[Gpa113]

Just watched the Stage video.   Great coverage as always Andy 

Like the look of the lap tracker app, will give it a go for my Stage next week. 

Have fun with the other classes over the weekend.

[BAracer]

A quick question...can you mix Ninco and SCX off-road track pieces?

[woodcote]

You'd need the Ninco to SCX adapters - and you'd probably want to paint them off-road colour.

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Class R2 - SCX

The extra obstacles went in for the rest of the classes, making the course much more of a challenge. A couple of the SCX cars really didn't like them, but the others were great fun - the top two dancing over lumps and bumps with relative ease. For some reason, you might be best to watch the video direct on YouTube...



I gave Savage GT's VW a DNF - I ran it for at least ten minutes and that was about as good as it got! I persevered with the RNLI Peugeot for the full 5 laps as it showed occasional moments of brilliance, it was just very inconsistent!

SCX results and reflections coming soon...

[woodcote]

   

This class took me a bit longer than expected! The top two cars did half a dozen shake-down laps and then completed the 5 timed laps without incident. They were spectacular over the bumps, the Dune Buggy probably having the edge there and Oxo Cube's Touareg quicker on the flat bits. Paul's Touareg was certainly best of the rest, but required a longer shake-down and warm-up for me to get to grips with the car over the bumps.

   

The rest of the field were characterised by their inconsistency - and hence lots of unexpected offs. That's the nature of off-road racing. All had a thorough shake-down and warm-up - so what you see on the video is as good as I could manage with the car in the conditions. Most cars did best at a moderate speed, some a bit faster - and some nice and slow. Savage GT's Touareg was consistently unable to get round the corner obstacles at any speed!

   

I really enjoyed driving the variety of SCX off-road cars - thank you all for sending them in. And looks-wise, Hotlap's Peugeot 405 T16 is awesome!

Rose the cat made a brief appearance at the start of the SCX video - she is watching/sleeping from just behind the main camera.

[Savage GT]

Hi good stuff, thanks for driving and video :)

No idea what was going on with the SCX as it only had a change of tyres and some weight added so why it was so bad IDK, but thanks for persevering 
Fingers crossed my other one isn't as bad !

[woodcote]

Class R3 - Pro RTR

Avant Slot Lancer owners, be warned - your cars struggled with this Ninco course. Nonetheless, it was a very close 3-way battle for Avant Slot honours... albeit a fair way behind the scrap for the win! It's best to watch the video direct on YouTube...



Despite the Lancers giving me a good work-out, this was the most enjoyable class so far. Results and reflections to follow...

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It was clear from the start of the shake-down that the Avant Slot Lancers really struggled with the corner pieces that had obstacles fitted - rather like Savage GT's SCX Touareg. Because they were great fun in almost all the other parts of the track, I decided to help them through the tricky bits and see which of the three would come out on top. It was a rather odd, but intriguing battle - ultimately won by Hotlap, 2.4 seconds ahead of the RNLI Lancer and 7.5 seconds ahead of Makem's car.

   

The two Scaleauto Porsche 959 Raid cars were utterly sensational to drive, having the agility of the best SCX cars and plenty of power. They were also the first cars I could safely give some air over the dune. There wasn't much between the two, but I was able to drive James' 959 a little more aggressively and he took the class win by 3 seconds ahead of the Rothmans car.

That just left Top Down's gargantuan Powerslot Hummer H1. A very useful shake-down session helped me understand how to get the monster round the lap without falling off the edges of the track... Once mastered, this was awesome fun to drive! Over five timed laps, the Hummer was a solid third in class - 17 seconds behind the winner, but snatching the final podium spot from Hotlap by 42 seconds...

   

A very enjoyable class to drive, despite the challenges for the Avant Slot Lancers. Thank you to all the entrants for giving me the chance to drive some 'Pro' RTR off-road cars for the first time. I now have a hankering to try some more.

That leaves only one class - the five Open category cars. I'll try and get that wrapped up by teatime.

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Class R4 - Open

This was rather a mixed bag - two beautifully-engineered metal Mitoos chassis, another sumptuous Scaleauto Dakar chassis and then two home-brew cars that didn't quite cut the mustard on my Ninco course. Both were given a DNF, but the fastest lap (with plenty of outside assistance) would be the difference between fourth and fifth.

Here's what happened - and you may need to launch the video directly in YouTube again...



A very enjoyable way to finish the stage. Results and reflections will follow soon...

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The two Mitoos chassis cars were a revelation - top-notch engineering giving a heavy, but nimble drive through the obstacles and pretty rapid on the faster parts of the course. Not surprisingly, the pair recorded the fastest two times on the 'extreme' version of my Ninco stage. What did surprise me was that the AA Recovery Transit pipped Graham's stunning Extreme-E Odyssey by just over a second.  Joining them on the podium was Savage GT's Revell Pajero body, mounted on a Scaleauto Dakar chassis - the same as was under the Porsche 959 in the previous class. It was another great car to drive - without the weight of Mitoos engineering, but probably more fun to drive because of that.

   

Both the Datsun truck and Qman's 2CV looked great, but neither performed on the Ninco track - indeed, both had their moments on the sections without any obstacles. As has been noted before, the Datsun could be transformed with weight in appropriate places, although the drop-arm system on the Citroën's ingenious frame chassis just isn't going to work with the Ninco lumps and bumps. Both had extensive shake-down sessions, but I decided to run each only for one lap to decide fourth and fifth place on best lap time. Qman got it for being more stable on the flat stuff.

   

A fascinating class - always loads of food for thought in the Open category... A very big thank you to the five entrants for loaning me their precious cars to race this weekend.

Overall, we had seven cars post sub 90-second times over 5 laps of the 'extreme' layout today...

77.26 - AA Recovery Ford Transit (Mitoos - R4)
78.55 - RoadRunners Odyssey 21 (Mitoos - R4)
82.97 - Andy P Baja Buggy (SCX TT - R2)
83.02 - James A Porsche 959 (Scaleauto - R3)
85.99 - RoadRunners Porsche 959 (Scaleauto - R3)
86.99 - Oxo Cube VW Touareg (SCX - R2)
88.42 - Savage GT Mitsubishi Pajero (Scaleauto - R4)

On today's layout configuration, a pair of cars from each class filled the top six places. The Ninco cars had an easier run, but were a superb warm-up act last night. Don't forget you can watch all the cars' timed runs on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl_dP...lTRJcwgVrK And if any of you would like a hi-res image of your cars on the stage, just let me know.

That's it for the racing! Celebration time for some, licking of wounds for others - and then moving on swiftly to Round 6. Huge thanks to Graham for organising this event

It's always great to have an excuse to set up the Ninco off-road layout for an extended play session in the living room. Normally, I run the track without obstacles and have some fun with my slot rally cars. I only have three rally raid cars, the Ninco BMW and SCX Baja Buggy both competing in this proxy. Do I need more? Two types of chassis really stood out today - and I wouldn't mind adding one of each to my fleet...

       

The Scaleauto Dakar chassis was probably my favourite - real 'pro' performance under the two Porsche 959s and Savage GT's Pajero. But seeing the heavy Mitoos chassis in the flesh - and then driving two of them - convinced me what an amazing piece of engineering it is. I'd better start saving up my pennies.