An Old Favorite

Yuuuuuuuuuuupp That's right! I got a Bandit again!

This isn't recent though. A while back, I had an itch. This was an itch like no other. Scratching did nothing. Talcum power was nowhere to be found and I didn't want to go to the store.

The itch was R/C.

At the time I got my second Bandit, I hadn't run any of my R/Cs in over a year and where I live, there aren't many places to run a drift car so I needed something else. I just had to go back to my roots. I got a Bandit and I've been happy since then.

The Bandit was my first hobby grade R/C and I regret selling my original one everyday. It was one of the XL-5 models with the new grey plastic. Yeah, they do still sell those today but it was older then this one obviously. My original Bandit had many miles on it when I sold it and I plan to put just as many on this one.

I actually took this with me to Nor Cal hobbies when I visited San Jose not long ago and used it on their new indoor off road track. I was a little worried that a stock Bandit couldn't make it around the track. Well I was wrong. I managed to turn a few heads and get some very curious people ask me if it was really a Bandit.

It sure was a blast to drive it on a track. I was clearing jumps with no too much trouble and keeping up with guys who were driving Associated chassis. I did forget to bring the stock tires and had grip trouble but that was about it. The whole day I raced on the track without a single problem. Even the shock caps didn't blast off. The other guys broke their cars several time and my Bandit just got a few scratches. If I was closer to a track I would competitively race the Bandit. I know what it need and how to do it but lack the track to use it on.

An old friend and a new(ish) camera

Yes, I'm back with pictures. I finally found a camera that takes OK pictures. Good enough to post on here at least. It's a Sanyo ZIO cell phone camera but since that phone has no service on it, it's now a camera.

I just wanted to post up a picture of my DP. Just the way I left it when I left San Jose from my vacation 2 weeks ago. Plus it was actually sunny today so I could snap some pictures.

New Car: The Drift Devil

Many people have seen the site R2hobbies.com and saw how many clone cars they have. I've know about them for quite some time but this time I actually wanted to buy one. I ended up getting the Drift Devil. After Google searching the car, it's actually a copy of a Eagle Racing front motor conversion kit. And being from R2hobbies, it was dirt cheap.

But that low cost didn't come without it's price. For one thing, R2hobbies said nothing the entire time the car was in shipping. No confirmation emails, no messages that indicated the car was shipped...nothing. It was from Hong Kong so I'm not counting the long shipping time.

Once I got it I opened up the box and then I found (more like I didn't find) something horrifying. The kit had NO instruction manual on how to build it. I was stumped on how to build it but wasn't entirly surprised. It IS
 a knock off car. None the less I did complete it but it took longer then I would have liked. And more rebuilds then I want to mention.

I might do a review on this kit since there were many surprises (good and bad) and just to let everyone know if it's worth buying one of these. My opinion though, buying clone cars based off a well known brand's design isn't a good thing to do. Yes, I am guilty of that now but I just fell in love with the front motor chassis and had to have it.

Driving Skill cannot be Bought

What I like most about drifting is you can't win by out buying your competition. In on road racing you have to have THE BEST chassis, batteries, charger, radio, etc etc etc. If you don't have any of those forget about being competitive. Luckily that's not the case with all on road racing.

I recently went back to San Jose for a week and caught up with my old drift buddies and we hit the track. I haven't drifted in over a year since I last visited so I was expecting to be pretty rusty. You know, crashing everywhere, spinning out, going way off line. Surprisingly I did pretty good after such a long hiatus. Some guy at the track who drift almost every weekend were having trouble getting around the track. Granted, they were CS cars but what I'm trying to say is these guys had some fancy looking chassis with them. I glanced some looks around the pits to see what everyone is running these days and most of them are running these front motor mounted chassis that they use in Japan. Chassis' that are not very affordable. So these guys bought these expensive drift kits and they have trouble getting around the track still? Yes, that's right. They are neglecting something very important that I held so dear to myself when I first started drifting. 

Learn as much as you can about driving.

Driving on a track is VERY different then being in an open parking lot.

I still remember my first time on a track. Before I even went I was in parking lots "freestyling" or just drifting with no set course. I thought I was so good and better then some of those guys I saw on videos. Well, let's just say I had a very rude awakening. My first time on a track with my Traxxas 4 Tec I crashed on every single turn, didn't hit a single clipping point and probably pissed off a few guys by ramming their cars. But I still had a blast. After that I made myself clear: I was going to learn how to drive. I drifted for 2 years straight before I "retired" and I have to say, I'm still learning. Every day I went to the track to a session, competition or demo I learned something new. A new setup for my car, a new technique to get that right line, it was always something.

I hit the pinnacle of my driving skill when the SJ drifting king said I was one of the top guys for drifting in San Jose. That sure was a confidence boost.

I've come a long way to my first session at Hobbytown back in September 2008 and I still feel there is more to learn. You can't know everything about anything and driving is no exception. Not having fun at the track because you crash all the time and can't make a clean lap? Practice driving your car. It's not handling right? Ask someone! Another thing I like about drifting is the guys that drift along side you are very helpful and willing to aid someone who is new.

Another thing I do but not everyone notices is I watch other guys drift. A lot of my time spent at the track is just watching guys go around the track and just watching how they do it. Find someone who gets around the track cleanly and has a style that you like. When you get a chance, talk to them for a bit and they can help you out if you need it.