Ok, check these out! New from Team Checkpoint are these 7.4v 4800mAh Saddle Pack LiPo Battries! The press release mentions that they fix sedans and buddies, but I’m thinking these things would be sweet for RC Rock Crawling! You could balance your weight more precisely, just the way you want. Cool!
The full press release will be in the NEW Product Forum

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News from Scooter Motor Works is that their Power Pack Li-Po are available for sale through Stormers Hobbies and RC Madness and through Scooters Motorworks web site. For Hobby Shop sales contact ERI Distributors. All three batteries come in a ROAR legal size hard case with a Tamiya connector attached and with a pair of 3.5mm female gold banana connectors. The current versions look to be 3200mah, 3600mah, and 4000mah.

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The Duratrax people have tossed their hat into the ever growing LiPo Battery ring. The packs are protected inside an impact and puncture resistant ABS case. They are wired for balancing with gold-plated bullet connectors for all terminals. They can be bought with a variety of leads such as Deans or the standard DTXC2211. I find the bullet connections right to the pack interesting.

The full press release is in the NEW Product Forum if you need all the awesome details!

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Traxxas Much like the paranoid survivalists that emptied out every supermarket in the country of 50 lbs bags of rice, rc’ers are now beginning to stockpile nitro fuel.
Rumors have been floating for months about no more 30% being produced and prices doubling by Christmas. The best part is, ask 10 guys that work in the rc fuel industry, and you’ll get about 10 different answer to dispel the rumors.

So just what are the “true” facts about the state of nitro fuel? It’s hard to fully trust anything coming out of the rc industry right now. Even those deep in the industry have not been given full disclosure by their suppliers, and others have other motivations to “twist” the truth. But it’s common knowledge that nitro comes out China. Cost of shipping from China has nearly doubled in recent months, and the Olympic games this summer will have big effects on how China is doing business. My best guess? I’ll go with common sense, expect nitro prices to be alarmingly high by this time next year. Of course by then, most people will already be running their new Losi 8BL’s and E Revo’s around their local track. But if you do plan on staying nitro, it just might be a good idea to buy a few extra gallons.

Reports from industry insiders continue to surface about just who is closest to putting out a mainstream 8th scale electric kit or RTR. Popular consensus? Losi, Losi, Losi!!! With Kyosho and Mugen expected to be closely behind. Associated is not expected to jump in till the year 2032.

Speaking of AE, they released info on their new RC10R5 this week. According to them, the “World GT” class is getting REALLY hot right now, and this is the car to fit the bill. In the real world, nearly nobody has ever heard of the “World GT” class, nor do they want an extremely hard to drive and hard to tune car that is basically nothing more than a stretched 12th scale pan car. Good luck on sales numbers for this one boys. Oh and thanks for adding yet another worthless class to the competition schedule.

This weekend I had the “pleasure” of witnessing something I had never seen before. A racer had his speed controller fry on the track, which was actually fun to watch, but even more so was what happened to his battery as it got dead shorted due to the bad speedo. This particular racers battery just happened to be a ROAR certified Li-po. Seems his pack didn’t like a dead short, went into thermal runaway, and burnt the whole dern stadium truck to the ground. Looked like a very miniature scene of Kuwait after Saddam set all the oil wells ablaze. When the pack went up, the fire ignited it’s ABS case rather well, and being strapped into a plastic chassis just tripled the fun/fire/smoke. I’m not sure who thought it would be a good idea to encase Li-po batteries in a butane, ammonia, and coal based plastic, but I have to say, they must have a flair for excitement! (or are just pyro’s at heart)

So immediately after this high priced bonfire, the pits erupted in speculation. What if this had happened in someones house and not on a dirt track? What if this had happened on a Paragon tire sauce soaked carpet track? Who was going to get sued worse- the track, the battery manufacture, or ROAR? If ROAR states in their rules that a Li-po can not go into thermal runaway to become certified, what are the ramifications when one of their “certified” packs burns down a carpet track and the building it was in? Is ROAR packing enough insurance to cover a few dozen racers dying in said fire?

At the end of the day, let’s just hope the fire I witnessed was a fluke, and that every other pack ROAR has certified actually passes their testing as specified in their rules.

I’ve heard from the man with the plan here at BigSquid that Bash-A-Aalooza went off with nary a hitch. And amazingly, that was even backed up by other people that were at the event! Seems the turnout wasn’t huge, but all the participants were awesome, the venue was one of the best in the world (Leisure Hours Raceways in Joliet Illinois), and the event sponsors kicked in major swag to put the event over the top. This type of event just might catch on- less pressure and more fun! Exactly what this sport needs.

After a long, drawn out, narcissistic phone call with BigSquidRC’s resident pro driver, he would not leave me alone about mentioning demo-derby. Seems when he not out pwn’ing people on the racetrack, said racer loves to bash hard, Really hard-full contact rc demo-derby hard. So if you are out there reading this, and would love to either compete in, or view coverage of the “RC Demo-Derby Nationals hosted by BigSquidRC”, shoot us an email. I’m sure we could come up with a venue and lots
of cool swag if there are enough drivers out there with big enough cojones!

That’s it for this week in our beloved sport. Quit jacking around reading here and support your local hobby shops and tracks!!!

Cubby

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These new Team CheckPoint 7.4v 4900mah LiPo battery packs are ROAR legal, and should be available about now. They come wired and ready to go! Check the NEW Product Forum for the full release.

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Up first from Venom today are their new LiPo battery packs. The VEN-1554T 4000mah and VEN-1553T 3200mah packs come with the Traxxas High Current connectors to hepl push the limits of those new Traxxas motors, and also have the JSTX42.5 3P balance connectors.

Up next come three new gas powered boats. The VEN-1808 Venom Segad Class 1 Racing RTR Gas Boat is almost 5 feet long! Whoa! I have a hard enough time running 1 foot long boats, I can only dream about having a place to run something like this!

On the left is the VEN-1809 Venom Strait Jacket XL. This one is a little smaller at 4.5 feet. Finally, on the right is the VEN-1807 King of Shaves Class 1 Racing RTR Gas Boat! Another 5 footer with a 30+ mph top speed! Wow. If you are looking for boats, it looks like Venom is giving you some big choices if you have the room to run.

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Wow.. never would of seen this coming! The rules for the RC Pro Series are now allowing Nitro VS Electric! Talk about wars and debates! Imagine a nitro truck up against a brushless LiPo truck! This is HUGE news! Anyone have any thoughts they care to share? On one hand, I can see electric just killing nitro, on the other hand, if it’s a 30min main, it’s not so easy to change battery packs in just a few seconds! Can’t wait to hear the results from their first few races.

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Shall I jump right into the good stuff here? Of course!

Biggest disappointment of the week? Easily has to go to Kyosho after finding out that their “AKA Brand- World Class Products by World Champions” isn’t going to be some esoteric line-up of cars. Instead, AKA’s first release is 8th scale dirt tires. Yes, 8th scale dirt is the single hottest class in racing. But come on! What the buying public really wants from AKA are the most high-tech, out-of-the-box thinking kits on the planet. While that still may happen, at this point, all roads to AKA just lead to hop-up products. What a waste of talent.

Biggest legal news of the week? Traxxas putting out a statement not to use Li-po batteries in their new E-maxx. For sure, the new E-maxx can pull a lot of current, and will be a hit in the marketplace. It’s simply too bad to see the lawyers step in and issue Li-po warnings to keep their rear ends covered from being sued. Expect much more of this in each coming week.

On another note-

“A factory encased hard shell pack is mandated for race durability reasons that stem from the vulnerability of Lipo cells to physical damage. Any physical distortion, denting or puncture to the cells will cause either an immediate or long term safety risk. A hard cased pack reduces this risk significantly by protecting the cells from crash damage, battery ejection, and general wear and tear at the track.”

Like usual, ROAR is running half a decade behind technology, and is the primary reason the racing side of our hobby continues to decline. After reading their entire text for “Li-po” safety, it’s very clear they are not as concerned about safety as they are to helping someone in China sell ABS plastic cases. Perhaps they don’t even know what real safety is. A123’s Lithium based cells are far superior to any other rc specific Lithium pack on the market for safety, yet A123’s are not legal, and can not be legal with ROAR’s current guidelines.

That’s it for this week gents. Race hard, crash hard, support your LHS and local
track, and be sure to check BigSquidRC for your daily dose of rc news!

Cub-Reporter

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Ok, maybe not EVERY battery, but it sure would make a good attempt! The CORE RC UDC-20 balancing charger comes with a ton of charging leads! It is ready to charge just about anything right out of the box. It also has a integrated balancer for 2-5 cell lipo packs. LiPo balancing is all the rage these days, and this thing looks like it comes ready for just about any LiPo you have. All this for about $99. Sounds like a good deal. for more info check out the Schumacher USA web page.

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I’ll get right down to the most important thing that happened this week in rc. Brian, CEO/CFO/C-Everything-O at BigSquidRC showed that not only does he have mad skillz on an rc drag track, but showed mad crawling skillz as well by winning his
first crawling event over the weekend. Crawling world watch out!! Brian likes to get into something new and pwn it asap!

Looking at new products this week left a lot to be desired. Nothing of real note was released, just the typical nic-nac crap. Yawn.

The rc world is ripe and about to burst waiting for the first production 8th scale off road electric buggy/truggy. You can’t go anywhere without seeing the signs. The technology is here to do it. Whoever is first to the plate is going to make some mad money. (And AE will release their version about 10 years later, B44 anyone?)

This sport has had two boom periods. The first in the late 80’s, when hobby grade rc cars were relatively new to the world. And the second came when the Traxxas T-maxx was released. It amazes me that you can still go to pretty much any track and see evidence of these two era’s. Ask around in the pits, and you’ll find that most 90% of the people at the track got into the sport during these two boom periods.

It certainly doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the third boom period for our beloved sport is nearly here. The circle will become complete yet again when the rc world turns back to electric, away from nitro. And goodness knows, the sport could use the boost, with nearly record low sales and race attendance.
My guess is that Horizon/Losi is going to be the first to step to the plate with an electric Losi 8 buggy. They’ve already made the leap to selling a li-po powered rtr, and by releasing their “own” line of brushless motors and speedo’s. If Horizon/Losi isn’t first, then it might actually be Hobbico/Duratrax. I say this based on the
fact that only Horizon and Hobbico have enough financial backing to put up a proper legal defense.

Do you remember back in the 80’s when 3 wheel atv’s were all the rage? It only took a couple years for them to become dinosaurs because of litigation. It only took a couple kids getting their grapes popped and a few million dollars being awarded to their families to permanently change the face of the atv world. That is what is
still known as the litigation era of that sport, luckily, the rc world has yet to see one of those.

Any company wanting to sell an 8th scale bl and li-po rtr is staring dead in the face this same problem. It’s only going to take one landmark court ruling to put a company out of business. There is a lot at stake here- make big money by giving the public what it wants, while facing the very likely chance that some idiot is going to burn down a house full of babies while charging his Brand XYZ brushless/li-po truggy.

That’s it for this week geeks. So hit your local hobby shop, hit your local tracks, and remember, we are in this to have fun.

Cub-Reporter Out

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I’m still down here at the Snowbird Nationals ,my cell phone keeps going off every 3.259 minutes.It must be BigSquid calling, urging me to get out of this wonderfully heated outdoor pool and submit my daily report.

I must admit- the reasons are few to pluck myself from this perfectly warm water, with a perfectly clear view of the evening stars, with a calming view of the underbelly of the surrounding palm trees, with drunk scantily clad 20 something year old females wearing virtually non-existent swimming attire mindlessly bumping into me underwater. Only for you readers am I willing to make a such sacrifice.

Cheater, cheater, cheater!! So just what is cheating? Just what are the rules? Here’s the low down. If you are running a factory issued, non-tweaked BRUSHLESS motor at the Birds, consider yourself in the minority. In the “unlimited/mod” type classes, it doesn’t matter much if your brushless motor is putting out twice the power that did from the factory. But in other “slower” classes, where 10.5, 13.5, and 17.5 motors are mandated, this enters a grey area. Isn’t the entire point of specifying turns in these mandated classes to keep everyone roughly on the same playing field? Did you know you can fairly easily tweak 10% more power out an OEM 17.5? I learned how to do it today, and it took less than a half hour.

And it doesn’t stop there. The Li-po world is also home to the tweaking game. Seems the standard procedure now is to “bump” your Li-po. This is how it is done. First, fully charge your pack on a Li-po charger. Second, immediately charge the pack as a Ni-mh until it reaches 20-40 degrees over ambient temperature (btw sports fans, this is EXTREMELY dangerous, do NOT do this at home!!!!!). This typically yields another half volt or more while being discharged under a load. A half volt under load is a MILE in stock class racing.

Rules state that Li-po packs can only be of 7.4 volts. Now, there are “roughly” two ways to actually see a 2S Li-po pack at 7.4 volts with a DVO. The first, a static voltage reading of “roughly” a half charged pack. And second, a 2S Li-po pack under “roughly” a 8-10C discharge load. Neither of which are easily tech’able at races. So- because you can’t really “see” 7.4 volts in a legal Li-po racers car, a person tech’ing can’t really deem a “bumped” pack illegal. A maximum static voltage rule should be implemented. 8.4 volts maximum with the pack at rest would eliminate “bumping”, and is easy to check for. Or better yet, remove an upper voltage limit altogether. There would be no reason to dangerously “bump” a Li-po if the driver would be faster by simply using a properly charged 3S or 4S pack.

More Li-po news. The hottest rumor around the pit is that SMC is about to jump into the Li-po game. The best part of the rumor- their Li-po’s will be the first to be fully matched with numbers printed on each pack. The other hot Li-po rumor is about the MaxAmps “B.R.O.” packs. Word spread early and quickly at Snowbirds about these producing unheard of voltage under load for 4000 mah packs, and about their high-end price tag rumored to be $300 each. The best never comes cheap.

Everyone by now has heard about Muchmore products are now being exclusively distributed by Hobbico/Great Plains. The basher crowd may not know what they sell, but they do have one product on nearly everyones pit table at the Birds- the CTX-D2 discharger. This is the discharger of choice by the esoteric racing crowd on 6 cell ni-mh packs. You too can join that crowd for slightly over $200.

That’s it for today, I have to get back to the pool. Babes, beer, and warm water await me.

Sincerely, Your
Scrub-A-Dub-In-The-Tub-Cub Reporter

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Hot on the heels of their new brushless systems Schumacher USA has announced some new LiPo packs. The CORE RC 3250mah 7.4v now has a smaller form to fit those harder to fit areas. It has a impact resistant hard case with ‘cell shapes’ molded into the bottom that can key into those chassis that have the cut out spaces. It’s an interesting look. I like the hard case. Hit the NEW Product Forum for the full press release.

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Just wanted to post a rumor I have been hearing that the ROAR organization is just a few days away from legalizing Li-Po’s in their races with the requirement that the packs be sealed in some sort of hard case. So for all you die-hard racing nuts, it looks like you might finally get to experience what the rest of the world has been using for 2+ years. (Way to stay on top of the times ROAR).

As what appears to be a total coincidence, Max Amps just announced in our forums that they have a new SKIN out for covering their batteries. I have no idea if this will make their packs ROAR legal or not, but I’m guessing the odds are good.

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Week two in 08′ has flown by.

Product wise, MaxAmps, trying to make good on their vow to dominate in 08′,
introduced another product- some hard case saddle pack li-po’s. The jury is still
out on encasing li-po’s in a hard pack. On one hand, protecting them is very
important. On the other, li-po’s don’t like being contained in essentially, a
warming blanket. Before it’s all said and done, a compromise of the two- a hard case
with either a cooling system or vent holes, is bound to become the standard.

Speaking of compromises, Schumacher USA issued their press release on the Speed
Passion brushless controller this week. What really catches the eye is their use of
hybrid technology. It uses sensors like a Novak or LRP for the first few feet off
the line, then switches to non-sensored mode so motor timing is adjustable. This
seems to use the best of both worlds. Several of these systems were used at S&N’s
Trackside’s US Touring Car Championships last weekend with great results. Expect an
interview with the suits at Schumacher right here at BigSquidRC in the near future.

In the sport of rc racing, if you talk about the single best American racer, the talk always begins and ends with Brian Kinwald. Arguably, he’s the best American of all time.

This week, the press release went out that BK had signed with X-Ray. Nothing wrong with that of course, Brian is top of the heap, just like X-Ray is. But, it brings up a problem that is particularly bad in the rc world. Brian drives for X-Factory in electrics, and now, X-Ray for nitro and touring. This is sort of like Dale Jr. driving a Chevy in the car series, and a Ford in the truck series. Only one chassis can be the best, so it sends a mixed message to consumers.

Every time a factory shoe signs a contract, they always say “I truly believe they have a superior product”. But if they are driving for two chassis manufactures (or three!), how can this possibly be an honest statement?

So what’s the cure? A couple. Factory shoes should limit themselves to only driving for one similar sponsor at a time. Just because you can get free gear from everybody on the planet doesn’t mean that you should. It devalues both the driver and the manufacture when they send out conflicting signals to consumers.

Manufactures should demand exclusivity from their drivers. When someone asks “what chassis does National Champion guy drive?” there shouldn’t be a half dozen answers. Manufactures are only sponsoring “National Champion Guy” to increase their own exposure, not other companies as well.

On the racing front this weekend, the biggest race in the country is the annual Midwest Electric/Nitro Off Road Champs in Columbus Ohio. This weekend, they are racing electrics, next weekend, nitro’s. The host club is CRCRC, say that 10 times fast!

Some pro’s love this event, as it gets them away from the office for 2 full weeks. Others loathe it because of having to spend 2 full weeks in a cold, humid, shed in the middle of nowhere. (most SoCal guys consider anyplace other than California as being the middle of nowhere!)

That’s the highlights from this week in rc. Support your local hobby shop, get off the computer and go racing!!! Oh and remember, Red lost the war at CES, buy Blu Ray!

Straight from a cold bunker in the middle of the desert,
Cub-a-dub Reporter

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Looks like Venom is going to be our guinea pig on testing our new NEWS layout and software! Check out this pack! It’s a 7.4 volt Lipo with 5000mah and wired to fit the new Traxxas High Current Connector! It looks sweet! It’s 33% lighter then a normal NiMH pack, and should get you more run time! If you have picked up one of the new Traxxas brushless vehicles, you are going to want this! Check out the Venom web page our our New Product Forum for more info!

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