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Written by HzR
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Monday, 17 November 2008 18:52 |
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Last week the 2008 IFMAR on-road worlds were held in Bangkok, Thailand. Because of the many top racers and brands attending, some intense racing was expected and the event certainly didn't dissapoint! Xray and Masami with Yokomo both wanted to finally win the touring car title, but in the end neither of them managed to fulfill their dream. The biggest surpises were two 15-year olds who impressed the paddock. Some big name manufacturers (Schumacher, Serpent) seemed to be completely absent. An other curiosity was the absence of American racers in the A-finals of both classes.
In 1:12th the races were dominated from the get-go bij the good old Associated team with their RC12R5, and they never looked back. 15-year old Naoto Matsukura impressed everyone by taking the TQ and winning the title at his first worlds. Thanks to a accident involving Matsukura in the first final, the decision who would be the new title holder was made in the final race which kept the tension high till the last minute. The final 1:12 result: 1. | Naoto Matsukura | Japan | Associated | | 2. | Juho Levanen | Finland | Associated | | 3. | Hupo Honigl | Austria | CRC | | 4. | Marc Rheinard | Germany | Hot Bodies | | 5. | Hideo Kitizawa | Japan | Hot Bodies | | 6. | Jilles Groskamp | Netherlands | CRC | | 7. | Simo Ahoniemi | Finland | Corally | | 8. | Andy Moore | UK | Hot Bodies | | 9. | Teemu Leino | Finland | Xray | | 10. | Dasiuke Yoshioka | Japan | Hot Bodies | In the touring car class it looked like Hara was going to dominate the event after he TQ'd with some impressive runs in qualifying. In the end he only managed to finish 4th after some unfortunate events in the finals and very strong racing by Marc Rheinhard. Another 15-year old impressed the pits; Elliot Harper ended up in 5th place as the best Xray driver at his first worlds. The final touring car result: | 1. | Marc Rheinard | Germany | Tamiya | | 2. | Ronald Volker | Germany | Hot Bodies | | 3. | Masami Hirosaka | Japan | Yokomo | | 4. | Atsushi Hara | Japan | Hot Bodies | | 5. | Elliot Harper | UK | Xray | | 6. | Viktor Wilck | Sweden | Tamiya | | 7. | Andy Moore | UK | Hot Bodies | | 8. | Hayato Matsuzaki | Japan | Hot Bodies | | 9. | Meen Vejrak | Thailand | Xray | | 10. | Jilles Groskamp | Netherlands | Tamiya | If you would like to see video of the finals in full lenghth, get yourself over to this YouTube feed. Some interesting behind the scenes footage and interviews can be found on the HPI website. |
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Blog
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Written by HzR
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Sunday, 09 November 2008 20:17 |
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Today the IFMAR 1/12th and 1/10th World Championships 2008 started in Bangkok, Thailand.
It looks like it will be a very close title fight this time. There are a lot of manufacturers and a mix of some really good experienced and some young and upcoming drivers racing. Teams from Tamiya, X-Ray, Hot Bodies, Yokomo, Associated, Schumacher and Serpent will be fighting for the title. The race is run on an outdoor tarmac track which could also provide some surprises. Most races are run on carpet these days, so it will take some adjusting for the drivers, although most of them already clocked up quite a few practice laps on the track in the last couple of months. Furthermore, the weather could have a hand in the end result as the day before first practice some heavy showers already hit the track. Some companies have already stated that they will be bringing new or updated cars which have been kept under wraps so far, so it will be interesting to see what improvements they have made. The biggest news so far being X-Ray who brought a brand new 12th scale car to the event and were setting some of the fastest lap times in practice with it so far. You can follow all the action at the official worlds website, or you can go over to RedRC who have some great live coverage of the event. |
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Blog
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Written by HzR
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Wednesday, 29 October 2008 19:39 |
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One thing that could come in handy when you are constructing something in CAD is 3D-scanning. This is especially handy if you want to bring complex existing shapes into your CAD models. You might for instance want to scan a lexan body for your car, so you can check its fit on the chassis you designed. Or you carved a shape from clay, foam or wood and would like to modify it in CAD. You can also use it to overlay scans of machined parts with CAD data and check them against each other to see if you got what you designed. Trying to recreate surfaces in CAD will take a lot of work, and because it is very hard to measure curved 3D surfaces, the result probably won't be very accurate.
Up till now machines that could do 3D-scanning cost thousands of dollars and were therefore out of reach for the occasional hobby user. However, on a recent episode of the Revision3 show Systm they showed a software package that can scan 3D objects with the help of a simple web- or other digital camera and a laser line. You can be up and running with a very basic set-up for less then $100! The basic version of the DAVID scanning software used is free. If you want more functionality you can buy a more advanced version. A webcam can be had for as little as $30, and a simple laser will cost you about the same. The system also needs two back walls with calibration points behind the object so the sofware can figure out where the object is in space. This shouldn't cost much and be easy to build yourself from some wood panels and printed calibration sheets. If you are looking for the best results and have some more money to spend, you can get more accurate scans by upgrading to a higher resolution camera and a better quality laser. For such a setup you can easily spend around $500. The way the scanning works is as follows: - Set up the back ground walls with the calibration points.
- Put the camera in a stable fixed position.
- Calibrate the software.
- Put the item you want to scan in front of the walls.
- Switch on the software.
- Run the laser line over the object top to bottom.
- The software captures the laser beam bouncing of the object with the camera and converts it to a 3D points cloud.
- You're done!
You repeat this procedure on the object from several directions until you have captured all the surfaces of it. With the software package you can then put those scans together to recreate your virtual part. Check out the episode of Systm where they demonstrate how to scan an object and convert and transfer it to CAD-software. They explain all the steps involved and show you how to scan an object and stitch the scans together to get a closed volume 3D model. To download the scanning software, more extensive information about 3D scanning and setting up your system, a forum with lots of tips and tricks and more, go to the DAVID 3D Scanner website.
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Blog
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Written by HzR
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Monday, 15 September 2008 20:03 |
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This week the 2008 IFMAR 1/8th Off-Road Fuel Buggy World Championships are held at "The Farm" in Charlotte, NC, USA.
This should be one of the biggest races seen in several years. There are a lot of manufacturers who have introduced 1/8th scale buggies since the last worlds. The field is therefore very diverse and with 180 racers at the start everybody wants a piece of the cake. The track looks very technical and the weather hasn't been too good so far so we might be in for some surprises. If you would like to follow up on all the action, you have a number of options: - Radio Control Car Action magazine has regular updates here.
- LiveRC will have TV style live coverage with video, pictures and reports on their site.
- The race has its own website of course with schedules, reports and results.
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Blog
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Written by HzR
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Thursday, 28 August 2008 20:29 |
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Another insight into the work of an rc car developer. Juraj Hudy from XRay just published a new column in his series of articles on their site. Read all about how the XRay team prepares for this summers racing season and how much preparation and testing goes into building a race winning car. I always find it quite interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes! Hop on over to the XRay-site for the full article. |
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