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Someone pointed me in the direction of this thread from the SAS F1 thread. Interesting to see so many RC goons! I've been into RC since I was 14 or so, have been working in the industry for nearly 12 years now. Used to race buggy (RC10 Worlds), then truck, then was in the second wave of touring car racing, which I did for years and years. Lately I have built a crawler and am getting a couple more cars to play with but I haven't raced seriously in a long time - kept most of my high-end gear though.IVnic8or posted:This thread is definitely for me. I've worked in the RC industry for a long time. I currently am a project manager for a RC car manufacturer. I found a few things I've developed in some on the pictures in this thread, which I get a real kick out of. What's your company's initials?  hell, we may know each other IRL...
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Apr 29, 2009 10:35
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I hear ya I'm in marketing for what I guess could arguably be called the #3 worldwide car manufacturer (I'm guessing you'll be able to figure it out from that ). I used to go to the Chicago show when it was popular, then RCX but I moved to the UK a few years ago to work for the EU branch of the company. Used to run and attend all the one-make RC races that I organized for the company as well. I post on RC Tech and a couple other RC forums as myself, won't be going to Shanghai as the folks from my branch only go to Nuremburg every year. I don't have plat (yet, will in a few days) but feel free to PM if you want. If you've worked in SoCal for more than 5 years or so you probably do know me, or at least know who I am.
krushgroove fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Apr 29, 2009 |
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Apr 29, 2009 15:00
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Losi had a game, and there was another called RC Revenge I had an advance copy of the RC Revenge game but can't remember how it was. The sequel added 'Pro' to the name but apparently wasn't any good, according to the Google results. krushgroove fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Apr 29, 2009 |
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Apr 29, 2009 15:39
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EU market is actually pretty good, it's expanding as the former Soviet states (Ukraine, Slovakia, etc.) get more money and stronger economies. The global slowdown hasn't helped but it's not catastrophe time by any means. The trends in the EU follow the US after a few months or a year or so, depending on what the trend is, Japan is often the bleeding edge...drift isn't so hot but I guess it's steady, touring car is probably down a bit but 1/8th buggy is still growing and very huge, crawler is niche but growing. 'GT' type cars (I really want our company to make one) are just starting to take off, mainly people putting street tires on buggies, haven't heard of an actual full-bodied car race yet though. Large scale is getting bigger for us, monster trucks and nitro trucks in general doing well also. Nuremburg is worth going to, it's absolutely mental there, there are so many huge companies there like Lego and others, plus loads of companies doing nothing but dice games, darts, and the most random things you can think of. I like going but the actual days there drag on and on, the last day of the show loads of the stands sell off their stock I picked up a nice push scooter this year for zipping around the halls quicker. You can email me via the profile if you want, I activated it earlier. I posted a link to the latest kit preview we did in the SAS F1 thread, several pages back, no use really hiding it You Am I - neither, sorry Tamiya is #1 in sales & market size by my reckoning though
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Apr 30, 2009 01:20
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Ziploc posted:Duratrax Micro Street Force I'm glad you like your car, but the design is a blatant ripoff of the Micro RS4 - not uncommon in the industry, but hey you're having fun so enjoy it unfortunately Micro died out a while back...but I still have 3 IVnic8or posted:if my wild guess of who you are is correct, we've met once I recall. If I am you who you think I might be (christ that's a mindful) I hope I was in a good mood when we met, I got sick of trade shows after a while! Drop me a line on RC Tech, I've posted recently in the threads about out latest electric on-road cars.
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Apr 30, 2009 09:40
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The tooling for kits, etc., aren't sold off, there are companies in Taiwan & China that will take parts and laser-scan them or use 3D robots to outright copy them, this is where you see fake Baja kits coming from. The Futaba & Sanwa radios you see are licensed to the various companies that use them, but there are blantant ripoffs of those as well. I saw a Helios copy at a trade show last year, and have used a copy of a cheaper Futaba radio with woodgrain molding on the handle, believe it or not. As for parts supply, that's down to demand, not me  but it's great to see people still enjoying the older cars. As much as marketing hype and race results are well-placed in magazines, the older cars are still just as much fun as they used to be. Ebay is a great place to find old parts though, I still want to pick up an RC10 Worlds just for nostalgia's sake.HB is HPI's racing side, the money is in RTRs basically. Like you've seen with TRX, they used to be well into racing before the owner realized that overseas manufacture and slick marketing is the key (plus their stuff is designed pretty good too). All the biggest companies are into (almost mass-market) RTR now, look at AE, Losi and the big racing names, smaller brands like Schumacher and Yokomo just fall farther behind in sales but they keep going on.
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Apr 30, 2009 19:38
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Mcqueen posted:I was offered an AR-15 for that E-maxx, and a block of weed for that TA04, WTF? Where the hell did you work? Across the street from a veteran's methadone clinic or something? My RC10 buggy had a graphite chassis eventually, I've never seen one of the 4WD conversions up close. MIP or someone made a mid-engine conversion as well, like the X-6 buggy. I sold the buggy and 10T when I got the original gearbox RS4, that led to my job in SoCal. I had a 10L for a while but never ran it, I won the Composite Craft chassis in a raffle at the shop where I raced touring car, then I slowly picked up titanium hubs, graphite axles, HPI lower pod (my first HPI part) and the front end, but it never rolled on its own. I sold it on eBay for quite a bit IIRC. krushgroove fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Apr 30, 2009 |
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Apr 30, 2009 21:22
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infrared35 posted:And here's my race monster - an HPI RS4 Rally. My Rally is one of my only cars I've kept from ye olden days. I kind of helped develop it with the lead designer and a few guys from HPI, we used to run them at the old SoCal RC. Mine was a modified original RS4 (the one I had originally in '95) until the production kit came out. If anyone was in SoCal at the height of rally TC, I helped organize the big rally race we had one Friday at SoCal, I think we had 3 heats of rally racing that night with all the magazines there and many sponsored guys. It was a feature article in RC Car magazine and helped lead to the release of the TC3 rally conversion kit, one of my racing buddies was there with his TC3 he'd modified. stizu posted:I don't have it, but there is an ad for a buyer's guide that has a guy in zubaz pants on the cover. That was probably Chris Chianelli, one of the original guys that worked at RC Car Action (used to the be best/only RC magazine in the US). His thing was being 'wild and crazy'. Not to be a buzzkill but he died recently - late last year I think.
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May 4, 2009 20:38
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stizu posted:"scale speed" #1 question from people watching you play with your car/truck: how fast does it go (but no one ever wants to know the 'scale speed' - the last thing I bought that advertised scale speed was my Tyco slot car set) #2 is how much (hint: to show off, tell them it's about $1000; to encourage new hobbyists and keep the cool poo poo coming, tell them you can get something similar for about $150) It's kinda funny that people still hate on Kinwald - but I have seen him acting like a dick a few times (have seen most of the US racers doing this). Masami, on the other hand, is a total class act until he's just behind you on the track. He's turn-marshalled my car in low-ranking finals, I've seen him clean up the pit area after a big race and he's generally pretty cool. And I used to love that ad too, when I was first getting into the hobby I would call AE for their massive Xerox'd catalogs. The ad and look of the car were the reasons I got the Worlds kit as my first 'real' RC kit (after the Grasshopper some years before).
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May 4, 2009 23:33
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I wasn't replying directly to your scale speed post, just commenting that when anyone goes anywhere with an RC vehicle in the proximity of non-RC people, those are the two questions you get, almost always in that order. Happens all the time to everyone.
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May 5, 2009 00:07
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I'm glad someone else thinks the standard over-done RC paint job is way too much...I prefer paint jobs you might see on a privately-owned race team like a Porsche Supercup or small BTCC team - distinctive but relatively simple. The problem with that is, you get people who can't paint using the same sort of techniques and then your body looks like it could be a copy of their body...oh well. I just painted up a crawler body for an article I'm doing...haven't painted in a quite a while and I forgot how fun it could be to design something fresh, plus how frustrating it can be to wait for the paint to dry, and me with no hair dryer or heat gun Hypnolobster - if you're willing to spend a few bucks on paint and masking tape and also willing to experiment a little with your first few bodies, painting your own design can be really fun and relaxing. Just don't start off with drips and fadesa nd checkers, etc. Here's some body painting tips that are pretty helpful, if I may say so myself: http://www.hpiracing.com/hpibodies/tips/ I wrote the full page but the paining instructions that come with all HPI bodies are available there as well, they're a good step-by-step if you've never painted a body before, or just haven't done it in a while.
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May 10, 2009 23:51
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If it's a club that's been there a while, there's probably a shop close by (or at the track) that will be able to help you find a used car/radio setup, or a suitable starter setup for not too much more than a used setup. Give it a try! off-road is a lot of fun. I'm glad CORR-type kits are getting really popular now, I used to run a Dodge Ram body on my Rally, was a lot of fun.
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May 12, 2009 13:56
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Hey cool, HRP, I remember when you guys first started up, good to see the company still going strong. There's a few of your guys over here today
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May 13, 2009 10:03
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hehe hey cool I think it might have been Andrew or Kent that painted that Cup Racer, I'm in the middle of building 'mine' (I hope it's mine eventually anyway, it'll be used for a video shoot next week). Plus I need to paint a Formula Ten body. Baja buggies and trucks are too cool...I'm managing the organization of the European Baja Challenge series, last year we did a 12-hour race with 16 teams in Spain - totally awesome, if anyone can get enough guys together to do an endurance race like this, totally do it. Only one team dropped out, at about the 10-hour mark. This year...we're hoping to double the race time and do it at a full-size off-road play area near the Nurburgring  totally awesome There's American patriotism, but there's no nationalism like when you get 20 or so people from countries that have been shoulder-to-shoulder for centuries I've been hoping HPI can do a 1/8th GT car like the Inferno GT, or a 1/8th CORR type truck like the Kyosho DRT or SC8, but for my money you can't beat pump gas and a 2-cycle engine. If I had the money, the space and the time I'd have a Baja 5T in a heartbeat.
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May 13, 2009 22:18
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Hypnolobster posted:How is the 5T vs the 5B? I'm more attracted to the buggy out of pure looks because it makes me feel like a little kid again. I've wanted one since I got into RC. I'm told the buggy is more responsive but I just prefer the look of the truck.
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May 14, 2009 16:44
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You can get a charger that will do both NiMH and LiPo, but chargers that do both at the same time would be very expensive - might be better to get a charger that does LiPo (it will probably do NiMH as well) and get a cheaper peak charger for just NiMH. If you won't be charging from your car batter you'll need a small 12v DC power supply for each, or for the about same price you can get a power supply that can do both. You can also find instructions online pretty easily for converting an old PC power supply into a DC unit for RC. Amainhobbies.com and stormerhobbies.com have pretty good reps with racers I think, not sure if they can compete with Tower or Horizon (who are manufacturers but also sell direct) but they're worth checking out. As far as LiPo batteries, I'm not familiar with the Summit but there are a bunch of LiPo battery suppliers, MaxAmps and SMC do a variety of sizes/capacities, the more you spend the more power and runtime you get, just make sure you get the right voltage for what you want to do - no need to get a really high voltage pack when all you need is a 7.4v pack. From there, get as many millamps as you can afford, I say why be charging when you can be playing?
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May 14, 2009 18:08
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OK, didn't know the Summit uses two batteries. Here are some chargers that do two LiPo packs at the same time, I haven't used any of these though. I think with more and more dual-pack kits coming out there will be more of these, but they seem reasonably priced already. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXEYD4&P=ML http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXLCJ6&P=ML http://www.fmadirect.com/new_applications/10sCharger/10s_charger.html If you're willing to play around with wiring a little, as long as the charger has the ability to charge the total two packs (two 2s batteries would be one 4s for example) you will be fine. You will just need a y-harness for whatever plugs you are using. (found this on the E-Savage forum)
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May 14, 2009 18:32
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I've always liked the JRX-S layout, I was curious how they'd get around the problems the Pro 3 had and Gil Jr. always had an eye for funky new stuff There's a guy on RCTech.com that posted about his many experiments with the JRX-S - a bit too much armchair engineering for some but a lot of people liked his threads.
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May 18, 2009 19:29
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It'll be interesting to see where the more innovative companies go with saddle pack LiPos and whatnot, there's not much more that folks can do with touring cars right now.
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May 19, 2009 08:59
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Castle Sidewinder (also the HPI Flux Motiv) is a really good speedo, under-rated because they don't have the marketing budget or slickness of the other brands. I've always been partial to LRP and Nosram as well, have never had them let me down. Many of the LRP speedos are waterproof also, that ain't too bad! (I realize these are all brands that HPI is affiliated with, but there's a reason for that  )
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May 21, 2009 08:52
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If you're a dedicated racer the 2.4gHz stuff can feel slower but most people (like, 99%) won't notice, so get it and never worry about frequency conflicts or crystals ever again I'm not sure about Castle distribution in the UK (I'm in the UK) but if you like that see if you can get the HPI Flux Motiv system, it comes with a 4600KV motor which is plenty fast for nearly everything.
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May 21, 2009 11:38
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IIRC the newer kits have several differences, I think the main ones being ESC's and stuff like that, I'm sure the mold markings are slightly diffrent. A Tamiya nerd would be able to tell you for sure though. James Woods - the XMODS cars aren't made by HPI, there was just a marketing deal worked out between the companies, that's all, that's why there were replica HPI Impreza cars released for the line-up. I managed to get one before the sales tanked in the UK, they do look pretty sweet compressioncut - I would have suggested the Traxxas Slayer/Slash SC truck (I've heard they're way better or wait for someone else to release one) but you should have plenty of fun with the SC10, IMO these types of trucks are what have been missing from RC for years - something 'scale' looking but with off- and on-road capability, basically like the rally cars of some years ago.
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May 25, 2009 22:33
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ElJefeDeJefes posted:LOL, I thought somewhere I read that you could use a third channel to inject nitro into your mix for a boost... maybe I misunderstood.... I'm a total newbie to RC and engines in general. 'turbo' and 'supercharging' for 2-cycle model engines is bullshit...doesn't work, don't waste your money or time. Most racing/computer/2.4gHz radios you get nowadays are 3-channel, don't know why but all of the good ones have a third channel so don't worry about that. Astrolite - cool Baja!
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Jun 7, 2009 22:28
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Had a bit of a staff sale last week, I picked up a sample of a 1/16th scale nitro truggy, plus a complete buggy for spares, both for £20. These are just some kits from Taiwan I think that are the generic kits you can find on eBay, etc., but should still be fun. Looks like they're both in working order, just need to get the engines started to make sure. The cool thing is they'll fit 1/10th scale buggy rears or fronts on 12mm hexes so wheels and tires will be really easy to fit. Plus I got a high-power heli for a fiver, about 500mm across so kinda small, but 6 channel, I think it's meant for 3D flying, eek...ordered some of the training ball things off eBay so I don't destroy it the first time I start it up.
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Jun 8, 2009 15:02
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yeah lipo/brushless/2.4GHz are the sweet spot for electric racing, and from what I've seen the equipment to get started racing hasn't really gone up in price compared to 5-10 years ago.
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Jun 8, 2009 16:17
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Your NiCad batteries are probably dead (meaning they won't be able to be charged up reliably), you'd be better off getting one or two of the LiPo batteries and a charger - this would probably cost you as much as 4 NiMH batteries but you'll have the same amount of runtime. If you were to get NiMH batteries, you might need a new NiMH-capable charger anyway, because a NiCad charger won't properly charge NiMH batteries.
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Jun 8, 2009 21:36
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In that car you could probably get 30 minutes or more with a 4800mAh or so battery (I don't know first-hand), so with a LiPo pack with high milliamp hour rating (mAh) you've got 3x the runtime already.
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Jun 8, 2009 22:33
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Depends where you live, if you're in the US Stormer Hobbies is one of the bigger online shops, just google it. In the UK try Modelsport.
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Jun 8, 2009 22:44
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Speedtech is run by an ex-racer buddy of mine, if you're able to include a note in an order tell him 'Frank says hi' :P
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Jun 9, 2009 10:06
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Frag Viper posted:How can I modernize my ancient RC10 Graphite? Is it even worth doing? I would say sell it and use the cash for something newer but used. Parts are going to be difficult to find. I used to be on the lookout for an RC10 Graphite or Worlds (I had the all-black Worlds kit with the woven graphite chassis) and I'm sure other people might be too - see what the completed auctions are bringing on eBay.
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Jun 11, 2009 20:26
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Was that Thad driving the 5T? We're good buddies, he sent me this link to Baja 5T sand paddle tire test footage a few days ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELEMYXzznqQ
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Jun 16, 2009 09:07
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That little kid may have won, but your 'hawk totally put him in the shade.
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Jun 18, 2009 16:29
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ilikechapstick posted:my HPI RS4 MT. 4WD electric stadium trucks never took off, HPI and Yokomo were the only ones to have these kits, and the Yokomo came out way after the RS4 MT was released. I'd imagine they'd still be a lot of fun, especially against mod buggy if you're allowed to race against them. Even if you don't race some tires like the Geolandars or Dirt Hawgs would be really fun, look cool and let you blast around everywhere. I'd imagine the hard-case LiPo packs will fit in easily, just check the diffs to make sure they're pretty strong if you're going to put in a powerful brushless motor.
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Jun 22, 2009 12:24
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Stoatbringer posted:A question: are inline fuel-filters worth it, or are they just a gimmick? Yes, they're worth it, but most kits these days come with 'stone' filters in the fuel tank so they're kind of unnecessary. Never a bad idea to double-up on the protection though.
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Jun 29, 2009 20:16
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haha beginners
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Jul 14, 2009 20:16
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MacPac posted:I`ve had the slash for a month now and im having a blast just bashing with friends. I`ve allready managed to strip the teeth off the spur gear, while i`m waiting for a new one i`m drooling over this baby: I'm kinda good buddies with the guys that started up Axial, they're pretty solid dudes and make some very cool stuff. They just recently released a scale shotgun rack with a rifle and shotgun in the same set pretty funnyI have a Scorpion and it's a blast, it got me to finally make a custom crawler, which took way longer than I thought it would, and a lot of jigsaw cutting & Dremeling! also, about the Go Pro cam, those are sweet, these are the kinds of videos you end up with: http://www.neobuggy.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6493 (former 1/8th buggy World Champ and Kyosho designer Yuichi Kanai)
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Jul 21, 2009 23:46
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kuffs posted:krushgroove, you ought to appreciate this http://www.rctech.net/forum/r-c-items-sale-trade/314350-hpi-rs4-1990s-electric.html WOW, and only 40 bux, not a bad price. It's a dated design but anyone familiar with that should look at the Cup Racer and instantly see the similarities BTW, I couldn't mention this before but there's a(nother) new stadium truck coming out: http://www.hpiracing.com/blitz/ Looks fantastic, Erik did an amazing job in such a short time. 
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Jul 24, 2009 09:01
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Somewhat Heroic posted:(HPI Banner/car model is to show off to krushgroove haha cool, where did you get the banner? nick it from a race? compressioncut posted:I really like the look of that, and the all-metal gearbox is cool, as are the tires. Plastic shock bodies are a minus, though. tbh, plastic shock bodies are not the massive drawback that some folks think. Especially in off-road, long-stroke shocks where the shaft can wobble back and forth from impacts as the suspension is compressed. You have plastic rubbing on plastic, which is quite smooth. It works really well and lowers the cost of kits, like sealed gear diffs and other things like that. One of the recent US magazines even nixed the 'threaded shock bodies are awesome' thinking, which is good imo - it's nice to sell option parts and metal is shiny and cool but there are things it's better to spend money on.
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Jul 26, 2009 23:25
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I just found out about this this minute, but the designer of the Blitz (and Pro 4, Firestorm, Nitro 3 and other stuff) is online with RC Driver talking to them live about the Blitz: http://www.hpiracing.com/home/ Three of our guys stormed the Short Course Nationals and took 2nd, 4th and 6th lost out on the win by 0.4 of a second!
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Jul 27, 2009 22:11
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Laserface posted:so what came first don't know, don't care it's a fun class, once these start going 'factory team' and all hypergraphitiumcompositebullshit it'll start to die
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Jul 28, 2009 11:57
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