1/8 On Road Japan style **Updated Nr.3**

The Japanese r/c culture always fascinates me with the attention to detail the racers apply on their their beautifully styled chassis and bodies.

Here are some photos and a videos from recent races as well as the 2012 JMRCA All Japan National championship held at the great 'Kei Tune' circuit which according to the latest information I have received will be the hosting club for the 2013 IFMAR 1/8 On Road World Championships.
Initial information I had received was that hosting club would be another very famous circuit, BOSS SPEED.

Video of a qualifying run of the top heat

Video of warm up prior to the main final

Video of the first 6 minutes of the Amain Final:

Video of the main final part 4

Midpoint through the race

Video of the main final part 5

Some more footage from the race, some nice driving from Shimo.

Video of the main final part 7

This shows all the drama of the race. These are the dying moments of the event and the start of the video picks up a great battle between Shimo and Fukuda just before Fukuda's last refueling pit stop (1:27 mark)  with approximately 4 minutes to go. Shimo is stretching his runtime beyond 5 minutes and near the end of the race still holds the lead but with a fast charging Fukuda a few car lengths behind.
In the end all is lost on the very last lap when he flames out, most likely out of fuel.

Some great action shots added from blog: http://paintkura.blog85.fc2.com/

Sources:
http://www.jmrca.jp
http://paintkura.blog85.fc2.com/
http://www.creationmodel.biz/record.html
http://www.bask-racing.com/index.php
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/funken_sie_kontrolle
http://diablosvcbr1000.blog.fc2.com/
http://ameblo.jp/central-rc/

Past winning cars.. T1 FK04

Following the Tamiya car I decided to try my luck with, at that time, a new company in the market, XRAY. The first car was the T1 FK 04.
To my pleasant surprise the quality was similar to TAMIYA with only drawback the shock absorbers, which as you may notice I had changed them to the very popular TAMIYA shocks.

Past winning cars.. TRF 414 WCR

My race car in 2003-2004. It was a TAMIYA TRF 414 chassis which I progressively modified. Of course any modification I made I am pretty sure only made the car worse but it was fun to experiment with different configurations. They were fun years, when I had plenty more time and a lot bigger budget.

I remember when I first raced the box stock TRF 414 WCR edition, the replica of Surikarn's 2002 World Championship winning car, I started winning straight away after a miserable time with my previous car, the Yokomo MR4-TC SP.
The MR4-TC SP was a very nice kit, but required quite a bit of knowledge to make it work properly and quality was nowhere near the TAMIYA car.

I couldn't find a picture of the TRF 414's original form. Here is the car with the 'SSG' chassis, a white/silver colored carbon fiber which was a bit more flexible than stock.

 

In this, last edition before I sold it, I had installed a prototype carbon fibre chassis custom made by Fibre-Lyte.co.uk in UK just for me. If I remember well the purpose was to add a bit more space in order to accomodate the 9.0V battery for the cooling fan.  Although it looks ugly, it did work.

 

BRCA 1/10 EP Touring Rnd 1 - Amain Finals

Last weekend the first round of the BRCA 1/10 EP Touring car 2012 Championship was held at Cotswolds.
Andy Moore with his HW powered HB TCX-X dominated the event by holding TQ and winning all Amain finals.

Photo and videos are from Stew Noble.
Keep in mind that for 2012 BRCA Super Touring class runs 10.5T limit motors; with plenty of boost timing apparently.

A main Nr.1

A main Nr.2

A main Nr.3

coming soon..

AWESOMATIX BALL DIFF FOR A700

AWESOMATIX supply as on optional item a ball diff. In principal the diff operates like common ball diffs that were standard items for many years, prior to the new trend of gear diffs, in all touring cars.
They operate by having two metal plates pressing against each other having hardened steel or ceramic balls in between.
This ball diff is a bit different as it also incorporates a fully sealed housing in which oil of different grades (cst) can be inserted in order to achieve different levels of resistance, thus being able to fine tune it in a similar way as a gear diff.

The diff when completely assembled gives exceptionally smooth feel without a hint of slipping.  According to other users' experience the ball diff may give better traction on certain conditions, such as low traction.
I might be able to test this weekend and will report back.

BMW WINS DTM Rnd 2