August 21, 2016

Chassis Focus – Hideo Kitazawa

Chassis – Morotech 12WX
Motor – Trinity D3.5
ESC – Hobbywing XR10
Battery – Trinity 7100mAh
Tires – Morotech
Radio/Servo – Futaba
Body – Protoform AMR

Remarks – Multiple Worlds finalist Hideo Kitazawa is using a prototype car from Morotech which features a new chassis plate and front side aluminium stiffeners mounted between the chassis and front blocks. His first time racing on ETS carpet as well as his first race with the new car, he has had to make a number of changes to find the right front and rear balance as well as combat the low grip and huge tire wear.

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August 21, 2016

Chassis Focus – Keven Hebert

Chassis – Associated RC12R5.2
Motor – Reedy Sonic 3.5T
ESC – Reedy 510R
Battery – Reedy 8000mAh
Tires – JFT
Radio/Servo – Futaba
Body – Protoform AMR

Remarks – Canadian Associated driver Kevin Hebert is top Associated after practice running the well established RC12R5.2. Having raced on the ETS carpet back in January when he attended the Reedy race in the UK, he has based his setup on that experience, changing only his camber to get the car better in the middle of the corner. New on the car is the 510R speedo from Reedy which is a 2S speedo so they are having to run a booster for the received and servo. More information on the new ESC later.

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August 21, 2016

Chassis Focus – Akio Sobue

Chassis – CRC Prototype
Motor – LRP X210 4.0T
ESC – LRP Flow
Battery – LRP 8100mAh
Tires – CRC Japan
Radio/Servo – Sanwa
Body – Protoform AMR

Remarks – Japanese race Akio Sobue is running a new CRC prototype chassis here in China, which he previously ran at the Japanese Nationals. Sporting new chassis, motor mount and servo mount he has had to change his setup from what he normally runs for the lower traction including a front camber and centre shock change. Like many here, he is suffering with his car in the last minutes of the run and will go out with larger tires, he is also changing his front additive application time from 1 minute to 10 to get more traction.

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August 20, 2016

Matsukura tops opening day at 12th Worlds

Naoto Matsukura has topped the opening day’s action of the 1:12 World Championship in China where the biggest story is the lack of traction. Setting his fastest time in the fourth of the 8 rounds of free practice around the large technical indoor track in Beijing, the Japanese driver was fastest from Alexander Hagberg and Marc Rheinard with none of the top three able to improve over the second half of the day. The final practice would see slight improvement from Akio Sobue ad Keven Herbert, Sobue maintaining fourth and Hebert moving up to fifth but it was JJ Wang who would find the most time with a strong time in the penultimate practice that saw him complete the Top 6.

With Matsukura’s Roche clearly looking the fastest car on track despite his failure to better his best 3-consecutive lap times, the 3-time World Champion declared himself happy with the start to his quest to regain the title he lost to Rheinard two years ago. Summing up his day he said, ‘I’m happy, I have a super good feeling with the new car’.  Running a prototype chassis from the Hong Kong manufacturer, he said while the car is working the problem is the traction.  Describing it as ‘medium traction’, he continued ‘but I need high (traction)’ adding that the only way the traction could be improved is if they used a different additive, the race running a hand out controlled additive. Clearly still struggling with the rear of the car getting loose towards the end of the run, the practice runs 9-minutes long, he said he will not change his car set-up but instead run a large rear tyre for the first of tomorrow’s two seeding practices rounds.

‘Going backwards’ was Hagberg’s reaction after the final practice.  The reigning 3 in a row European Champion said he is ‘struggling to pace for 8-minutes’ adding ‘the track has no bite’.  Asked about the traction levels, the Swede said there was ‘no improvement’ saying it might in fact be ‘getting worse’ and that was ‘making it harder’ to find the right direction to take with set-up.

Rheinard shared a similar frustration with Day 1.  The Yokomo driver said, ‘we’re absolutely lost and have no idea what to do’.  Having got his car ‘super stable in the rear’, the German added it ‘understeers like a truck’.  Describing the traction as ‘strange’, he said they, ‘need to find the right tyre’ adding that the low traction means the event is going to be ‘pretty much a tyre game’.

Making front end changes to his CRC, Sobue said the car was ‘more consistent’ but for tomorrow he needs to find more steering. Planning to rebuild the car after its 8 practice run, the Tamiya touring car ace said a fresh diff should help give him some of the extra steering he is looking for.  In addition the Japanese driver will make a camber adjustment.

Changing to a softer centre spring and a harder rear tyre, Herbert said these made his Associated ‘definitely better’.   ‘Better balanced’, the Canadian said the negative of the change was it ‘now pushed more’.  Overall ‘much easier to drive’ he said the found the right direction with the set-up but ‘maybe went a step too far’.  Looking to tomorrow, when the first of the qualifiers will take place after controlled practice,  the Canadian said, ‘it’s all about 8-minutes without crashing, it so tough out there’.

Driving his Xray for the first time, having previously raced Roche, Wang put his improvement down to trying ‘different tyre combinations’.  Having not changed his set-up much over the day, the Chinese American said, ‘tyres are everything’.   Feeling his car is getting there in terms of where he would like it to be he said, ‘I’m not really worried about pace because it’s the 8-minutes that counts’.  Behind Wang, Hideo Kitazawa would end up 7th fastest failing to improve on his P4 time while behind him Japanese Champion Hayato Ishioka slightly improve in P8 but stayed 8th followed by Toto Ebukuro and Andy Moore.

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August 20, 2016

Chassis Focus – Naoto Matsukura

Chassis – Roche Prototype
Motor – Muchmore Fleta ZX 3.5T
ESC – Muchmore Fleta Pro
Battery – Muchmore 8000mAh
Tires – Team Bomber
Radio/Servo – Sanwa/Xpert
Body – Protoform AMR

Remarks – 3-time 1/12th World Champion Naoto Matsukura is running a prototype chassis from Roche. Having also tested in Korea on the ETS carpet the Japanese driver has since changed his setup upon arriving here, making the side springs harder for faster response from the car. Also suffering from high tire wear, he will look at running larger diameter tires so he will have some rubber left at the end of the run. Struggling a little with understeer Naoto has changed up his saucing routine, going from 10 minutes for the front tires and an hour on the rear to 30 minutes on the front to help gain more steering.

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August 20, 2016

Matsukura sets early pace in China

3-time 1/12th World Champion Naoto Matsukura set the early pace in free practice at the 1:12 World Championships in Beijing, China. With 6 of the 8 practices runs that make up the opening day of the 18th running of the championships completed, the Roche driver was fastest over three consecutive laps from reigning European Champion Alexander Hagberg and defending World Champion Marc Rheinard.  While the track layout is proving popular with drivers, the big complaint is the lack of traction something that isn’t being helped by the low 56 entry count.

With the fastest times of the Top 5 drivers all posted in P4, fastest man Matsukura summed up his earlier runs by saying, ‘the track is a little difficult because of the low traction and the layout too, there are many chicanes’.  Adding ‘the track is big but good’, the Japanese driver said the traction levels are not showing much signs of significant improvement.  Running gold compound Team Bomber tyres on his prototype Roche he said due to the low traction the ‘tyre wear is high’ but happy with their performance in the early part of the run he will try to make the car more stable through a setup change.

‘Struggling a little bit’ was Hagberg’s reaction to getting to within 6/10ths of Matsukura over 3-laps.  Running the production version of the prototype X12 2017, he used to win his 3rd consecutive European Championship this year, the factory Xray driver said he ‘runs out of grip at the end of the run’.  Getting 9-minutes of practice time each practice, the Swede wants to ‘preserve the rear tyres’ adding the traction is ‘surprisingly low’.  Running Hot Race tyres, he will try a different tyre size for his next practice as well as adjusting his tyre prep.  A fan of the 30 X 24 metre track which he described as ‘really big’, he added ‘it’s bigger than I’m used too, it’s nice’.  Feeling he needs ‘work on consistency’, he will make a small set-up change for the remaining 2-practice rounds.

A 1/10th of a second off Hagberg’s pace, Rheinard described his performance as ‘so, so’.  The Yokomo driver said, ‘I am still trying to find the right set-up and the right tyres, the grip is a bit strange’.  With ‘traction not really good’, the German said ‘over the run the pace drops a lot’ as the rear of the standard YRX12 becomes ‘loose’ so we ‘need to find grip’.  Asked about not improving on his P5 & 6 time he said, ‘Heat 4 was good but in the next two it was slower again for some reason’.

Running a prototype CRC, the brand with which Rheinard won his 2014 title, Tamiya Touring Car team-mate Aki Sobue posted the 4th fastest time.  The Japanese star, who finished 4th at the Japanese National Championship earlier in the year, said for 5-minutes the car is good but then it gets loose adding his CRC tyres are ‘maximum small’ by the end of the 9-minutes.  A driver more focused on his touring car efforts when asked about planned changes for the final two free practice run he replied, ‘I will let my mechanic decide’.

Running a prototype Morotech which features a different carbon weave that makes it a lot stiffer with side aluminium braces running under the front suspension arms adding further rigidity, 2014 podium finisher Hideo Kitazawa described his opening performances as ‘so, so’.  Running YR compound Morotech tyres all round, the Futaba employee is like everyone else having a ‘problem with rear tyre grip’.  For the final two practice runs the Japanese driver plans to try a different rear tyre to improve his consistency over the run.

Completing the Top 6 with a time from his opening practice, Keven Herbert said he was ‘doing ok’ adding ‘it could be better, it could be worse’.  The Team Associated driver who is running a standard car continued, ‘I can do ok laps but its a little difficult to drive’.  Running JFT tyres, S30 on the rear and S35 on the front, the Canadian is looking to ‘find more rear grip’.  Planning to test a harder rear tyres on his next run, he feels if he can get the car ‘more consistent, it will be alright’. Behind Herbert, Yokomo driver Toto Ebukuro was 7th fastest ahead of newly crowned Japanese National Champion Hayato Ishioka. Chinese American driver JJ Wang would post the 9th fastest time with his Xray ahead of 2012 Vice World Champion Andy Moore at the controls of a Roche.

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