Saturday 10 December 2016
Friday 16 September 2016
Wednesday 23 December 2015
Friday 5 July 2013
In the begining.....
Many many years ago as a young lad I happened upon an interesting hobby involving radio controlled model cars.
A friend of mine at the time had bought himself a Tamiya Grasshopper, and I just had to have an RC car of my own.
So whilst on holiday in the UK with my mother, I purchased from Beaties in the Metro centre a Tamiya Madcap. Having zero faith in my ability to build this highly skilled and expensive model kit, my mother insisted that I enlist the aid of my uncle. all went well until it came time to use the car we had built.
It went, but rather badly.
Upon my return to South Africa(where I lived) I enlisted the aid of an "expert" (some enthusiast who charged people for fixing their cars) even he, could not correct the faults with the diff in my Madcap so kindly offered to sell me his, assuring me that, "of course it worked fine"
It didn't and I was left somewhat more out of pocket and with broken car.
Xmas rolled round and I was gifted with a new Tamiya Blackfoot. Which worked a treat(as I had built it myself with no help)
This got me onto an equal footing with my mate as we now both had working cars with which to bash around the streets and parks.
It was around this time that my friend discovered "The Track" not far from his house.
It was a purpose built off-road dirt track which hosted a bi-weekly or monthly race day, (I cant remember which) and that was us. Firmly hooked on racing other people, the track side banter, the day out in the sun and the rivalries that develop amongst friends in competition.. unfortunately however ours were no-where near the kind of race spec that was on offer at this track.
These guys were running RC10's,hopped Tamiya Manta Rays, Yokomo YZ-10's and such like. We were well out of our league! but we still raced and in some of the B and C finals actual managed to place in the top 3!
Not wanting to fall behind, and being frustrated with the performance of his Grasshopper, my mate purchased a second hand Losi JRX-T stadium truck from a friendly man at the track.
He went on to do quite well with this truck and the competition between us became quite fierce, but my poor Blackfoot(nicknamed band-aid at the track due to the masses of masking tape strapped round the body to hold it on) had no chance against his race pedigree truck.
So in order to bridge this gulf between our kit, I purchased a brand spanky new RC-10T with black alloy tub chassis and oil filled shocks and slipper clutch and all manner of super race parts I had never had on my Blackfoot.
A friend of mine at the time had bought himself a Tamiya Grasshopper, and I just had to have an RC car of my own.
So whilst on holiday in the UK with my mother, I purchased from Beaties in the Metro centre a Tamiya Madcap. Having zero faith in my ability to build this highly skilled and expensive model kit, my mother insisted that I enlist the aid of my uncle. all went well until it came time to use the car we had built.
It went, but rather badly.
Upon my return to South Africa(where I lived) I enlisted the aid of an "expert" (some enthusiast who charged people for fixing their cars) even he, could not correct the faults with the diff in my Madcap so kindly offered to sell me his, assuring me that, "of course it worked fine"
It didn't and I was left somewhat more out of pocket and with broken car.
Xmas rolled round and I was gifted with a new Tamiya Blackfoot. Which worked a treat(as I had built it myself with no help)
This got me onto an equal footing with my mate as we now both had working cars with which to bash around the streets and parks.
It was around this time that my friend discovered "The Track" not far from his house.
It was a purpose built off-road dirt track which hosted a bi-weekly or monthly race day, (I cant remember which) and that was us. Firmly hooked on racing other people, the track side banter, the day out in the sun and the rivalries that develop amongst friends in competition.. unfortunately however ours were no-where near the kind of race spec that was on offer at this track.
These guys were running RC10's,hopped Tamiya Manta Rays, Yokomo YZ-10's and such like. We were well out of our league! but we still raced and in some of the B and C finals actual managed to place in the top 3!
Not wanting to fall behind, and being frustrated with the performance of his Grasshopper, my mate purchased a second hand Losi JRX-T stadium truck from a friendly man at the track.
He went on to do quite well with this truck and the competition between us became quite fierce, but my poor Blackfoot(nicknamed band-aid at the track due to the masses of masking tape strapped round the body to hold it on) had no chance against his race pedigree truck.
So in order to bridge this gulf between our kit, I purchased a brand spanky new RC-10T with black alloy tub chassis and oil filled shocks and slipper clutch and all manner of super race parts I had never had on my Blackfoot.
The Above is the RC10T box
This was the RC10T. You can see here the rear arms and some of the other plastics are white. I died mine with cloths dye so that everything was black.
With a proper racing truck in hand I was now able to improve on my results and go on to win a few B,C and D finals with a good few top 3 finishes in several of the races.
Not wanting to be out done my friend went out and bought himself a new car...
The original Losi XX
This thing was awesome
First time out with the XX he won the A Final 2wd stock.Beating seasoned veterans and top drivers alike. There was pandemonium!!!(slight over exaggeration) everybody wanted the new Losi XX, it was a world beater out the box!
My friend and I continued to race at "the track" for a good few months, but eventually we lost interest, it is an expensive hobby and we were reaching an age where girls and beer where far more important than tires or spares. So my truck was boxed up, and moved around with me for a few years, until finally being given away to clear out "junk".
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