October 11, 2007

In the pits – New Products

Capricorn RC rear brace

With the rain still coming down, we now have a chance to write about a number of new items in the pits that we have seen in the last few days. The first is this CAP spider from Capricorn RC, which was seen on Chris Tosolini’s Kyosho in the pits and used to help him claim his 4th position in the overall standings. Essentially its a carbon fibre rear body support that prevents the sides of the body shell from folding in under high speeds and also part of the set, which it not all on Toso’s car, are carbon side body stiffeners, but aren’t being used because IFMAR allows the use of normal lexan stiffeners.

USE Motor

Also new in the pits, seen on the bench of Roelof Tooms, is a small engine project from a Dutch company called USE, who currently make optional metal parts like pinions and cooling heads. Made using moulds from an old engine project to have a basis with which to begin development, this 3.5cc engine features some innovative thinking inside its rather old fashioned crankcase. Similar to the Sirio engines, the liner and the top part of the external crankcase are combined, while the cooling head features an integrated combustion chamber and the crankshaft has also been developed to be very small and light. There is a lot of work still to be done and it is currently being made as a side project outside of office hours, we will keep you informed on any further developments.

Lightweight Wheels on Fantini’s car

Tires are one of the most critical pieces of equipment at these races and all the top drivers are experimenting with different wheels and foam combinations. Seen on a number of racers cars are new lightweight wheels from ATS, Enneti and Kyosho, which have been made using a lightweight and opaque material which provides huge benefits for the car due to reduced rotating mass, but they are difficult to glue the tires to and are in very short supply, with some teams taking to removing the old foam from the wheels to use them for a new set.

Serpent Tools

Seen on the work bench of Michael Salven is Serpent’s new tool set which seems pretty complete in the amount of tools provided and it comes in a handy carrying case which has not yet been finalised. The tools feature hardened tips and orange handles and they are expected to be released before the end of the year.

More to Follow

October 11, 2007

The rains have arrived

Rain comes and stops play

The racers have woken up to heavy rain on Thursday’s final day of qualifying, meaning that any chances of improving are pretty much zero as the rain is set to be here for the day, only set to stop very late in the day. We will keep you posted on what happens but as it is now (not official) there will be no running today and the 5th and 6th round of qualifying will be abandoned. We will go around the pits to try and get some pictures and product information, so stay tuned.

October 10, 2007

Fantini in control in Cordoba after 4 rounds

Massimo on Pole on Wednesday

It’s Fantini that is quickest after 4 rounds as the sun came and slowed the heats slightly even though the Italian Serpent driver managed to be quickest in the round with a 34 laps in 10:18 to be the only driver to claim a 34 lap run in round 4 after Lamberto Collari stopped on track when on his way to a 34 lap run. Collari maintains his 2nd position he picked up in the 3rd round, while Kyosho team mate Adrien Bertin improved his time by 2 seconds to claim a 33 laps in 10:00.84, although he wasn’t very happy about once more missing out on a 34 lapper, venting his frustration on a wall on his return to his pit area.

Tosolini Action

The biggest improvement of the day came from Chris Tosolini, the Sirio backed Kyosho driver, managed to secure himself the final direct qualifying position with 33 Laps in 10:00.84 to demote Italian Danielle Ielasi to 5th, and pole position for the semi’s, despite having improved his time. Chris mentioned that “Yesterday we had a lot of problems with the engine, just too lean, we talked about the problems last night and we tried a lower gear today to get more punch so the engine runs a little easier”, “in the first run i didn’t get to do my warmup cause my cell phone was in my pocket and it was making my car go crazy, so I didn’t warmup my tires or my engine, so in the first run I was 6th, not bad, I figure if we warm up the tires and warm up the engine we can do a 34”. “So in the 2nd round we had a good warm up, things didn’t feel perfect, so I ran good and I did a flat, almost 34, but tomorrow I want to do a 34”.

Another one of the many to go better today is German Shepherd driver who went 33 Laps in 10:02.54 lifting himself into 6th demoting Kyosho racer Takaaki Shimo to 7th, having not improved in round 4.

Dario Balestri

Having had trouble in the 3rd round with his brakes not working, he made a number of mistakes in his run which he scrapped, but came back in round 4 to post a 33 Laps in 10:04.99, despite having to stop twice for fuel. The Motonica racer said “Yesterday I tried to find the good setup of the Orion valve (CPD) but I wasn’t able to and had some trouble, so today I took it off and did 2 pitstops and did a very good time in 8th position with 2 refuelling”. “I think that today it was necessary to guarantee the semi final and tomorrow we can work with only 1 pit stop to have a better result”

Jernej Vuga

Current European B Champion Jernej Vuga has jumped his way into the top 15 with a quick run in round 3, having been plagued with radio problems during the practice sessions, however he couldn’t improve in round 4. “After all the problems I had I think its a very nice position, we can improve of course, but we had 3 days of radio problems which was very difficult for us”. “I managed somehow to get a pretty decent setup for the car, the engine ran pretty well and i managed to put together a pretty good qualifying heat without too many big mistakes”.

Unofficial Results after round 4
1. MASSIMO FANTINI – 34 Laps in 10:14.91 (Serpent/Max)
2. LAMBERTO COLLARI – 34 Laps in 10:18.02 (Kyosho/Novarossi)
3. Adrien Bertin – 33 Laps in 10:00.84 (Kyosho/Picco)
4. CHRIS TOSOLINI – 33 Laps in 10:00.88 (Kyosho/Sirio)
5. DANIELE IELASI – 33 Laps in 10:01.28 (Kyosho/Picco)
6. Pietsch Robert – 33 Laps in 10:02.54 (Shepherd/Novarossi)
7. TAKAAKI SHIMO – 33 Laps in 10:03.19 (Kyosho/OS)
8. DARIO BALESTRI – 33 Laps in 10:04.99 (Motonica/Novarossi)
9. HIDEO KITAZAWA – 33 Laps in 10:05.08 (Mugen/OS)
10. MICHELE ROMAGNOLI – 33 Laps in 10:05.19 (Serpent Max)
11. Salven Michael – 33 Laps in 10:05.48 (Serpent/Mega)
12. Mark Green – 33 Laps in 10:06.91 (Serpent/Mega)
13. WALTER SALEMI – 33 Laps in 10:08.55 (Mugen/Ninja)
14. STEFANO SOLAROLI – 33 Laps in 10:09.31 (Mugen/Picco)
15. JERNEJ VUGA – 33 Laps in 10:09.35 (Mugen/Novarossi)

Heat 11 start

The 3rd and 4th round for heats 1-6 will be run in reverse order after lunch and until they are completed we can’t give you any complete results.

UPDATE: Complete Results after round 4 can be downloaded here (.xls).

View our event image gallery here.

October 10, 2007

Massimo goes quicker to confirm top spot

Massimo goes quicker to confirm top spot

Todays qualifying is under way and it running in dry but cool conditions and after the 3rd round for heats 7-12, its Serpent racer Massimo Fantini that has stamped his authority on proceedings by putting in a ballistic 34 Lap 10:14.908, shattering his previous pole position time by some 9 seconds. Lamberto Collari who also runs in the same heat managed to better his time by an equally large amount, to a 34 lapper in 10:18.015, and goes 2nd quickest, however over 3 seconds behind.

Pit Action in Heat 12

Completing the new top 4, and the first of the non 34 lap club, is Adrien Bertin who overcame his problems yesterday to put in a steady run of 33 laps in 10:02.087 to claim 3rd spot closely followed by his Kyosho team mate Danielle Ielasi in 4th on a 33 laps 10:02.136. All drivers that have gotten a solid run in this morning have improved their times and the current top 8 is completely reordered from yesterdays with new entrants to the group such as Salven who is now in 6th and Kitazawa in 7th as well as US racer Chris Tosolini who put in a great run to come from nowhere and go 8th.

Unofficial top 8 after 3 rounds
1. Massimo Fantini – 34Lap 10:14.908
2. Lamberto Collari – 34Lap 10:18.015
3. Adrien Bertin – 33Lap 10:02.087
4. Danielle Ielasi – 33Lap 10:02.136
5. Takaaki Shimo – 33Lap 10:03.188
6. Michael Salven – 33Lap 10:05.592
7. Hideo Kitazawa – 33Lap 10:06.500
8. Chris Tosolini – 33Lap 10:06.697

The 4th round for the top heats has now started and we will bring you more results as soon as we get them.

With the fast heats running early in the morning we wont have time to update the image gallery until lunch time.

View our event image gallery here.

October 10, 2007

In the pits – Shepherd Velox

In the pits - Shepherd Velox

While the new Shepherd Velox has been tearing up the tracks in Europe, this is the first time we have come face to face with it and we talked to Patrick Schaefer from Team Shepherd about the new car. Essentially the same as the prototype that was first shown earlier this year in Nuernberg, the latest version features new aluminium parts anodised in blue on all the cars that are present here and some of the plastics are now final such as front wishbones and the lower rear wishbones.

In the pits - Shepherd Velox

The main feature of this car that sets it apart from others in its class is the braking system, using a cable system it pulls levers on either side of the rear pulley which applies pressure to the mounted brake disk stopping the car, this system allows for more stable and later braking into a corner. Also on the rear end of the car, like on all the new generation 1/8th scales, the rear bodymount A-arms are mounted directly to the rear upright ensuring that the downforce from the body is transferred directly to the wheels.

In the pits - Shepherd Velox

On the front end of the car, the servo saver features a rather innovative Ackermann adjustment, which is done through the use of one screw, which when loosened allows you to slide the steering rod mount 3 steps forward or back, when selected simply tighten it again. Also new on the servo saver is its mounting which uses a slot on both the chassis and the radio plate instead of a hole which allows you to move the position of the servo saver forward or backward to compensate when you adjust the cars wheelbase.

In the pits - Shepherd Velox

The new shock absorbers consist of an open ended shock body with an assembly mounted to the bottom that contains the o-rings and holds the shock shaft. This composite part, along with having a built in bleed system, has also got a few millimetres of material on the base of where the shaft exits the shock which helps keep the shaft straight. Inside the shock, there is no membrane and instead it uses a floating piston with a spring that takes up any expansion. The photo above does not show the final shock absorber as the blue parts will be silver and the upper shock mounting point will have an open ball joint, similar to the lower one.

Expect to see the car hit the market in December.

View larger and more images in the event gallery here.

October 10, 2007

Massimo Fantini on overnight pole

Massimo Fantini on overnight pole

Italian racer Massimo Fantini, who was TQ after round 1 has gone a second quicker to claim the overnight pole position at the IFMAR 1/8th scale World Championships here in Cordoba. The Serpent 960 driver had to overcome an initial challenge from Lamberto Collari who was the early pace setter, but Max dug in his heels in the partly cloudy run to pull out out the quickest run of the day, a 33 lapper in 10:09.45. Overnight 2nd place is team mate Fabio Domanin who managed a great run in heat 11 to get a 33 Laps in 10:10.15 to give Serpent a provisional 1-2 on the grid. Next up is Italian Mugen racer Andrea Pirani who also managed a 33 lapper in 10:10.59, demoting current World Champion Lamberto Collari, to 4th, who managed to improve but not enough.

Collari Action

Lamberto was not too disheartened however “it was a positive day for me and the team (Novarossi) as we have the 3rd and the 4th position and ok the track is good but changes very fast and could create some problem with the car”, “the biggest trouble in the heat is when you have cold, hot, warm and windy and different weather conditions all in a few minutes of the race”.

Bertin Pit Action

In heat 12, some commotion in the pit lane caused a problem for Adrien Bertin and Francesco Tironi who hit a misplaced Keisuke Fukuda coming out of the pitlane. The Japanese driver had a flame out and his enthusiastic pit man placed the Mugen in the path of the exiting Kyosho pairing, causing a delay for Tironi and a large delay and eventual breakage for Bertin. Fukuda was given a stop and go. Bertin stated that “it’s just a very bad day, the first run we had a broken 2 speed and in the 2nd one while i was making my pit stop, in which i would have made not a bad time, Fukuda came out of the pits and crashed my car”, “I just hope tomorrow is not raining because it will be a different story, but thats racing”.

Jilles Groskamp Action

Dropping out of the top 4 and into 8th was Jilles Groskamp, the Dutch driver had his engine get too lean while in a fast 2nd run “the day goes well, because i wanted to start with a decent run in the first one, so in the 2nd one we tried some other things on the car, the car was very good, actually very good, and then the engine was too lean so we had to stop after 4 minutes.”

Michael Salven

Not managing to improve, and having to eventually give best on the circuit to Takaaki Shimo, Michael Salven, the German Serpent racer, was getting caught out by the high winds that picked up in final round “I have a high trim strip, but on the big sweeper when you turn in you have understeer and then you have the point where the wind comes on the side and you get more steering and then the wind comes from the back and it pushes up the rear and you have no rear traction”, “somehow i have more problems with this than other drivers and Massimo said he is running the same and on his car it is only a little noticeable”.

Official Standings after 2 ronds:
1. MASSIMO FANTINI – 33 Laps in 10:09.45
2. FABIO DOMANIN – 33 Laps in 10:10.15
3. Andrea Pirani – 33 Laps in 10:10.59
4. LAMBERTO COLLARI – 33 Laps in 10:11.81
5. TAKAAKI SHIMO – 33 Laps in 10:13.71
6. Pietsch Robert – 33 Laps in 10:14.51
7. SEBASTIAN RECIO – 33 Laps in 10:14.62
8. Groskamp Jilles – 33 Laps in 10:15.76
9. ANDREA CRISTIANI – 33 Laps in 10:16.42
10. YUYA SAHASHI – 33 Laps in 10:16.42
11. KEN FURUKAWA – 33 Laps in 10:17.68
12. FRANCESCO TIRONI – 33 Laps in 10:17.76
13. Salven Michael – 32 Laps in 09:57.32
14. WALTER SALEMI – 32 Laps in 10:00.32
15. STEFANO SOLAROLI – 32 Laps in 10:00.80

Qualifying will be run in a similar way tomorrow, (updated) however the drivers in heats 1-6 will be doing their 2 rounds in the afternoon, with the faster heats 7-12 run in the morning and all will be done in sequential order. Be sure to check out our image gallery for plenty of pictures from todays action.

Click here to download the full results (.xls).

View our event image gallery here.