Gallery>> Rc Drift At Mini Mobil Welt

For this month's theme I traveled to Germany after I got an invitation from the Dutch ‘Team Wreck it
Sideways'
. I was told there was a small gathering at Mini Mobil Welt, an RC
heaven in Lünen, Germany with several
tracks including two where you could drift.

I never had
any close encounters with these cars so I didn't really know what to expect.
When I entered the building I quickly met up with the guys who invited me. They
introduced me to the world of RC drifting.  

It seemed
there was much more to it than I initially expected. It is all about
personalizing and fine tuning the cars just like in real life. The Soarer above
belongs to one of the team members who invited me. When you look closely you
can even spot Turbozilla on the side shooting rockets. That is because the ‘Team Wreck
it Sideways' is officially sponsored by Touge Automotive. I'll have a
closer look at their cars in another post.

The guys
who were driving had to pay a small entry fee. Here you see some of them drifting
their cars on the large track that is normally reserved for race cars. The
track is fully paved and features some very twisty corners. 

Right at
the entrance of the building was this much smaller track that had been specially
made for drifters.

They even
had small section reserved for the rock crawlers. These guys take things very
seriously.

I saw so many cool bodies that I lost count. Some of
them are built as street versions like this Lexus GS.

But others
are built as fully fledged drift cars – as demonstrated by this Toyota AE86.

The AE86
body proved to be quite popular. This purple version had some cool features but
I will show you this car in greater detail in a different post.

The car
belongs to Ricardo, you see him here making some small adjustments before
heading out onto the track.

They take
this ‘hobby' very seriously. I was amazed that you can adjust almost everything
just like you can on a real car. Everybody uses different setups to accommodate
their own driving style.

Even the
controllers can be adjusted in a gazillion different ways.

This is a
Street Jam OTA-R3R chassis made from carbon fiber and lots of custom parts. The
owner even used titanium screws to fix the components to the chassis.

But
sometimes stuff breaks. Just like in real life these guys bring lots of spares
so they can continue drifting no matter what happens.

One of the
pulleys broke so the car lost its front wheel drive. All these cars are four
wheel drive but you can adjust how much power goes to the front or rear wheels.

As I
mentioned before the AE86 shell was one of the favorites amongst the RC
drifters. This orange one looked pretty tuff with its bright yellow wheels and
green rollcage. 

I was
pretty stoked seeing so many Speedhunters stickers all over the place. I spoke
to several people telling me that they all loved Speedhunters, luckily I
brought even more stickers for them to use.

I even saw
several replicas of our own Team Need For Speed S14 driven by Matt Powers. This
one had the 2010 livery on it. I'll have a spotlight on the one with the new 2011
livery on it, it has been replicated even in the smallest details.

Most of
these stickers are custom made by the builders themselves.

Most of the
cars had lights and some of them even flashed. This wide S15 even had a small
light inside the exhaust simulating flames.

In the
other room I spotted this replica of Mad Mike's RX8. Although it is not a perfect
replica it still looked good.

Even Itasha
found its way onto RC drift cars demonstrated by this Toyota Supra.

This cool
R33 even had vented brake rotors behind its bright yellow wheels.

Here is the
same car while it receives some TLC.

Tijs Lochbaum,
the guy who invited me, let me drive his convertible Soarer and I must say it
is a lot of fun. I did need some laps before I got the hang of it because it
isn't as easy as it looks. I already started looking at several kits. This can
only end in another expensive hobby …  

-Jeroen Willemsen

RC Drift

RC Drift Events

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1

Those RC cars look like so much fun!

2

This looks great fun . Its probably the only way I can afford to build and modify my own car, and fix it when I crash. Do they ever use the petrol powered ones for drifting.?

3

Seeing that the last 2 pics are of my chassis i can say this..



it was a nice place to be at had lots of fun and if you are into drifting but cant afford a real driftcar this is a real good substitute and no matter what the weather, surface or favorite car is because nearly every car model is represented in the RC drift scene



i say dont knock it till you tried it.

4

@Ollie: No, petrol power isn't used much anymore. Because of the low speed but high revs the engines run very hot, and the torque is at the high end of the rpms... On top of that its loud, it stinks, its expensive and very impractical (for every 5 minutes of driving your fiddling with the carburator for 15 minutes, and everything gets sticky). Brushless electro motors are what we use, they have a lot of torque in the whole RPM range, they are cheap and quite efficient so you have long runtimes.

5

Love the R/C coverage, great job. Also loved when you guys toured the HPI headquarters!

6

Great writeup and pictures! Such a shame i couldn't be there :(

You can find many more pics and reviews of competitions (in Dutch) on my website: www.DoriGazo.nl

7

Any more pics of the rock crawling ones? That jeep look amazing detail wise. I had not seen anything like that before.





Cool hobby!

8

nice write-up. love the small jdmsociety.nl sticker

9

great report!! good work Jeroen! nice to read about you got infected by rc drifting ;)



if you see this special kind of RC Sport in comparison to others its the cheapest way to start drifting at all ;)

would be nice to meet you again at some rc events!!



thanks for the nice picture of that silver carbon chassis standing on the Speedhunters carstand!

got the sticker from MTP himself ^^

10

its very fun! get your self a solid kit first and then go from there

11

Nice Jeroen, great write up, looking forward to your next posts!



@Mattie en Bert; sluikreclame FTW XD

12

crazy to see so much attention to detail in the NFS S14. Dedication comes in all shapes and sizes!

13

no videos? the videos make it so much cooler.still fun post :)

14

wow

i ded not know that rc car can by that cool , i have drift rc car i wash my car was cool like thos >

16

watch driftpunk.blogspot.com for some nice bodys...

17

@RyanH: Video is in the making :)

18

awesome looking cars im building a 350z at the moment but we need more tracks in perth 2 drift on

19

I think it's awesome that you guys make R/C coverages besides "real" car coverages! I'm a R/C-drifter myself, and I have to say, I've had a lot of fun with my cars, even though it's expensive, it's worth all the money you spend!

20

Nice repo on a very cool hobby. Somewhere in time in want to do this also.

21

Nice repo on a very cool hobby. Somewhere in time in want to do this also.

22

Paul, that's a Axial SCX10, google it and be dazzled!



23

The R33 on the 2nd last picture even has brake dust on the rims ! attention to detail :)

24

For more nice bodys watch driftpunk.blogspot.com ;-)

25

Youve got some grainyness in a couple photos. Turn down the iso a little and youll get a better photo and still get the action shot

26

i've had one of these for almost a year now and i love every minute of it. i have the HPI Sprint2 series and you can drift these right out of the box. i've been seeing the Monster Ford mustang around for R2R's, if you are into that.



if you are planning on getting one of these, you might as well start emptying out your garage or basement floor now...

27

From which brand are these rc-cars? HPI-Racing?

28

Thanks for giving us some space in your magazine and writing a great article on a really cool and upcoming hobby.

It not only taken serious in Japan but spreading to other countries as well. USA,FRANCE,SPAIN, just to name a few.

Maybe you can do an article on the difference in driving types. 50/50 and CS-counter steer.That is another aspect of this great hobby.



Thanks again SPEEDHUNTERS.

Now here is an open invite to come visit the NOR-EASTERN part of USA (NY.NJ.PA)

29

One of the reasons I came to the recent RC Drift event was to see this car. It's an exact replica

30

It's a great hobby. Doing the body and making the perfect chassis setup are nice challenges..

31

It was so awesome. Thanks a lot to Speedhunters for being guest for this day. I hope it won`t be the last time...



Thanks to Tizer for making it happen.



Thanks to Jeroen Willemsen for this report and your visit.

32

Gimme a bit... got more then 5gigs of HD vids to sort and compile into a vid

33

If you drive 5 minutes and you have to fiddle with the carb for 15 then your carb is junk and you need a new one. I bought a nice one, set it once a summer and once a winter. Never more than that. Seems like you break your rubber band belts more often than that.

34

We need more shots of that first AE with the clear hood. I never saw a R/C Drifter with such detail!!

BTW if you want to get in on Drifting cheap (just for fun not compettition) the Exceed brand cars are cheap and tough!

35

RC racing is fun for sure, I do offroad 10th scale buggy racing, but all the electronics work the same way for this stuff. I would get a drifting car if there was a track around for it. The fun part is being able to customize and tune everything about your car

36

@Spark: I've been drifting a belt driven chassis for more that 4 years now, and I've never, not once, broken a belt ;)

37

i now work in a RC shop and have 2 Motor transfers under my belt ;P

38

http://driftpunk.blogspot.com/2011/03/drift-3-body-contest-is-autosalon-s15.html



You like Replikas: Watch this! Fernando Wiehrls S15 from Autosalon Industries..

39

I must dust off my old Tamiya E30 M3, that was a lot of fun to get sideways. I had a bucket seat, 15" Minilites, and headlights I could switch on and off using the 3rd channel. I think Paddy McGrath had one or two of these wee beasties at one stage as well…

40

Hello,



i shared this on facebook. I hope thats ok. Otherwise i will remove it.



Realy nice pics!



regards

Sebastian / CuBe

42

While speaking to some of the RC drifters at the RC Mini Mobil Welt it seemed that it's not all about

43

You might not imagine November being a big month for Speedhunting, but for many of us it's one of busiest months of the year. Here's what the team cleaned up from the cutting room floor in November.

44

How much is it for the ae86 purple cause I want it

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