Lifes, Loves and an RC addiction

Hi guys, welcome to the first of my Blog entries.

I'm hoping to provide a frank view of racing with an RC addiction, what do I mean by an RC addiction, well let me ask you guys a question, have you ever gone into an RC empoirium and seen the latest greatest peice of anodised alloy in the colour of your choice well I'm the guy who gets his wallet out and walks out with it, I then get home and think do I really need this??? And it sits in my pit box for the next 6 months..

Well this year will be different, on Trev's advice I have slimmed down the pit box I have put the poly butler up for sale and while the lap times have not started dropping I am focusing more on the driving and not on the shiney magpie bits!!!

I know I said I would be more carefull over the shiney bits, however my new 3200 lipo's turned up today in all of there golden glory, Mmmmm shiney. I am not looking forward to all of the work to get them to fit the E4 (I'm hoping that being 32's that they will fit without too many problems). However the dremel is primed and ready to use!!!

Should be a good day testing over at Ipswich on Sunday if the weather holds, not holding out any hope at this rate as all the weather sites are predicting doom and gloom, so might have to do some testing over at Snetterton next week.

I will post piccys of work taken to get the 32's live and in the car..

Catch you all soon

El Capitano!!!

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Team Magic E4 "It's the Law!"

The weather was poo yesterday so I didnt get to take the car over to Coastal for a thrash, so I spent the day fettleing it instead.

Replaced a couple of worn and broken peices, as well as got the car ready for Lipo power. I have put together a nice document to show everybody how to get the original E4 ready for the Lipo love!!! I'll email this over to Mr Admin for you all as well, hopefully he can find a nice place to host it here.

Now just got to wait to see if the weather holds this week for some testing up at Snetterton.

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Team Magic E4 "It's the Law!"

Well the first STCC of the season was beconing, and boy was I looking forward to getting the car out on the track, One problem however the weather was looking terrible for the opening round at Southend-On-Sea. Most who know me know that I am not a fan of the wet/damp conditions, and will do anything to avoid them. During the week before all of the weather channels told a different story, but most agreed conditions were rain, the only question was how much of it we were going to get.

As the week ran on the rain turned to sunshine then 12 hrs later all sites turned this back to rain.

Sunday dawned and I got up rather early and headed out of the door No rain!! Less than a mile into my journey the heavens opened, bugger!!!! Right I thought I will drive to rendevous and make a decision there. An hour later I arrived through some horrendous rain my mind made up, back home to bed and then spend some quality time with the cars getting them in order for the next round of meetings. The urgings and cadgoling of my team mates especialy the Greyfox!!! to come on down and see, were in vain, there was not a hope in hell that I was racing in this muck and so I set off home to bed.

Well the law of Sod was out in force, and after I had arrisen from my pit the sun was up and shinning and not a drop of water in sight!!! Bugger, Bugger and Bugger. So I spent the rest of the day stripping my cars down so that I can go out for next weeks meeting in force and see if I cant be a force to be rivaled, as after all it is my birthday!!!!

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Team Magic E4 "It's the Law!"

Thought that I would provide you guys with an update as to how the racing is going!!

After turning back on the way to southend for the first round of the STCC I was determined to get out and running and give the TC a good airing. A couple of runs at Ipswich, and the car was running superb, another run up at Snetterton this time in a little more trying conditions again the car was running great!!! It seems that with this car the harder you are willing to push it, the stiffer it needs to be, the week before the second round of the STCC at Eastbourne the shiney fairy from K-Factory graced the web with some very nice offerings, and Nick at Demon managed to get them in stock, unfortunately this was a little late for me however the car ran superb at Eastbourne even though I did go home early due to the rain and a breakage when I was leading leg two of my final!!!!

Back to Ipswich for a couple of club meets and Mr Hughes and Fairweather (snr) alllowed me to run the 13.5 in with the stocks for some extra practice, good I needed it, however all was not happy in the Team Magic Camp... There were rumblings a plenty, and rumours flew around the web as to what was going to be unvield, First mate Bailey was jumping ship over to the pink love boat, after a dreadfull showing at Eastbourne and Coastal, and me keeping up with him on one meet I think sealed the cars fate!!!! Cabin Boy Woods(jnr) in full sheep fashion jumped soon after even though we sorted his problems out with his radio settings. I could see a trend developing here, and even though I was tempted to jump I percivered with the car and my lap times kept falling and I kept getting faster, I now know that there is nothing fundamentaly wrong with the car its just the lack of talent behind the sticks!! So I am going to stick with the car for outdoors....

But Captain I hear you all cry what was that blue thing that you had on your bench, and here's the crunch, the E4 that I have been running inside is a different kettle of fish. From one week to the next it can be either so far on the pace it is pushing the top of the A final to the next being bottom of the B, and before you all say dont drive like a muppet then, I honestly wasnt most of the time. It was as if the setup fairys would come into the garage over the week and hump the car within an inch of its life and then I would have to drive it the next week when it was handeling like an arthritic 3 legged badger!! So I struck a deal with First Mate Bailey and went back to the blue side and what a pleasure it has been, fast consistent car, easy to handel, predictable to drive week in week out!! Ahh feel the warm glow of blue love!!!!!

So down to Brooklands for the 3rd round of the STCC, and by the looks of the track I was going to need some jumbo pinions, so a quick order with Nick @ Demon and some dustbin lids were on their way up to sunny Norfolk. Early start on the Sunday morning and a leisurely drive with Studdy and Georgie down to Kent, and boy what a track Brooklands is, open fast and surpisingly technical, the closest laptimes that I could get tot he top boys was 1 1/2 seconds and I was geared down at 3.77... Monster!!! It was going to be a battle but I was comfortable with the track and I was in a good mood, something I'm sure to do with the jumbo bacon roll that I had when the cafe opened!! As the day progressed I kept getting faster and faster, the car was feeling good and the racing was close and clean, just the way that I like it, final round of quali came up and I was lying 9th in the B, time for some hot laps, and for the ealy funning the car and me were on the money, banging in some good laps, and then I had a little dink, never mind I thought dont get all angry just get back on it, Damn thats two in as many laps, bugger!! I pulled myself back together and chased my rival Spuddy down like the dog that he was pusing harder and harder and finaly on the last lap I took him, and got passed, had I done enough I thought?? It would have to wait until I had finished marshelling. No I had dipped out on the B by 6 hundreths of a second and only made second in the C, if only I handnt of had those offs and I would have cruised into the B by a good 6 seconds!! Well as I have learnt racing is all about the what if's!!! So into the finals and I had some good close racing to win the 2nd leg of the C and pull 2 fourths out of the bag which netted me 2nd in the C overall, very pleased with that indeed, and I enjoyed the racing that I had with Vince, a good day out indeed and would recomend Brooklands to any racing series as a top venue.

Finaly, I would like to give a mention to my two erstwhile sponsored drivers, Cam MacDonald (aka Crash MacDonald), and Ben "the Mouth" Mannell, Between the pair of the them they are out to make my life a nightmare, Cam just for being Cam, and Ben who is constantly asking questions offering me out for a fight and just lurking!!! I am sure that the devil resides within that Child and Ady agree's. That boy could get into trouble in a blank white box with nothing in!!!! But in all seriousness I would like to congratulate Ben on his top A final win at Eastbourne, even though we will never hear the end of it ever!! and Cam for lending me the permenant marker pen so that I could draw comedy willy's on Jimbo Brewers ailing serpent!! Who I am going to get him a voucher for the Vetenary so that he can have the damn thing Euthanaised and put out of our collective missery. If Jim did well on sunday it was in no small part in thanks to (and in no particular order) Trev for lending him a speedo, me for wrenching on his car when it fell apart again!!! Some nice kind bloke who lent his Lipo's to him and Kenny for lending him some washers.... Jim step up and get rid of the car and get something that stays together longer than 5 mins..... Oh and while Iam ranting about Jims car, maybe a clean would be in order along with some oil, then maybe some new bearings, and let me see how about sorting the diff's out!!! Oh and while you are at it

GET A NEW CAR

Now its not my place to do this here but I recived a phone call today from the Captain asking me to edit his BLOGG about his coments he had made about JIMBO'S car as he said by the time he had got to the end of his Blogg entry he had sunk a few :smt018 & he felt Guilty about what he had written about Jims car I said " well just edit it yourself " The captian refused to do this as he felt he had writen the truth even if he did go a bit far :smt017

So I am Not going to edit it but ADD to it

Now Money may be tight ok But for a so called Sponsored driver running a Sponsored car with SHOT bearings and a buggered Rear Diff Loose Belts and a car that keeps loosing screws this is not good , I could list the amount of times its broken down not finished etc etc But Jimbo will only say But I put it in the A final & I could have won that or I was closing on Fuller or somthing along those lines YES YOU WERE ,YES YOU COULD ,YES YOU CAN Jim Mate you got the talent we know that but for gods sake get a grip and get a good reliable car or somthing other people run so even if you have not got the spares someone else could help you out PLEASE

And with My GTB My Lipo and a Brand new motor the S400 was nowhere near as Quick as the other cars in MOD ....................

So Just Face Facts like I did with the E4 its not the car for you Jim

I hope this is alright leigh and don't take it to heart Jim it had to be said everyone says it and you know it

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Team Magic E4 "It's the Law!"

Its been a quiet couple of weeks, havent been racing at all, had to work last week so missed out on my usual monday night adventure out on the rug, had James come round during the week for some tuition. Diff and shock building, were to be the order of the day. Something that James needs to work on was prep of his car. I think that I opened his eyes to the level of cleanleness and preperation that goes into building these components well time after time.

After the couple of weeks with no RC it was down to West London for some top STCC action, time to bring the magic out again, and prove those doubters wrong that the magic is a bad car. Yet again the car held up and gave a superb performance, nothing broke, in fact the only issue that I had all day which was what ratio was I going to go with, up or down???? Took a gamble and went lowish, Mmmm good speed but not fantastic, Quali 2 and up I went the car was much faster than before, but boy did the motor get nice and hot, after that run I was lying p7 in the B, and not that far off of Trev and Ben, and the Grey Fox. Wtih nothing to loose and everthing to play for I gambeled and went down a couple of teeth, the car seemed smoother but did not look fast, however I wasnt getting dropped down the straight, and the run was faultless, 1 problem 2 mins into the run the car just shut down and stopped bugger!!!! this left me with Pole in the C hoo hum still not a bad day so far.

The finals started, and not without a little trouble, didnt seem that I could get off the line and into the first corner without a little bit of door banging, a couple of nudges and I found myself down in 7th or 8th, time to fight my way back into contention and push hard, by the time of the bell I had fought my way back up to 2nd. Final 2, and again with the door banging and I found myself back at the bottom of the field, another hard chase and another 2 nd place. Last final and all to play for with 3 of us that could win it, this was going to go to a count back. This time I got off the line without a hitch and lead from start to finish coming out on top for the last final. Top result I've won my first big final yehaw!!!! Very pleased with that one.

To be continued.......

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Team Magic E4 "It's the Law!"

Another early sunday dawned and I found myself staring out the of the window to a dank looking sky. This time there was to be no wondering what the weather was like at the track, as the track was only 10mins up the road, and a date with George, Greyfox and First mate Baily beckoned for a round of the Schumacher BTCC, this was looking to be an adventure,as the Greyfox and Bailey had been testing secretly behind closed doors!!

With zero runtime on the car and a stupid grin on my chops, an air of resigned fate would be the order of the day, this seemed to have worked with some charm the previous weekend, however the only missing ingredient was a couple of jugs of pimms to blur the vision and numb the senses.

With no practice, as I have spent soo much time at this track I thought that I would give Q1 the full beans and go for it. No worries with a late 18 lapper good run no real dramas, Q2 maximum attack mode and a solid mid 19 lapper was the order of the day, the car was solid with no real Drama's, with everything to play for in the final Quali it rained, not enough to soak everything, but just enough to give the track a little soaking and was some of the nice grip away. I made the decision to stick with the 32's and go all out and keep the 28's in the box for the final's, in hindsight not a good move as the car was sensitive to direction chnages and with the decrease in grip the car was not fully on the money. The result of this was that I poled the B, with cry's of pot hunter and sandbagging coming from my ever supportive band of Coastal team mates we moved into final mode.

F1, what a superb race lead from start to finish and lapped the whole field, with a time that would have put me 2nd in the A doh!!!!! still that shiney pot was looking very inviting, just needed to keep everything together for the last final. With everything to play for, the rain decided to show up and remind everyone what Snetterton is famous for (Its Weather) With a Drivers vote on the cards to abandon the meeting George and A voting for abandonment (as we would have won) we got out voted. Spending the valuable minutes water proofing the car and fitting a set of wets I went out for the last run of the day. Sitting on pole the rain started again, spitting this time.. Beep beep beep the count down starting beep beep, did I put all the blue tack in the right places beep beep, will these tyres get me off the line Beeeeeeeeeeeeep and we were off, the car flew off the line right tuck it into the first corner doh understeer of massive proportions 2nd place man went through, right get it back together, breath and dont push, find the level of the grip, right now push, noticed that 2nd place man couldnt get the power on proper right start to reel him in, going to make the move coming onto the straight as I could get the power on earlier than him due in no small part to the awesome power of the Magic and we are past tuck it in to the first corner and I'm off, and no looking back to the bell. Another win and a B final win overall!!! To top that off George put in a stonker and we made it a Coast double win in 13.5 Brushless a top day out and some cheesy pot photo's to top the day off!!!

Enjoyed... and good company from Team Coastal.

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Team Magic E4 "It's the Law!"