New in the pits – Part 3

Walking further through the pits we have come across a number of new items that are making their debut here. Mugen team driver Travis Amezcua is a running a new chassis plate for the MBX-6, which is 5mm longer increasing the cars wheelbase making it more stable. He is also running the new Mugen springs front and rear which feature less coils so are more progressive and help give the car more lift off the jumps. He has with him a range of 4 different hardness to choose from with these springs, which he says are a little stiffer also.

Juraj Hudy of Xray showed us his heavily updated XB808. Starting up front there is new aluminium caster blocks and steering blocks, with the caster blocks featuring 3 upper wishbone mounting positions for extra roll centre adjustability. The rear end also sports new rear uprights that have inserts on the lower mounting pin which give you further options for adjustment. Continuing on the adjustment side of things, there are new wider aluminium lower suspension blocks that sport plastic inserts that allow a very wide range of adjustment and along with shorter rear wishbones the set up gives the car more steering.

In the drivetrain the central shaft drive cup sports new smaller sized bearings, the previous larger bearings used to collect dirt too easily. The central drive shafts are now also shorter because the drive cups are now no longer captured in the diff cases. For strength on the track he is running a front shock tower plate that reinforces the current carbon version as well as steel plates in the front and rear of the chassis to prevent wear.

Reds Racing are prototyping their new lightweight cooling head for their XR21T .21 buggy engine. Seen in the car of Italian Champion Fabio Boero, the new head offers a significant weight saving and more importantly it brings down the overall centre of gravity of the car.

RB are debuting their new longer manifold that manages to keep the mounting points on the engine and exhaust in the same position but stretches the pipe further rearward to avoid adjusting the exhaust position. The length of the new manifold is 204mm, which gives lots more bottom end power, perfect for the fast sweeping corner here coming off the pit straight. RB also off two shorter versions, which are already available.

AKA are here with their new Evo wheel, which is stiffer and sports a removable disc that increases the stiffness event further while creating a smooth internal surface that prevents the build up of dirt. AKA also have their new soft buggy insert here helps avoid the lateral deflection of the tire while at the same time increasing the vertical impact absorption for better handling in the bumps.

Team C Racing are debuting their new buggy here. Only finalised days before the event, it has only had a handful of laps done on it prior to first practice and we were told that it still requires more development work to bring it up to speed.

View the event photo gallery here.

New in the pits – Part 2

Continuing on with finding new stuff in the bits, we sat down with World Champion Atsushi Hara, who showed us his new self developed cab forward body shell. He has test this new body extensively and found it to have lots of downforce, thanks to not only the front cab, but the ridges going up the side of the cab as well as the rear winglets. This space behind the cab allows cleaner air to reach the wing for better balance, which he has found using one from another manufacturer. The body is expected to be released next month.

Also new is the fact that Hara is no longer a contracted Pro-Line driver, something both parties agreed to. This enables him to use whatever tire is best for the specific track conditions, which for this race, he believes the HB tires will work best for him.

Jason Ruona from JConcepts gave us a run down of the many new products that the Florida based company has brought with them for this event. As well as their new Inverse buggy wheel which we covered last month, they have their new Punisher rear wing. A flat deck, high-support design is matched with 4 different interchangeable side dams for increased tuning options. JConcepts also have a prototype of their Punisher RC8B fin body which helps increase high-speed stability, especially suited for this track with its high speed straight/sweeper.

Jason has also brought two new tires with him for this event, the Hybrids and the 3Ds. The former are a combination of the most popular JC tires available. A mid-lug design with inner Crowbar centre lug, these tires are built for speed and high-speed control & handling. The 3ds are developed to be the ultimate Slick-groove tire, and combine the stability of a black groove bar tire with flexible pattern of finely spaced Double Dee lugs in one package.

View the event photo gallery here.

New in the Pits – Part 1

Team Associated are here with a big and experienced team and we took a look at Ryan Maifield’s car to see what the US company brought to the race in terms of equipment. To protect the shock ends they have removed the lower shock riser and placed them into modified wishbones. As this would affect the shock angle, they have produced new front and rear shock towers with different mounting holes.

Other changes on the car included a new longer chassis plate that allows the rear uprights to be moved more forward for more dogbone swing. The rear chassis brace has also been beefed up with a carbon fibre insert running along its entire length. Maifield has also chosen to run the old steering configuration used in the original RC8, which gives the car a more twitchy feel, an idea from their Spanish team mate Robert Batlle who has been running this setup for a while.

For Losi, apart from the chassis plate with steel inserts front and rear that we showed you previously, they have very little changes to the car. The made update is the new aluminium shock spring cups which are made from aluminium, that wont be affected by the heat, are stronger and sport a taller inside collar to prevent the spring from popping out. This part is held onto the shock shaft with a set screw.

Losi also have a new fuel tank that is 7cc bigger thanks to a new process that they use to bring the two ends of the tank together. Finally the team drivers are using a new lightweight body that is half the weight of the standard kit version.

Daniel Vega is here with his update Agama chassis, which features some updates including a new 10 degree front caster block, something he has been waiting for, for some time. A big improvement according to the Spanish team driver is the new pivot pin mounts which are no longer captured but held in place with nuts.

A new braking system helps improve the track performance, which now uses a steel disc along with Ferodo type pads. Something Daniel is trying, that we have seen on the car of Mike Truhe, is the replacement of the rear chassis brace with a shock absorber, which he believes will help the cars performance coming off the jumps. The car also has a new carbon radio plate and a number of aluminium option parts throughout including the wheel axles and drive cups.

View the event photo gallery here.