4WD Tamiya Hornet

The Tamiya Hornet is one of the founding fathers of RC as we know it. That car has brought an easy to assemble, durable, and fun car to millions of people for over 20 years. People have recently been digging out their old buggies and enjoying them once again. Unfortunately the engineering of modern RC cars has advanced about 100 years compared to the Hornet, making it a little boring. Some enterprising people in Japan have taken it upon themselves to re-engineer the Hornet to bring it up to 21st century standards. How you ask? By ripping out the Hornet stuff and adding some touring car 4WD components!

Tamiya Vaj-What? Vajra Sholud Be Called Avante Truck

The Tamiya Avante was unobtainable gold to me as a child. I had lust in my heart for this buggy. I never got one of these fragile rides. That was probably for the best. It would have broken and I would be able to afford or find parts for it. Now I'm old. With age comes patience and money so now I can wait and afford to repair one of I break it.

Tamiya's Latest Drifter

People love RC drifting. I think RC drifting is the most popular segment of RC touring cars. You don't need the latest and greatest equipment. You can build your cars to look more realistic. RC drifting can be done anywhere you find a patch of pavement. I've been offroading lately, YEEHAW (RIP Vance Duke), so I don't really have a bunch of RC drifting under my belt. I do have a lot of cheeseburgers touring car stuff under my belt so I know a good chassis when I see one. This one right here is a sweet one.

Tamiya TT01 FIA GT1 GTR

I am one of about seven Americans that watch FIA GT1 racing. Some obscure cable channel must have the broadcasting rights here in the US because I have to watch the races the next day instead of live streaming. I still watch because I love racing. My favorite car to watch is the Corvette. I think the Corvette C6R is one of the best looking race cars the United States has ever produced. Those who follow GT1 know that my favorite car usually gets punted to the back of the field by a bully Aston Martin. One car that has been standing up to those British bullies is the GTR. This car has a presence like Shaq. Look at the crowd; do you see the huge guy standing above everyone else? That's him. One of the main reasons I love skylines, is because of their size. They are the Robbie Morales of the racing world, big guys that ball like the little ones.

Enroute Has a Drifter With a Familiar Setup

So 1/10 scale chassis designers are looking at touring cars and thinking, "If I put and old school high spur gear 2 belt drivetrain on here, backwards, I can make this a front motor drifter!" I have a cool pic of a NEO T21 that somebody started to convert. That inspired me to attept this with an HPI RS4. Then I realized I needed to machine a new bulkhead for the motor mount/spur gear and changed my mind. Maybe some other chassis will inspire me to finish the idea. Or I can just buy one of the multitudes that are hitting the market.

HPI's New Drifter

I really liked Hot Bodies back in the day. They did the standard touring car stuff (stratus, accord) but they also made bodies likes the Mazda Millenia. My NSX body I had from them was one of the nicest non-JGTC NSX bodies out there. HPI noticed their style too, and bought them. I don't like how HPI uses them as their "lower" product line. That moves Hot Bodies closer to Duratrax than the World Champions they are.

VIP RC

VIP styling is the application of certain performance aspects to a big luxury sedan. Most VIP cars have large wide wheels and lowered suspensions. Some have engine upgrades like intakes and exhausts. Since we can't actually get in our RC cars VIP styling isn't that big, they're all touring cars under the body. The look, however, is unique and can be pretty awesome.

LRP S10 Blast Club Racer

You may have noticed I have been MIA for a few days. No worries Obama came up with the ransom and I was released! So let's see what has happened in my absence. We are now at war (again). They still can't fix the reactors in Japan. Team Oreca won Sebring. LRP has released an affordable touring car. That last one was actually on topic! Yup another cheap touring car. I love it. I still don't know why the parking lots over here on the east coast don't have a bunch of new people (or maybe I'm not invited to the bashes). I honestly think that the whole hobby is shrinking because of the broke-ness (recession), many people can't afford to RC and feed their families. Fools. I bought a pallet of ramen noodles for when times got tough. I may not be able to afford an Avante but I can at least continue to use what I have.

The street version of the new S10 Blast line is also available as Clubracer now. The clubracer version comes as rolling chassis without tyres, body, motor, speedo, servo and radio system.

With the S10 Blast TC Clubracer every racer has the possibility to perfectly equip and setup his car for the demands of local racing series on club level. Many clubs are using own regulations regarding motors, speedos, tyres and bodies. With the clubracer you are easily able to use these components without having any surplus items from a RTR kit.

The S10 Blast TC Clubracer comes with the already proven components of the S10 Blast Offroad line like CVDs in front, adjustable turnbuckles, anti-roll bars front and rear, voluminous „Big- Bore“ shock absorbers, shaft drive train and even more first-class features.

Compared to the S10 Offroad cars, the S10 Blast TC comes with a single-part chassis and without a slipper. The slipper is not needed in Onroad cars and we save extra weight without it. You can mount every commercial 1/10 touring car bodies and wheels, so that the S10 Blast TC is exactly adaptable for the needs in the 1/10 touring car scene and has all the features a real race car has.

Many option parts are available for the S10 Blast TC. According to your requirements and skills, you can pimp your S10 TC with the Standard-, Sport- or Pro-Tuning Sets.

Start your racing career with the great S10 Blast TC!

Features:

• Electric 1/10 Onroad Touring Car; Completely built onroad model (without tyres and body shell)
• Completely built with ball bearings
• Fully adjustable onroad suspension for perfect handling
• CVD driveshafts front
• Steel spider differentials front and rear
• Front and rear swaybars included
• Special large-volume threaded „Big Bore“ shocks with 4-hole shock pistons for maximum traction on any surface
• Low maintenance and efficient universal drivetrain
• Robust tub chassis for best protection of the electronic components, perfect weight distribution and easy maintenance
• Battery holder prepared for the use with LiPo and NiMH batteries

3Racing Now Imports The Fujin 211GO 1/10 M-Chassis RC Car

Geeks. This hobby is full of them. I know this. I can admit that I am geeky when it comes to RC. Some people in this hobby can't admit the fact that they are geeks. Lets make a checklist from the ground up.
1. Your sneakers are laced up really tight.
2. You are wearing jean shorts.
3. You wear any shorts with a long sleeved shirt or jacket.
4. You cellphone is clipped to your belt.
5. You have a cellphone holder on your belt.
6. You are wearing a necklace.
7. You have a goatee.
8. You are wearing a hat indoors.

Now that we have established this lets move on to this car. It looks awesome. It's a mini. I want one. Check it out.

Our first car called 211GO, a 1/10 EP 4WD RC Car M-Chassis, is the narrowest chassis of M-class cars in the world. It's built with graphite main chassis and upper desk, aluminum motor mount and 2 drive belts. The thickness of main chassis is 2.2mm and the upper deck is 2.0mm. To make the twist more balance and exalt the efficiency, it uses a center point as pivot to link up the main chassis and upper deck and let the upper deck connects from front bulkhead to as near as the rear bulkhead.

Overall Length:      300mm

Overall Width:        165mm

Overall Height:       100mm

Ground Clearance: 5mm

Wheelbase:             203-211mm

Tread (F/R):            F147 / R146

Gear Ratio:             1:2.05

Body:                       Not included

Motor:                     540 Motor (Not included)

Battery:                   7.2V Battery (Not included)

Speed Controller:   Not included

Hot Bodies TCX

One new touring car that I have not mentioned yet is this new Hot Bodies TCX. It looks pretty cool. I personally don't like it because Hot Bodies was the death of HPI being serious about electric touring cars. I enjoyed the Pro 1-4 series of cars. I guess this would be the Pro5 or something like that since the Cyclone was based on the Pro4's suspension. Hot Bodies also made some awesome touring car bodies in the 90's. I had their NSX and it was one of my favorites. So there you go. Look at this car and decide if you like it, if so buy one and call it an HPI Pro5.

The HB TCX has been in development for over a year, and has been test-driven by multiple World Champions to make it the fastest, most reliable and tunable machine on the track. It has been fully optimized for use with the most recent achievements in battery and motor technology. The HB TCX is the latest evolution of the world championship winning HB touring car platform.

HB TCX Spec:
Length: 365mm
Width: 190mm
Wheelbase: 258-262mm
Weight (approximate, race-ready): 1350g

Features:

• Optimized design and balance for modern LiPo batteries
• New narrower 2.5mm thick chassis
• New one-piece symmetrical 2.0mm top deck
• New more compact bulkheads 3mm narrower
• New compact motor mount moves motor 4.5mm towards centre
• New narrow layshaft and 20T pulleys
• New flipped belt drivetrain layout
• New twin crank steering
• New bulkheads are fully symmetrical front to rear and left to right
• Adjustable top deck flex with bulkhead screws
• Motor mount completely under top deck
• Servo and radio gear sit as close as possible to centerline
• 20T layshaft pulleys and 39T front/rear pulleys combine for increased efficiency
• POM rear diff with 12 3mm ceramic nitride balls
• Aluminium/POM front spool with aluminium sleeves
• Aluminium/steel driveshafts
• 3.65mm shock towers, 7 fine-pitch adjustment holes in front, 8 in rear
• Worlds-winning suspension design with longer top links
• Reversible lower arms for extra shock positions
• Adjustable anti-squat, toe, roll centre
• Droop screws
• Full set of turnbuckles
• Threaded shock bodies with single o-ring construction
• Complete set of sway bars included (1.2mm, 1.3mm, 1.4mm)
• Infinitely adjustable ball stud sway bar mounts
• Fully equipped with ball bearings
• Wheels, tyres and inserts not included
• Also requires body and electronics

HPI TVs Nurnberg 2011 Exclusive Video

You guys may have noticed I have been moving slow with my own RC projects. Crazy hours at work and a new lady have absorbed nearly all of my time. I am not complaining though, it's a million times better than being broke and lonely. My RC's however probably see things differently. The spring will unlock some free time and allow me to do more write ups and build more cars.

This video is pretty cool. Ok the video itself isn't special but they are showing off some of HPI's new 2011 products. Check it out.

Serpent S411 Proves Orange Is Dope

Remember the Serpent 733 Evo I wrote about a few weeks ago? Well they have also have an electric touring car coming soon. This thing doesn't quite move me like the nitro did. I think it's because of all the wicked 2011 releases that we've already seen. Maybe I need more pics, either way I like it but I don't love it. Check it out.

Serpent developed a brand-new 1/10 scale touringcar to make a strong come-back into this fantastic and highly competitive racing class. The project is nearing its completion and the results will be shown on the Toy-Fair in Germany as world-exclusive introduction of the Serpent S411.

The Serpent S411 is all about refinement. The design-team has decades of experience in electric car racing and this will show!

Lots of attention to detail for building the car, for maintenance and for setting up the car. A true pleasure to “play” with, again and again ….

Easy and fast set-up, easy maintenance, but in the end it all comes down to straight out of the box performance with top quality parts. Mission accomplished. Now we need YOU …..

The selling of the car will start in april, a precise date and all details on the Serpent S411 will be announced at the fair and in the Serpent website soon after the Toyfair.

Tamiya FJ40 Land Cruiser

You may be wondering a few things. Like Why am I featuring a truck, and why this old truck? I initially started this blog with the intentions of including scale off road stuff. The scale 4x4 market has been kind of slow for the last few months. Most builders prefer to fabricate their own components as well. This means there is little to report. With this post I am changing gears for a little bit. I am still all about racing on road cars in parking lots but I want to bring you some scale 4x4 info too. Since I have been unsuccessful with finding some local rock crawling/scaler buddies I am embarrassingly inexperienced in this segment. No fear, I have a sacler on the workbench, this Tamiya coming in the mail, my Redcat RS10 basher, and a Venom Creeper/SCX10 basher that needs to be finished. We'll have some photos up soon, in the meantime enjoy my new kit.

Tamiya Frog +TA04 =4WD Frog Awesomeness.

Many years ago when I was a kid I tried to make my Tamiya Blackfoot 4WD with parts from a Tamiya Hot Shot. I failed. I got the rear gearbox mounted but the front was outside my range of abilities. From my observations the front of the chassis could not support a front drivetrain. Little did I know that it was possible. Take a look at this article from a Japanese magazine. It shows that with the addition of Tamiya TA04 parts you can convert a Tamiya Frog (same chassis as the Blackfoot) to 4WD. I know this car won't win any races but the awesome factor is through the roof. Check it out.

UPDATE: There's a 4WD Hornet too!

Yokomo's New Drifter the DRB

Yesterday I decided to take the Redcat RS10 out for some snow bashing. I also decided to video it for today's post, completely ignoring the fact that I have no clue how to edit video. Nor do I own any video editing software. My friends the pirates took care of the software problem, and I am at work not doing my job but figuring out my new pirated software. Ok this is turning into an epic fail. I accidentally allowed it to check online and now it knows it's pirated. OK we'll try again for tomorrow. In the meantime look at this.

Yokomo Drift Package DRB

Drift machine finally put the 2-belt drive and know-how gained over many years of racing experience! A focus on well-honed driving circuit, the ultimate high-end machine the drift DRB!

Weight distribution and low center of gravity that works best in high speed range, the steering wheel turning angle to achieve an overwhelming drift angle (45 degrees) runs counter to the full support! RC feeling to finish a new era of drift.

Major features:

• 2-belt drive boasts best experience
• Front midship motor layout
• Ackerman ratio for full counter drift
• 45-degree steering angle
• Super-low center of gravity design that improves kinematic performance
• Double- deck chassis pure carbon
• Front and rear damper stay pure carbon
• Titanium Turnbuckle Tie Rod
• Precision aluminum front and rear bulkheads
• Precision Aluminum motor mount
• Colored Aluminum Precision Upper Bridge
• Battery Holder for all types of batteries
• Aluminum standard oil

LRP Blasts Into The Touring Car Market

It's a dune buggy. It's a stadium truck. It's a monster truck. Now it's a touring car! LRP has proven that it's Blast chassis is quite versatile. It is great to see all these inexpensive touring cars pop up. Even though my collection has benefited greatly from the general public's lack of interest in touring cars, I am happy to see their popularity grow. More people into them means more awesome bodies and wheels on the market.

My drift king is coming along great. All it needs is for it's servo and ball bearings to arrive and Chuck to outline the doors and lights and we will be sliding into furniture (it's too cold to drift outside).

This chassis has to be sturdy and good at repelling dirt since it was born as an offroader. Is it heavy? Maybe. My Tamiya TB01 was heavy and it was born for dirt so we will see. For now just look.

LRP S10 Blast TC – 1/10 Electric Touring Car

The LRP S10 Blast TC makes a perfect start into your racing career possible.

With the possibility of upgrades, the car grows with your requirements and is designed for both beginners and racers.

The S10 Blast TC comes with the already approved components of the S10 Blast Offroad line like CVDs in front, adjustable turnbuckles, anti-roll bars front and rear, voluminous „Big- Bore“ shock absorbers, shaft drive train and even more first-class features.

Compared to the S10 Offroad cars, the S10 Blast TC comes with a single-part chassis and without a slipper. The slipper is not needed in Onroad cars and we save extra weight without it. You can mount every commercial 1/10 touring car bodies and wheels, so that the S10 Blast TC is exactly adaptable for the needs in the 1/10 touring car scene and has all the features a real race car has.

Many option parts are available for the S10 Blast TC. According to your requirements and wishes, you can pimp your S10 TC with the Standard-, Sport- or Pro-Tuning Sets.

Features:

• Fully adjustable onroad suspension for perfect handling
• Funky airbrush body design, pre-decalised, wind tunnel optimised body shell and high downforce wing
• Special large-volume threaded „Big Bore“ shocks with 4-hole shock pistons for maximum traction on any surface
• Front and rear swaybars included
• Completely built with ball bearings
• Low maintenance and efficient universal drivetrain
• Battery holder prepared for the use with LiPo and NiMH batteries
• Left/right turnbuckles in front and rear
• Blue anodized aluminium suspension arm holder front and rear and motor mount
• High-quality RTR package including high performance 540 size motor, digital LRP speed control, high precision LRP A2-STX Sport II transmitter, charger, longlife LRP rechargeable battery, high-performance LRP steering servo
• The Non-RTR version doesn’t include these components.
• VTEC low-profile onroad tyres with special speedtread on spoke wheels with foam inserts for maximum traction
• CVD driveshafts front
• Robust tub chassis for best protection of the electronic components, perfect weight distribution and easy maintenance
• Steel spider differentials front and rear
• Easy to understand and detailed user manual including helpful tips and tricks for beginners.

Special feature of the S10 Blast TC:
The body shell is available in the current design of reigning double European Champion Ronald Völker or in blue/white.

Tamiya Gets It

Remember the time when there was a new kit that you liked but had no reason to buy? The one that you looked at and looked at but didn't pull the trigger. You know the one that they put on sale for less than $80 but you still didn't buy it. Then after they stopped making it you realized how awesome it would be in your collection. Well i did that twice once with the Tamiya TL01 Mustang Cobra and again with the Tamiya TL01 F-150 SVT Lightning. Tamiya has gone and re-released the Lightning body on the TT-01E chassis. That will make an awesome first touring car. The TT-01E is the best low cost touring car kit on the market right now. Easy to put together, decent handling, and more options than Eva Mendes (I am her best option by far though). Personally I would rather have a TL01 because I have a lot of hop-ups for it and don't really want to use them on my rally car. One thing that stands out on this version is the lack of those gross graphics the old one had. Look at it.

The Ford SVT Lightning from 1999 - 2004 is now available on the popular TT-01E 4WD chassis.

Specs & Features:

• 1/10 R/C assembly model kit.
• Kit includes FREE BONUS PARTS (Chrome Metal Plated Wheels).
• The polycarbonate body depicts the famous form of the SVT F-150 Lightning.
• Length: 463mm Width: 187mm.
• 26mm width wheels and tires with tread pattern included.
• Based on the fun to drive TT-01 Type-E Chassis for effortless assembly.
• 4WD shaft driven bathtub chassis with 4-wheel independent double wishbone suspension and sealed front and rear differential gearboxes.

My Favorite RC Drift Video

This video inspired me to begin building my drift car. Its a very lightly used Tamiya TA03F Running a Sport Tuned motor and a Tamiya IS300 body. I have some Yokomo light buckets for it also. I haven't chosen the wheels and tires or gearing for it. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have ball bearing either. That does not matter because this will be my first drifter. I think after an afternoon of practice I will be at least as good as Nobuteru Taniguchi. Probably not.

Yesterday I won a NIB OS12LD engine for my Kyosho Superten FW04. That puppy has many many upgrades and has been NIB for a few years now. I think that is the last piece I need. I still want a viscous coupler for it because I like saying viscous coupler. That car will be a shelf queen forever. Sorry, I have no intentions of even putting fuel in it.

Yesterday's video has me thinking. What about an abandoned mini-golf course as the setting for a mini drift scene? I know finding one and convincing the owner to let me build it into a mini drift town for free is nearly impossible but every good idea started out as an impossibility.

Back to the video. These cars are drifting so fast that you can't help but get excited for RC drifting. My first experience wih RC drifting was at a D1 demo. I think it was sponsered by Yokomo. Those car were slow and pretty useless. I was bored within minutes. This video showed me that those drifters were pansies.

Drift City in Korea

OMG this video is AMAZING! I love building things. This right here makes me crazy with desire. Since I've seen it I have been looking all over for a place to build something like this.

On another note my Lancia Stratos body came. It is gnarly! Now that I have a cubicle in the back maybe I can sneak a car in and build it at my desk. Maybe not but I am considering it. I have not had much time to do anything RC. I work 11 hours a day and visit my little sister in the hospital after work. Between that and sleep I don't have much time. My days off are spent working on my new old Corolla (1984 AE86) and 240sx. I have always had a problem balancing real cars and RC cars. I'm poor so I usually spend all my money on real cars then build RC and complain about the prices. Even now my friend just told me about a white FC3s (RX-7 turbo II). Now I am contemplating selling the Corolla and buying that, which is strange because years ago I traded an RX-7 for my first Corolla. I dunno, I just know owning three RWD hatchbacks is overkill. By 2011 my car situation should be settled. Tracking has told me my carbon chassis Tamiya TB01 has arrived. I vaguely remember my plans for it. I think I have four days off for the holidays. If my sister is out of the hospital by then I will build like crazy. If not I might just pack up some equipment and spend time with her and build.

Enough of that crap. Back to the video. I need to find more videos like this. My buddy has another one that is pretty dope too. I will call him and post it one day. In the meantime watch this over and over again.

New For 2006! The MR4TC -BD-MS!

I heard Yokomo came out with a new car. I couldn't find it before my boss came back. That means you get to read about this car that came out in 2006. Its awesome because its got Masami Hirosaka's name attached to it. Enjoy this "vintage" racer and I will search for the new chassis for tomorrow.

Available just in time for the start of the 2006 race season is the MR-4TC BD "MASAMI SPECIAL", a special limited version featuring the same components used on Team Yokomo driver Masami Hirosaka's race car.

The MR-4TC BD MASAMI SPECIAL features Super Precision Bearings(14pcs) and Team Bomber SP Low-Friction Belts for optimum drive train efficiency. Also included are titanium screws and graphite molded parts that provide significant weight savings. Titanium-nitride coated shock shafts, newly developed shock springs, and a newly designed rear shock tower are also

Featuring a highly responsive drive train and optimal handling, the MR-4TC BD MASAMI SPECIAL is designed to provide the ultimate in touring car performance.

Main Features:

• Super Precision Bearing Set
• Titanium Screw Set
• One-Piece Aluminum Suspension Mounts
• Titanium-Nitride Coated Shock Shafts
• New Shock Springs
• Team Bomber F&R Belts
• Aluminum Universal Drive shafts
• Hollow Center Shaft
• New Rear Shock Tower
• Body shell, tires and R/C electronics sold separately.