Sideways-King

In keeping with the xmas comp and the time of year why not a LunchBOX. Cheap and cheerful. Plus I've been trying to find time to build mine in the loft

Many thanks Twinset - I tried to enter something with more than one photo. All the best Chris

Hi Twinset, Great comp for which this time I am going to enter. I have followed how to submit but in my showroom I can't see how to add it? Do I have to create a new model listing with just the one photo or can I pull one simply from a current showroom entry? Help me Obi Wan Kenobi.... your my only hope! All the best Chris

Glad to see your still racing Skip665 and now taking along mates too! Someone told us it was going to be addictive

Thanks for that. It was always my intention to get others who may have been shy like me at first to give it a go and a few guys have contacted me to say they have so thats good. Personally I feel the grass roots club level should be about fun and learning and embracing the whole hobby. Well done for entering the top racing. I quite like the appeal of buggies and jumps, especially this latest Short Course craze (i've been waiting for Tamiya to do one but I can't wait any longer!). The only buggy club around is an outdoor nitro club. A chap from work who has now started up following my ramblings at a different club says they mix it up at the end of every season with a drift night or endurance night which sounds like fun. After all variety is the spice of life. I've got a vintage 2wd Schumacher Fireblade Evo which I recommend. Very competitve.

Ha thanks Mr. ED, I do tend to waffle on a bit so there probably wouldn't be enough room for me to do a review!

No worries Biggus. Tell you what I'll send it to you and I'll let you decide how much you want to pay. PM me your address.

Hi Guys, It's been a long time since I started this and thought I'd tell you some more fun and frolics from last Tuesday nights racing as I went right back to square one again in the space of one night! Now I must stress that I am in no way a moron or backwards chap but a fine mix of excitable come ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it’ come blissful ignorance with a slight twist of ‘don’t be too serious and have fun’ attitude. Having spent an awful lot of money on this new ‘racing’ addiction I’m still pretty much using my old brushed motors and NIMH cells and keeping all my Brushless and Lipo gear on a new Mi3.5 chassis I haven’t used yet. Why? Because I still keep having the odd moment! It all happens when I here my name over the computer system (Stephen Hawkins voice I kid you not and I still practically pee myself every time with laughter..basic I know!) when I’m in the lead. I suddenly get so much into the zone that I always stuff it and throw the race away. I’m much more suited to sitting behind people for the majority and pouncing at the end - usually into the wall again, but there you go! I went Tuesday night with a view to revisiting the ‘sticks’ transmitter in the form of a Futaba 40mhz synthesized as opposed to my Spektrum DX3S I have become accustomed too. Those that remember will note that 20+ years off bashing with the ‘sticks’ went out of the window and I just couldn’t get to grips with it amongst the racing atmosphere hence the big U turn to steer wheel. Well it was a nightmare. No amount of fine tuning on the handset in the first heat would help it, I was all over the place. I finished the heat and alas!... I hadn’t tightened the wheel up! First mistake. 2nd heat and again I was all over the shop! This time I’d swapped bodies and it was fouling the wheels and pulling all over the place. A quick pull in to a marshall who happened to have some scissors (Jack the Ripper springs to mind!) and by the time he finished trimming it was all over. 3rd heat and all the fiddling around with the handset had now put a bizarre load of parameters into the car that was now right and by the time I had some sort of control it just didn’t feel right. So I decided to switch over the radio gear back to my steer wheel for the finals. Final 1 saw me at my usual starting position – the back! – and during my quick 3 lap warm up all was now sitting well again. I was as cocky as Lightening McQueen in the Piston Cup…… “ I am Speed!”. I tried not to laugh at Stephen Hawkins counting down then I was off, Keeeerchow! (Lightening McQueen reference in case you think I’m bonkers). Then like our Rust-eze friend it all went to pot and with my gung ho full throttle antics I slipped my front diff and made a RWD car, snaking everywhere much to the delight of everyone so I pulled off. Final 2 I decided to use my spare car rather than hastily rebuild the diff, there isn’t enough time between marshalling and racing on some nights at our club to do this on an Mi2. Performance on this car though was severely lacking and it had no go at all. Not bothered to take a look at it as I just tootled round and was probably more consistent this way only loosing out on the main straight. The smell of hot electrics however afterwards suggests that I’ve geared the motor wrong on this! I’m still enjoying this and have tried not to get obsessed with it all but it’s hard not to. Hope to meet some of you guys in the future as I will turn up to an organized event one day! All the best

Thanks guys I'll give it to the bin I think. It goes straight into flashing mode and it won't accept anything else you try. Whats annoying is if you leave it be on start up it will work, but the motors spinning up. You can trim it down to the max but it's still got a hum there which is not ideal as it won't let you have the top end of the motor use. It just won't let you enter the setup mode.... The pesky little so and so!

Hi Guys, A problem I'm having with this ESC and I'm now starting to pull my hair out so wondered if anyone else has this ESC and knows what to do as I've lost the instructions. The Controller in question: This is An Eco20 which upon searching the internet have found these instructions from Mtroniks http://www.mtroniks.net/resources/VIPERIns...tionsheet_1.pdf The problem is that I'm trying to do a new set up in my Dark Impact and press the 'setup' button within the two second time frame on initial startup yet the green LED doesn't stay on to setup but goes to a flashing green which is the programmable function as shown in the instructions. I have tried holding the 'setup' button, just pressing, holding down whilst switching on etc., etc. I don't know what else to do and am looking for help from anyone else who has this ESC. Many thanks for any help in advance. Chris

Love the wheels on the Hotshot

A bit late but my son got me Spiderman pants, Spiderman socks & a Popeye T-Shirt. I was walking around rather stiff due to the chaffage of said pants but he chose them and thought I'd like them

Still going strong then Skip? I must build the Mini I have and take it along. Nobody else runs Minis but I'dd still put it in the same race as the 1/10th tourers. Anything goes at our night! All the best Chris

Hi Guys, Just to come in late on topic, but I've been running the Spektrum DX3s for a couple of months now and all is well. I found the swap from sticks to the wheel steer after 20 years or so a major plus in my car control whilst club racing. Previously I just couldn't get used to the wheel and pistol grip whilst bashing at all but under racing conditions it performs well. Theres lots of parameters to fiddle with, more than I probably need, and chipping away at it every week I have finally found the setting most suited to the car I'm running. I agree at first there seems a slightly cheap feel to the transmitter initally but, bizarre as it may sound, it comes with 3 different sized rubber hand grips(small, medium & large) and after swapping it to the large it instantly felt more meaty and less toy like. The screen is easy to navigate and use and on the fly adjustments are satisfactory, for me anyway. The bit I liked most when choosing this was the two receivers you get and the telemetry gizmos in the bundle, whilst gimicky, still is a fun talking point. Still haven't given up on sticks though and am looking at 2.4ghz transmitter sets, so heres a question. Why the devil are Car 2.4ghz sets twice the price of plane and heli 2.4ghz sets? Surely with more functions on a plane and heli and the extra servos they get bundled with they should be more yet everywhere I look they are often much, more like twice, as cheap? Chris

Looks abit like Mad Max! And cool to boot!!

Hi All, After a long think of whether or not I should put this on here I thought "what the heck" and yes, as it is a worthy cause. I and a team of colleagues are attempting a challenge for Leukeamia Research called the Three Peaks and I'm posting this with a special request for friends and relatives to dig deep and spare whatever change you can for this charity event which we will attempt on August 6th. I appreciate we are in a global reccession, and it is more a UK funded programme which will put off alot of you, but if I couldn't ask my TamiyaClub brothers then who could I ask! What is the Challenge? Simply put the challenge is to scale the three highest mountains in the British Isles. Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales. The not so simple bit is to do this in 24 hours! Yes 24 hours!! Many have tried and conquered and many have tried and failed. We aim to do this within the 24 hours and raise as much as possible for Leukaemia along the way. Why Are We Doing It? Recently a colleague and friend of ours was diagnosed with acute Leukaemia. It is not until a person you know becomes affected by an illness that you suddenly become aware of the battle the individual faces, both mentally and physically, and the fantastic work organisations do to help fight the illnesses that otherwise go unoticed if you don't know anyone struck down by the disease. Amazingly Leukaemia Research receives no government funding and relies solely on donations and fund raising activities and this is where we want to help. There are of course a number of organised events throughout the year butwe also wanted to do something more personal for our friend. Whos doing this? The challenge team of 12 is from our company, Radshape, and are of varying ages and fitness levels. Participants come from all areas of the company and include apprentices, shop floor personnel and management. There is of course an extended support team for help with driving, preparation and food duties once more coming from all areas of the company. We are also having raffle tickets printed with prizes donated by our Customers including a Morgan Motor Car for the weekend, An exclusive tour and meal for 4 at Bentley Motor Cars, Spa weekend for 2 at The Malvern Spa and vouchers supplied by us. There is alot of work still to do, and whilst I too am participating, I have done the website and the chunk of the gear/equipment requests! I now would like to turn to my TamiyaClub brothers to see if they can help. I figured if people could spare £1, with the amount of members on here we would blast our £5k target figure away! You can donate on our fundraising page at "Just Giving" which goes straight to Leukaemia and helps them instantly here And you may also like to follow our progress on our challenge page here which also has more info and pics about the whole event. It has been a hard slog so far and although I've been an outdoor guy all my life to now do it against the clock has challlenged me and the team mentally and physically on the training sessions alone without doing all three together in 24 hours! Snowdon this weekend alone was baking hot with not much wind and my heart, head and skin are still pounding under the pressure now and want to make this event a success and not in vein. I sincerely hope you can support us however possible and help raise as much for this worthy cause and will keep you all updated with our progress as we go on. It's hard enough to sponsor when you do know the people without doing it through a webclub where not many of us have actually met face to face so i'd appreciate if nothing else that you have took the time to read this far. You can also read more about Leukaemia Research here Many thanks Chris AKA Sideways-King

Many thanks 94eg! & terry.sc this info is of great help. This is exactly what mine was doing 'grip rolling'. I'll update as to how she runs next week. Cheers

Thanks for the pointers on weights, it did barrell roll a few times come to think of it at the end of the back straight. I will have a fiddle with this next week. If you answered A, B & C then you'd be right. Yes I did kick it, by accident I hasten to add, which bounced it off the edging making me skip to avoid thus treading on it firstly, which then made it do a doughnut back on itself towards me where I jumped to avoid it landing two footed on the roof!!! I can honestly say since leaving school some .......mmmmmm ....... 17 years ago that I was thinking I was gonna be up for a big brawl with the in crowd LOL! His body language and the fact I couldn't divert my attention away from him in the pits when every other car seemed to leave the track at my marshall post, which I'd seemed to have forgotten by now, I was thinking 'oh s%%% what do I say here'. On my approach, he was smirking and began laughing, which was when I begun watching my pereferral vision thinking all hells going to break loose now and they're all gonna come at me. It didn't happen, thankfully! And he was a great sport and managed to joke about it. Alls well in Racing Land

Had my first go with Lipo's last night and WOW what a difference! The biggest thing I noticed was no drop in power throughout the whole race. I used a new (well to me anyway) Schumacher Mi2, which no matter how much I fiddled with the settings couldn't get it to put the power down or steer OK. Didn't know if was due to the extra 'oomph' of the Lipos but brought it home in 3rd place for all the heats. A swap to my old Schuey Mission for the final saw a 1st place. Anyway heres some trivia for you...... How do you make friends with the fastest guy at the club, who also happens to be the biggest man at the club (possibly the Universe as he's about 6'6"!!)? Do you...... A ) During the A final accidentally kick his car, whilst leading, when trying to recover another racers vehicle? B ) During the A final skip to miss his car rapidly approaching in the lead, when trying to recover another racers vehicle, and treading on top of it? C ) During the A final Jump to miss his car rapidly approaching in the lead, when trying to recover another racers vehicle, and landing two footed on the roof squashing the whole thing to about 10mm high? Chris

Another good read skip665. Tonight is the FIRST night since starting this thread that I'm NOT going racing....... though not through my doing you'll be glad to hear. Some double booking of the hall has mean't that the club meet has been cancelled. However as I'm away next week I will have to miss two whole weeks worth of RC fix It's not a bad thing for me to recoup though as over the last few months I have bought this lot. Schumacher Mission x2 Schumacher Mi2 x2 (yes that's 4 of 'em!, can't stand a bargain going to waste!) 4600Mah Lipo x2 (yet to run) Spektrum DX3s - Which is so flippin' magnificent on my driving now I'm nipping at the heels of the Brushless, Lipo wonder boys! 12T ESC Trinity 19T Motor MTronics 19T Motor Extra 27Mhz Receivers for spare cars Countless spare parts that have come with the second hand cars 5 sets of wheels and tyres 3 Bodyshells which I've liveried with my companies name (rude not too!) New tools Team Magic 1/8th Hauler bag to fit it all in which I got for a mega price off Ebay .... oh and some 'ickle little orange bodyclips because I'm a tart! Who was it that said all this becomes very addictive and expensive. One things for sure my soldering skills are proper nice now and I've only burn't myself once. Here's looking to 2 weeks from today for my next go

Great write up Skip. I know what you mean about better transmitters as I'm still on my cheap HPI thingymebob and I'm now on par with two of the brushless techno guys which is creating some great racing banter between races. I'm going to invest on a decent controller soon enough. Alots happened since my last posts but having not done any report immediately after, my memory of theses hectic nights are somewhat hazy. On the tyres though, the club secretary gave me 4 sets of used wheels and tyres two weeks ago for all the help setting up and packing away (out of 20-25 members every week I'm still the only one to help!, my only gripe!!) . He'd only used them a hand full of times, and I remembered this week and put them on and it took a second a lap of my times, well chuffed. I then drove consistently around the 12.5 second a lap with my best 12.1 with the top guys putting in 10.9 second laps so I'm eager to start spending and getting some proper gear instead of my Ebay used and abused bargains. Having a straight car will help as the whole thing shakes faster than the springs on the bed of a Spaniards honeymoon We laughed as he reckons the tyres are used enough to cost him tenths of a second a lap and I say they are just broke in to gain me 2 seconds a lap! What I do find humbling is the amount of parts people keep giving me, and whether or not I need them at that moment I'm grateful of their generosity. I help out because A) Many hands make light work It's done quicker and we can get more racing in It's a club and therefore we should be a team. I run two companies by day one I own and one I am a Director of and if any of my guys we're sitting around not pulling their weight yet expecting to be waited on then slipping off at the end of the day without putting away the tools there would be words. Bizarrely enough over the last two months nobody has asked what I do for a living, that said neither have I, and I enjoy these evenings so much it is now a really relaxing break for me and I intend to keep on putting more into it to enjoy the benefits. Until next time Chris

Went to my weekly RC Club meet and had a great laugh as always. The biggest laugh of the night though was walking into the Leisure Centre and following a woman with half a roll of toilet paper attached to her sandle!! Am I a bad person for not telling her and giggling like a three year old

Perfect 94eg! many thanks for that.

When batteries are referred to as Matched, what exactly does that mean? I'm thinking of making my own batteries up by buying them, soldering the bars, corally's etc. obviously from an RC retailer but does the 'matched' mean that I keep the same consistency of cell through the pack i.e/ same brand and MAh through out presumably and not mixed? I'm confused with the 'matched' bit? Thanks in advance

Nice little vid and yes please another race report!