A return to RC racing

[Rob Hunter - Club Secretary]

You've now made me look at the Wheelspin Models website and SWMBO is giving me death stares again! 😂

 

I started racing outdoors when I was about 12 years old in the 80's with a Tamiya Hornet, before upgrading to quicker cars and having a dabble with indoor 1/12 scale Mardave Minis etc and then having a go at nitro 1/8 buggies.... I gave it up in the 90's when a young family got in the way.

 

Much to my wife's disgust, I've added to the collection every now and again over the years as the bug never quite goes away!

 

I've still got my original Hornet and Mardave Mini (both still running), plus others like Team Associated's, Kyosho's, some RTR's (for bashing in the park), a few planes and a handful of helicopters.

 

[Morris]

I had an original Tamiya Sandscorcher which I used to race against my friends' cars (in our back gardens). They had a Rough Rider and a Holiday Buggy. (My radio was a 3 channel Sanwa).

 

We had excellent fun and tried to get extra speed out of them by upgrading to ball racers to replace the standard bushes. Upgrades took a while given that they were financed with paper round money!

 

We used to fast charge the NiCds to death in 20 mins with a large resistor and car battery - things often got quite hot but being without a charged battery was not an option when there were trees to crash into!

 

I bought my son a ready to run BDH electric buggy which is fun and indestructible (with a pistol grip controller that I cannot get the hang of).

 

Not long ago I bought a 30+ year old Mardave Marauder (nitro car) in bits. We rebuilt it and regularly run it in the park.

 

It's rear wheel drive, has no differential and is completely manic to drive - very difficult to keep from donutting on wet ground.

 

We use an old 35MHz aeroplane radio to control it. This is an old school radio with sticks (i.e. not pistol grip) so I'm used to it (as is my son now!).

[RICHARD+PHILIP]

Looks like your going to need some front tyres soon.

 

GT12 is a good fun class. Which club do you race at? 

I have just switched over from Mini touring cars to GT12 after racin for many years.

Mardave have just released the Venom Pulsar which goes rather well.

 

[Andy Malone - Editor]

4 minutes ago, RICHARD+PHILIP said:

Looks like your going to need some front tyres soon.

Yeah, those ones are just the set that came with the used car I bought and are totally shot. I just put them on during the build/transit. I have two brand new trued Contact Q foam sets I'm actually running in races.

 

9 minutes ago, RICHARD+PHILIP said:

Which club do you race at? 

Wirral Model Car Club. Slightly annoyingly they have recently changed location as it was in my town and would have been 5 minutes away on race night but it's still the closest club by a long long way. 23 racing tonight so fairly well subscribed.  

 

4 minutes ago, RICHARD+PHILIP said:

Mardave have just released the Venom Pulsar which goes rather well.

I very nearly bought the Venom Pulsar (and still might once I've got my eye in again).  Two of the guys I've been chatting a lot with at the club run them and have been very satisfied with them. However my Atom 2 was a bargain (£75) so decided it was a good entry point for now. You get such a good/complete package with the Pulsar out of the box.

[RICHARD+PHILIP]

Getting the mardave ready for Friday night race night.

Trying t foams Friday as they are supposed to be better. Than q foam

 

[Andy - a15cro]

I cant open the pic, is there something broken on the web site?

 

Good luck anyway, let us know how you get on.

[Richard (OldStager)]

8 minutes ago, Andy - a15cro said:

I cant open the pic, is there something broken on the web site?

 

 

yes, its a known problem that needs new hardware apparently.

if you reduce the file size of any pics they should post , this one is 1.1mb

[MCB]

These are a few of my collection, I also have a Mardave Mini and a rere Monster beetle and I’m currently rebuilding a vintage Blackfoot.

 

D1D10A18-27C0-4681-8182-9B0709BE87BF.jpeg 7D0687A6-7B87-4F69-AA47-35033B3CB39F.jpeg

[Andy - a15cro]

Thanks to @Andy Malone - Editor creating this post, it stirred up my desire to go racing again, so as it’s Christmas what better excuse than to get some 1/10th electric buggy kit together. Even better than that the club meets at the school opposite where I live! I never knew 🤦🏼‍♂️
 

I’ve been to my first club meet today and had a blast, knocking a second off each of my heats, and finishing 3rd, and even a 2nd. The final was a bit of a bust with a technical issue. However massive fun, dropped straight back into my childhood again. 
 

Going to try and upload a couple of pics, so,we will see if the forum is still broken. 
 

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

11 minutes ago, Andy - a15cro said:

Going to try and upload a couple of pics, so,we will see if the forum is still broken. 

 

Yes, your file size is still too big. 

 

 

[Rob Hunter - Club Secretary]

Santa did well this year (well, my lads did!) and I received a load of RC bits to upgrade my old 2003 Team Associated RC10B4 to 5000KV brushless and 2s/3s LiPo's....

 

Hopefully I won't smash her up first time out, I'll definitely be using the 2s packs to start with!

 

I may even transfer the set up to the old 1984 Tamiya Hornet for a laugh, it'll be a smidgen faster than the old 80's vintage 17t Demon motor its currently running 😂

 

[Andy - a15cro]

I forgot to mention, I decided on an Associated RC10 B6.3 with Sanwa radio.

 

The electrics have come on leaps and bounds, I was amazed that the frequency no longer requires a crystal! 

[Andy Malone - Editor]

On 02/01/2022 at 16:58, Andy - a15cro said:

...it stirred up my desire to go racing again, so as it’s Christmas what better excuse than to get some 1/10th electric buggy kit together.

Great stuff!  Glad you are having fun with it again.

 

Just before the festive period my 4th week of being back saw me qualify in the next final up for the first time (in an awkward no mans land 3 laps ahead of the fastest C final car, and 3 laps behind the main 4 drivers in the B final). Hopefully it means I'll be starting a heat higher from now on though so I'll get less incidents with slow traffic.

 

We are back tonight and starting the 'Winter Championship' whereby you get points for qualifying and final positions, and your score is your best 4 out of 6 weeks. Just for fun but will hopefully mean we can build up some nice little competitive battles down the order.

 

Car prepped and ready to go...

[RICHARD+PHILIP]

Glad to hear your improving. Wiring looks neat.

If Upgradeitus strikes the latest Trinity Revtech motor is the one to go for. 

[Andy Malone - Editor]

2 hours ago, RICHARD+PHILIP said:

If Upgradeitus strikes the latest Trinity Revtech motor is the one to go for. 

Well as it turns out my Trinity RevTech 24K blew a sensor board last night after all my prep so I ended up setting no qualifying time, and then winning the C Final (but untimed as I hadn't qualified) with a borrowed Surpass V3. So my championship points are zero. Car felt good though and my final run would have put me in the B had I done it in quali.

 

I've managed to get a new sensor board today from Zen Racing cheap so will hopefully bring my existing RevTech back to life, and I also picked up a new (but secondhand) Surpass V5R for half the new price so I have that as an option as well. The newer Trinity X-Factor looks great but I can't justify the £90 (Spec) or £115 (Team) at the moment for club racing.