August 6, 2014

Chassis Focus – Renaud Savoya

Wed-SavoyaXB8-10

Chassis – Xray XB8
Engine – Orion 321
Tyres – Sweep Revolt soft
Fuel – Runner Time
Radio/Servos – Futaba
Body – Kit
Remarks – Three time European Champion Renaud Savoya is running the 2014 XB8 with a few prototype parts on the car including new higher shock towers and a new rear chassis brace. The parts just completed days before the event, the new towers help the shock to get more up-travel giving improvements over bumps on power while the new brace, which is now mounted to the rear bulkhead instead of the shock tower as in the standard configuration, makes the car more stable, so much so that he is still looking to find more steering. Also trying Sweep’s all new Revolt tire in soft compound, the tire only being completed in limited quantities just before the race, Reno is waiting for the track to come to him as he is running the setup basically the same as from the warm-up race.

Image Gallery

August 6, 2014

Chassis Focus – Joseph Quagraine

Wed-JQCar-7

Chassis – JQ Racing The Car White edition
Engine – Reds R7
Tyres – AKA Impact Soft
Fuel – Nitrolux
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Savox
Body – Kit
Remarks – JQ Racing head man Joseph Quagraine is running the latest White edition of his self designed The Car. Sporting some new soon to be released option parts, the most noticeable of which are the new white arms which are stiffer than the standard kit versions, there is also new shock towers that sport inserts for mounting the upper suspension links which offer a finer tuning of the position in increments as low as 1mm. Powering the car is the Reds R7 which sports a custom green head from the Italian company which could be a limited release item in the future.

Image Gallery

August 6, 2014

‘From Race Control’ – Day 2, Seeding Practice

wed_racectrl

After an inclement start to the 34th running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships Day 2 is off to a much brighter start with early flog clearing to reveal blue skies with the sun now shinning over the Sand am Main track. Drivers will take to the track a total of four times today but it is really only two of the runs that will count for anything of significance. Starting off with a 2-minute track sweeping round of practice, the second and third rounds will be of 10-minute duration with the final 5-minutes of these counting towards the seeding of the heats for qualifying which gets underway tomorrow. After the official opening ceremony of the championships, today’s action will end with another 2-minute practice in which the drivers will run in the seeded heat groups.

August 5, 2014

Rain affects Day 1 final practice at 1:8 Euros

tue_darrenbw

After a damp start to Day 1 of the 34th running of the 1:8 Offroad European Championships, the inclement weather would affect the days final round of practice arriving just as some of the title favourites took to the track for last and extended practice round at the German event.  With Darren Bloomfield having just posted the fastest time for the 9-minute run in Group 8 of 15, as group 9 headed by defending champion David Ronnefalk took to the track the rain which had been dodged all day arrived leaving the Kyosho driver to pull up after just one full lap. With the track wet no one from Group 10, which included Mugen team-mates Robert Batlle and Lee Martin, would take to the track.  Also setting the fastest lap of the round albeit 2/10ths slower than his fastest lap of P3, the closest on pace to Bloomfield’s Agama was Xray’s Martin Bayer who was only 13/1000ths off.

tue_bloomfield2

Running 17 laps over the 9-minutes, missing out on 18 by just 8/10ths of a second, Bloomfield was pleased with his pace having left his A8 unchanged from P3 admitting he got lucky to get the run in just before the rain.

tue_ronnefalkcar

Having made a number of changes to his Kyosho MP9 for the final practice Ronnefalk was frustrated at losing the track time but said there was little point in continuing in the wet.  Although the threat of rain is likely to be an ongoing factor throughout the week here in Germany, Batlle also felt there was little to be gained from taking to the track.

tue_bayer

Running in Group 6, using the run to evaluate tyres, Bayer was said he was ‘happy’ with his first day of the championships.  Having only adjusted the roll bars on his LRP powered XB8 over the day he ended up on soft compound AKA Catapult tyres which he said worked ‘really good’.  Looking to tomorrow last year’s podium finisher said he will wait to see what the weather does overnight and see how the track looks in the morning before deciding on a plan of action for the day. Day 2’s schedule will see drivers get four rounds of practice starting with a very short untimed 2-minute run before getting down to the more serious business of two 10-minute seeding rounds of the which the last five minutes will determine the order of the qualifying heats.

View our event image gallery here.

August 5, 2014

Chassis Focus – Robert Batlle

Tues-BatlleMBX7-1

Chassis – Mugen MBX7
Engine – Novarossi Keep Off 21 4S
Tyres – Pro Circuit Hot Dices Soft
Fuel – Nitrolux
Radio/Servos – Futaba/Xpert
Body – Kit
Remarks – Current World Champion Robert Batlle is running the MBX7 with a number of new pre production parts on the car. All around are new larger (1mm) bore shock absorbers while the rear versions are shorter as is the shock mount, the new setup helping the car over the bumps and on the landing off jumps. Up front Robert is also running new CVDs which give the car more corner speed. In terms of setup he is running his same setup from the Monday after the warmup race when he first tested the new parts and for tomorrow he is going to try +2mm rear hubs, the Spaniard not able to run his last practice session due to rain.

Image Gallery

August 5, 2014

Chassis Focus – Hupo Honigl

Tues-HoniglT8-9

Chassis – Team C T8 V3
Engine – Novarossi Keep Off 21 4S
Tyres – Pro-Line Lockdown
Fuel – Tornado
Radio/Servos – Futaba
Body – Kit
Remarks – Running a kit version of the Team C T8 V3, apart from some lightweight parts, this is only the Austrian’s second race with the car. Having driven at the track back in May after the warmup, the setup he ran with back then is nothing like his current setup having learned a lot more about the car in some additional testing back in Austria he has now found a good balance with the car. Having tried the new Pro-Line Fugitive tire earlier he switched to the Lockdown which gave him more steering, the former being better for if the track gets rougher.

Image Gallery