Uploaded January 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Old MiniDV transfer from March to May 2001 !
I saw 1:5 fifth scale Petrol RC car racing at Mendip raceway for the first time and was blown away by the cars with independent disk brakes on each wheel, some hydraulic, full working/adjustable suspension etc etc, so talked Steve into both getting SVM cars a couple of months later (mine was my Bday present to myself!).
My car ran a Subaru Impreza bodyshell, Futaba 3VC transmitter and had seperate front/rear brakes so brake balance was adjustable from the transmitter, which also had rudamentary traction control and ABS ;)
They were a good laugh, but my racing was a disaster as they were not great chassis (no LSD so struggled for rear grip), but had good engines (Zenoah G230RC) - so I chewed up soft rear tyres (10s which were softest compound, most people were running 20/30/40s) at an unaffordable rate (They were something silly like £25 a pair and rears would last one meeting)! I broke loads of front wishbones at race meetings - a real weak spot on the car, I seemed to break/pull out at least one each meeting which was hard going for repairs, and meant I didn't finish a lot of finals.
The bodyshells I vaguely remember spending £60 on the shell, and took 3 cans of paint to spray, and I would wreck them pretty quickly, I remember glueing/cable tie/taping up a lot of cracks ! I ran mine for 1-2 seasons, and then ebayed it to someone in Essex who I believe was driving it in a car park when a lowered Saxo drove in and over it and ripped the carb off engine, not sure if it ran again. Steve did much better than me and went on to get a couple of Bergonzoni 1/5 cars, I went down to 1/10 nitro on rubber tyres which was much cheaper and I enjoyed running around in the lower middle of the field.
Still a good laugh, and funny first test run and inevitable prang - no harm done as I remember!
Old MiniDV transfer from March to May 2001 !
I saw 1:5 fifth scale Petrol RC car racing at Mendip raceway for the first time and was blown away by the cars with independent disk brakes on each wheel, some hydraulic, full working/adjustable suspension etc etc, so talked Steve into both getting SVM cars a couple of months later (mine was my Bday present to myself!).
My car ran a Subaru Impreza bodyshell, Futaba 3VC transmitter and had seperate front/rear brakes so brake balance was adjustable from the transmitter, which also had rudamentary traction control and ABS ;)
They were a good laugh, but my racing was a disaster as they were not great chassis (no LSD so struggled for rear grip), but had good engines (Zenoah G230RC) - so I chewed up soft rear tyres (10s which were softest compound, most people were running 20/30/40s) at an unaffordable rate (They were something silly like £25 a pair and rears would last one meeting)! I broke loads of front wishbones at race meetings - a real weak spot on the car, I seemed to break/pull out at least one each meeting which was hard going for repairs, and meant I didn't finish a lot of finals.
The bodyshells I vaguely remember spending £60 on the shell, and took 3 cans of paint to spray, and I would wreck them pretty quickly, I remember glueing/cable tie/taping up a lot of cracks ! I ran mine for 1-2 seasons, and then ebayed it to someone in Essex who I believe was driving it in a car park when a lowered Saxo drove in and over it and ripped the carb off engine, not sure if it ran again. Steve did much better than me and went on to get a couple of Bergonzoni 1/5 cars, I went down to 1/10 nitro on rubber tyres which was much cheaper and I enjoyed running around in the lower middle of the field.
Still a good laugh, and funny first test run and inevitable prang - no harm done as I remember!
