And, we are back

Finally, after over a month away from all things RC, I got back on the track this past weekend. I planned on running F1, WGT and 1/12, but no WGT and the only 1/12 action was mod. No way I am running mod this new into 1/12. Don't want my CRC to turn to bits just yet. So we ran F1, good turn out of 6. Robert won (of course) in his silvercan/stock F103, while the rest of mere mortals followed him. Actually, Mitch (with Roberts Ultra) and Doug (Ultra) put a lot of heat on him, but in the end, it was the same story. I dont know where I finished, I think 4th, good runs with Scott and Tom as usual. We are pretty evenly matched in the driving department, so its good racing for the mid packers. Something new we tried was the pit stops during a regular 6 minute main. It added something to the racing just as we expected, even with a short race. Adds some strategy and some excitement. Win/win.

During my hiatus I sold my F1R to someone up at Mikes so he will be joining us on the carpet maybe this week. But I got a wild hair Friday night, and I ordered another F1R along with Robert so I will be back to having a 2 car garage this week. I also bought an old XRay T2-2007 to get back into VTA, I bought another Sakura Zero S and an HPI Blitz SC, both for my soon to be 4 year old son as Christmas presents. Plus I will play with them too, I am not fooling anyone, I realize that, so don't call me out on it.

Sons's Sakura Zero S, HPI Blitz and Hot Wheels track

The F1 Posse, December 2012 Edition

Tom, Mitch, me, Scott, Robert and Doug

My Red XRay T2 2007

Happy Christmas everyone!!

I'm sorry

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much. I work for UPS, and we are very busy this time of year. Very busy. almost 120 hours in the last 2 weeks. I have had very little free time at all. I haven't been to the track since mid November, I haven't even worked on any of my cars, although I painted up a new WGT and Racer Robert painted me up a 1/12 body. I have bought my son a Sakura Zero S and an HPI Blitz SC for Christmas, he loves to hang out with Daddy in the garage so now he will have 2 cars to get him started in RC. And I admit, with the Sakura, I might borrow it to throw down some VTA laps here and there. So for another 2 weeks, I am pretty much out of RC action. I will post up anything I might hear, but I haven't even been on RCTech in 2 weeks. Looking forward to hitting the track again. F1, WGT, 1/12 and maybe even VTA. But not til January. Happy Christmas to all that celebrate it, and happy everything else to those that don't.

New F1 Body from SpeedPassion?

I thank my buddy Zach for bringing this to my attention. But it appears we have a pretty cool looking body from Speed Passion called the F68.

Site


Speedpassion is proud to introduce the new F-68 1/10th scale Formula 1 body. The new F-68 body takes customization and tuning to a new level in the rapidly growing 1/10 scale F1 racing
segment. Racers can mix and match the included 4 interchangeable nose profiles and 2 interchangeable rear fins to create their own personalized F1 car. Along with the 4 front nose profiles and 1 rear fins, the body includes a driver’s helmet, double-sided tape, a decal set, and assembly instructions. The F-68 body fits all popular 1/10th scale racing chassis on the market.

Nice Job Hamilton,

And you kept my boy Alonso's hopes alive.

USGP in Austin Texas

Man what an exciting day, it is against my religion to wake up early on the weekends. But I cant sleep, Ive been up since 730. USGP is on in a couple of hours and I cant wait. I wasn't able to go this year, but I have a friend there, and he certainly is havign a time. Heres some pics I smurfed of the COTAs facebook page.

Historic F1

I bet that sounded amazing.

Ferrari Challenge

Ferrari Garage

Phil Hill

More Phil Hill

Almost 90K fans showed for qualifying.

More Ferrari Challenge.

3Racing Independent Front Suspension up close

Alright, met up with the Monday F1 Posse at Mikes last night for some carpet madness. Ran my Ultra and my F1R that I threw together the night before. Also 1/12 and WGT, but who cares right? Title says FGX front end or something so that's what I will briefly talk about. Robert has it, I saw it, snapped some shots. There you go. He added the Exotek Front Arms, and evidently was feeling a little crazy, he added a 17.5 instead of the 21.5. On our tight carpet track I wouldn't have suggested it, much less tried it. But Robert did and it looked good. He chased my WGT for several minutes nose to tail until my 1 cell slowed down and his 2 cell kept going. He liked it a lot. He mentioned that he would never have been able to run like that without the new Exotek arms. Car looked good, fast, stable, everything you would expect from he FGX with the exception on sturdy. Yeah I said sturdy, he tangled with 2 WGT's and a sedan and came out in one piece more than once. 3Racing has beefed up the upper deck, especially that area that we all have broken a time or seven. I do not think he broke anything last night. Which is more than I can say.

 In honor of the FGX I broke a front end on my Ultra and a composite rear pod on my F1R! Ultra took a couple of hard hits and a really nice looking tumble before it let go, as for the F1R, not sure, was using the Tamiya carbon reinforced rear pod and well.... the stock plastic pod is stronger, I didn't even wreck it. Just started acting weird with the gear mesh, saw I had a crack on the top motor mount screw.

So want to hear MY FGX test drive story? Well I dont have one, I didn't even ask to drive it. Knowing my history with the FGX, I was kinda surprised Robert let me get close enough to take those pics. Sounds like 3Racing has a winner, and for around $30 US, hell, why not? Looks cool.

50000 Visitors

Hit 50000 visitors today! I am not sure why, but I don't care. Glad enough people come by to check out this thing regularly. Will have some more stuff pretty soon. I have a few birthday parties for nephews and nieces in the next few weeks so I will miss a couple of racing weekends. Might get to take off for some deer hunting one weekend, F1 returns to the USA in a bit more than 2 weeks, and the mad Christmas rush at work starts after that. I will be plenty busy, but will do my best to get something good on here. Thanks for everything.

Do have a bit of info, Robert has ordered the new 3racing front end for the FGX and should have it by tomorrow. Will get more details and a track report probably after the Monday night practice next week. Also have a new esc I'm using in World GT, and my 1/12 scale still boggles my mind with electronic issues. More later.

Andretti First Lap at COTA

2012 UF1 Final round at TQ RC Raceway

Final Round UF1 Summer Series

1. Dave Berger

2. Mike Kennedy

3. Tony Phalen

The Greatest R/C Car Chase Ever

rc.F1.blog: Front droop thoughts

rc.F1.blog: Front droop thoughts: I was at the track yesterday, and I had a chance to fool around with my Exotek 104 car. I was trying a lot of front end changes, and one th...

rc.F1.blog: A caster diaster?

rc.F1.blog: A caster diaster?: Another of my rambling from my visit to the track yesterday comes from the Exotek adjustable front end. I finally put my Exotek 104 with th...

EOS Rained Out

Yeah we got rained out today. Full day of practice yesterday and then a wash out today. Rescheduled for November 11. I don't think I will make that trip. Three trips to Houston, and it rained all 3 times. Too much wasted on hotels and gas this summer. I will be back to being a regular on the carpet for a long while. Maybe if they do another EOS next Summer I will do it again, but not until then. Tired of traveling.

17.5 Exotek F1R (or when boredom strikes)

OK so I'm sitting around last night. I just got my F1R back from Jordan, he took it to Vegas for the IIC. Lucked into a TOP F1 car courtesy of TOP USA and commenced to get 3rd in the A. So I put it back together and got to thinking.

And that is normally when trouble strikes. I already tried the car with a 25.5 on Mikes carpet, it actually wasn't that bad, still had the end of the straight away speed, just no punch. And I will test it some more with a 25.5 until I get another 21.5 for it. But I wont be on the carpet for a couple of weeks at least so I threw in an older LRP Vector X-11 17.5 I had laying around. This motor I thought I may have gotten too hot once before when I was pushing it with a 1 cell pack, I didn't temp it, just felt hot. But its seems fine, and honestly I don't think it was that hot after all.

Anyway, long story back on track but not any shorter..... I tried it out today out on the street in front of the house. 17.5 X-11, Shimizu tires, Black Ferrari F60 and Speed Passion Cirtix Stock Spec esc. First impression. Fast. 2nd impression, I need some brakes. While at Gulfcoast Speedway tomorrow I will toss it out on the big track and test it out some more, ride height was a thrown together/whopping 6 mm for the speed runs lol. I have already changed it to a reasonable 4 mm front 5 mm rear height for a another fun run tonight on the street. And go from there after a few laps tomorrow. Of course that is after I get the Ultra tuned for the real race on Sunday. Simply for fun, but who knows where it will lead too. Its too fast for the carpet track for certain, I mean there is no need for it there at least, 21.5 will be more than ample on the carpet. I don't see 17.5 being any better. But on that big ass Nitro track, should be fun. I think I need to pack the 13.5 motor just in case. LOL. yeah baby.

I'll keep you posted. As well a full blow track report of the EOS sometime early in the week. And maybe even some actual pictures. I know, I keep saying that, one of these days I will come through. Just don't hold your breath. I am really not very trust worthy.

New Yokomo F1 Prototype

No info yet, will be digging around some tonight. Looks like a linked 200mm with camber adjustments like the F109.

Final Round Texas EOS

The F1 Posse will travel once again down to Porter Texas and the big 1/8 scale track at Gulfcoast Hobbies for the final round of the Texas EOS. We have been ready to head back to Porter since we first raced the track back in June. Big, wide and fast. Should be a great final round Sunday. We will be there for Saturday practice, and the EOS Banquet that night for a good casual time and hopefully rake in some prizes at the raffle. Robert is 2nd in the points behind Marcus Williams and needs almost a miracle to pass him on Marcus' home turf. Don't know if we will get a miracle, but we will get some good BBQ which will should be enough. I'm just glad to be part of the team, and hopefully, I can sneak back in the A main again.

2012 IIC F1 Main the Movie

2012 IIC in Vegas F1 A main results

 1      Lightfoot, Charles 25 5:08.068
2 Tam, Tony      25 5:10.200
3 Born, Jordan 25 5:12.872
4 Burgess, Mark 24 5:07.542
5 Kennedy, Mike 24 5:08.410
6 Smyka, Carissa 23 5:01.332
7 Jackson, Steven 23 5:03.191
8 Cannon, Blake 23 5:14.419
9 Ficco, Mario 21 4:33.598
10    Nick Malato 10 2:35.122


I have very few details so far but here is the final results for this years IIC F1 A Main. See alot of familiar names, plus Mike's Hobbys very own Jordan Born made the podium. Very cool to see someone I race with and get beat by on a regular basis do well against the best of the best. We as usual had several Mikes locals at the IIC, and they all did well.

Steve Breuer made the A in Amateur Sedan.
Mike Dumas made the A in Mod Sedan, 13.5 1/12 scale, and Expert 10.5 WGT getting 2nd.
Larry Bradshaw made the B main WGT
and James Lundburg did well in both 17.5 and 13.5 1/12 scale making the C in 13.5 and B main in 17.5.

Congrats to all the Mike guys and to my online buddies, Charles Lightfoot, Mike Kennedy and Brad Palmer for doing well. Expecially Lightfoot, who won the the big show. Congrats Charles!

3racing F113 first look

Mikes Summer Carpet Shootout Series Final

Well the Summer Shootout is done.  6 races over 6 months for points and glory. I, didnt get much of either, but I had a good time. Finished 4th in F1 and thanks to Randy Novak not racing the required amount of races, I got 3rd in WGT. I wasnt a factor in either class, in fact, on the last lap of WGT today, my car actually fell apart. So I am done with WGT until I can get another car. Really. The only carbon fiber piece of the car that was intact, was the tweak plate, and it split in half on the last lap. I need a new chassis, motor plate and tweak plate.......... I'm buying a new car I bet lol. F1 is another story. I have improved a lot over the series. I got 3rd again today, a strong third, only one lap down. And that is saying a lot over what I had been doing a couple of months ago. The Exotek F1 Ultra is a bad machine. It fits my driving style, is very stable, but you can really get nasty on the infield. Turned my most ever laps today, and ran really clean. In 2 weeks we head to Houston and the monster 1/8 scale gas track at Gulf Coast Raceway to wrap up the Texas EOS. The two series we have been running have been fun, but I am ready for the travel to be over so I can get back to regular club racing for the Winter. Wait a second, the Winter Series starts in November. Oh well, no travelling at least.

rc.F1.blog: RCFIA is awesome

From RC F1 Blog


rc.F1.blog: RCFIA is awesome: A very well done web site for the RCFIA F1 series in Northern California.... I love the interviews and news bits! http://www.rcfia.com/ ...

TCS SA 2012 F1 A Final

F1 in South Africa! Nice track man

The Austin RC F1 Scene.

It makes sense, Austin, Texas, home of the Circuit of the Americas, should have an RC F1 scene. And by God it does. They race at Hobbytown in Austin. Where Round 2 of the Texas EOS was held. There was not many Austinites at the EOS for F1 but I found their forum today and I am pretty excited that they have a class. Mainly because I also found out today that my dad is moving to Austin so I will be there every so often. So kudos Austin F1, good luck, and hope to see you sometime.

Using F104 tires on the FGX

This is from Calvin Lee as posted on the UF1series.com website. Good info for all you FGX pilots out there that want and need more choices of good rubber. Check out this LINK and there you are. Enjoy.

F1 Suzuka 2001 - Michael Schumacher`s all 3 epic qualifying laps!

Exotek F1R wins RadioPost GP

Exotek F1R driven by Steven Jackson wins and TQ's the 2nd Annual Radiopost Grand Prix in the highly popular F1 rubber class!
The Radiopost Grand Prix was held at the TQ Racing facility in Socal which will be host to many of the upcoming UF1 Winter Series races and no doubt Steven has set the tone to the start of the indoor season with his dominent drive of the Exotek F1R.

rc.F1.blog: F104V2 carpet setups

rc.F1.blog: F104V2 carpet setups: I have a couple carpet setups here for the V2... These are sort of preliminary. I'm still trying to work everything out, but check it out....

Texas EOS Round 3 F1 A Main.

First 10 minutes


and the last 5 minutes

Studio Pics of the new Benetton

BP posted these just now. I really don't know what to say. Simply awesome.

Thank You Brad, and F1Paintlab

rc.F1.blog: A quick post on ackerman for carpet on the F104V2

More goodness from RobK

rc.F1.blog: A quick post on ackerman for carpet on the F104V2: I was having a bit of a problem with my V2 car. Despite trying to tune around it, the car seemed to push on corner entry, but was a little ...

CRC Gen XL paint

Not nearly as exciting as the new body I have coming for my Exotek Ultra from The F1 Paintlab but something to do  none the less and I really dont have anything much to post right now. So here is my new body for the 1/12 scale car.

McLaren Tooned - Episode 5 List Story

Round 3 Texas EOS

Long day at the track. Did well in F1. Meh in WGT. For some reason attendance dropped considerably for Round 3, 69 racers down from 90+ last month. Half the F1 crowd this month as well. Also for some reason, with round 3 being the only appearance of WGT in the series, hardly any of the local guys even signed up. Boo, I say. They were there, just didn't bother to sign up. So we had five WGT sign ups, and even 2 of them didnt bother to race. Flakes. Anywhoo, who gives a turkey about WGT anyway? F1 we had 15 I think? Maybe 12, again who cares.  Lets just say that 12 courageous and bad ass souls braved the carpet for F1 and the other 12 from last month didn't. Well they missed out. First 2 rounds we had asphalt and pretty easy layouts to deal with, lots of space to roam. This month at Mikes? Notsomuch. Tight spaces, technical track, and on carpet. Thats Mikes, and that's why we race there. Fellow Team Exotek Williams driver Robert TQ'd and won going away in the 15 minute A main with series points leader Marcus Williams in 2nd, Frank Hernandez 3rd, I got 7th. And I am happy with it, I won the B, got the bump up, and made up some ground. Car is great, need to calm it down just a touch, and it will be better.

Did make some adjustments. Car was under weight, so I added 14 grams in the front between bellcrank and front arms, and 7 on the rear motor pod plate. Added the extra to the front to try and calm the car down a bit. Calmed it too much and I was pushing a bit more than I wanted. Q2 I took half the weight off the front and lost the push, but a bit twitchy still. I decided I could live with it, and I did. Improving my pace from then on. Will try something else next time out, not sure what. Possibly drop the rear .5 mm or so. Or it could be I need new rear tires, seems a bit soon but after 2 rounds on asphalt they are showing signs of wear. Hope to have pics and video this week. I didn't take any, but it is out there.

F1Paintlab- Coming Soon

Williams FW14 and Benetton B193 decal sets are coming soon from The F1 Paintlab. Want to do Mansell's Red 5 from 92? Its yours. Schumacher circa 1993? Done. I am in decal overload. I can not afford all the liveries I want to do! EEEEEYYYAAAARRRGGGGHHHH!  Go to the F1 Paintlab . Just get it over with.

Benetton B193

Williams FW14

Lotus 97/98

Sauber C31

Williams C34

Round 3.
Mikes Hobby SuperStore.
September 9, 2012

I am ready. The first 2 rounds were on the unfamiliar asphalt. Round 3 is on the carpet at Mikes. Will I do well? Doubtful. Will it be fun? Definately. Stay tuned.

New From The F1 Paintlab

Look at this beauty! I finally broke down and commissioned Brad Palmer of The F1 Paintlab paint me a nice body. I wanted something that I haven't seen a lot of, so I picked the Benetton B188 livery for it. I tried my hand at this scheme this summer, but it didn't come out right. I used the wrong Tamiya paints, and that pretty much ruined it. The car looked good in action, and at a distance, but I wasn't happy with the outcome at all. Paint chipped away fast, and the colors really didn't stick out like it should. Well, that is definitely not the case with the new one. BP used the right paints, his awesome decals and his expertise. I am pretty impressed. And I hope you are too. I can not wait to get it.

McLaren Tooned Episode 4 | Beyond The Limit

SCRC On-Road Series: September 1, 2012 - F-1 A Main

F1 in San Diego.

Maldanado

The F1 Posse Rides again, again.

Midnight Monday again at Mikes, busy night. Our very own 2011 Fall Classic F1 Champ Alex made an appearance at the track after several months of being away from the RC world. I admit, I made him come up there, guilt trips are a bitch, and it actually worked! Anyway, about 4 hours of practice with Robert, Zach and Alex. Robert had his 15th Anni F103 out there with foams. What a rocket ship when he got it dialed with the foams. He was hitting 11.5s at least, maybe faster, I ignored him. Pathetic. Driving that fast, its just crazy lol. With his Ultra he was hitting mid 12's on rubber, I hit a 13.0 about the best I could do, not consistent, I was all over the place. I did get it settled down quite a bit by lowering the rear. Went from a #1 spacer to a #0, along with putting the spacers under the front end for some caster. My Ultra is too fast for me, lol. Honestly, I cant drive it as fast as it wants to go, I'm not all smooth like Keith Stone or something. I probably will drop a tooth at least. If I'm smart. We'll see. Zach got his Exotek F1R going well, and Alex, after practically putting his F104W together at the track tonight, got his going very well too. Not too much rust. Hope both Zach and Alex start hitting the track on a regular basis again. Good practice night, my last before the EOS this coming weekend. We will run the track clockwise starting next weekend, so hopefully I get some time on it Saturday evening to get used to going the right direction again. Counter clockwise is really fun on this track, hope clockwise is just as good.

Top Gear Understeer and Oversteer explained

Tamiya TCS final 2012 F1 A1main

Dueling Formula One RC_ F104's at the Tamiya Track~ Velocity RC Magazine

Spa......ugh.

photo: Getty Images

And just like that my guy was out.

Spa!!!

Happy Spa day!!!

Go Alonso!!!

New Kyosho PLAZMA F1

..