Graupner Pistenbully tribute video

Here's the ultimate tribute to my alltime favourite R/C vehicle. The Pisten Bully was produced by Kyosho in the 80s and distributed by Graupner in Germany. Music by Jasmin. This video is dedicated to my dear Grandma, who passed away on 22 December 2009. I miss you.

Pisten Bully snow run

Finally it's that time of the year again where the Pisten Bully makes it out of the garage! All pics taken by my girlfriend (best r/c car photographer ever, but could be a bit more persistant to cold temperature;) ).

Snow Crawl Geilenkirchen

Some snapshots from a frosty crawl run at Megadrom Geilenkirchen.

Rough Champ Buggy Rider

This is still my Rough Rider Runner, but now with new body for display and some improved Buggy Champ parts (mainly front suspension). The rear end is still old school, especially the rear arms with double ball bearings. I used BC decals + TC repros to give it the RR look. In 8th pic down you can see it with the lexan bodyshell used for running. Well I put some other tires on then too :)

Tamiya CR01 Unimog goes sledding

More than just a crawler lol ;)

Gymnich location check

Just a quick location check in Gymnich, NRW, Germany.

Lohmar Crawl

Here are some pics from today's crawl in Lohmar, NRW, Germany. Please check out this video too.

Graupner Pisten Bully Video

Just a bit of playing around with my 1/12 scale Graupner Pisten Bully (or Pistenbully). The car was produced by Kyosho in the 80s and distributed by Graupner in Germany. It now has all available hopups and is painted like boxart. More pictures here. Music with kind permission of Lizer Orchestra.

Short Course action on BMX track

Spent a great morning with mate Markus on our local BMX track running the Short Course Trucks (Liqui Moly = Slash, Castrol = SC10). Hope you like the pics!

Jconcepts inner dust cover for Slash

I recieved the inner dust cover from JConcepts today. I don't know how they meant the front mount, but it's a joke. I created my own with a bit of cutting, an extra body mount and a second mount hole.

Baja Bug Slash (Notarzt)

Felt the need for little change in my Slash's appearance for bashing purposes. It's the Proline Baja Bug Shell. Can't have enough safety on beach runs!!

1981

Das ist als alles begann (1981). Das bin ich an der Funke im Alter von 7 Jahren. Das Auto ist ein (Nikko) VW Golf Gr.2 Racing car, aber ich bin nicht sicher beim Maßstab und der Marke. Vielleicht kannst Du helfen?

Graupner Pistenbully - Kyosho Blizzard DX

The Kyosho Blizzard DX was distributed by Graupner in Germany in the early - mid 80s. The lights, beacon, exhaust, rear groomer and snow plow were optional parts. Back in the day I could not afford the option parts, but today I got a used example from ebay and restored it to full catalogue specs. Even the wiring for a working beacon was done. I promise to post a video soon.

NRW Offroad Cup - Slash & SC10

For the first time there were Slashs & SC10s together on one track.

new class for SHORT COURSE cars!

Here's some information in english language about our new race series in western germany. In addition to the traditional 2WD, 4WD and Stadium Truck classes, the booming Slash Spec class and a beginners class, a Short Course class has been established for all available 2WD Short Course models. There are already some regular dutch drivers, so guests welcome!! Info PDF (english)

NRW Offroad Cup - Geilenkirchen

We had the 3rd race of our new "NRW Offroad Cup" last weekend. It started to rain heavily, but that didn't stop drivers from racing! Photos by Markus and Pascal.

Slash & SC10 tracktest

Here are some pics of the first rollout of the new Associated SC10 compared to the Slash on our local track. Suprisingly the Slash tires hook up better to the hard packed dirt, which gives an advantage over the SC10 regardless of higher weight and higher center of gravity.

Sand paddles on my Slash

 

 

I decided to get rid of the useless bead lock system on my Proline Epic/Switch wheel combo. I changed to Sand paddle tires instead, which can be glued to the Epic rims without using the beadlock stuff. The tires are HPI Sand Runner (front) and HPI Sand Thrower (rear).

another Slash Stock spec class race

We had the second local club race with Slash stock spec class. There were 8 Slash drivers who really enjoyed the race.

1st Slash Stock race at local club

Here are some pics of the first Slash Stock class race we held at our local club. People had tons of fun with their cars and were thrilled about the competition with equal weapons! More pics of the day: Slash, 2WD, 4WD, Monster, Fun/Hobby, people

lexan bodied Rough Rider

I just completed my long term Rough Rider runner project and this is how it came out. The last step was to finish a lexan shell from Kamtec, which was more challenging than I thought. It's about 10mm too shorter than a genuine Tamiya body and did not work at direct fit. It could only be made by scratchbuilding a body mount clamp, which sets the body about 7 - 8mm forward. It looks a bit odd now where the rear shocks reach into the body, but it's ok for now. I used TamiyaClub repro decals and an unknown (at least for me) driver figure, which is attached to the body. This way I can swap the original body with this one when going for a ride. I'm still thinking about replacing the black bumper by something less expensive, but did not come to a good solution yet. Also the shocks might be changed again, as the CRP conversion does not work very well.

new powerhouse for my rally car

I realized that my HPI RS4 rally car was the last 'modern' R/C not being on Lipo/brushless, so I had to change this with one of the nice EZRUN/HOBBYWING brushless sets from HK. It's a perfect fit and the speedo allows to use my Lipos finally. The included program card makes life easy with changes in throttle/brake settings between runs.

Slash tracktest

pic from todays tracktest with the Slash. We installed a new steep face which had to be tested also.

Tamiya Rough Rider project

It's been a while since I put up pics of an incomplete project. This time I'm just too proud of how the chassis came out after restoration. It features an awesome alloy chassis and wheels, whick really deserve their name! As it will be run occasionally I installed some vital components to make it a good runner: Kamtec radio box, CRP coilover shocks and Super Champ universals. The motor is the original black endbell Mabuchi, which is powered by a light 2s Lipo. I have a Kamtac lexan shell already ready to be painted together with a genuine Tamiya ABS shell, which will both be painted boxart orange. There will also be working headlight lamps installed, but the paintjobs come first.

Slash run

I took the Slash out today to a local football area and managed to take a few quick action pics. Click on the pic above to see more pictures! For those who are interested in more custom Traxxas Slash paintschemes, I put some of the best in a special gallery here.

Traxxas Slash with Liqui Moly shell

This is my new toy with custom painted Proline Hardcore shell and poor man's bead-lock wheels (outer edge painted red). It is equipped with a Hobbywing 12T brushless system. I changed damper setup to take away chassis roll and made a modification to the diff gear (found here) to be able to lock it with diff oil. Now after a couple of runs I decided I like the car so much, that I ordered some Proline Switch tires with beadlock wheels. Just for the looks I made some home-made rear mud-flaps.