Vintage Buggy Meeting Held In Australia

[RETRO R/C]

Hi guys,

Last weekend the Ryde club in Sydney Australia held its 25th anniversary birthday meeting. A number of people from Tamiya club and other enthusiasts from around Australia made the journey to race their old buggies on one of Australia's best off road 1/10th tracks.

Here are some pics from the weekend. I will update with more info and details etc over the weekend.

First up - my 3 vintage racers before I left for the meeting - all restored and ready to race!! YEP - I raced an AYK Viper and a Samurai - also the ZX-R!!

Here they are during the meeting!! EWWWWWWWW - but jeeeeeeeeeez they look good like this! First the Viper - then the Samurai...........

I could not resist running the original Willy......it was muddy after all!!

The Lazer ZX-R was a real standout at the meeting - easily the nicest buggy I have driven in many years!

HERE ARE SOME MORE RANDOM PICS FROM THE MEETING OF OTHERS CARS - LOVE THE TMS HOTSHOT!

JASON TAPP - ACTING THE GOOSE!! Seriously one of the nicest guys I have met so far in the vintage scene.

Well - thats it for now - stories and more pics to come over the weekend.

Cheers

Darryn Johnson

[Helen]

Real nice to see some of those vintages, I haven't been down under for about 10 years , Ill leave it at that lol

[Snake Plissken]

Wow Darryn, looks like you had an interesting meeting, some of the cars attended are hardly seen even in vintage meetings. How many drivers showed up to the vintage race?

[Bin ^jammin^]

Looks like a lot of fun.

Excuse my ignorance but what car is that in the second to last photo?

Looks absolutly gorgeous.

[cherrybomb]

The one with the orange wheels is a Losi. Either a Junior or JRX2. I've only ever seen the JRX with a flat carbon chassis and trailing arms but the Junior had a moulded chassis like that one.

The white one in a Kyosho Ultima.

[Bin ^jammin^]

The one with the orange wheels is a Losi. Either a Junior or JRX2. I've only ever seen the JRX with a flat carbon chassis and trailing arms but the Junior had a moulded chassis like that one.

The white one in a Kyosho Ultima.

Kyosho Ultima, eh...

I think i might have to track one down, but is that one standard with all the chassis, shock towers and wheels in ali?

Cheers

[cherrybomb]

The chassis and shock towers are stock. The original shocks are red plastic adjustables and the wheels were white.

[Bin ^jammin^]

The chassis and shock towers are stock. The original shocks are red plastic adjustables and the wheels were white.

Yeah that's more like what i've seen, cool, Ultima with alloy hop ups it is then.

Thanks for the info

[cherrybomb]

She do look sweet don't she?

[RETRO R/C]

The car is an Ultima, it is owned by Ant - a member here on T/C. VERY nice looking car and handles pretty well to boot!! Alloy wheels, shocks and other items are non standard - however Ant is an engineer by trade, so most of his cars are improved some way or another - you should see his frog!!

Cheers

Darryn

[Jak Rizzo]

I can't believe I didn't know this was on! I'm only 45mins away on the Central Coast, my mate & I were just at that track not long ago with our Frogs. Big ******. Would have loved to see those cool cars.

Do u have any more pics of Ants Frog?

regards

Jak

[blasta999]

hey Darryn, How was the turnout?

I was so annoyed when i heard this was on, i had work commitments I couldn't get out of! And I only live 5 mins away.

hopefully there was a good turn out, the track has been looking quite good before all the rain, so hopefully the mud was too tormenting to the "vintage buggies"

Rob

[RETRO R/C]

Jak and Rob,

Real shame you guys could not make it! There were at least 100 buggies there (alot were shelfers and display) - but as far as cars that actually ran - would be closer to 40 or so. We had a ball - the track was absolutely SUPERB. I have some pics of it - even though it was muddy - it was obvious that the track has come a VERY long way. The facilities are excellent and the track a truly great place to drive on. Actually - the last time I had raced at the trackl was in 1988! It was back then that I swore I would never return to the track because it was so rough and a real car breaker...man what a turnaround!

The mud didnt affect the cars too much - probably made things a bit easier on them actually. It certainly was a great spectacle - with the 4wd stock class looking like a race from 1988 or so with my Samurai, an Optima, a TMS chassis hotshot, a prototype Lazer, a standard hotshot, modified optima mid etc etc..what a blast. Of course the clean up is a pain - but the pain fades when you remember how much fun it was!

Looking forward to the next run - I think alot of appetites have been aroused now as I have had a tonne of emails asking where parts can be sourced from etc etc, so the meetings may continue. I know ANT is very keen and pushes the vintage wagon really well in Victoria and is trying to organise a "vintage only" meeting on a grander scale.

I will post some more pics as soon as I get a bit more time.

Cheers

[Toykid]

MORE PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please.

James.

[RETRO R/C]

Heres a few more:

The awesome track:

ALL CEANED UP AFTER PRACTICE ON SATURDAY - the hotel room:

More to follow soon. None of us got as many pics as we would have liked - we were far to busy racing and being quizzed by new school racers who could not beleive how good some of these oldies were going!

Cheers for now - more pics to come soon.

[Jak Rizzo]

oh man, now I'm even more dissapointed with more pics, look at all those cool cars, i would have a been like a pig in mud! literally! Please hold another one soon. Do u think u could get enough response just from Sydney & local drivers to have a Vintage only meet? With 40 cars running it sounds quite a lot. Is it? My mate & I would definantly be there with our frogs, plus my Brat & soon a hotshot. Theres a few more.

regards

Jak

[HunterZero]

Awww, man! The one time there actually is an RC meet in Sydney with vintage Tamiyas and TC members, and I miss out! Especially since I am not far from there.

Looks like it was fun, judging by the state of those cars!

When's the next one?

- James

[Singapore_959]

now THAT is a trailer/workbench!!!!!!

Fannnnnnnntastic looking event. If I was back home I would join you. Well done!

[Jim the wookie]

I know a few peole have said this but: dude, this is what i get for not being on here for a while a vintage meet and hour and a bit away from me get up! Gaaarrrrr. Oh well next time i'll pay attention. Some seriously cool cars in there, would loved to have been a part of it

Jimmy

[BORMAC]

Hello guys,Ive been a member of T/C for a couple of years now but never thought to look up this forum. Darryn (retro r/c) was shocked at this and has recommended I stop in and post up some pics of the vintage race meet in Ryde. Well yes I was there and I got word of this meet about 6 months prior and NOTHING was going to stop me from making this meet! And what a great meet it was! This weekend would be the first time I would meet Antony, Darryn and Scott of whom I'd been in contact with over the net and phone for a while. I certainly was not dissappointed with any of the guys there and the club was very welcoming to us interstate enthusiasts. Racing was to be on Sunday but Ant and myself had always planned on being there the Saturday for practise. I gave both Darryn and Scott a call to let them know we'd be there but only Darryn could make it late in the afternoon. What can I say,we may not have had a great track layout for practise as the track has so many multi layout formations but we had a ball just running all our runners back to back with our chargers working overtime on all our batteries. Ant was running his highly modded Frog,Ultima,Optima,HotShot,Topcat,Nikko Brat,501X and a few others. Darryn ran his ZXR, Viper and Samurai while I ran my Topcat, Nikko Brat, Bosscat works and my 501X buggies. Needless to say we drove that track well into dark with only a single park light shining onto the track. The track was BEAUTIFUL and the commitee had just finished the groom as we turned up. In the end the cold drove us to leave and we had to put our cars to rest for the following day.

Day 2 saw Ant and myself leaving my Inlaws place (on the central coast) early. At the end of the highway we were greated by some very unfortunate weather. We drove the rest of the way in the rain and I remember thinking of how crazy it was for both me and Ant to have driven so far (im from the Gold Coast and Ant's from Melbourne) only to have it rain on the big day. We turned up at the track and there was a big cue of cars waiting at the gates of the park and people standing around as the rain fell around them. POO! Things werent looking good. I got out of the car and made my way up to the track to find it was full of puddles. I wast going to let this spoil my day and before I knew it people were driving through the gates and setting up around the track. At this point I was glad to know that this day would go ahead regardless of the weather. To our luck the rain stopped and didnt really return the whole day and after the track had been broomed off people were on the track practising already. The first being Darryn with his Wild Willy. I wish I could report on how people did with there vintage cars but things were so hectic, Darryn and myself ran 3 classes while Ant pushed for 4. It became almost impossible to keep on top of charging and marshaling duties let alone preping the cars for there net run. The mud made it even more fun. In the first few rounds every car came off the track looking a state and we just werent prepared well enough for this factor. It has to be said that you just wouldnt normaly race in conditions like this but when you've come so far it was too late to worry about the mud. As the day marched on one race seemed to merge into another and I even managed to slip a half charged pack into my Topcat for the finals. DOH! It didnt matter because I had a ball anyways and the day was a big success for the vintage scene. That weekend certainly forged some great friendships with endless laughs, jokes and taunts. I was guilty of screaming out on the side of the track all kinds of madness. The boys loved every minute of it with Ant and Darryn adding to the moment with there 80's manufactures slogans like "1/10th HIGH PERFORMANCE OFF ROAD RACER" and my favourite "THE MOST WINNINGEST 4WD" and so on. It has to be said that I had the best weekend and I was exhausted by the Sunday night with sensory overload. Soo many brilliantly well presented and driven vintage buggies. Its not a race meet I'll forget and look forward to the next one. To those who couldnt make it, we'll be sure to keep you posted on anything organised for the future and I personaly hope to see you next time.

[RETRO R/C]

Here is Scott Hogans stunning Top Cat and Pro Cat - these cars were truly stunning before the mud!

The Pro CAT was in fact one of the most famous CAT's in Australia back in the day raced by one of Australia's very best drivers.

Action Pics:

More to come when Jason pulls his finger out!!

Cheers

[Ant0276]

Well,

judging by this thread I can use the words "due to popular demand"

We are organising a Vintage Carnival (race meet+enduro) for November at know track in Victoria for November.

All welcome, pre 1990 cars only, unless they make the list. (www.knoxoffroadelectric.org) see the SIGS page and the vintage rules

More details to come.

-A