August 18, 2009

New in the Pits – Part 1

There seems to be plenty of new items in the pit lane and we will start with the new parts from Team Shepherd. The German company is debuting a wide range of new products for the Velox V8 including these new lightweight wheel axles. Machined from high quality aluminium, they are super light but strong enough to cope with the stresses of this class. Both front and rear axles are available, to be used with CVD axles and to this end, there is new rear CVD axles.

Other new parts include a full set of new harder plastics which come in medium and hard versions and which work great in hot weather conditions such as those seen here. The harder plastic prevents the transmission from binding up, which prevents damage to the transmission as well as making the car handle better. Currently Patrick Schaefer is running the extra hard plastic, while Oliver Mack has opted for the medium hardness plastic. The car has also received a new pulley system, which sees modifications made to the actual pulleys, with holes on the side of the teeth to allow dirt to escape and also the front belt pulleys have been made larger in diameter and receive a new belt for freer rotation of the belt and pulleys. Finally a new carbon brace across the rear gearbox axle blocks help stiffen up this area and prevent binding in the axle bearings. All parts will be available directly after the World Championships.

Team Titan, makers of the popular Blitz body shells, are here and with them are these new front wheel axle nuts. Made from aluminium, they sport 2 o-rings to prevent them from coming loose and the flats of the nuts have been milled out to further lighten them.

View more photos of the new products in our event image gallery here.

August 2, 2009

New in the Pits – Part 2

Shown to us earlier in the week by Oscar Jansen of Team Orion, but asked not to publish it until today, is the company’s all new brushless competition motor called the Vortex Race 2010. Starting with a clean sheet of paper the new motor sports a shorter can than the previous version and is now made from a much thicker material allowing for better heat dissipation. Other new features include high speed, small diameter, bearings that along with a new smaller diameter rotor shaft ensures higher RPM. The sensor unit has also been changed with the connector for the cable moved to the centre of the motor, which not only keeps the wire away from getting caught while on track, but allows a simple and wide adjustment of the timing. The changes don’t stop there, with an extra thick wire connector ring and solder tabs for getting the power from the ESC to the motor with less resistance, and the solder tabs are now also open ended for easier soldering of the wires to the motor.

Also new in the pitlane is the latest version of the Robitronic Avid touring car which is due for general release later this year. The car which is still in development is almost completely new with new chassis plate, top deck, front and rear bulkheads and the car is now much lower than the previous version for better centre of gravity.

View our event image gallery here.

July 30, 2009

New in the Pits – Part 1

Seen for the first time at the Euro Touring Series race in Andernach, 2 weeks ago, the new Speedpassion Competition 3.0 motor is making its public debut at this race. Tested by a number of the Speedpassion team drivers, the new motor features a shorter can that sees the cables from the speed controller connected to the motor using 3 plugs that are plugged directly into the rear of the motor. This is said to be more efficient as it connects directly to the internal wires and not through a circuit that brings the power to the conventional tabs on one side of the motor. Drivers who have used the new motor say that it gives a much smoother power delivery than the current motor. Expect it to be released at the end of August.

View our event image gallery here.

July 25, 2009

New in the Pits – Part 3

After qualifying ended we sat down with Engine tuning guru Mario Rossi to discuss his latest venture Reds Racing. The name comes from Mario’s second name which translates to the english word Red and is the result of his collaboration with Salvatore Schepis of SM Models that we announced back in April. Using the BOSS engine as a base, Mario will tune the unfinished parts that he receives from LM, who currently manufacturer these engines. Together with his son Marco, who brings his engineering skills to the project, the two will work on creating the new line of motors.

Expected to be available in September, there will be 2 types of engines to choose from, a hand modified top of the line motor with ceramic bearings and aluminium carburettor and a standard version that has steel bearings and a plastic carburettor. The two are easily differentiated by their case colour which is grey for the modified version and silver for the standard. Available in .12 and .21 versions, Schepis Models will handle the worldwide sales through their network of BOSS engine distributors.

View more photos of this new engine here.

July 22, 2009

New in the Pits – Part 2

Making its competition debut at this race is the Velox V10 chassis from Shepherd. Only one car at the event, it is being driven by non other than current World Champion Daniele Ielasi. The car which is in its production form looks very similar to that seen at the toy fair with the exception of a few plastic parts that replace aluminium prototype parts. The car is going well and despite it being the first time Daniele drove the production car, he is confident of a good finish come Sunday.

Also new and proving to be very popular in the pits is the new small INS box from Xceed RC. The low profile, lightweight (only 19 grams) filter was only released earlier this month while available in both clear and black it is only here in its semi transparent form as seen on the car of Michael Salven above.

View more images of the new products in our event gallery here.

July 22, 2009

New in the Pits – Part 1

New in the pits is the Capricorn RC 200mm car, which is making its competition debut here in Gubbio. The car, which we featured CAD images of some time ago, is nearing completion with only a few parts left to be finalised before its scheduled release next month. We took a look at the car belonging to Martin Christensen, one of only two cars here and he talked us through it. The car is extremely low and as is the trend with modern 200mm touring cars, the bulkheads are machined from aluminium like on the new Serpent 733 and the Shepherd Velox V10. This provides a lot of stiffness and brings the weight more to the centre line of the car.

A conventional car regarding geometry and adjustment possibilities, the car sports a nice feature that allows the entire axles, along with CVD shaft, to be pulled through the blocks by removing a clip mounted on the inside. Other nice touches are the machined aluminium servo saver, that has carbon inserts to adjust the Ackermann, and the differentials that are using the company’s own composite diff gears for a large weight saving. With this weight saving, the car can now utilzise a brass battery plate to bring the weight down as low as possible. Overall a nice looking car, especially with the red anodising, and one of the best things that Martin liked about the car is its simplicity and ease of maintenance.

View more images of the new car in our event gallery here.