Asian Touring Series Japan - Highlights

If this video doesn't put you in the mood for a little onroad TC action, nothing will! RedRC.net has put together this super-sweet video:

This is one of the best RC videos I've ever seen. (excluding our friends over at xxxmain, of course. ;) There are so many creative angles... I'd love to see a 'behind the scenes' video, showing how they got those shots!

[/Tim Sanderson]

My cat is fancier than your cat

And how do I know that? Two words...

Ozite.
Scratch pad.

Wait, no. Three words.






[/Tim Sanderson]

Kyosho RB5 custom chassis

A little while ago I drew up some plans to have a custom chassis cut out for my Kyosho RB5. With a little a lot of help from a guy named Brian, (bbad on LondonRC.com) I've managed to get myself to this point:
The material I've used for this prototype version is G10 Fiberglass. I bought it from a place called ThunderBolt RC in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I bought a 12"x12" sheet of 1/8" thick G10 for less than $22, and had it shipped to my door for just a few dollars extra. This stuff is even better than I hoped it would be. It weighs more than something like Carbon Fiber would, but is more than rigid enough for this project. You might notice it is very similarly shaped to the TLR 22. That's because I used my 22 to base the dimensions on. My ultimate plan is to make it a mid motor car, but that will require quite a bit more designing, as I would need to make a new gearbox, and solve the lack of a shock tower mounting position the new chassis has left me with.

For now, my plan is to run it in a rear motor setup, using the stock gearbox. The new chassis layout will allow me to run a saddle pack lipo, as close to the front as I need, in order to get the type of steering I'm looking for on carpet.

I'll be posting more photos is in the very near future!

The "Design tsan rc's Logo Bar" contest!

Now's your chance to bask in internet glory! tsan rc is looking for a new logo bar to go at the top of the site. Crack open your Corel Draw or PhotoShop, and make us something super sweet. The chosen logo bar wins it's creator $25 in cool hard Canadian cash! (Not to mention the gaining the kind of fame that can only be generated by the exposure to tsan rc's 129+ visitors per day)

The only requirements:

Dimensions = 777 pixels wide x 200 (or less) pixels tall @ at least 96dpi
Must include text= tsan rc & it's pronunciation key [tee-san ahr-see]
Pretty much any format is acceptable, although a PDF would be ideal

Contest closes Dec 11, 2011. Submit as many entries as you like to tsanrc@hotmail.com
Contest is open to anyone in the entire galaxy.
(planet-dwellers and space stations employees only... moon-residents need not apply)

Good luck!

[/Tim Sanderson]

6030 C7 Spy Helicopter -by JOE BIELSKI

I'd like to formally introduce tsan rc's newest contributing editor JOE BIELSKI!
Joe and I became friends a year and a half ago, after meeting at FastCat's opening day for the outdoor 'Depot' track in Toronto, Ontario. It's been all down hill from there. Hopefully we can all look forward to many more entertaining articles from Joe in the near future.

[/Tim Sanderson]

______________________________________________________________

6030 C7 Spy Helicopter
-by JOE BIELSKI

As a radio controlled vehicle enthusiast for the past 8 years, (the last 2 years spending most of my RC time racing 4wd on road cars and 2wd off road buggies) has kept me content. But recently I have found myself exploring other genres of the RC world. Last year I built my first 1.9 scale crawler truck from an old Tamiya CC-01 chassis. Lots of fabrication was involved, and the experience was very satisfying. Who knew that going slow could be so much fun. My friend Tim, who happens to be the creator of this blog recently picked up his first RC Helicopter at a swap meet in Hamilton. This got me interested in the possibility of conquering the skies myself.

I started doing a bit of research on what would be a good helicopter for a beginner. There are so many different scales of helicopters, 2D controlled versus 3D controlled, and so on. As I was digging through the internet I came across the SH San Huan 6030 C7 Spy Helicopter from China.

This is actually a very cool little helicopter that has a tiny camera attached to its belly that uses SD memory cards to capture footage. The camera is turned on and off from the radio controller so you don't have to physically turn the camera on when taking off or landing. Then I found a commercial for this helicopter on YouTube. The commercial is from China but has been recorded in English. This is when the hilarity ensues.

It actually took me a minute to realize that the ad was in fact in English. Lines like, "Push the button, the light will twinkling, the camera start working. Enjoy your flight, enjoy your life. The witness of your family's happiness" had me laughing so hard I started to tear up. The production value is pretty funny as well. At one point you clearly see the footage from the helicopter is actually footage from a camera on a set of rails. It gets better. In other shots, the helicopter is super imposed over wildlife footage of wildebeests running through the Serengeti. Never the less, the helicopter looks good, however bad the commercial is. Here it is for your enjoyment:

[/Joe Bielski]

Axial Exo Terra Buggy

This is pretty slick. The official video for Axial's new EXO TERRA BUGGY.

I don't know what's more impressive, the buggy, or the fact that they used an RC helicopter to film it! You can see the helicopter's shadow from 2:37 to 2:42.

[/Tim Sanderson]

Speed World 2WD SCT Enduro winners!

That's right, Team Super Pit took the top spot at Speed World's first two hour 2WD Short Course Truck Endurance!

Super Pit's team consisted of the usual suspects, Bill Jones (left) and yours truly, Tim Sanderson. However, the third team mate was Super Pit's newest member, 11 year old Julia Ferraro. The three of us ran Bill's Traxxas Slash to the checkered flag. While pretty much all all of the parts on Bill's slash are stock, (with the exception being the electronics) it was 'Jonesed up' with the usual Bill Jones set up magic.

I thought this was worth noting, to remind the other teams of what beat them:

Firefox suggested I change the name of the truck we won with, to 'Trash Slash'. In yo' FACES!

Julia started off the rotation, followed by me, then Bill. It was very close for much of the race. After about 1.5 hours into the race, Team Dingo had a 5 lap lead on us. Then, Team Dingo's bad luck (or our good luck, depending on how you look at it) saw them break a front bulk head on the SC10. The time it took them to repair their truck gave us more than enough time to build up a comfortable lead for the remainder of the race.

Thanks to Alicia for taking the photos below:
(P.S. someone needs to use a flash when taking photos indoors!)

I'll add captions with people's names when I have a bit more time.

Here were the final results:

1st Place: SUPER PIT @ 425 laps | Tim, Bill & Julia
2nd Place: TEAM DINGO @ 415 laps | Calvin, Steve & Mike
3rd Place: TEAM HAZARD @ 318 laps | Dan, Steve & Spencer
4th Place: LEE RACING @ 305 laps | Aaron, Jason & Phillip
5th Place: TEAM FERRARO @ 272 laps | Dominic, Lucas & Rex
6th Place: TEAM MITCHELL @ 188 laps | Rob, Steve & Mike

Thanks Speed World, we all had a lot of fun!

[/Tim Sanderson]

Venom Gambler SCT

A few weeks ago I picked up an almost brand new Venom Gambler Short Course Truck roller. Other than the old SC10 tires/wheels on it, everything is brand new.

The cool thing about this truck, is that it can be run in the mid motor or rear motor layout. This is it in the mid motor mode.

Pictured here are the electronics I plan to try out in it. One of my trusty Spektrum 6040 high speed servos, a 35amp Hobby King ESC, and a Spektrum SR 3000 receiver.

The motor I plan on running in it (for the time being) is a 13.5 turn LRP sensored motor. Seeing as this ESC is only rated at 35 amps, a 13.5 is the fastest motor I can safely run on it. Originally, I had bought it to try out in one of my touring cars, but since I won't run much onroad until the spring, I figure I'd try it in the Gambler.

Pretty much all that's left is to Shoo Goo in the ESC and servo capacitors, and buy some new wheels/tires. I'll post some videos of it when I bring it to the track.

[/Tim Sanderson]

2WD & 4WD SCT mains, Speed World, Nov 13 2011

As promised, here are the Short Course Truck mains from Speed World, Sunday Nov 13, 2011.
See the index at the start of the video for when each race starts.
Enjoy!

2WD SCT B & A main, and 4WD SCT A main


[/Tim Sanderson]

2WD mains from Speed World, Nov 13, 2011

I tried experimenting with a new video editor, and have made one video with all 3 mains from Sundays club race at Speed World. There is an index at the start of the video that tells you what time each race starts at. I'll be uploading the 2WD & 4WD SCT mains later tonight.

Enjoy.
2WD C, B & A-main, Nov 13, 2011


[/Tim Sanderson]

Speed World, Nov 6 2011

Don't this month's simple-looking layout fool you. This layout pretty much gave everybody a hard time. The strait-a-way and the double-double whoops after coming off the wall proved to be a difficult (and sometimes deadly) combination. I think my fastest was a 12.7, but I know some of the faster guys where hitting somewhere in the 11's.
Also, I forgot to mention to Steve Mitchell that, unless he turned a faster lap in his main, my 12.7 in-race laptime was faster that his 12.8 laptime. :P (P.S. I'm just teasing Steve. I'm just trying to make myself feel better after being out qualified and beaten by him all day) I had a very tough time with my qualifiers, and didn't finish a single one. I fried a spur gear, and had to change my ESC before the main. I finally found some what of a rythym during my main, and managed to turn one second shy of 27 laps.

I managed to record the 2WD A-main yesterday, at Ferraro Super Quads / Speed World in Hamilton, Ontario. Steve Dziuban was a good contender for the lead, until he lost a wheel during the last minute or so. Like usual, Dave Lyons took it in the end like a champ. (He also won the A-main)
2WD A-Main:

I've also embedded a couple of videos recorded by Michael/TracktionRC:
2WD B-main: (BTW, that's me in the the blue t-shirt, marshaling like a super-star)

Short Course A-Main:


Martin/M76 has uploaded a video he recorded on his cellphone too. It's not very good quality, but it's still great to be able to post.
4x4 SCT A-main:


I'd also like to give a big thank you to Michael for giving me a lift to the race/swap meet yesterday. If not for that, I'd never have been able to unload as much stuff as I did at the swap meet. Also, I'm looking forward to making it out to Hot Rod's with Mike on Thursday for a little more racing. Thanks, buddy!
[/Tim Sanderson]