Saturday, March 30, 2013

Sweep Tires and Exotek rims and More....

Expect more detailed write up soon from Official TC Does RC Test pilot Robert. He has the new Sweep F1 racing tires and a set of Pits mounted up on the new Exotek offset rims. He tried them a bit before the races today and will ring them out properly Monday I am sure. But are some pics of how they look compared to the regular tires and wheels. Also included a post of Roberts he wanted me to do my famous copy and paste job too. More than happy to do it instead of typing it my self.









From Robert

Got my Sweep F1 tires and Tamiya F104 rubber tire wheels in the mailbox yesterday  Mounted them up last night and they look great but were a bit of a hassle. and I am not confident that I got the super thin tire glue deep into the actual mounting bead to ensure a strong bond.

Also had some issue with the self adhesive foam insert. The instructions say to stick the foam directly to the wheel. If I simply did that I would have covered part of the mounting bead with foam and caused interference between the tire and rim. So before sticking it on I beveled the edges of the foam so it would sit nicely between the mounting ribs, not on top of them. 

Then, I noticed the foam inserts where slightly too short to simply stick to the rim and have the ends meet. I had to give them a slight stretch as I stuck them down to make sure there is no gap once I got it all the way around the rim.

Once you have a foam insert stuck to a rim the tire becomes rather difficult to stretch over the tire and rim, So I followed the instruction that recommend flipping the tire inside out first, slide over the insert then flip back. That really does not work either so I started with the inverted tire and slowly worked the tire over the rim, stretching it as I was flipping it right side out working my way around the perimeter of the rim.

I must say that although unorthodox  mounting Shimizu tires and inserts is much easier once you have the proper glues and technique.

Will possibly test the Sweeps on Friday night and for sure on Saturday morning. Hopefully performance and low price will make the effort to mount them worth it.



And now for something completely different........ VF1. Check this out. Its been floating around RCTech for a couple of weeks, and honestly, I have had an alarmingly hard time pulling myself away from the PS3 and F1 2012 long enough to post much of anything. But the VF1 idea is very interesting.  As is this pic from yesterday. I don't know why.



Friday, March 22, 2013

Lots of new stuff

I don't know where to start so i will just throw something on here and go from there.

F1Paintlabs has all the new 2013 liveries coming out on their website soon. I have seen some pics of a few of them and they are nice as usual. I haven't decided what livery to go with next any way. But BP also has released the new kickass official F1Paintlabs hat, which I will be getting as soon as I can.


Sweep has released their new F104 size rubber tires. Compounds so far are from Super Soft on up to Hard. Me or Robert will probably have a set soon to try out along with the Pardus and the Pits.




More later. But now here is a great video. Happy Birthday Ayrton.









Sunday, March 3, 2013

Ramblings

Been awhile so several things to discuss. First up we have, hopefully, our big monthly massive turnout F1 race coming up next weekend. No on road racing at all this weekend because of the Annual Big Foot off road shindig Mikes does every year. So hopefully that, and the fact that we asked what would be a good weekend for the massive turnout F1 race, will help us have a, well, turnout.

 We have Monday practice plus another layout change tomorrow night, looking forward to hitting the carpet again. Me, Robert, Scott, Zach and hopefully some others will help put the track together and lay down some rubber for a groove. We will also continue testing out the Pardus tires tomorrow. I have a set, as does Zach, plus Robert has been borrowing one of those sets to test while I have been away from the track. He digs them, and I do. I had problems at first with too much grip, traction rolling and all that. But after looking things over, the issue was the outer diameter of the Pardus vs the Pits were about 2mm more. So a quick ride height change and, Bazinga!, back in action. Scott will unveil the new 3Racing F113, and hopefully let us take it for a spin. Also there should be a couple of Tamiya F104 Pro V2's there as well, oddly enough I have not seen one in person yet. So we should have a full gauntlet of F1 chassis: Exotek F1R, Exotek F1 Ultra, Tamiya V2, Kyosho Plazmas and now a 3racing F113. Plus I am sure Robert will have one of his original F103 carpet rockets on hand. Tom even has a Top F1 Rebel that he hasnt brought out yet, but he won't be there tomorrow. Man what a great time to be in F1 RC.

More stuff. In June we are having the 1st annual Ultimate Vintage Transam Championship at Mikes. Originally planned for just VTA, seeing how VTA guys are kinda weird like the F1 guys, they brought us together for the weekend. Randy Novak has already lined up some BIG TIME sponsors and the rumor mill has even mentioned a few more. Rules are USVTA for the VTA and our Mikes House rules for F1. Meaning F1 chassis up to 205mm RUBBER F1 tires, 2 cell and 21,5 or slower. Simple, just like us. We will be running a 10 minute hot lap qulaifier and 3 10 minute mains with 2 pits each for points. Should be cool. Hell, it will be cool. Here is the LINK to the race. Some big time Sponsors and already a few Big Time drivas have committed to the show. Looking way forward to this, stay tuned for more.