Michael Salven has called time on his World Championship racing career, one of nitro onroad racing’s best known figures made the announcement that having made his World Championship debut in California in 1987, that the 22nd running of the IFMAR 1:8 Worlds here in Fontana, California was the right time to take a step back from racing.  The 58 year-old German, who has enjoyed all of his professional career with Serpent, a company which was instrumental in the early development of the class, Salven bowed out of the Worlds competition here this morning at Steel City RC Speedway when he failed to finish the 1/16th finals.  Asked about his decision, he said, ‘The Pro guys turn up with everything sorted. I turned up here with three engines that still needed to be run in and it turned out none of them are very good.  I will still race, I probably have a few more Euros in me, but its important I race because as the designer of our cars I need to know what’s going on’.

Reflecting on his career, he said, the first WC I did was 1987 at Ranch Pit Shop which was owned by Gil Losi, it’s gone now, but I am told it’s only about 30-minutes from here.  It was actually a shitty event for me, and this one was even worse, but I had a few good ones in between’.  Only missing one World Championship over the 32-years, Brazil in 2015, he said, ‘Phuket in Thailand (1995) was really good and the race in Mexico (1997) was amazing.  I TQ’d both of those races but some stupid guy called Collari was there which meant I never won’ – joking about the 9-time World Champion.  Joining Serpent as designer in 1991 it is there that Red RC’s own personal relationship with Salven began with our founder Eoghain O’Briain working alongside him and even having having the pleasure of being his pitman on the odd occasion. We wish Michael well as he steps back from World Championship competition but look forward to meeting him in the pits at future Worlds and who knows, maybe in the future his son’s name might appear on a future World Championships entry list.

Fonte: RED RC.

Team Associated have introduced the new Factory Team aluminium turnbuckle ball set for the RC8B3.1 series of kits. The set, made from durable hard-anodised 7075 aluminium, prevents rust, which minimises corrosion and promotes smooth action of the turnbuckles. The set also results in 5g weight savings over the stock steel turnbuckle balls and it fits the RC8B3.1, RC8B3.1e, RC8T3.1, and RC8T3.1e.

Source: Team Associated [teamassociated.com]

The post Team Associated RC8B3.1 series alloy turnbuckle ball set appeared first on Red RC.

Fonte: RED RC.

Xpress have introduced their new GT Competition pre-glued wheel sets featuring 36X or 40X tyres and white multi-spoke rims. The wheels use standard 12mm wheel hexes and 0mm offset, making them suitable for nearly all 1/10th on-road touring car chassis with the multi-spoke rim design enhancing the overall looks especially in GT and FWD classes while the 36X and 40X rubber tyres ensure exceptional traction, making the pre-glued wheels a good hand-out or control tyre.

Source: Xpress [rc-xpress.com]

The post Xpress GT Competition pre-glued wheel sets appeared first on Red RC.

Fonte: RED RC.

Chassis – Shepherd Velox V8.2
Engine – Novarossi Mephisto
Fuel (handout) – VP Racing
Tires (handout) – Hotrace
Radio/Servos – Futaba T7PX/Futaba
Body – Xtreme Super Diablo

Remarks – Running Shepherd’s Velox V8.2, Simon’s car is fitted with their brand new advanced weight system which allows fast balance (front-rear) changes in the pits. The car also has a new optional narrow front shock tower, eccentric inserts in front uprights, Shepherd low friction belts. It also features a prototype test version of additional front weights made by Simon’s dad who has also ‘hand tuned’ the front bumper.  

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Fonte: RED RC.

Chassis – Infinity IF18
Engine – OS Speed R2104
Fuel (handout) – VP Pro
Tires (handout) – Hotrace
Radio/Servo – Sanwa M12S/Sanwa
Body – Xtreme Diablo

Remarks – Describing his IF18 as ‘a standard’ car, Super Pole winner Naoto said the only differences to the car as to how he would normally run it are a front brace on the radio tray, weights in the car and on the front bumper and the use of a brass battery holder to help balance the car on the high traction conditions.

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Fonte: RED RC.

Chassis – Capricorn C804
Engine – Max Power RP9S
Fuel (handout) – VP Racing
Tires (handout) – Hotrace
Radio/Servos – Sanwa Exzes ZZ/Sanwa
Body – Protoform R19

Remarks – Qualifying for the 1/4 Finals here at Steel City RC Speedway, Mirko is driving Capricorn’s new C804.  Over its predecessor the car features lower arms that are 2mm longer with the chassis narrower to suit.  The upper arms are also fixed differently now being mounted to the new radio tray making the car more rigid.  The front bulkheads are also 2mm lower.  At the rear of the car the bulkheads are narrower making the centre of gravity better.  The car has a new radio tray and the radio box reduced in size sitting now in the middle of the car.  Mirko is also running the optional hubs both front and rear.

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Fonte: RED RC.

Fonte: RED RC.

Naoto Matsukura effectively blitzed his rivals in Super Pole needing just three laps to set the fastest lap and book his direct starting position in the final alongside Infinity team-mate and Top Qualifier Dario Balestri.  Only the second time Super Pole has been held at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships, the 2nd through 5th placed qualifiers had the opportunity to avoid racing in the Semi Finals with the process comprising of a 3-minute warm up following by 6-timed laps of which each drivers fastest was counted.  With three of the drivers participants of Super Pole in France two years ago, first up was Jesse Davis with his best attempt a 14.640.  Next to go was Dominic Greiner who was making his first 1:8 Super Pole. Timing issues however meant his run was restarted and after much deliberation between officials on how he could continue the run he was forced to start his timed run from the pit lane with just a single warm-up lap.  Despite the disruption he improved on Davis’ time by 1/10th of second.  Qualifying third overall, next up was Simon Kurzbuch who pushed Greiner off the top spot by 0.003 of a second.  Last to go and knowing what he needed to do, Matsukura duly delivered a 14.449 lap to go quicker than Kurzbuch by 0.084.

Reacting to his Super Pole win, Matsukura said, ‘In the last qualifying round my engine was rich but we kept that engine and made adjustments in the warm-up.  After the first lap I knew I had the car & engine to do the lap I needed’.  Happy at maintaining his 100% appearance in nitro onroad World finals, this being only his third attempt and his third time qualifying into the final, the reigning 1:10 World Champion said, ‘Everything looks good for the final but 1-hour is a long time so lets see.  I remember the battery from 2-years ago.  I will make sure to fully charge’.  Leading the final in Monteux he would crash out after his receiver battery died.

Having also missed out on the Super Pole to Matsukura last time, Kurzbuch said, ‘the car was now pushing a bit but I tried my best and it was not enough so it was the same outcome as 2-years ago’.  Looking to tomorrow’s Semi Finals for which he will start on pole, the Shepherd driver said, ‘for the finals the car is OK for the best lap now it was not enough but we know what we need to do in our Semi’.

‘I don’t know if this is fair.  I had to come in 3 times and then the last time I come in I get just one lap before my timed laps’, was Greiner’s reaction after his Super Pole run.  Not sure what the timing issue was that forced his run to be stopped, the Serpent driver continued, ‘The others had more time to get into a flow but my flow and concentration was broken because of the problem’.  Now set to start on pole for the first of the Semi Finals, he added, ‘When I thought I was on my timed laps, I thought the first of them was my best one’.

Speaking about his 6-laps, Davis said, ‘the result was sort of what I expected’.  The Infinity driver added, ‘we changed the engine and it was not better so we’ll take that back out and put in the other one for the Semi Finals.  We should be alright again in the Semi’.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Fonte: RED RC.

New from Spektrum are a pair of SMART Technology LiPo Batteries. Both packs sport a 100C discharge rate and SMART IC5 connectors. Here are more details- * Integrated microchip stores unique battery parameters & data * Smart discharge- batteries automatically discharge to storage voltage * Impact resistant ABS plastic hardcase * Gold plated, heavy-duty bullet […]
Fonte: Big Squid RC.

Dario Balestri will defend his 1:8 Onroad World Championship title as the Top Qualifier for tomorrow’s final at Steel City RC Speedway in California.  The Infinity driver secured his fourth consecutive World Championship TQ when he topped the sixth & final round of qualifying ahead of Simon Kurzbuch and Dominic Greiner.  With the first five qualifiers seeing 4 different drivers post TQ run, the final qualifying was a four way shoot out. Running in the second fastest heat Greiner did all he could to set the provisional TQ time while the other three contenders, Balestri, Naoto Matsukura and Kurzbuch set off in reverse order in the top heat.  The first to post a second TQ run when he topped the morning’s Q5, Matsukura would unfortunately crash out at two and half minutes, leaving the battle between Balestri and Kurzbuch, their predicted pace up on the time set by Greiner.  In the end Balestri had it under control finishing with 4/10ths on Kurzbuch. Overall Matsukura qualified 2nd followed by Kurzbuch, Greiner and Jesse Davis.

‘The last one was the best one because finally I start behind Naoto. The one in front always has more pressure’, was Balestri’s reaction to the final qualifier.  The Italian added, ‘I didn’t want the battle to end with Naoto mistake but even when he went out I could not take it easy because if Simon would win he would have the TQ so I had to push to the end for sure’.  With his place in the final secured, looking to the 1-hour race he said, ‘We have a perfect car for the race.  It’s super balanced and consistent on the lap times so we just need to see which temperature we will have and we can adjust the balance for that. I am looking forward to the final’.

Explaining his mistake, Matsukura said, ‘the engine was a little rich, I had no power, so I pushed hard and it caused me to traction roll’.  Winner of Super Pole at the last 1:8 World Championships when he made his nitro racing debut, the Japanese ace said, ‘For Super Pole I will go 100% but it is going to be super close.  Dominic and Simon can make good laps and also Jesse.  I will do my best and I like the single lap challenge’.

‘We gave everything I would say’, was how Kurzbuch summed up Q6.  The Shepherd driver continued, ‘Overall 3rd we are third now which is a good result.  Twice we were super close to Dario but he was just a bit quicker so he deserves this pole. Now the next challenge for us is Super Pole’. On contesting Super Pole, the 2015 Champion said, ‘In the last round the car was really good so we will go with it the same for Super Pole.  I cant say I like Super Pole because it means we missed the TQ but the passed two years I have experience of it and I will be pushing for a good outcome for our side’.

On his final qualifying attempt, Greiner said, ‘the engine was better but my driving was not perfect. The car was fast’.  He continued, ‘I am not a super pole driver. I am not so good on single laps but of course I will try my best’.  Almost conceding he will be lining up in the Semi Finals the Serpent driver concluded, ‘for the Semi we have a good car so everything should be fine’.

The final of the four Super Pole contenders, qualifying 5th overall, Davis said, ‘still we have good final’s pace but we just couldn’t find that 1-second we needed for the TQ pace’.  Making Super Pole last time out in France, the Australian said, ‘For Super Pole we will change the engine. Normally over one lap I can do something but here on this track I don’t think it’s going to be easy for me to do something over the 6-laps but I know we have a good Semi car. It’s easy to drive and consistent’.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Fonte: RED RC.

Apparently, I don’t watch enough tv and have been missing out on a cool show called Truck Night in America. But one of the local Crawler courses, Crawler Canyon, and pretty much everyone else has seen it and Crawler Canyon put on a scale version of the show. After going back and forth on what […]
Fonte: Big Squid RC.

Chassis – Mugen MRX6 Prototype
Engine – OS Speed R2014
Fuel (handout) – VP Racing
Tires (handout) – Hotrace
Radio/Servos – Sanwa M17/Sanwa
Body – Xtreme Super Diablo

Remarks – Mugen’s star Japanese driver, Shoki is running a prototype MRX6. The same car as the one being raced by its designer Robert Pietsch and features different shocks, caster set-up and weight distribution. Other key differences with the car are the new front upper arms and uprights with eccentric aluminium inserts which give more solutions with steering angle as well as a different roll centre. At the back of the car they are running 0.8 pitch gearing and there is the option to use a standard rod or upper arm.  Shoki’s car is also fitted with a topdeck carbon stiffener at the front from Yurugix.

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Fonte: RED RC.

After an opening day of qualifying at the 1:8 Onroad World Championships yesterday that produced four different TQ drivers, this morning Naoto Matuskura became the first driver to go fastest for a second time. Having TQ’d Q1 in cool morning conditions, the Infinity driver repeated the result on what is again a cold morning at Steel City RC Speedway.  Pursuing top seed and team-mate Dario Balestri, a slight mistake from the Italian in the final minute of 4-minute run was enough for Matsukura to move to the top where he would stay to the end.  Finishing 9/10ths ahead of Balestri who held on for another P2, the Q5 result means the honour of Top Qualifier at the 22nd running of Championship is looking like a two horse race between the defending Champion Balestri and the reigning 1:10 Champion Matsukura, although former champions Simon Kurzbuch and Dominic Greiner still have a chance.  For the round, Greiner set the third fastest time followed by JJ Wang, Jesse Davis and Kurzbuch.

Summing up his TQ run, which was just 2/100ths off the quickest TQ time set by Balestri in Q4, Matsukura said, ‘my car was pretty good but we changed engine for today and it was very good.  I almost traction rolled but I wont change anything on the car as it will be more hot so the traction should be lower’.  He continued, ‘Dario had a little bit of a mistake so I can get the TQ.  Without (the mistake) I think I would be 0.5 off so I think we need to work on the bottom end of the engine tuning’.

Commenting on his run, Balestri said, ‘I just made a small mistake and it was finished’.  Securing the overall TQ on the way to his World title in France two years ago, he continued, ‘Naoto always start behind me so there is a lot of pressure but it is OK.  We have one more to go’.

Greiner described his performance in the penultimate qualifier as ‘so so’.  The Serpent driver explained, ‘the engine got lean and more lean in the run so at the end I had no power.  It was the same yesterday so I think we will change the engine for the last one.  The car was pretty good and I think the track will be better so we change nothing just the engine’.

A driver impressing a lot of people with his pace and consistency throughout qualifying, Wang said, ‘I guess it was another solid run.  It was not quite enough to fight with the guys at the front and I had a bobble at the end which cost me a few tenths’.  Looking to the final qualifier, the Mugen driver said, ‘I will do some calculations and see what I need to do in the last one but I’m going for making the Super Pole’.

View the complete event results here.

View our event image gallery here.

Fonte: RED RC.

We hope you enjoy our Halloween special unboxing of the Axial Racing 1955 Ford F-100 SCX10 II. I’m not sure if the party got out of hand before the video, or if this video is a result of the party already being out of hand. Watch for a full review soon! The Axial Racing 1955 […]
Fonte: Big Squid RC.

The crew at RC4WD have just announced a new licensing partnership with Ridler Custom Wheels. The first wheel to be released in their new collaboration is the Ridler 645. The 645 has a classic look that would be perfect for your next build. Here are the highlights- * Retro-mod inspired billet aluminum design * Pays […]
Fonte: Big Squid RC.

Following the introduction of a brass front bumper mount for the Element RC Enduro trail trucks, Samix now also offer an aluminium variant. Like the brass version the alloy part incorporates an adjustable servo mount for the use with most standard-size servos while the rigid metal construction offers increased stability for the chassis assembly. In addition the mount relocates the servo position to the front of the chassis while maintaining the correct steering geometry. The mount is available in blue or black anodising, it features machined silver edge details and laser-etched Samix logos.

Source: Samix [rcsamix.com]

The post Samix Enduro aluminium front bumper mount appeared first on Red RC.

Fonte: RED RC.

Yeah Racing have announced the release of their all-new aluminium essential conversion kit for the Traxxas Ford GT 4-Tec 2.0 on-road car. The set includes front and rear lower arms, C-hubs, steering knuckles, as well as rear hubs all made of high-quality aluminium and coming blue or black anodised. Also included are steel suspension shafts as well as steel front and rear CV-style driveshafts. While adding visual impact the parts also offer increased rigidity and a lot less flex compared to the standard moulded plastic parts. The suspension parts set is available in blue or black anodising and all parts are also up for grabs individually.

Source: Yeah Racing [yeahracing.com]

The post Yeah Racing 4-Tec 2.0 aluminium conversion kit appeared first on Red RC.

Fonte: RED RC.

Coming from Axon is an 8-piece set of 0.5mm thick 3mm inner diameter Teflon shims for the use as wheelbase washers on 1/10th scale cars. The precision-machined shims are made to be used in place of standard composite or aluminium shims with the reduced friction of the Teflon material ensuring smoother suspension movement under load. The shims are usable on all vehicles with 3mm suspension shims.

Source: Axon [team-axon.com]

The post Axon 3mm suspension shaft shim set appeared first on Red RC.

Fonte: RED RC.

Coming from Xpress are new suspension parts for their XQ1 series of touring cars. Originally introduced with the FT1 FWD kit, these parts will also fit the XQ1 4WD series with the beefed-up lower arms offering higher corner speeds and durability. Also available are redesigned C-hubs and rear uprights with the C-hubs offering improved steering response and the rear uprights increasing overall traction. To make the parts work they need to be combined with 3.0mm outer suspension shafts.

Source: Xpress [rc-xpress.com]

The post Xpress introduce new XQ1 suspension parts appeared first on Red RC.

Fonte: RED RC.

The inaugural season of the JConcepts National Carpet and Turf Series concluded last weekend with the final round being held at Thunder Road RC Raceway in Waite Park, Minnesota. After the event also the overall series champions would be crowned and round 4 saw the overall up for grabs between two very, very fast individuals as everything was on the line for Ryan Cavalieri and Broc Champlin. By winning 2WD Modified at Thunder Road over the weekend, Broc Champlin secures the 1st ever NCTS 2WD Modified Series Championship in thrilling fashion. Ryan Cavalieri finished 2nd overall with Ryan Reavis your 3rd place finisher on points.

It was another awesome performance by Broc Champlin in the 4WD Modified class at round 4 of the NCTS. Broc secured his second series overall championship title with relative ease as his closest rival, Ryan Maifield, was unable to attend because of catching a cold. Nonetheless, Broc was on form and cleaned up at the final round of 4WD Modified in just two mains putting an exclamation on his dominate series performance. By finishing 3rd at the Midwest Carpet Nats, Ryan Cavalieri moved into 2nd and Ryan Reavis finished 3rd on points.

It’s not going to be an easy task to dethrone the 40+ champ, Brent Thielke. With years of experience racing and learning from the best drivers, BT is a shoe-in when it comes to speed and naturally found the top step in the 40+ 2WD and is your 2019 NCTS Overall Champion. JConcepts’ own, Thomas Tran, tied BT in points, but with more wins to his name, BT took 1st and Thomas 2nd.

Congratulations once again to Matthew Gonzales as he dominated the 13.5 4WD class by finishing 1 point shy of maximum points. It’s been a long road for MattyG, but the work has been done and you can’t argue with the results. Congrats on a stellar year as your 17.5 2wd and 13.5 4WD double champion. Mike Katz got the points needed to finish out in 2nd.

Unfortunately, Casey Vitale wasn’t able to make the final race at Thunder Road RC to pick up his overall series win in 13.5 Stadium Truck, but with 2 event wins at round 2 and round 3, Casey Vitale is your overall Series truck winner. Coming home with 2nd overall in the series, was Jovy Levin. Jovy was able to end the year off with a huge win in round 4 and definitely an NCTS racing highlight for Jovy.

17.5 Expert 2WDStock buggy these days is super competitive. Sometimes more competitive than the mod classes and having a perfect series with 3 TQ’s and 3 wins was Matthew Gonzales. Matthew drove exceptionally well all year long despite the different adversities at each track. Taking up 2nd overall in the series was the constantly improving, Mike Katz. Each round, Mike looked more comfortable and definitely has racing in his blood. Closing out the top 3 was NorCal’s Jovy Levin, who has found a way to keep getting faster each time we see him.

The 21.5 Independent class was never meant for the traveling racer. However, there are a few of us that just love racing and can’t imagine spending a weekend without it. Making the NCTS at 702 Raceway, Trevor finished 3rd on the podium. Next up, Trevor made an appearance at the Turf Nationals, where he felt super comfortable and took the win in 21.5 Indy 2WD. Finally, hitting the final event to count for the entire series, Trevor took it to them at the Midwest Carpet Nationals getting the win there too. Let’s not kid ourselves, this isn’t just an attendance trophy for Trevor, it’s an accomplishment that he’s not going soon forget as he won 2 of 3 races and made 3 out of 3 podiums.

Source: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]

The post JConcepts NCTS champions crowned – Report appeared first on Red RC.

Fonte: RED RC.