If we seem very quiet over the new year it is for a good reason, because we are enjoying the Christmas and New Years holidays and not being online at all! Rest assured we will be back in the new year as busy as ever, until then from the crew at Aussie RC, have a very merry Christmas, and a happy new year!
We also hope that Santa puts something RC under your Christmas tree 😉
We have talked about the fantastic Crowd Sourced Events Calendar for RC events on the RC tech thread, and the baton has been passed for 2015 to a new person running the thread, but as the commercials say, but wait, there’s more!
Along with the 2015 edition of the thread, there is also a new website to match the calendar. This can be found at http://www.rcracedatesaustralia.com/ and the 2015 edition of the crowd sourced calendar where you can add your events for inclusion on the canelndar can be found at http://www.rctech.net/forum/australian-events/835896-2015-aus-events-calendar-crowd-sourced-2.html
I have not yet updated our page to those links, but I will do as soon as I have time in coming days. So if you love those big events, and who doesn’t, RC Race Dates Australia is the place to to to find them!
XRAY presents the all-new X1 based on XRAY’s European Championship-winning X12 pancar. Sharing many high-performance parts with its smaller cousin, the X1 has incorporated all of the finest details to achieve a state of race car perfection.
XRAY focused its efforts on refining all of the already well-thought-out parts and assemblies to make the new X1 easy to drive, work on, and adjust. Designed in virtual reality using the world’s most sophisticated CAD technology, and manufactured using the world’s best machining and molding machinery in-house, the X1 has attained a level of top perfection that is second to none.
All parts are purpose-designed and manufactured by XRAY from premium materials including legendary Hudy Spring Steel™, premium Swiss 7075 T6 aluminum, high-grade custom-formulated graphite material, and our own blends of composite materials. Everything on the X1 is premium with maximum attention to detail, so all parts fit and work perfectly together.
Elegant in its simplicity and effectiveness, the X1 is set to
become the new standard in 1/10 Formula racing.
Offering the quality and flexibility expected from a Team Xray vehicle it even boasts multiple battery configurations.
For full details on this magnificent vehicle visit http://www.teamxray.com/x1/
The January 2015 edition of racing lines is hitting shelves already, so keep an eye on your mailbox or newsagent stand. This issue includes final articles from Peter Joyce and Scott Guyatt as well as news and reviews galore, including, but not limited to:
We shared some photos from Lee Martin last night, but more details of this new buggy have appeared overnight so I thought I would do a more comprehensive post about this new design.
Firstly the website has all of the details, so that’s not a bad place to start! http://www.teamyokomo.eu/yokomo-yz-2
It certainly is focused on very high traction surfaces with the car set low to the ground, motor and gearbox very low, and somewhat unconventional steering bellcrank arrangement which I have included a photo of below. I would say of all the 2wd buggies, this would most likely have the lowest centre of gravity of any I have seen. The spur gear is pretty much touring car height! This is what Team Yokomo themselves have to say about their new design.
Yokomo is introducing the all-new YZ-2, a state-of-the-art 1/10th-scale EP 2WD offroad competition mid-motor chassis kit, engineered from the ground-up for today’s racing environment and designed to deliver leading-edge developments to offroad enthusiasts, all while offering a luxurious feel by featuring black-anodized aluminum parts with chamfered edges for select components.
In recent days, offroad racing has seen a shift toward high-grip surfaces; use of astro, carpet and even high-grip dirt has become more and more prevalent. Last year’s World Championships was held on a dirt track where the surface was covered with sugar water to increase the grip.
With these developments in the offroad racing scene, the YZ-2 was designed from the ground-up to perform its best in today’s high-speed, high-grip race tracks.
By employing a super-low center-of-gravity motor mount and gearbox, the YZ-2 has realized an unprecedented weight balance never seen before in offroad racing cars, resulting in dramatically reduction of traction rolls on high-grip surfaces, and improved overall stability of the car.
An innovative steering design where the wiper swing action is directed toward the rear of the car affords a more direct steering response compared to conventional designs.
The hard-coated, low-friction anodized aluminum cylinders leads to smoother shock absorbing movements which allows better driving characteristics.
Also, quick alignment adjustments can be made without the need of optional parts by replacing the bushings of the front hub carrier and rear suspension mounts, a quality that can be an advantage in adapting quickly to various track conditions.
Everything about the Yokomo YZ-2 has been designed to provide an advantage for racers in today’s offroad racing scene.
Specifications
● Super-low center-of-gravity motor mount and gearbox
● Variable skid angles (0, 2.5, 5 degrees) by replacing the bushing of the front hub carrier
● Variable toe-in and skid angle by replacing bushings of the rear suspension arms
● Newly-designed aluminum steering rack
● Aluminum rear suspension mount
● Aluminum front upper arm mount
● Aluminum front suspension arm mount support
● One-piece aluminum main chassis
● Support for both stick and shorty LiPo batteries
● Carbon graphite battery plate
● Dual-pad slipper clutch
● Aluminum front and rear hex wheel hubs
● 4mm-thick carbon graphite front and rear shock towers
● Low-friction, hard-anodized shock cylinders
● Newly-designed forward-cabin racing body
It has been interesting seeing the capacity and C rating of Lipo batteries rise and rise of late, and I have always wondered how long that increase was sustainable on the currently available technology. Now it looks like SMC may have answered that for me!
Superior Matching Concepts, or SMC, is a brand of battery that I was shown by then fellow racer Scott Guyatt as a good bang for your buck battery much akin to the Intellect batteries I am/was running at the time. I am afraid I am yet to buy any, but I am in need of some younger batteries so whey are moving up the list in priority and these are at the top of the list.
However a post on their facebook page today caught my attention so I thought I would re-post it for our readers to see. The complete statement is included below.
I’m making this post to try and help educate everyone about how crazy the Lipo ratings have become and are pretty much useless. I know most of you will appreciate this post and some will think I’m just using this to promote SMC but this is really to open some eyes.
First let me explain the fact that their is no true C rate testing standards. Some factories use mAh retention and others use heat and voltage curve to determine the C rate. Every factory knows the C rate of their cells based on one of these 2 methods of C rate testing.
When I started testing and buying Lipos 8 years ago the C rates were 10 to 20C for car packs. At that time the factories were giving true C rates based on their testing method for C rate. Within a few years C rates doubled but this was just marketing to try and sell more packs and make more money. Now 8 years later it’s even crazier with some outrageous C rate claims and mAh has also started to increase on the labels but not on the cells. In my opinion 80% or more of the packs being sold in car market today have a true C rate of 15 to 25C using the heat and voltage curve method for C rate testing. Using the mAh retention you can add 5C. There are some 30C and 35C packs available but these are very rare and cost more to make.
C rate is the amp rate at which the cell/pack can be discharged at. So a 5000-20C can do 100amps. A 7200-20C can do 144 amps and so on. IR(Internal Resistance) is directly related to a cells ability to handle amp loads. So it’s not possible for a pack to have higher C rate and higher IR. This means a 7200-20C has to be lower in IR than a 5000-20C. The size of the cell also limits it’s mAh or C rate/IR. In car packs with hard cases we’re limited by the size of the case. This means if you want to increase mAh you must increase IR or vice versa. A 7200-25C will have higher IR than a 6000-35C. The 7200 will be able to do 180 amps and the 6000 will be able to do 210 amps. Only way the 6000 can provide more amps is to have lower IR.
Now that we know this if true C ratings would exist the consumer/racer would be able to know what pack better suits his needs. Unfortunately this isn’t the case so there really is no way for the customer/racer to know. SMC is no different than others as we also use inflated C rates as we have no choice. If we would use true C rates we would be out of business. What we do try and do that is different is make sure that our ratings mean something. For example our 5000-40C will have higher IR than our 5000-50C and so on.
Here is something that I find interesting and frustrating at the same time. Some of our competitors buying the same packs we do offer them with higher ratings. This leads to some customers buying these higher priced packs instead of ours. Here are 2 examples. The 4400-60C shorty which we sell for 29.95 is being offered as a 4600-90C at 44.95 and it’s the exact same pack that we offer. The 7200-60C-2S pack we offer for 39.95 is being offered as a 7600-75C for 64.95.
Something else interesting is that a customer who bought one of our 5000-40C-2S packs at 24.95 compared it to a 5450-120C-2S pack at 129.99 and told me that our 40C pack ran longer and faster in the same vehicle and the 120C pack was new to make a fair comparison.
Now that we know C rates are all made up and it’s actually getting a bit ridiculous to claim even higher C rates it seems like in the past few years mAh is now what is being inflated. Recently I tested a 7000-1S pack that only put out 6222mAh. I will admit some of our packs also have a bit lower mAh than claimed but this is due to the model being improved to provide lower IR. If you drop the IR the mAh drops.
I hope this post can help some of you not fall for all the BS and hype and don’t be surprised if SMC starts releasing higher rated packs to try and keep up as it’s very frustrating to under rate our packs and lose sales.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/smcracing?fref=nf
Website: http://www.smc-racing.net/
Australian Stockist: http://www.coast2coastrc.com.au/
Another edition of this fabulous video series is available giving an insight into these big events, and what the drivers think of the event, controversies, track equipment and pretty much any topic of interest. Our own Kyle McBride event gets a little time on screen.
5150 Media Productions, together with Pro-LineRacing is proud to present the 2014 IFMAR Nitro Buggy World Championships!Held in the beautiful Mediterranean city of Giardini-Naxos Italy, these worlds did not disappoint. The track was challenging, the weather was ever changing & the competition was fierce. Take a behind the scenes look at what really goes on at a Nitro World Championship.Narrated by Mike Garrison, this “Come Drive With Us” Movie focuses on Lee Martin, Mike Truhe & once again, Ty Tessmann.
Adrenalin Arena posted today about their imminent move, but there was a tease at a little more than just that being in the works.
Coming Mid 2015!
The foundations of a ground breaking partnership were formed today. The seeds sown for an amazing chain of facilities providing a unique entertainment experience. Not just RC racing but Mecca of excitement for the whole family with something for all ages and genders.
But that’s not all. Home grown product. Yes, mass produced Australian designed RC vehicles are coming your way.
There’s some very exciting times ahead. We’ll keep you informed as more developments are announced.
It will be interesting to see what eventuates here. We will bring you any news as we see or hear it.
The lads have put the Spawn through it’s paces at Big Squid RC, personally I kile this body better, but I can see why others would prefer the original. For the full review visit http://www.bigsquidrc.com/review-axial-wraith-spawn-rtr-rock-racer/
Many people know of, or have used, Feral Batteries in the past, I know I have certainly purchased batteries from them in the past. In a statement this morning Western Sydney Race Center has announced it’s acquisition of Feral Batteries as you can read for yourself below.
So now that the dust has cleared yes it’s true Western Sydney Race Centre has acquired Feral Batteries, the deal was done over two weeks ago with all the paper work signed off yesterday. We would like to thanks Greg for all he has done for the hobby good and bad lol and wish him well for his future with his new family, we would like to thank everyone for there support and welcome all the Feral Batteries customers to the WSRC family, Also In A deal brokered a month ago we welcome Peter Hunt to the team at WSRC Peter has brought in the the business and is now a partner. WSRC has a big year planned for 2015 and Peter will be great hand for the upcoming year ahead. There will be more big news in the weeks to come about next years plans. Please head over to feral batteries Facebook page and like it to get all the update regarding new stock.
Cheers
Geoff & Bec
Source: https://www.facebook.com/WesternSydneyRaceCentre?fref=nf
WSRC Website: http://wsrc.com.au/
Aussie RC 