Durango? No. Durga.
Whilst fitting yet more hop-ups (alloy hubs) onto the Tamiya Durga I realised that Durango is an anagram of No Durga.
I have a feeling that I may soon have No Durga, I keep breaking the thing! My Durga has probably cost as much as a Durango with all the hop-ups and repairs it’s had! Though, it’s been, err, fun trying to get the plastic fantastic to work…
Written by simon.
Spire Model Distribution Birthday Competition
“When I were a lad…”
No, really, when I were a lad, I used to race off-road up in the North East of England.
Most weekends in the late 80s and early 90s we’d be found at clubs such as Goole, Hull, York, Aire Valley, Batley, Worksop etc etc.
One of the highlights for me was to race on the same tracks as the world’s best racers of the day. Jamie Booth, Craig Drescher, Rory Cull, names of legend.
My hero was Jamie Booth. Awesome on the track, he’d rock up at 5 minutes before his heat in his VW Scirocco, and show us how it was done.
These days Jamie doesn’t race often – I think he’s raced about 3 times in 2009 – but when he does race, he’s still got the thumbs.
Jamie spends his time running Spire Model Distribution up in Chesterfield. January 2010 marks it’s 5th birthday. SMD is the UK distributor for brands such as LRP, Hong Nor and JConcepts.
They’re running a competition in January to celebrate, 5 prizes, one on each Friday. Take a look at the SMD web site for details of how to enter.
Congratulations Jamie, you’re my hero, you’re my Aero.
Written by simon.
Proline Dirt Arena
Yesterday I drove a couple of hours up to the Proline Dirt Arena in Bicester. In an unassuming old Formula 1 car factory (yes, really), there’s a big pile of dirt and the best day’s racing in years.
I ran 4wd, and found that Tamiya plastic was a little fragile in my hands… I broke: a front wishbone, and 2 rear hubs, one of them twice… And I came last!
But! I had the best day ever, the track is awesome, so very technical, and there’s never a moment rest. Lots of little kickers, a big table top and an great double-double meant getting a clean lap, never mind a clean run was a challenge.
I learnt that off-road on that sort of track requires epic throttle control. Punching off the jumps and landing smooth is so satisfying, and then having to do it again milliseconds later means concentrating for a whole five minutes! I’ve honestly no idea how the nitro boys manage a whole 1 hour final…
If I hadn’t been wrenching on my car all day getting the setup okay, and fixing it I don’t think there would have been much to do! No tyre prep, a set lasts several meetings, literally, that’s just unheard of for us touring car types.
Setup was a bit of a struggle, my rear end was too keen to kick up, I made rear oil heavier and whacked on some weight, and it was a lot better, and then sorted ride height out. But it wasn’t perfect, on the little jump after the double-double it was all too keep to kick up the rear end.
So what do I do to fix it? Even more weight on the rear end? I’ve no idea how heavy the cars are supposed to go. And what ride-heights should I be running? At least I wasn’t worried about 0.5mm roll-centre adjustments…
Many thanks to everyone for making us so welcome, I’m getting a feeling 2010 will be all about spikey tyres for me…
Written by simon.
Tamiya Differential Self Build
I figured the laziest way to build a diff was to get it to build itself…
