truck thing, buggy thing) but never had a petrol model..
 
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