PDA Dirt Challenge
This weekend sees the first PDA Dirt Challenge.
A 2 day event at the Proline Dirt Arena for 1/10th off-road, 2wd (and short course trucks) on Saturday, 4wd on Sunday.
4 qualifying rounds, plus finals, and finals will be in the Nirto popular double-sided christmas tree format. So opportunities for bumping up finals.
Team rcLazy are racing both days, and are expected to finish in the lower finals. The organisers certainly think they will, judging by where they’ve been placed in the heats…
A dirty weekend!
Written by simon.
Team Durango DEX410 oOple Review
I’m constantly amazed how good Jimmy’s radio control car reviews on oOple are. Today he published a massive review of the Team Durango DEX410.
This 4wd off-road 1/10th electric buggy looks terrific. It’s a really interesting design, check out that quick release layshaft, and all those rubber gaiters.
The chassis is an alloy plate, all very 8th buggy. Use of light LiPo and motors that provide too much power means cars can be made heavier. These are then more stable, and the first place to start with this extra weight is the chassis. Brilliant!
The car did well at the recent Euros, and UK support should be good with Adam Skelding as distributor.
I really like my Tamiya DB01, but I doubt it’s really a top-end competition machine. I have a feeling that the Durango might be my next 4wd car, I hope they become popular and wish Gerd Strenge of Team Durango all the best with his new car.
Written by simon.
Off-Road Track Building – Jumpers For Goalposts
Off Road Track - Click to Enlarge
One of the great things about off-road racing is you just need a patch of ground. You don’t need a £10,000 tarmac track to race on.
At SHMCC we used the grass car park, behind the rostrum to make a track. In true “jumpers for goalposts” style we just stuck some cones down, marked a few lines between them with whatever was lying around, and got on and did some racing.
The end result was surprisingly challenging. The back straight (slightly off the top of the above pic!) lead onto a gravel road, then back onto grass, back over the tarmac road again, round onto a table-top made of old tyres and pallets, over another small jump, then through a grass and paving slab section, across the loop taped under a banner, round onto a dirt complex making use of a bank and back onto the straight.
Lap times in about 15 or 16 seconds made it a very similar lap length to our touring car track, so it made for decent racing, and there was always something to do, always something to think about.
Excellent fun!
Written by simon.
BRCA 1/10th Off-Road National Oswestry
Last weekend Oswestry hosted the 1/10th off-road national.
There is, as always, an awesome Oople report. So just go read that for all the news and pics. It’s worth reading just for the mattress not fitting the tent photo 
I really miss 1/10th off-roading, there needs to be more of it in the Southern half of the UK! Are you in the South and wanting some buggy action too? Comment below!
Written by simon.
Neo 09 – 1/8th Off Road at Harper Adams
This weekend sees 200ish drivers from all over the world descend on Harper Adams University College to play with smelly noisy toy cars in a big dirty shed, commonly called ‘the Neo’.
Some of the names running aren’t the usual 1/8th off-road boys, there’s all sorts of people in there. For Neo 09 there’s also 2 heats of 1/8th electric which are proving quicker per lap than the noisy nitro. (I’m not a nitro boy, electric is the future, bring it on!)
Oople’s coverage is as usual immense.
(And there’s already been some fisticuffs!)
