Off-Road Racing – Like Going Back Home
I used to race off-road back in the late 80s, as a teenager. It was a real hoot. Then I went off and did some growing up, when I returned to racing, off-roading was unpopular, and touring cars were ‘the thing’.
I’ve never enjoyed touring cars as much as off-roading. Some people call touring cars ‘snoring cars’, cos they are boring and send you to sleep! The thing with touring cars is they are only good fun when they are working perfectly, and you’re going fast, and on the pace. Oh, and no-one is hitting you.
Lately, off-roading has seen a resurgence, the whole sport is doing well lately, so all classes are increasing in popularity I think. I had to scratch the itch, and give it another go. Unfortunately there isn’t an easy option where I live, all the off road clubs are hundreds of miles away.
So I’ve had to encourage the locals to give it a go, so I had to go out and get a buggy and get people talking about them. Very slowly more and more people have got them, and we’ve run a couple of meetings at SHMCC.
I bought a Tamiya Durga DB01. I thought it looked cheap, and basically a plastic 501X. I shalln’t tell you all about it here, as Oople has an amazing Tamiya Durga review of it. Oople does things far prettier than rcLazy ever will!
Everyone said to me though I’d have to buy all the hop-ups to make it go well. And a few months later, they are right. I’ve spent as much as a high-end car such as the Schumacher Cat SX… But, it’s going great, and it’s arguably as competitive as a Cat?
What have I added?
- slipper clutch
- front one-way
- TRF shocks
- associated springs
- alloy suspension mounts
- alloy steering rack
- hex screws on ‘top deck’
- alloy heatsink plate (chassis dremelled out to accept).
That’s not that bad really, but there’s more either on order, or will probably be ordered soon
- Atomic carbon shock towers
- universal driveshafts
It works well. The electrics in it are basically my ‘spare’ touring car electrics
- LRP Sphere 2007 spec speedo
- Team Wave 10.5 motor
- Futaba S9550 servo
- Futaba receiver
- IP 3800 lipo (shared with touring car)
It’s great fun, I liked it so much, I had to go and by a 2WD to go with it, a Kyosho RB5 SP. I’ll post about that another time…
After a Saturday afternoon racing on grass (and gravel, dirt, paving slabs…) I feel at home again.
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