Long time gone (Ex Midlands Racer) 1/10th Elec Buggys

[adon30]

Hello everyone.
Been away from this game a long time now and all my stuff has all but sold. Apart from some 27Mhz crystals I found in my old race toolbox!!

I used to race 1/10th electric 4WD at Ragley Hall, Alcester many moons ago and at the rugby club before that. After that closed down I had a revival and did a few Race Car and Midlands regionals around the West Mids.

As for the cars it all started with a Tamiya Super Sabre, then a PB (of some sort) before a Tomy Intruder. Then after a few years (maybe even a decade) out I had a go with a Cat3000. The CAT was frustratingly expensive though as I seemed to go through diff cups every couple of races.

Been on a few of the old model shop sites and everything seems very foreign again. Lots of different cars and new systems with the brushless motors and Lipo batteries. I was only planning to buy a cheap run about that my lad could play with in the garden, but prices seem to have doubled and I keep finding myself drawn back towards racing again.

We will see what happens and maybe when my boys get older they can accompany me to meetings once again (and probably beat me).

A couple of questions for people who have cared to read all this blurb:

Do they still run any type of standard leagues? It used to be the old 27T but with brushless is this still done.

Whats a decent mid range 4wd 1/10th electric nowdays?

Are there any tracks/ meets now around the Midlands still going? I remember some indoor leagues at local schools in Redditch and Birmingham.

Well to all who remember me from what I have written, hope you are well and good luck with your racing.

Regards,
Aidan

[RogerM]

I have a funny feeling I do remember you Adon .... I've been doing this too long.

Firstly there is still a very active racing scene around the West Mids area although some of the good old clubs seem to have fallen by the wayside sadly.

All the details you could want are on :-

http://www.brca-midwest.co.uk/

As you will see on there we have a regional (4wd) this weekend at Ledbury and again (2wd) next weekend at Coventry (Bagington club ... Brandon site is no longer used sadly).

Stock / standard class racing as a whole died off in off-road in this country very early in the 00's. I miss it to be honest but hey ho, move with the times and all that.

As for prices of racing equipment I think it is currently the cheapest it's ever been.

Brushless motors :- you can get away with one all year, maybe next year too if you look after it.

Brushless ESCs :- HobbyWing top spec ESC is about £100, several other ESCs are just that unit rebranded and then the price increased. You can spend £200 on an ESC but why on earth would you want to?

Charger :- £50 will buy you something that will do it all ... no need for expensive cell maintenance equipment of fancy chargers now.

LiPo :- Yes they can be pricey but 2 packs will last you all year (maybe next year too), some people get away with one pack but you have to be super organised (I'm not that well organised even after a quater centuary racing!)

The (well most) cars are super strong compared to what you will remember so spares aren't much of an issue. I've just had to change one gear in my Kyosho Lazer's transmission after 3.5 years of use!

Cars:- most cars are similar prices to what they would have been back when you stopped racing, for example an Lazer ZX5-FS2 can be had for under £350. The big difference now is that you open the box, build the kit and go racing .... no need to spend £££££££s getting it up to "TEAM" spec ... it's usually all in the kit.

For example a friend of mine has just started racing again after 15 years off, bought a Lazer ZX5-FS2, 2 packs of fairly cheap LiPos, cheap charger, HobbyWing ESC and a 2nd hand brushless motor. Put it all together and went to a regional as his first meeting!!! I'm sure he (Adam U on here) will be along to give his thoughts but the left the track with a huge smile on his face so I'm guessing he enjoyed it!

Get back on track mate, you'll love it!

[adon30]

Yep, I remember you Roger. It used to be You, Me, Savage and a couple of others whose names escape me. I spotted Stu Harlows name on here as wel so looks like he's still involved.

I sold the Cat on here about 5 years ago for £100 as I wasn't using it.

So these new LIPO's last an entire race day? WOW. I think they were coming out when I last finished racing but they weren't legal at the time. Neither were 4000+mAh NIMH's though.

I think I still need to sell a kidney (or one of my children) to be able to start again. May try and just come along to meet sometime in the summer, possibly a quieter club one, so that I can see peoples cars and have a general chat.

Shame Brandon has gone it was a nice little track even if a bit of a trek for me. I still dream of setting up my own track if I won the lotto, we could do with one around the Redditch/ Bromsgrove area.

[RogerM]

If you wanted to race 1/8th nitro there is a good track at Frankley.

If you want to pop over to Coventry on a Thursday night you will find a reasonable varity of cars and equipment in the pits. Let me know if your coming as I don't go every week.

We are only taking 1500-2000mAh out of the cells, most are 5000+ now so you could do 2 races easily on a single charge. They do charge quickly enough though, 2 packs in rotation basically mean you can run more or less continually back to back (until you need your motor gets too hot that is).

[adon30]

I will see if I can get over to Coventry on a thursday night. It would have to be one of the weeks I am on early shift though. Is that an indoor or outdoor meet in the evening?

2 races on one battery pack!! Long gone are the days of making your 1400mAh Nicads outlast the guy standing next to you and crawling across the line at 10% throttle. Arrr those were the days.

Saw a couple of those Hobbywing ESCs/ motors on ebay but no idea what I am looking at as far as specification. The vintage Tamiya stuff that's on there I know a lot more about Can't believe the prices they are going for though.