These guys are fast
07 Nov 2006

 This page is heavy (graphic intensive) because of the pictures. And I only put quality pictures here. Quality has a price. If you are patient it'll be your reward. The time will be around 1:35 over ISDN.

A view of the drivers stand. Isn't it nice?

During the weekend of 28th July a race for the 1/10 Electric European Championship took place at the track of CRO (Clube de Radiomodelismo de Oeiras.

The weather was spectacular with temperatures around 35º-38º Celsius, and I guess that everybody had lots of fun.

Some big names were there and I was the photo and video freak wandering around the pits, trying to get the best possible pictures of the people and event. In the meantime I asked some questions about the secrets they use to win races. I guess that the difference lies in the training time and natural talent that these guys have. They use the "same" motors that we use, the same brushes and the same cars. Why can't we win? The hands - that's what we don't have... and a couple of things more.

The thing that immediately strikes us, is the quantity of material that these guys have. They must be carrying several thousands of dollars worth of spares. Batteries, motors brushes and everything you can imagine is neatly packed in a multitude of small boxes. All the hop ups you can imagine are fitted on their cars. That's why, us mortals, tend to buy the hop ups. We have this idea that those neat purple and blue parts are responsible for the good results.

When a race like this happens I always get a bit disappointed. I would like to see a Portuguese guy running for the win. It doesn't happen! Why? It seems that nobody knows. Some of the points I made earlier are the explanations we find to justify our minor successes.

Instead of focusing on the essential we tend to focus on the accessory. Consistence and some theoretical knowledge may help a driver to understand why a motor is faster or slower, or even why a pack dumps too soon. What puzzles me is the fact that too many of our drivers have a "well adjusted" car and because they try to push the motor too much, they don't check for battery consumption. You know the result.

A Corally C10X. It was a very popular car at this race. Terribly fast. For the looks of it, this guy has a Novak Cyclone ESC. At least the Pit Wizard is there.

The first thing I did was to take some pictures of the cars.

Lots of Corallys and a couple of Trinity and Associated cars. These "pros" carry huge amounts of spares, motors batteries etc. If we talk nicely they can "drop" some of the material in our hands. This is what I call good marketing. Generally speaking all of them are friendly and willing to help the less "pro" drivers. I would like to see this attitude in our national "pros".

Andrew Moore's car. A trinity 10 with lots of neat little hop ups, and a very organized work area. Does it help? 

A Trinity belonging to Jaime Ramalho (a Portuguese contestant), sponsored by Orion.
You can see a pack of Sanyo 3000, borrowed from Oscar Jansen - Team Orion

And here it is, Mr. Spashett himself, talking to some of our "eager for information" drivers. Nice bloke! Can't say quite the same of the Dutch guys (sorry...)

Oscar Jansen making some adjustments on his car. He adjusted a motor for one of our competitors and gave him a pack of 3000 Sanyos for the race.

Bruno and Pinheiro (he works on the hobby shop where I buy stuff) looking at the cars of Spashett and Moore. They were also trying to get a photograph with Spashett....

Spashett's car. Another Trinity with a D4. He uses 4380 brushes with a harder spring on the positive brush. Go figure...
See the hand? If you have two like these you can also win races. Behind the car is his STICK radio.

Tire truing. This Corally tire lathe is the simplest thing you can find. And it works too...

Miguel Matias. This guy drives anything faster than the rest of the drivers. 1/10, 1/10 4wd, Pro 10, 1/8, 1/8 off road etc etc. Made an incredible impression last year at the 1/8 off road European Championship

Miguel was not at the finals Sunday morning. It could have made an impressive race. He was missed.
He is the kind of guy with a natural talent for RC car driving. Anything, anywhere. He his sponsored by Kyosho on off road. At the recent European (at Mogadouro) he had an Inferno MP 7.5...

Checking the weight after one of the qualify rounds.

Not sure about the driver or his position at the qualify round. The car is nice though.

The lineup for one of the top qualifies. Spashett, Moore and Matias are there.

And what about some pictures of the race, you may ask. Well, I was to busy looking at the race to have them. But then again, only a video can show the good driving these guys do. Don't worry, I have it on tape and you'll see it here.
It just takes a little longer to prepare.

 Results

Related Information

Corally
Associated
Trinity