Sunday at PDA
Well while leader was at RHR pushing the boundaries [he means hitting the fence - Si] of off road. The rest of the Lazy team were enjoying another simply brilliant day at PDA, Bicestershire.
It was the final round of the winter championship and it brought out the big guns for the two respective titles. Staples, Truman, Rasey and Howett
We managed to avoid hearing anything about the Ozzie GP and started racing at 10 after a superb breakfast from the kitchen at PDA. Thanks Mrs T you’re the best.
Team RCLazy were gifted brand new hoodies with shiny logos and pointy hats. Good work Si, we can all carry it well now.
Lots of antics during the day, bodyshell vandalism, MAHOOSIVE air from Howett and my 511 doing some rapid laps with some shiny new pink wheels.
The team managed BQ for Rob in 4wd, which he converted into an excellent win after stripping 3 (yes three) spur gears in 3 races. Big thumbs up for some amazing jumping action keeping the crowd well and truly entertained. Topped only by him falling out of his chair a lot.
Haskell Jr made B2 and was unlucky to not convert it to a win. Dodgy marshalling was a bit of a theme…
I made A8 and Staples A4. I made a 4th in one leg of the final and a 6th overall which made my day and Gray came 4th (I think) overall.
Like I said Championship day and amazingly RCLazy drivers made 3rd (Gray) and 5th (Me) overall. Big thanks to all the Truman’s (even the sleepy ones) for a great series and venue.
Happy days, roll on the regionals.
Written by mark.
RCLazy at the first Scalextric Invitational GP
Si's favourite and also our 1/32 scale Lewis Hamilton
Whilst we were all competing for top honours at the recent PDA 2 dayer, we all got to talking about our younger days and racing those tiny Scalextric cars. So one pint led to another and the Scalextric GP was born.
Monaco, Melbourne and Abu Dhabi were mooted as venues but we thought they just didn’t have the atmosphere required for such an event.
Eventually we decided on my front room. Set in picturesque Totton on the south coast, local amenities include a fish and chip shop, chinese and Dominos. We felt these provided the best selection of catering for the event.
March 18th was chosen for no apparent reason and 7 o’clock was the time.
Leader Crabb arrived promptly with Schumacher Minispikes in a green compound. After pointing out the scale differences and lack of grip on a plastic track he put them away.
We discussed off road and racing tactics whilst waiting 45 minutes for Rob. Who in true F1 style arrived in a helicopter (Seat Leon 1.4 ) and expected a track and us ready to race. Remember this is RC Lazy?
After much Ecclestone-esque track layout discussions we decided on Dominos and a nice figure of eight layout.
The format followed strict guidelines of winner stays on, unless it was Simon and he lost, then he needed ‘practise’. So essentially Simon stays on.
Anyway we had a really great night and some night racing with all the lights off. Well once we could find the controllers in the dark and Simon stopped sitting on the track.
Overall winner was never really decided but everyone’s a winner in the RC Lazy Team.
Thanks to Dominos for providing an excellent internet based system of ordering take away food, it gave Rob something to do while me and Si built the track.
Next round, somewhere at some time in the future. If only Bernie ran such a tight ship as RCLazy…
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- Si’s favourite and also our 1/32 scale Lewis Hamilton
Written by mark.
Countdown has begun!
So the RCLazy team is off to Chatham in Kent for the PetitRC race this weekend.
My tyres aren’t glued. Si’s car is in bits and Robs is… well being sorted by Rob.
Who knows what will happen but we’re competing for the coveted GQ spot.
Wish us luck for the weekend. But not too much, it’s the RCLazy way.
Mark
[ If we're not wrenching all weekend we'll even try to post an update or two. S. ]
Written by mark.
The award for the most ridiculous purchase of 2009
Simon is keeping quiet about this so I have to stick my head into the firing line.
Si [well, it was Gray, achully - s.] stripped his Kyosho RB5 rear hubs at PDA a few weeks ago and in true rcLazy style we opted to purchase some strip proof alloy items rather than throw good money after bad and replace with plastic fantastic items.
Cue an email to RC Champ, who incidentally are the politest and most helpful Japanese RC Shop ever. Possibly in the world.
A price for the goods and postage was agreed, some Yen changed hands and all was good. And then I actually checked the exchange rate.
Ouch! £61 for 4 alloy rear hubs! Never mind no more stripped hubs, should arrive in time for Xmas fun at PDA. Woop!
Err no what actually happened was a delay at Coventry whilst our tiny package of toy RC parts was presented to the almighty commissioner of Her Majestys Revenue and Customs for 4 days.
Then on Christmas Eve eve the letter arrived. Curses! Caught out for the princely sum of £8 VAT and more importantly a simply splendid charge from Parcelfarce of £13 for administration.
So after a return journey up the M27 in rain of biblical proportions, the new shinies were in my grasp.
Dutifully texted Si the glorious image of shiny blue hop ups. He was very excited. But I did then have to tell him that his two shiny hubs had cost £41.
I know we have to pay the taxes etc and i’m really not moaning about that. It’s just one of those D’oh! moments when you realise you could have bought 10 plastic hubs for the same cost and that Parcelfarce are ripping you off for administration charges.
Anyone beat that?
Right, i’m off to order a Sand Scorcher…
Written by mark.
Tamiyaddiction part 1
“The term addiction can be used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user himself to his or her individual health, mental state or social life”.
Thanks to Wikipedia I can confirm I am an addict.
My name is Mark and I am hopelessly addicted to Tamiya.
When Simon asked me, somewhat tongue in cheek, to write an article about my collection of Tamiya RC cars, I thought OK I’ll just let you all know I have built up a small collection of cars and I enjoy a couple of shelves in the spare bedroom that house a few of my favourites.
But then I got to thinking, I should say about the cupboard full of NIB kits and the fact that the loft has all the ones in it that don’t fit in the cupboard. Which is OK because that leaves space in the loft for all the NIB body sets and NIP spares for the restoration of several cars. So hands up who knows what NIB and NIP stand for? I have found these acronyms invaluable in finding ‘new in box’ and ‘new in pack’ items to complete ‘the collection’ using auction sites.
Which is what Simon wanted me to wax lyrical about. ‘The collection’.
This is how it began.
Since before I can remember I have been fascinated with cars and when dad came home in 1986 with a Tamiya Holiday Buggy. Sporting a massive (literally) 6v of power and a Mabuchi 380 motor I have been hooked by the red and white Tamiya logo. The red side meaning passion and the blue side meaning precision. Well our passion was ignited and in time my 13 year old thumbs would cope with the precision of racing these bad boys around our local race track.
We lusted after the more powerful cars. The Fox, Boomerang, Hotshot, and the pinnacle of all things Tamiya the Avante. Never earning enough from the paper round to upgrade to the latest model. Tantalisingly close but always out of reach. We raced our Hornets and Sand Rovers on the beach, in the forest, on holiday, after school, even at school when it was show and tell, I can tell you all my classmates confirmed me as the single biggest geek known to man that day.
We only paused to charge our 7.2V 1200mAh batteries on an old 12V battery and a simple resistor charger. Not even a timer in those days, leave it too long and come back to a pile of smoking metal and acid. Not the safest thing in the hands of easily distracted teens!
It was relentless, new tyres, new bodyshells my poor parents must have been going insane. No homework got done, very little revision. How things have changed as I write this article from my work bench trying to look busy on proper work stuff. Halcyon days indeed.
Then as quickly as it started it was all over. College, real cars, Uni and perhaps the single biggest drain in any man’s life – girls.
But it lurked. It waited. It waited for 10 whole years before sneaking into a men’s magazine. FHM, August 1999 in among the semi clad babes and essential man articles sat two small pictures a Subaru Impreza and a Mini Cooper and a tiny red and white logo. Something distant stirred, those stars, the superb scale bodyshells, those two words ‘radio controlled’. Were Tamiya selling an actual Mini Cooper and a Subaru Impreza? What had happened to the off road buggies? Before I knew it I was stood in the local model shop staring in wonder at shelf upon shelf of proper scale RC cars. The ubiquitous Impreza, Toyota Corolla WRC, Evo IV, BMW Z3, no off road buggies but it didn’t seem to matter. I had to have one. Just one, it couldn’t hurt, could it? After much deliberation I was leaving the shop with a shiny new Subaru Impreza on a TL-01 chassis.
And then came the killer blow, my new best friend Richard said the immortal words to me. “Are you going to race it?” Race it? Where? when? how?
I know now that Tamiya had won. I tried deserting the fold for years but they had me.
Worse was to come though Tamiya had two aces up their sleeve.
