I read and watch a ton of stuff on the internets every day. Some of that stuff I end up liking a lot and bookmarking for later. This new weekly feature highlights those links.

Build Log: Dumas 19′ Racing Runabout - This will be one to keep an eye on for a while. It’s going to be a long project from the looks of it.

Photo of the Week: Disco’s red hot ride. Forum member and comedian Desmond “Disco” Dailey show’s off his current drag car project. You might have to scroll down a bit if your browser doesn’t take you straight to the post.

Shopping Around: Save some cash, spend it on other stuff… - Check out my previous article about some of the ongoing rebates in the industry.

Video of the Week: Disassembly - A cool parts explosion animation of a non-descript R/C helicopter. The guy made it for his demo reel to show off his computer animation skills.

More Video: The Radio Control Show, Episode 45 - Info about RCX, the HPI Blitz ESE, Florida Jets event coverage, Aeroworks P51 Mustang ARF, new Kyosho products, Off-Road Shootout Sweepstakes grand prize RTR Baja 5T, HPI Vorza giveaway.

Even More Video: RCX 2010 Live Cams - Can’t make it to RCX this weekend? Well you could always sit at home and watch live streams, I mean, that’s almost just as good right? Am I right? Hello?. Three different streams are available, one showing the vast show floor, another showing off-road action on the dirt track, and a third mobile cam that will have interviews and product demos.

Here is the link for the Hi-Def version of the video I recently uploaded. This is from the first Lynwood Dragway event of the year. It was also the first event shot with the new Hi-Def camcorder! The video is zipped, and around 40 meg. It’s in mp4 format. If you don’t think you can watch such a video, check out the online version HERE! It’s in flash format. Enjoy!

R/C Drag Racing - Lynwood IL, Midwest RC Drag Racing Series Event - 40meg. MP4 format. (please right click, and save as)

I finally had a few days to put together a full video from the Lynwood Dragway event opener a few months back! This was one of the first videos shot with the new Hi-Def camcorder! I’ll try and have a real hi-def version to download soon, but this one looks pretty darn good! This was an official Midwest RC Drag Racing event.

Thanks to everyone for all their support, this was a good time for sure! Feel free to discuss in the official Midwest RC Drag Racing Forum!

Just wanted to post up a few pictures of the winners from the Breakneck Bash at the Lynwood RC Dragway. Anyone who came out to support the RC Drag Racing scene is a winner in my book!

Congrats to all the winners! Check out their cars and sweet winners plaques. (Provided by Big Squid RC)

Another great weekend of racing! We had a decent turnout at the Lynwood R/C Dragway this weekend for the Big Squid RC Breakneck Bash. The weather held off, and we didn’t get the 95’s people were talking about, but we did get some 130 degree track temps! Kevin and Jerry did a good job of keeping the track prep’ed while Big Will and StangRey awesome at keeping things organized and keeping the event moving. I think this was by far the most organized event Lynwood has had, and I think it’s just going to keep getting better.

Over in the Midwest RC Dragracing Forum, there are results posted as well as some pictures starting to get posted. Here are the results for those to Lazy to click over:
TQ’s
Street Car - James - 2.311
Pro-Stock - Arvin - 1.946
Funny Car: “GID” Ray - 1.933
Pro-Mod - “Onstat” Kevin - 1.751
Unlimited Rail - “StangRey” - Rey - 1.500

Winners:
Street Car - James
Pro-Stock - “GID” Ray
Funny Car - “GID” Ray
Pro-Mod - Arvin
Unlimited Rail - “StangRey” Rey who also had a 1.483 @ 94.6mph for the final win! Wow!
Best Reaction Time - Jack with a .402 light! (And that was with a nitro!)

Thanks again to everyone for coming out and making it a great event!

This weekend, August 2nd and 3rd is the Big Squid RC - Break Neck Bash, at the Lynwood Drag Way! Mark your calendars!

For all the details and information, check out the official Midwest RC Drag Racing forums Right Here!

Good evening, good morning, hello, hello- welcome to yet another edition of the loathed Cub-Report.

So you like to go fast eh? Well, everybody does, that’s why we are in this sport. Word went public this week about this years big high speed run event. Nic Case, current pwn’er of all things high speed, worked with Castle Creations and RC Driver magazine to get an event put together out east this October. I know there are a ton of BigSquidRC readers that do rc drag racing, so what about giving some high speed running a shot? Gear up, go huge, and just see what kind of top speed number you can bust out!

Of interest is the change of support from RCCA to RC Driver this year for the high speed event. Knowing how the guys at Driver handle things, I think we can expect for this years high speed event to totally blow away the RCCA backed events in every way. Expect much larger attendance, better competition, and a much better organized show this year.

Midwesterner Taylor James pwn’ed the boyz at the 8th scale buggy “World’s Warm Up” race out at The Farm 2. The 8th scale buggy IFMAR world championship is the most prestigious racing event in all of r/c racing. Insiders and outsiders are speculating just who is going to take home the world championship this year. Some have their money on the warm up winner and Jammin factory shoe James, others are placing their bets on ThunderTiger/AE hotshoe Ryan Maifield. Personally, my money is on either Kortz or Pavidis. Both of those gentlemen always rise to the occasion for IFMAR worlds, while most of the other top American’s flounder. This year will most likely be different, as the race is being held on a typical American track, where the boyz from Team USA will feel very much at home, while all the Euro’s will bewondering where all the gravel and brick sections are at!

Also of note for the IFMAR’s, Billy “Most Versatile Racer On the Planet” Fischer is ready and stoked to go huge. Billy is easily the nicest guy in the pits, and he has climbed to the top of the 8th scale pile in quite a hurry. If the Fishman is “on” at the IFMAR race, goodness help the rest of the world.

Jeremy Kortz, as I mentioned earlier, is one of my favs for the 08′ world title. What I’ve always wondered about him is this- he looks like the perfect pitch man for outside the industry sponsors, so why hasn’t Red Bull/Monster/Rockstar/Etnies/DC/Spy/Kicker picked him up yet?? Jeremy is all tatt’ed up, sporting a killer left coast look and easy going attitude. Plus, he’s perhaps the most naturally talented racer to come from the USA. Potential sponsors, if you are out there, I’m telling you Kortz can help you sell a s#!tload of product and get your name in the door of the r/c world on the best possible foot.

Anybody else notice LIVE CORR racing on NBC today? That sport has come a long ways, and todays live coverage is more proof of that. Unfortunately for my boy, and 7 time AMA Supercross champion, Jeremy “The King” McGrath, a flat tire ruined his day. Nice to see another ex-motocrosser Rick “Too Hip” Johnson carry the torch at the front of the pack.

The good guys are Schumacher released info on their new touring car, the Mission 3.5 last week. Now, the old Mission 3 was one of the best “elite” TC’s out there, so what could they possibly improve? The retail price, that’s what! Rumored retail of the new scoot is supposed to be right around $299, which looks mighty inviting considering all the other overly priced elite tourers from X-Ray, AE, ect. Props to Robin and SP at Schu for keeping their prices reasonable during these rough economic times.

What was the biggest “release” of the week? No, it didn’t come from BigSquidRC’s editor-in-chief Brian after watching some free internet pr0n. It came instead from Horizon/Losi in the form of new information regarding their all new 10th scale Slider! Now, I didn’t get the memo saying “dirt oval is the hot new thing”, so I doubt dirt oval is just gonna bust off the chains because of this new car. But, with the hot trend being “realistic” looking r/c cars, Horizon/Losi will move a lot of these off dealer shelves.

Btw- Horizon/Losi also announced a new body for nitro 8th scale oval! In some parts of our country, that is actually a pretty hot class. Just take an 8th scale buggy, put some funky body on it, run some crazy camber angles, and go out and throw some insane roost. With Losi’s release of this body, you can only expect for them to produce a Losi 8 inspired oval car at some point in the near future.

Almost forgot, rumor is that Horizon/Losi’s 10th scale crawler isn’t that far off, so all you guys that got your panties in a bunch over them releasing an 18th scaler, should be able to un-bunch soon.

That’s it for this week r/c fans. As always, get off your butt and get down to spend some cash at your LHS, drop by your local track to either watch, help marshal, or get some laps in, and read BigSquidRC on a daily basis!

Cub

In a new press release from Grand Motorsports: The Protoform 1111 Funny Car It’s BACK! This classic Fuel Coupe body comes with a separate rear spoiler. Body dimension are: 5.75 inches wide in the front to 6.65 in the rear, 21 inches long. Made from .030″ lexan. Fits most 12 to 14 inch wheelbase funny car drag chassis, wider than #2400 for the best fit on any Nitro Funny Car chassis.

Available July 15……$30.

I just got a press release from Grand Motorsports about their new Wheelie Bar! Here is the press release:

Grand Motorsports Advanced Wheelie Bar System
Grand Motorsports announces the release of their new shock-loaded wheelie bar system. Designed to allow optimum weight transfer under acceleration, the new GMS wheelie bar system allows you to tune and control your launch by absorbing the energy of a wheelstand without unloading one (or both) rear tires. Grand Motorsports new wheelie bar system utilizes a standard Team Associated 1:18 scale shock, so many different spring and shock oil combinations are readily available. The graphite ladder-style bars pivot on dual high-grade ball bearings for smooth operation.

Available July 1, List Price $109.99, Will be available on the Grand Motorsports website for $79.

We never like to see this stuff happen. At the last big Midwest RC Drag Racing event, Shredder-X had a glitch/run-away and his R/C Motorcycle took off at the end of the track. Sadly, it was perfectly timed with a oncoming car.

Younger viewers may want to look away.

There is also a HI-DEF version of the video Located HERE! Right Click/Save As. You’ll need Quicktime or a mp4 codec to play.

While doing our server and software updates, it looks like we broke are event manager! While we work on getting it fixed and up and running, I wanted to remind everyone about some upcoming events!

If RC Drag Racing is your thing, then the Lynwood RC Drag Way is where you want to be this weekend! It’s the second event of the Midwest RC Drag Racing Series May 17th and 18th! For all the details and information, check out the official Midwest RC Drag Racing forums Right Here!

If RC Monster trucks are your thing, then check out the NO LIMIT R/C 2008 Monster Truck World Finals coming up May 23-25! This event is really becoming “THE” event to attend! Over in our forum is a big thread with all the details. You can read it Right Here!

Finally we have our own BASH-A-PALOOZA event! Hosted By: Leisure Hours Hobbies at the amazing Leisure Hours Raceway June 14th!

The official event page is Right HERE! Or click the new link over on the left! This event is going to be awesome! We are giving away a HPI Racing Savage Monster Truck!!! Plus a TON of other great prizes! Check out the Event Page for all the details you need!

I would like to welcome a new rc video site HobbyZip.com to the world of RC! It looks like they are off to a good start with some cool videos up there! As we create more new videos, we will be uploading them to this site as well for viewing. We will also be testing out their embedded videos among other things. If your into videos, and you have seen all of ours, go check them out!

Here is a upload of one of our older RC Drag Racing videos from a Holeshot event.

What a weekend! This was the Season Opener of the Midwest RC Drag Racing Season! With some luck on my side, I won the Extreme Dragster class! It wasn’t really the way I wanted to win, but I’ll take what I can get. The amazing news is that ticket on the right side there. Stangrey had a 106mph run! It was like a bullet! Sadly, that same run, I was his competition and crossed the finish line in the air while ripping some of the wires out of my speed control!

There were a few new people at the event including people from Wisconsin and Missouri! Hopefully they make some of the upcoming events as well. The more new people to the sport the better! (Driver from MO, if you are reading this, drop me an email.. I didn’t catch your name.)

G and his group did a AWESOME job on the floor of the track! Both the drag track and the on-road track were spotless and tight! Great work guys!

Here are a few pictures I snapped at the event. Hopefully will get some video cut in the future.

Hit here to see more pics from the R/C Drag Racing Event!
Read the rest of this entry »

The Midwest RC Drag Racing Points Series is going to be started right around the corner. Consider this your first warning to dust off those vehicles from the winter storage and start charging those batteries! The first event of the season will be held at the Underground RC Indoor track! For more details, or if you have any questions, check out the official
Midwest RC Drag Racing Forum. Get those RC dragsters ready, It’s going to be a great year!

We just received this press release from Grand Motorsports:
Grand Motorsports DragSpec Car kits now come standard with ball bearings, four 1/8 by 5/16² flanged for the front wheels and two 1/4 by 3/8² flanged for the rear axle. No need to upgrade later, get on track right from the start!

DragSPEC Pro Stock Kit - 2100 - $119.00
DragSpec 53 ProMod Kit -2110 - $119.00
DragSpec 33 Willys Kit - 2120 - $119.00

For more info, check out

I would like to congratulate Nic Case for officially getting into the World Record books as having the fastest RC car! The official record is 134.4mph, though he has a 160 mph run! WOW. Having gone pretty fast myself, though it’s no where near his speeds, I can appreciate the skill and difficulties in hitting the kinds of speeds he hits! Nic is doing a fine job of helping the world of RC grow and get recognized, which makes him a great guy in our book! For all sorts of pictures, videos, and stories about Nic, check out this link at FastestRC. We hope to have a interview with Nic shortly, so come back for that soon!

It is finally here! The full 2008 Midwest RC Drag Racing Schedule! Check out the official Midwest RC Drag Racing Forum HERE for all the discussions, videos and pictures! Looks like it is going to be a good year with some great events!

Hello everyone. Hopefully everyones holidays were good, with them (X-Mas-New Years and my B-Day ) over now I’m going to try to write a little…bear with me.

Well a few of us have been getting together at Underground the last few weeks on Saturday’s. For those of you who don’t know what The Underground is let me try to describe it for you. The Underground is a very-very large warehouse that used to house a bread company. It now has been partitioned off and a section of the building houses a on-road track and the drag strip we have been testing on. The track itself is a little tough to master as it is not as smooth as say the Lynnwood facility. Please don’t misunderstand….I am not complaining , we are lucky to have a place that is indoors to run at considering the frigid winter we have to contend with. With that being said the track has pretty good traction as a few of us running have found out…….a few of the guy’s have actually gotten stuck on the starting line LOL.

Our Saturday meets have been TNT (test and tune) sessions and have for the most part been a lot of fun. I myself have been testing different motors and gear combos. I know some of you guys and gals may be wondering who’s run what and how fast…….I promise to get that info out when the real racing starts in the spring.

Last weekend a few of the guy’s brought out a few new additions to the scene ; Big Will has been testing a handmade rail chassis that shows some promise ,Preditor has been testing his recently acquired Nitro Pro-Mod that looks great,DNC and Dragman are also working on their combos as well as Tu-Slow,and Ira and a few others. Oh I was talking about new additions to the scene………Butch and Keven brought their Nitro Pro Mods for us to drool over, neither was ready to run just yet but both looked really nice. The nitro Pro-Mods are really going to make a strong showing this coming summer. These guy’s are making me want to get a nirto Pro -Mod as well.(maybe a GMS to compete against all these Walburns). Jerry from the Lynnwood Dragstrip was there also last Sat. and bought over his 1/8 scale New Era dragster for us to see and he promises he will be running it this summer.

Well I think I’ve run out of things to write about for the time being…….Yeh I know it’s hard to believe..LOL

Until the next time—–talk to you folks on the Squid forum.

“StangRey”

    There I was sitting in my man-cave(the basement) staring at my dragster trying to figure out how to get that 1.4 that has eluded me……….the phone rings …….its Brian(Big Squid). We talk for a while and he explained that he needed little help and if I would be interested in contributing a small column on the website that would keep people informed on about the weekly races or meets. I thought about it for a couple of seconds and agreed to do it, then I remembered I didn’teven know how to use spell check on the puter and had never done anything like this before.

        I hung up the phone and felt a cold chill go up and down my spine, what did I get myself into I thought. I sat there for a while with a hundred different ideas running thru my head and realized I think I ca do this——sooooooo guy’s and gals here it go’s.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just wanted to make a quick post about the Lynwood pics. For those that didn’t see the post in the forums, I have created a page of pictures I took a week back from the Lynwood Drag Race event! Click the picture to see all the pics! Had a great time!

Also check out the Midwest RC Drag Forum for details, stories and more pictures!