Busy, Busy!!!

Man have I been busy since coming back from Vegas! I am sorry I have been so MIA. There are lots of things to be excited of here at RR for the upcoming weeks, months and next year.

First let me tell you all I have a permanent Mini-Z track to practice and race in Houston now!!! All of you better watch out now ;) A couple of my hardcore Mini-Z buddies and I got together, got RCP, a Giro-Z system and after talking with Meir, the hobby shop owner, set up a track at M&M hobbies in Bellaire, TX. The best part is that the track is only about 10 minutes away from my house. M&M was also where Reflex and Mini-Z got their beginnings as this was the location where about four-and-a-half years ago we started racing Mini-Z's. We are planning on racing every other weekend and hope to coordinate with HIRCR, the other track in Houston so that we can race Mini-Z's in Houston every weekend, alternating locations. Stay tuned for a calendar and updates on our site!

Next are new products. We already have our 96mm h-plates tearing tracks across the world and gaining huge popularity. We have our new sticker sheets to deck out your rides in Reflex swag. Upcoming, we have a couple of new things coming that will revolutionize and keep pushing the envelope of set-up refinement in the racing scene.

First, we have the full titanium screw sets for the MR-02. This is a full screw set that will have self tapping and machine screws as well. You will be able to fully deck out your car with weight saving titanium screws from the chssis, to the motor mount and even the DPS mount.

We also are testing on some "tuned" 70 turn stock motors in order to get the most out of your machine at the club level and races where handouts are not mandated. We are currently seeing about 10-15% gains in power from stock form which is very exciting.

Our new tires, the SSGV2 will soon be available as well. This was the tire I used to secure TQ at the recent PNWC in Las Vegas. This tire is designed to have less grip than the SSG2WD for those tracks that are higher grip as well as the stock class, where maximum tire grip is not needed.

Finally, we have a new service we are going to offer soon. We will now be selling fully programmed ASF boards,with specific adjustmenrs for different racing classes as well as tracks. With the programming capabilities of the new 2.4 GHz boards, huge gains in performance can be found by properly tuning your car's electronics. We are in the final stages of testing the different settings we are going to offer. Amongst the settings we will have: 2WD Modified, Pan Car Modified, 2WD Stock, AWD Stock, AWD Modified Short Track and AWD Modified Long Track.

In the meantime, we would also like to thank all of you for supporting us in our first year back. It has been a great year at Reflex, but be assured this is only the beginning. We have many more great ideas and products coming this next year that will surely help you stay at the front of the pack!

Happy Holidays to all!!!

CT-

redrc coverage!

Reflex makes the front page at RedRC.net!

http://www.redrc.net/2008/11/pn-racing-mini-z-world-cup-finals/

Looks like we're on our way to getting more 1/28 coverage! Our hits have gone 4x on the site already!

reflex pnwc afterparty at pure...

EMU, Rui, Cristian, and 4-drink TQ Alberto

track layout from PNWC 2008...

Here's a composite panoramic pic of the track. I'll have it up in Sketchup soon.

787B on AWD...

Here are some pics of our new "barely legal" tail for the 787B. It's designed to shrink the 102mm wheelbased 787B to 94mm. Enjoy!

Checking in from Vegas...

The whole gang is here. Check the video blog on YouTube.

My Favorite Lube for...

It's sticky, gooey, very consistent and lasts a loooooooooooong time. It's Kyosho's 30000WT diff gear grease. It is a bit on the pricey side, but I would say it is the most important thing in my toolbox right now. I use this lube on my Reflex side damper, AWD knuckles, SAS rear end, to style my hair and I even put it on toast sometimes.

No seriously the action of this grease is really impressive. Much better than any other brand silicone oil or lube. Since I started using this lube on my AWD, my lap times have dropped and the performance of the car is again on par with my MR-02s.

This was not something I discovered either, but rather my friends on the other side of the World, in Hong Kong showed me. Of course Joe had been using it already, but as usual had failed to mention it to me (he's just forgetful).

Try some, seriously, you won't be disappointed. It is available at our store.

getting prepped...

Painted up a new F1 body for Vegas...


A pic of the "pit space"... Rebuilding my F1, AWD, and a 96mm 2WD stock car for Lex.

pics from OC/RC inaugural Mini-Z race 10/9/08!

And we're off! Old layout, btw...

Wallnuts only has batteries for Mini-Z, yet he's racing. What's your excuse? Beg, borrow, steal, and we'll see you on Thursday!
Deven playing the violin.
John doing...well I'm not sure what he's doing.
























Tim dusting off his MR-02.
Our fearless announcer...

The whole motley crew: Tim Johnson, Deven White, John Whitman, Dillon Davies, Nick Wautlet, Robert Black, Nick (impulse purchase) Black, Mike Gonzales, Joe Chen, Ian Douglas, Dane Davies, and Doug Shelp. Thanks for making the first of many races to come such a fun time!

new deep layout at OC/RC

it's alive!!!

The tire bridge works perfectly. No counting issues with the Giro-Z system at all. So lets get those orders rolling in! For only 1,000,000 euros, you can have your own Giro-Z tire bridge lap counter! :p

ouch...

Had an X-acto knife roll off the table and stab my foot perfectly straight... Sucks. Nice clean cut though. Just a little sore. Need to put those little rubber triangle pencil things on my blades so they don't roll...

new tracks (PLURAL) at OC/RC...

Quite possibly the baddest timing loop in existence... Took us a week to design and make the thing, and I'm pretty proud of it. I hope that it serves the growing Mini-Z scene at OC/RC well! Our first race will be next Thursday on October 9th! :) All you OC/RC guys should also try to make it out to Kenon in Arcadia this Saturday October 4th for the PNWC Regional. Should be some awesome competition. Cristian is flying into town tomorrow for this event.




Here's a composite panoramic view of the new layout on the OC/RC offroad track. They added some better landing transitions this week and the track is dialed! Thanks Nick + rest of the OC/RC build crew!
Here's a low-angle shot of the whoop section. That stupid board on the left ripped my shock apart. My own fault for getting squirrelly looking for a better run onto the straightaway...

1st production side dampers...

just gorgeous... ready for battle at this weekends PNWC qualifier...

proof of concept...

Well the short XX-4 braces appear to work! Mary Kate Olson has been "testing" them in his XX-4 with a 6.5 brushless, and this thing is insane. It flies the triple at OCRC with ease. I even managed to do it, that's how well it jumps and how much motor it has. Anyways, the car takes a nosedive into the face of the triple with all of the impact on the left front wheel. And it broke... a PULLEY! hahaha! No damage at all to the arm, and this is without crashback screws. You can see from the pic below that the front wheel flexed so far that it hit the hingepin screw, which gouged a chunk of plastic from the inside. You can barely see the arc of the gouge on the inside of the wheel in this pic (sorry cameraphone...), and you can definitely see the yellow plastic filling the screw socket! Now I need to make some for myself.



















On a side note, fast guy J. Filipow drove his XX-4 to the A-main win this week at OCRC. Looks like the old goat is making a comeback! Now we just need to get Jukka driving his again...

The Hong Kong Standard...

Recently, when I attended the Atomic Cup Finals in Hong Kong I got to experience a whole new world. The place is amazing, with towering buildings, incredible sights and really friendly people. The trip was truly awe inspiring, probably the best trip I have ever been on.

Of the many experiences that Atomic treated us international drivers to was the race. Even though our results were not as high as what we usually perform at, the knowledge we gained was incredible. It being our very first time on carpet, we honestly did not expect to win, but at least we wanted to learn from it.

The AWD cars the Hong Kong guys drive were ridiculous. They were the closest I have ever seen a Mini-Z perform in relationship to 1/10th scale cars. Carpet is really conducive to this platform as the grip is more consistent and there isn't tile joints to upset the car and make it flip over in corners. They were truly a sight to see.

After the race was over, I approached the local guys from Hong Kong, who happened to TQ the AWD class and asked him for some set-up pointers. Come to find out, I was not too far off, but the little details he pointed out to me, really made the car better. He showed me how to set-up the front end so that it is more forgiving and more SAS like. He adjusted the droop in the front and the rear to more ideal settings and all of the sudden my car came alive!

Below I leave you with some pictures. Expect an article soon with more explicit details... -CT

random 1/10 project...

I made these for a friend of mine at the track. Little short braces to reinforce the arms of the best handling 1/10 buggy ever made: the Losi XX-4. They're made from EA3 material from a busted XXX chassis. Credit for the fabbing up the original goes to F N CUDA on RCTech.net

ruf's new body

Finally got off my butt and painted the 350Z... Enjoy!

after the storm...

Well, Houston is still pretty much shut down. The infrastructure is recovering this week. Unfortunately, we need to be in Hong Kong this weekend for the Atomic World Cup. We'll try our best to get orders out before we leave, but there really isn't much shipping going in and out of Houston right now. If USPS isn't back online before we have to fly, we'll ship orders out as soon as we return next week. We'd like to apologize for the inconvenience, and thank everyone for their concern. It takes more than a hurricane to slow us down for long! :p

stickers final...

Here is the final version of the stickers. Can't wait to get them in!

i heart stickers...

Everyone's been asking for them, so we've finally got to work on them. Here's a preliminary draft of our new 3"x5" sticker sheet. These are going to be made for us by Upgrade R/C so they'll be ultra-high quality. That means we'll probably have to charge a couple bucks for them, but we'll throw one in for our loyal racers! ;)

My Weapon of Choice... The RR-02!!!

Many of you guys have seen pictures floating around of one of our MR-02's which has the positive wire lead to the motor coming out of the center of the top cover. This car is a little project I took upon early this year when I was still a TGR factory pilot. Ozan, at TGR had sent me the latest version of his awesome speedo to test.

The new Spinner + is a fully adjustable speed controller, which can be programmed by following several easy steps in the set-up process. In combination with a KO Propo digital servo board and a de-cased Spektrum Micro receiver, I came up with my new electronics package.

By stuffing the new electronics in my MR-02, we started the transformation of that particular Mini-Z that today, we like to dub the RR-02. Many changes have come to the car, it has been converted from a Pan Car, to a Touring Car several times and back. The one constant that we love most though is the most important one: its driveability.

The stand alone hobby grade electronics put even the new KO 2.4 ASF boards to shame. The throttle feel and steering precision is matched only by those found in bigger scales.

At the time, only the PN Racing Pan Car class allows this type of electronics package, but we are constantly lobbying for them to be allowed in other classes as well. The cars are simply better.

The RR-02 is not just the electronics though, what allowed us to call it our own name was the combination of our Wide-Track-Front end (a.k.a. WTF!) and our new Side Damper Rear Suspension. Some may say that we are being self-centered by renaming a Kyosho MR-02 into a Reflex Racing RR-02, but if you really look at it, the only Kyosho parts we are using on this car anymore is the battery box, servo gears and motors. The rear pod comes from PN Racing, along with other tidbits from other manufacturers, the car is essentially all Reflex Geometry. And what makes one chassis different from others? The Geometry!!!

Anyways, I love racing this car. It is my habitual club racer and it will also by my entry at the PN Racing Regional in October at Kenon. Kenon is known to be the fastest track in this year's PN Racing Mini-Z World Cup, and if all goes as planned, the RR-02 might end up at the top of the standings at the end of the year before the finals in Las Vegas in November... ;)

Well anyways, enough rambling. I now leave you with some pics in its current touring car 98mm set-up.

Showing my rear end...

-jc

New Rear Suspension and 98 mm wheelbase

The second my eyes landed on the new PN Racing 98mm LCG mount I was inspired. It was not the fact thing down so flat (which is an added perk), but rather the upper carbon fiber piece and the mounting holes for it. Since the first time I ran a Mini-Z, I always wanted to try out damper tubes instead of disk dampers. Damper tubes tend to be more consistent and provide higher adjustability through the use of different thickness fluids.

Back in '05, right after the first PNWC I played around with a tri-shock set-up using the Atomic RM mini-shocks as the two side shocks. I really did not play around with it much because the car would push too much. The set-up was a bit on the heavy side and it just was not very practical. The disk damper cars were simply quicker.

With the new PN Racing motor mount, a lot of possibilities opened up. With the motor being so low, there is a lot of extra space in between the chassis and the mount. The clearance between the top of the motor mount and the top of the plastic chassis allowed me to install a side damper tube, very much like the one in the Inzane P28 to one of the outside front holes on the motor mount and then with a simple upper deck mounted fiber glass piece (much like our body mount system) I could connect it to the front of the chassis. To finish it off we moved the disk damper post further back and mounted a Kyosho oil filled shock absorber to provide the fore and aft dampening. If the motor mount was not so low, then the shock would have to be run much higher and therefore, it would not fit under the body of the car.

The performance gain of this new suspension is incredible. Our set-ups have now gone to 98mm wheelbases back from 94mm. The cars seem to carry much more speed in high-speed corners and much more grip under acceleration. In combination with the WTF, the cars have become much more stable at higher speeds and as a consequence can now lay down power comparable to the AWDs. As a result we are seeing much faster lap times with our 2wd modified touring cars aided by punchier, matched batteries and insanely fast hand-wound motors.

Below are pictures of the prototype rear suspension. Hopefully they will be out within the month. Production will be limited at first, so reserve yours at our store ASAP!

-CT

ruf checking in...

Hi folks... It's been a crazy few months for us here at Reflex. Even more so than when we kicked things back off at the beginning of the year. As you can see we are really starting to roll with some new and innovative products. 1/28 is here to stay and we're here to push it to levels it's never been before!

On a personal note, I've been moving to a new apartment, so my interweb superhighway access down until Tuesday... boo...

Cristian and I try to divvy up the responsibilities and each take a swing at the things we do best. We've both got a lot of irons in the fire and a lot of technical content in the works as well as product development, testing and promotion. Here are the things I've got on my plate:
1) Wide Track Front-end for MR-02 Article: Why and how it works!
2) F1 chassis build-up and blueprint: long overdue, but hopefully worth the wait!
3) T-shirts!!! BTW vote for your sizes! Cristian likes to shop at Baby Gap, so let me know if there are some big boys out there that want XXL...

-jc

Our very own blog...

Here it is guys, our very first true real blog entry. I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

A lot of exciting stuff is going on at Reflex right now. We have some new parts for the Mini-Z MR-02, that I have tested and which sincerely work better than what is currently available in the market. This pumps us up so much because our intentions have never been to copy other peoples designs, I think that I speak for Joe and myself in saying that our main goal here at Reflex is to continue to push the performance edge in Mini-Z Racing by thinking outside the box and dreaming up of crazy products that are functional and different than what is available, period.

We have never wanted to manufacture springs, h-plates, diffs, etc, because in all honesty, what makes one better than the other? Nothing really, it all ends up being a matter of preference. That won't be the case for Reflex though, we have some crazy ideas that we could pull the trigger on right now if it wasn't so expensive to manufacture parts. But, as Reflex keeps growing along with its customer base, you will see a lot of these products executed and delivered. All we have to do in the meantime is be patient for these products to hit the stores.

Here are some pictures:




-ct