I was talking to a fellow gamer from my local wargaming club about how I had been absent for quite a period, due to my re-connection with another hobby of mine; RC cars. He explained that he found that hobbies went through cycles, and it assured me that I would be back to wargaming soon.
As I am currently really enjoying my 1:10 scale RC drift car, I thought I would use this little blog as a place that I could cater to both of my hobbies!
First, a bit of background. I have been doing RC cars for about 8 years on and off again. My first experience of the RC world was with my best mate Daniel, who flew RC planes regularly with his dad. He also ended up owning a 1:10 scale nitro buggy, and it was great fun driving it on his large property. In a shock to us all, my friend was diagnosed with Leukemia, and passed away at the far too young age of 14 after a long battle. As a way of remembering him, his family gave me his old remote control buggy, and although I do not have the car anymore, I kept the radio and one of the wheels as a kind of memorial for my friend, may he Rest in Peace.
In an interesting turn of events, my current best mate shared with me that he was interested in getting into RC drifting, as he had seen it at a local club. At this stage, I had 1:10 and a 1:8 off-road truggies (Half truck, half buggy) and was interested in giving it a shot.
My 1:10 Truggy - Hobao Hyper TT
Although it really isn’t often used much by off-roaders, I really like blinging out my cars with Carbon Fiber goodies:
My 1:8 (Larger) Truggy – Hobao Hyper ST
The bodies (Shells) with fluro orange were all my own designs/paint jobs. Both truggies were originally nitro engine powered, but have been converted to electric because I just found it so much easier to run. You just charge the batteries, and off you go… usually to break something…
But hey, that’s just the cycle of off-road vehicles. Drive it, break it, fix it, drive it, break it, fix it, drive it… etc. With my friend expressing an interest in trying out on-road driving, I thought I would give it a crack! I purchased a Tamiya 1:10 TT01 Mercedes from Sik Hobbies Rockingham. This body was definitely not suited to drift, it was a circuit racer and that just wouldn’t do. Luckily, my friend picked up the same kind of car second-hand, along with a new HPI Racing Subaru body, I was able to have the second-hand Camaro body that came with the car. With a handful of stickers and a large drift style wing, it was definitely starting to look the part:
I particularly like the “Learner Plates”
A quick shot of the car minus the body:
Last weekend, I entered my first ever drift competition at the Western RC Drifters club which meets behind Stanbridges Hobby Store in Mt Lawley. Click HERE for the google map showing the layout of the track, which is modular (changeable) with the simple addition of barriers.
It was a whole new experience for me. The track was open from 10am till noon for practice, then there was qualifying. Each driver was assessed on how well they drove in 5 particular sections of the track, over two laps. I was so nervous that the Remote Control was literally shaking in my hands as I drove. I spun out quite a few times, but managed to not end up in last place which was nice.
The drivers were then split up into A and B group. A drag racing format was used, with the pole position driver on points competing against the person who came last. For the actual battles, the higher ranked driver could choose to lead or follow in their first lap. The battle then took place over two laps, one driving the lead car and one driving the follow car. The lead car was to try to drift a nice line throughout the track, maintaining a constant sideways action, whereas the follow car was tasked with mimicking the lead car as closely as possible, without making contact that would cause the lead car to lose control.
As it was my first competition, I wasn’t surprised to be knocked out first round, however I had come prepared and spent the rest of the day in a nice comfortable camper chair with a cooler bag full of food and drink… a cheap afternoon of quality Motorsports that just got better and better as the day progressed.
There was a decent turnout, I believe there were 28 people in the competition. Here is the concourse, where competitors presented their cars for judging. Each person at the event was given a single vote for the car they thought was the best. My black Camaro and my friend’s blue Subaru were in the front row. Click on the image for a better view!
There were some beautifully painted cars there on the day… here is a closer look at a few of them:
And here is our section of the pits, with my mate Jordon working on his car body:
So yeah… RC is fun! Any of my Wargaming readers out there dabble in RC as well?
Wazza Out. =D
