Well with what seems like the death of 10th scale electric around here, many of us have jumped on the 8th scale bandwagon. I just put the final touches on my new MP9e (MP9SE (part #31783B) with the Kyosho e conversion (part #IFW451)). The kit was so easy to put together (aside from some forearm pump from all these big screws!). The fit and finish of this kit is typical Kyosho. Pretty much stock except for some bling turnbuckles from the TKI kit and the alloy rear suspension mount and rear hubs. I also love mounting 8th scale tires compared to 10th scale. So much easier and the JConcept tires mate perfectly with their rims. So stoked to get out and try this thing! Only thing left is to get my bodies back from some sweet new paint from Darkside Designs (www.darksidedesigns.net)
Equipment List:
- Kyosho MP9SE with e conversion kit - Peak Racing 5400mah 45C packs (14.8V) - Peak Racing VDS1409 Servo - Tekin RX8 ESC - Tekin 2050kv motor - JConcepts Tires & Rims - JConcepts RC8e Body - JConcepts Wing
Fastcats has announced they will be closing their doors at the end of March. One of the great family run RC operations with a truly world class facility. This leaves the Greater Toronto Area (with a population of about 5 million?) with ZERO indoor RC tracks. Amazing how this population level cannot support one indoor track. Here is what John and Pam had to say on their site (www.fastcats.ca):
To all of our supporters, customers and friends..... It saddens us to make this announcement, but the FastCats track facility will be closing at the end of March this year. We have had 5 great years here in Oakville and hope that we have created a racing legacy people will remember for years to come. We have always strived to do our best in everything we have done and we feel that would not be who we are, if we simply closed our doors one day without any notice. As many of you who have been here with us for the last 5 years know, the hobby has seen many changes. We have tried to embrace them all and support the r/c community the best we can. However the past summers have become more challenging and while we are very busy now in the winters we are just not able to support ourselves over the summer months. We have remained open this winter to provide the winter season a place to play, but as the months of April/May arrive and we go through the usual downtime, while people wait for the outdoors, we are confident that it will be October/November before most of you will miss us and you never know what might happen locally by then. We don't feel that FastCats is done....we just feel that FastCats at this location is done. It would be our future hope to still be involved in the r/c community but cannot be specific in what capacity at this time, but we do have some plans....stay tuned! We hope you will continue to support us for the next 6-7 weeks, as it is still time to play indoors and we will still be here for you. So the facility goes on as usual until the end of March, with our schedule as follows.... offroad Feb 8th-14th - trophy race on the 14th onroad Feb 15th-28th - Northeast Grand slam Feb. 19-21 and TCS Feb. 28 offroad March 1-14 - "the Big Finale" trophy race March 7th (because of march break) onroad March 15-28 TCS tba Our website and forum will continue as a local gathering place for the r/c community. We thank each and every one of you that has made the last 5 years so memorable and for your support, we have made many friends. We especially want to thank our children: Stephanie, JB, Matt & Michael who have sacrificed many family moments for the sake of the track and to Nick Imineo, who has been with us since the beginning for his endless help, and to all “the guys” who have helped us over the years to run this place, maintain it and we hope make this a place to remember. We are proud to have been here and look forward to hanging out with you all in the future.
John & Pam
This family (and friends) have poured their heart and souls into RC and have sacrificed so much to make things happen here. I don't think they will be out long though (I hope). I am excited to see what they have in store for us as I don't think they can stay out of the industry long!
Thank you for all your hard work and the good times. Hopefully we will all be racing at Fastcats again soon...wherever it is.
Sidenote: Looks like 10th scale is really taking a beating up here. Fastcats closing, Sid's Raceway on the brink of closing.
I will have to say: 8th scale electric is the future of electric up here! Time for people to pony up and convert I think. My MP9e is already on it's way....
Another race weekend in the books. This time out we had Myself, Abiye, Jesse's Girl and a last minute jail break of JB from school. Fred and Chet went ahead of us while we waited for JB. Took us 4 hours to get there including a food stop so not too bad. We arrived to a HUGE building and a rather large track. Sweet. It is a little dark in there so bring your pit light! That or you can rent a private pit room. The track looked sweet (as usual Al's layouts are super fun) and the drivers stand is nice and high. Tire choice seemed to be all over. Lots of fast guys running Panther Switch, Losi Pink Taper Pins or BK Bars, Proline MC Suburbs and JConcepts Gold Barcodes. Most ran them full pin. There were so many entries that we had to run only two qualifiers (with rocket round). This didn't pan out so well for a lot of us...lol. Lots of people broke in one and a few broke in both. I broke one of mine and got tangled up with lapped traffic in the second so I ended up in the B Main for 2wd Mod. No Canadians in the 2wd Mod A main this year. We were all stuck in the B Main :(. In 4wd Mod All the guys made it to the show and Chet was up into 3rd place before he broke. I think everyone else finished mid pack. In the 8th scale electric A Main, Abiye swapped it out with Dakotah Phend for the first bit, Dakotah put an inside pass on him right before the big jumps and Abiye gapped the whole section, passed Dakotah in the air and ALMOST stuck the landing. It was an awesome pass attempt but Dakotah passed back while Abiye was waiting to get marshalled and took the win. 2wd A Main saw Al Horne and Dakotah trade spots early but Al ended up with the win. I didn't see the truck A Main as I was taking a nap before the 4 hour drive home at 1 am. Al gave me shit for not taping the truck main as he finally took Dakotah off the top step (which is the class he usually owns). All and all a great two days of racing and definitely a track you should check out ( http://www.amsraceway.com/) when in Michigan! Can't wait to get my 8th scale electric MP9 built up and get back there to try it out.
Random Thoughts:
- US Customs always does a double take when 4 adult men say they are going to a model car race. We cruised through though. - Only took 3.5 hours to get home. Not too bad even with a double stop looking for an open gas bar at 2:30 am in the middle of nowhere. - Thanks to Visa for security locking my card during those gas stops thinking I was a fraudster. - The track was sweet. We can only dream of having a facility like this in the Toronto area. - Our private pit or "igloo" was awesome. Tons of light, our own heater and tons of space. Very cool. It is a little impersonal not getting to chat with all the locals, but the private pit is a cool idea and our was always open to visitors....Dunno what our Canadian nitro counterparts were up to in there weeks prior as locals kept coming in looking for Heineken...lol - 8th scale electric is friggin cool. I think that it is the future for electric in Ontario at least. With 10th scale on the decline....again...many people are jumping on the 8th scale electric band wagon. - Cheers out to Sarah Ernst for making the trip out. Good to see the Filipino infiltration into the hobby...haha - Thanks to Johnny Loguidice for letting me check out his TQ cars and giving me the lowdown on them. TQ have some fast drivers out there and are quickly giving the car credibility. Johnny also did the memorial lap honoring the Big Kahuna. Very cool. - Abiye's superman jump/pass attempt on Dakotah was one of the coolest moves of the night. If he could have stuck the landing he might have held off for the win. They both raced a very clean race. There were a couple of times where they could have pulled off a hack pass but they didn't. - Nancy came trough with the cupcakes again. Awesome. I even got a few for the trip home. I suppose I feel a little better in that we are now getting beat by a teenager at least. Happy 13th Dakotah! - Sorry to Al Horne for not getting the video of the Truck A Main. He said it was rare Dakotah didn't win that class and was super stoked to take the win with his RT-5. The downside to the private pits I suppose. Was quiet in there and I thought I'd take a nap as I had to drive home and didn't want to drive off the road with some head snapping. Props to the new Red Bull mini shots. Tasty and effective on those long tired drives.
Ryan'ism's
Ryan: "Should I unplug my Lipo for the trip home?" Us: "It will be fine for now" Ryan: "I unplugged the positive lead" Us: "So it is fine" Ryan: "Should I unplug the negative lead though?" Us: "Do you know how a circuit works?" Ryan: "Yes I know how a circuit works, but I don't know if it would back feed through the negative lead or something." Us: "So you don't actually know how a circuit works then...." Us: (insert laughter)
Some pics and Vids:
The Kahuna Memorial Lap
2wd A Main
8th scale A Main
4wd A main
2wd B Main
The track is HUGE! One of the many killer 8th scale electrics Johnny Loguidice's TQ Racing SX10 Nancy baked up a storm. Yummy! Another act of dominance on JB's car In the end I was dominated by the big jump...
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