August 5, 2014

Chassis Focus – Darren Bloomfield

Tues-BloomCar-1

Chassis – Agama A8 Evo FR Cup
Engine – Bullitt 219
Tyres – Beat Freeride Super Soft
Fuel – Piranha
Radio/Servos – Sanwa/Hitec
Body – JC Paint Arrow
Remarks – Having only just won the most recent round of the British Nationals, 2012 European Champion Darren Bloomfield comes into the Euros in good form with his updated Agama. While not the full new car, it does sport new parts on the car including lower shock towers and shorter shocks, new rear hub with options for 4 different lower mounting points and new anti-roll bar mounting points on the wishbones. The final car will sport a wider chassis plate and molded radio tray and when it goes on sale around September it will also include the aluminium steering rack as standard. Darren is running a new bodyshell from his painter JC Paint, called the Arrow, one of  three Agama drivers running the shell here in Germany.

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August 5, 2014

Chassis Focus – David Ronnefalk

Tues-RonnefalkMP9-1

Chassis – Kyosho Inferno MP9 TKI3
Engine – Team Orion RS
Tyres – AKA Catapult Soft
Fuel – Runner Time
Radio/Servos – KO Propo
Body – Kyosho Cab forward
Remarks – Reigning European Champion David Ronnefalk of Sweden is running a basic TKI3 here in Germany with the same setup he used to win the warm up race back in May. Choosing not to run the newly released harder front wishbones, preferring to run with what he is familiar with, compared to his standard setup back in Sweden the car uses the next step harder front grey spring on the car as well as laying down the rear shock towers one step. A point of interest on the car is the KO RSX2 servos with their metal case which are strong enough to enable David to run the car with basically no servo saver, the nut tightened down fully on the servo saver spring, with the plastic lever giving some give over the optional metal version.

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July 14, 2014

Chassis Focus – Ryan Maifield TLR 22 2.0 & 22-4

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Chassis – TLR 22 2.0
Motor – Orion VST2 7.5
ESC – Orion Vortex R10.1 Pro
Battery – Orion 4000 shorty
Tyres – JConcepts Dirtwebs Gold
Radio/Servos – Airtronics/Spektrum
Body – JConcepts

Sun-Maifield4w-1

Chassis – TLR 22 2.0
Motor – Orion VST2 5.5
ESC – Orion Vortex R10.1 Pro
Battery – Orion
Tyres – JConcepts Dirtwebs Gold
Radio/Servos – Airtronics/Spektrum
Body – JConcepts

Remarks – Ryan Maifield has made a successful debut with his Team Losi Racing rides and Team Orion electronics here at the 2014 JConcepts Summer Indoor Nationals in Chico, racing both his TLR22 2.0 and TLR 22-4 buggies (as well as his 22 SCT 2.0 truck) for the first time following testing in Florida with his new team mate Dustin Evans. Running stock cars with some basic optionals, he also ran the shorty LiPo pack in his 4wd in place of the conventional saddle pack.

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July 13, 2014

Chassis Focus – Drew Moller

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Chassis – HB D413
Motor – LRP X20 6.5T
ESC – LRP Flow
Battery – Protek RC 4700 shorty
Tyres – Pro-Line Electron MC
Radio/Servos – KO Propo
Body – Pro-Line Type-R
Remarks – Having only received the HB D413 3-weeks ago Drew Mo has put in some testing near his home before coming to Chico for the JConcepts Summer Indoor nationals. Starting with Ty Tessmann’s Reedy race setup he says it is working very well and hasn’t changed much all weekend with the focus on tires and tire prep, finally deciding on Pro-Line Electron tire in MC compound.

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July 13, 2014

New in the Pits – Team Orion & VBC Racing

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Team Orion are making their race debut with their new Vortex R10.1 Pro ESC which while retaining the same casing as its predecessor has a new PCB for lower internal resistance. Used by the Orion team here in Chico, other new features include new firmware, new heatsink design and a new cooling fan with the speedo said to offer more punch for stock racing. Team Orion also have their recently released Touch Duo which features dual outputs and a built in power supply.

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VBC Racing importer EMR Factory have a number of their all new Firebolt in use here. Set to go on sale in the coming weeks the US developed chassis comes standard with a ton of carbon and aluminium in what is a pretty unique looking 2wd mid motor buggy from the onroad manufacturer.

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July 13, 2014

New in the Pits – Schelle, AKA & Team Powers

Sat-SchelleConversion-2

Schelle Racing have their new shorty pack conversion in use here in Chico, with designer Kurt Wenger racing it. Designed to be used with their previously released aluminium B44.2 chassis plate, the new set includes the carbon top decks, battery mounting plates as well as the central motor mounting brackets. The conversion allows the shorty pack to be used in the car and to accommodate this the central drive train has to be reversed with the motor placed parallel to the battery pack behind the centre slipper on the left side of the car. With the use of the shorty pack and the conversion parts being similar in weight and weight distribution to the parts they replace the car can be lightened by around 80 grams. The parts we were shown are prototypes with the final aluminium parts being anodised blue to match the rest of the car. Schelle Racing also have a new rear ball stud mount for the B5 which features an extra mounting hole which while shown to us in black finish will be available in anodised blue.

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AKA gave us a preview of their new nut spinner which has a neat feature that allows it to have two heads in one tool. Mounted to a lightweight machined handle, the tool’s standard use is with 7mm nuts like those used for wheel nuts, then with the press and twist of the red anodised tool tip it unveils a 5.5mm nut head which is great for shock mounting and other uses. The tool we were shown is a near final prototype with the final version expected to be available in a months time.

Sat-TeamPowersXBooster

Team Powers have their new X Booster Cap, made from aluminium, which when connected to the ESC gives the driver more bottom end power thanks to the different way that it releases energy compared to a basic capacitor. No setup required it is seeing a lot of success here in Chico, with 8 of the top 10 drivers in the 17.5 class using it.

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