Nic Case and Team Associated have uploaded a new episode of their Road to 200 series. If you’re unfamiliar with this project, it’s an attempt to get an R/C car up to the 200 MPH mark. They are making great progress and this is an excellent video that takes a closer look at the custom super car they are building to make history.
You can click on over to the Team Associated website to watch, or I’ve embedded it after the break.
Since the subject of sales seems to have been a popular subject this week, I suppose it’s appropriate to fill you in on one that’s coming up. Traditional and Online retailer, Hobby People, is holding a “Warehouse Inventory Blowout” sale this Saturday, April 30th. If you are in or near Fountain Valley, CA, where their warehouse is located, this might be a great chance to score some good deals on things you’ve been needing. According to Hobby People, the sale will start at 7:00 a.m. and go until the sale items are gone.
Check out the Hobby People website for more info and here’s a link to their location on Google Maps.
I’m a pretty big rally/gymkhana fan, so pre-ordering Dirt 3 was a given. However, Gamestop has the ultimate deal for video game fans, race fans, and RC fans! You can now order Dirt 3 for PS3 or XBOX360 for only $299…pause for dramatic effect…that includes the Traxxas Ken Block Gymkhana RTR! Hit the PS3 or XBOX360 links here or above to check out the deal!
UPDATE: We reported earlier that you could get an AMAZING deal on the KB 1/16 from Traxxas with a copy of Dirt 3. Well, looks like GameStop screwed up. Word from Traxxas themselves says GameStop has some info wrong. The car being sold is the 7308 BRUSHED Ken Block not the 7309 brushless one. Also, it does NOT come with the Traxxas 2.4GHZ but a TQ AM Radio!
This makes a LOT more sense for the price. Click through to see the REAL details of what you get in the box!
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No, it’s not a new Traxxas vehicle. It may be something even better. Traxxas has signed on to support St. Jude Children’s Hospital in their quest to cure and prevent catastrophic diseases that strike children. Traxxas has joined with Amsoil, SPX, and Ford to race the St. Jude Children’s Hospital Mustang FE500S in the SCCA World Challenge GTS class. The car will be driven by Eric Foss, the 2009 SCCA Pro Racing Speed World Challenge Rookie of the Year. Fans can show their support by making donations or flexible pledges according to laps led, races won, or podium finishes in the Word Challenge series. Traxxas will also bring their full road show to four stops on the World Challenge circuit to rally up some support.
St. Jude Children’s Hospital has done some amazing things to advance the medical care in pediatrics and this is an awesome cause. It’s great to see companies that are successful paying it forward to help out where they can. Head on over to Traxxas and check out the write-up or head here to pledge your donation.
(a) Cross-sectional SEM image of an MnO2 cathode. (b) Lithiated MnO2 cathode. Zhang et al. Stolen from Green Car Congress.
Ever thought you’d see the day when you could charge your batteries in less than 10 seconds? It may be coming with recent breakthroughs in nano-technology. A group of researchers lead by Paul Braun, professor of materials science and engineering, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently developed a new type of cathode that can be used in NiMHs and Li-Ions. And in laboratory testing, the group demonstrated charge rates of up to 400C for Li-Ions and 1000C for NiMHs. Green Car Congress writes:
Braun’s group wraps a thin film into three-dimensional structure, achieving both high active volume (high capacity) and large current. They have demonstrated battery electrodes that can charge or discharge in a few seconds, 10 to 100 times faster than equivalent bulk electrodes, yet can perform normally in existing devices. This kind of performance could lead to phones that charge in seconds or laptops that charge in minutes, as well as high-power lasers and defibrillators that don’t need time to power up before or between pulses.
Prof. Braun also says that this cathode technology is universal, so it can be applied to other battery chemistries, not just NiMHs and Li-Ion. This could be the major breakthrough that 1:1 electric vehicles need to catch on. But us R/C enthusiasts might be among the first to benefit from this technology if it plays out. Get on it MaxAmps!
Via Autoblog Green, Science Daily, and Green Car Congress
I mentioned in the post about RCP Crawlers new Axial XR10 chassis prototype that they had a very cool booth at RC Expo 2011 with all kinds of scale crawlers. Here’s some pics of a few of them. All the Jeep crawlers are built with the G.I. Joe Jeep push toy, they are all great looking vehicles. And be sure to check out the RCP Crawlers website for info.
I missed a few this year, I’ll do better next year, I promise. Some more pics after the break. Other RCX 2011 coverage here.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were to take a full scale car, shrink it down to 1/10 scale, then take that and blow it up back to full scale? Well, what you see above may be a pretty close approximation. HPI, along with Scion, Five Axis, and various others conspired to build this custom Scion xB, which will be used to market both the full size Scions and HPI’s minified versions at automobile events all over the place. Before you ask, no, it’s not radio controlled… that would be TOO awesome.
Click for more RCX 2011 coverage.
It’s not a patented Big Squid RC giveaway (another one coming soon, keep your eye on the front page), but it’s still an awesome giveaway. Traditional and online retailer Hobby People is giving away 25 radios over the next couple months. All you have to do is subscribe to their newsletter and, as along as you’re a resident of the US, US territories, or Canada you just might win your choice of an Airtronics SD-10G competition aircraft radio or, more pertinent to us, a super high-end Airtronics M11X.
So to get your name in the hat get on over to the Hobby People website and sign up.
If you’re interested in collecting racing paraphernalia then this might interest you. Traxxas sponsored TORC series and NASCAR driver, Kyle Busch, is holding a little auction to raise money for his charitable organization, The Kyle Busch Foundation. You’ll be bidding on an autographed, race worn helmet from his debut TORC race at the Chicago Route 66 raceway this past season. The helmet is still covered in the mud from the track. At the time of this post the auction was up to $1225.00 with three days left to bid.
It’s for a good cause, the children, so get your credit card out and start bidding. If you don’t then that means you hate children and that makes you worse than Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and the Abominable Snow Man combined. So if you don’t want to be labeled a child hater for the rest of your life check out the Traxxas website for a bit more info and then click on over to eBay to make your bid.
If you’ve ever been curious about the design and manufacturing process of r/c cars, XRAY’s latest column covers that exact topic. XRAY’s chief designer, Juraj Hudy, gives a behind the scenes look at the design process, prototyping, mold making and other aspects of the RX8, XRAY’s latest 1/8 scale nitro onroad racer.
After several months spent behind the computer and after I was convinced that we had fixed all the basic details, it was time for the first prototypes. To make prototypes today is completely different compared to the old days. Now all composite parts are “printed” using a special sand printer technology which creates the sample in few hours from a file we send via e-mail. These are fairly fragile but give an excellent idea how the composite part will look like. All the aluminum, steel and graphite prototypes are very easy to produce as well, thanks to the in-house production technologies linked to the network.
It’s a very interesting article with a bunch of cool photos to go along with it. Go give it a read.
As this winter storm of epic proportions keeps moving across the states, I’m sure some of you are stuck indoors for the time being. So put that time to good use and go build yourself an R/C snow blower like this guy did. Check out the RoBo Blower web site for all the stats and a ton more photos of this man-eating monster looking contraption. Also check out the video below to see it in action This is definitely something we could use around the Big Squid offices, it just needs a FPV system mounted to it so all our plowing could be done from the comfort of our heated massage leather office chairs.
Tip o’ the hat to Michael at About R/C Vehicles and Hack N Mod for the find.
Will it Blend? – Ken Block Gymkhana
Is the new Traxxas Ken Block Gymkhana Fiesta Rally tough enough to survive Blendtec’s blender? Find out in this new edition of “Will it Blend?” featuring Ken Block himself.
For more info on the Ken Block Fiesta head on over to the Traxxas site.
