The HandyRacing Crew takes a "Quick" Field Trip to the International iHobby Expo 2009


Yeah right, a quick field trip for the day.  Like they say, in the beginning there was the plan...

With so many things to do in way too short a time, we originally planned a quick day trip to cover what I thought would be a cool show with enough neat things to see to make it worth a day trip... while the other friends would stay over and run a "few packs" at Leisure Hours Raceway, in Joliet on Sunday morning.

Once the guys all met up at the Expo and began putting their heads together, they quickly decided the show was too big to see in one day, and that they had "new" ideas for the weekend.  How about we tour the Expo only part of the day Saturday, then go and run the full Saturday night race program at Leisure Hours, then come back and see even more of the Expo on Sunday?

For starters, the Donald E Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont is a world class facility / the show was HUGE, and the entrance banner said it all...




The show floor was a true field of dreams.  It was kind of like the electronics store commercial where the guy goes running off towards the gadgets...  yeah that was us too:




Aside from casual perusing the general layout of the place, the first thing that REALLY got our attention was the big demo -track set up that had various programs scheduled throughout the day, and the BigSquidRC program ROCKED.  HARD.  Like carpet over concrete, hard.

Those bashers really showed what hard surface abuse can do to RC rigs.

The hit of the Saturday morning show was Castle Creations Team Driver Tim Mohr, nailing not one over the banner back-flip, but TWO, back to back (in an electric 1/8 buggy):



FYI note, the electric 1/8 buggy drove away after the landings...

And of course, BigSquidRC owned the T-Shirt business:





And then not long after the bashing program, what we went down to get a look at, was a first hand look at the new Slash 4x4.

From the side...



The rear drivetrain arrangement...



The front drivetrain arrangement...




And following the basher program from the BigSquid folks, we also got a look at the Slash 4x4 on the track showing what it can do as narrated by Peter Vieira:



According to Peter V, the truck comes ready to race right out of the box:

1)  Velinion brushless system
2)  2.4 ghz radio set
3)  7-cell 3000 battery nickel metal, (Lipo upgrade would be a HandyRacing recommendation)

List at $399  (all you need is a charger)

Look for a WHOLE NEW 4x4 SCT racing class to be created by Traxxas, setting the pace in RC.

Again.



And there was so much more to see, with so little time to take it all in...

We took off in the early afternoon and ran the Leisure Hours evening race program.




And then returning Sunday morning to take in the rest of the show, where else does on stop for an Espresso while en-route:




Continuing on with the Expo on Sunday morning, Richard Trujillo, Product Manager from Team Losi showed amazing know-how as he negotiated the demo rock mountain with two of the big rigs, then the littler desk size  "bump" with the 1/24 Micro.






Watch closely as Richard shows how its done:






RedCat Racing had a big booth with lots to show in the Crawler department,
like the BIG 1/8 scale "Rock Slide"





And, Novak seemed to have a lot to show in the crawler game too:






We also got a special treat.  We got a close look at the new RC-Monster 1/8 scale conversion Slipperential on display at the Tekin booth.  While checking it out up close and personal, Team Tekin Chief Jim Campbell not only let us take some close up pictures of the set up (as powered by Tekin ESC and motor with an RC-Monster Conversion kit), he also gave a hot off the press Tekin banner for the New Proving Grounds Raceway in Jenison Michigan.  HUGE thanks, it was delivered in time for the inaugural race help Friday night Oct 30.






When we found out RC-Monster had a booth at the show, we headed over to find "The Monster" Mike Cronin at his booth.  Not only was he very nice to chat with, he agreed to do an impromptu interview to tell us more about the Slipperential...




And - if that wasn't enough RC fun and games for one weekend, we checked out the BigSquidRC bashing show one more time....  keep an eye out for the ceiling / rafters decor near the end...

I tell you, those guys really rock and know how to beat on the RC trucks an cars

(and move T-Shirts)






All in all it was a real busy whirlwind tour of the RC world.

We stopped an chatted with the folks at AMB about timing systems and personal transponders...

Looked at tires, looked at steering servos, looked at radios....

We saw an example of some amazing quality aluminum chassis custom work at the XTremeRacing booth - I really think they deserve a closer look.  I wish I had taken some pictures but we were really pushed to our limits by Sunday afternoon.  The bevels and anodizing were amazing, and the fit feel and finish of their hop up parts looked second to none.

Tried to think of all the things we wanted to see but forgot to look for...

Then, as if all that wasn't enough, one of our HandyRacing Crew won the PRO-Line line decked out Slash Bug in the end of the show drawing.




AND - he raced it the very next weekend at the new Proving Grounds Raceway...

ROCK AND ROLL

Smash racing, coming at you in all its glory...

Tons more pictures in general including more Castle Creations and other stuff...

More pics already posted at the HandyRacing Facebook page...

Thank you to everyone who was very generous with their time and talked to us / let us film / take pictures of the RC products we were most curious about and wanted to share with our readers here.

AND, pictures of the freshly hung banner at The Proving Grounds along with racing action videos from the opening night coming soon...

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Posted by HandyRacing at 10/28/2009 11:08 PM
Categories: General Racing Action
Tags: HandyRacing international i hobby expo leisure hours traxxas slash 4x4 losi rock crawling
 

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