New in the Pits – Maxima, O.S. & Serpent

Making its debut at this event is the Maxima O.S. R2, the latest engine from the Thai fuel brand, the R1 having won this year’s European Championships in the hands of their star driver Jilles Groskamp. The engine is as the name suggests made by O.S. but inside each unit has been hand modified and even includes its own Maxima made components. Developed by mostly electric specialist drivers the result is a very linear power band as well as all important run-time improvements over the original engine. When buying the motors, which are made to order in limited quantity, each engine is run-in and comes with the pipe set and air filter.

Released only 2 weeks ago O.S. Engines also have a new .21 engine here called the R2101. An all new engine, it sports all new internals as well as a new crankcase which has a longer stroke compared to its predecessor. The result is an motor with more torque and bottom end revs which is performing well here at the Kei Tune Racing Speedway with 7 drivers in the top 14 running the new power plant including Shimo, Vejrak and Yokoyama.

Serpent have a new range of tools here in use by Serpent designer Michael Salven. The handles sport a new lightweight design, as is the trend with tools currently, and are knurled for a secure grip when using and shaped to not roll on your work bench. The tips are made from a durable spring steel material and as you would expect they are available in a wide range of different tip sizes and styles.

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

Chassis Focus – Atsushi Hara

Car: Mugen MRX-5
Engine: O.S. Speed
Fuel: Cosmo
Tires: Zac Project
Bodyshell: Protoform R18
Radio/Servos: Futaba

Two-time World Champion Atsushi Hara is running the Mugen MRX-5 here in Japan and apart from extra chassis weights and lightweight front wheel axles it is a standard car. Starting off using the same setup as Japanese National Champion Takaaki Shimo, Hara has changed little to the car, only deciding to run a blue front spring in place of the grey all round, something he says gives more steering when the traction is high but which doesn’t work in the low grip conditions found today. 2001 World Champion Kenji Osaka is Hara’s pitman for this race but not having driven 1/8th onroad for over 10 years Kenji had one run with the car prior to this event to get back the feeling for the class, something he says has changed a lot since he last raced.

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Chassis Focus – Tadahiko Sahashi

Car: Serpent 977 Viper
Engine: Picco Boost
Fuel: Cosmo
Tires: Zac Project
Bodyshell: Protoform R18
Radio/Servos: Sanwa

Tadahiko Sahashi is running the Picco powered Serpent 977 Viper with a number of the available aluminium options installed for strength and looks. Ending up on top of both of today’s qualifiers Tadahiko says a change to harder suspension parts earlier in the event helped prevent it from sliding around on the non sugar watered track and apart from that has done little to change away from his standard setup for this track. Having tried the Blitz shell he found it lacking steering on this track and so he has changed back to the very popular Protoform R18 for his qualifying runs.

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Chassis Focus – Takaaki Shimo

Car: Mugen MRX-5
Engine: O.S. Speed
Fuel: Cosmo
Tires: Zac Project
Bodyshell: Protoform R18
Radio/Servos: Futaba

Japanese National Champion Takaaki Shimo is running a standard Mugen MRX-5, the same car he won the Nationals/Worlds warmup race here in Kei Tune with some months ago. With the track not being sugar watered for this event, like it was previously, his setup has needed to be adjusted. Firstly the car was too loose on track and with some adjustments he stopped the rear from stepping out but then it had too much grip and not enough steering. The multiple Worlds podium finisher has reduced both the front and rear toe and this has given him the steering he wanted. To power his car Shimo is running the all new O.S. Speed 2101 R, which was only released 2 weeks ago.

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Chassis Focus – Andy Moore

Car: HB R8
Engine: Maxima
Fuel: Maxima
Tires: Zac Project
Bodyshell: Protoform R18
Radio/Servos: Sanwa

Former Electric EP Touring car World Champion Andy Moore is one of four drivers here running the as yet unreleased HB. Having raced the car previously at the recent KM cup on the same track, he said conditions are different to the last time he ran here and so he has had to make some small tweaks to get more steering into the car as he says the rear end is now planted. The car is still undergoing final development with Andy receiving new harder rear suspension parts for this event but no date has yet been set for the release of the R8.

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