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Losing grip – Big things have small beginnings
Remember the movie Prometheus, the fifth in the Alien series? The scene where the android David says puts a small drop of alien yuck in a glass of water, before serving it to one of the crew members? “Big things have small beginnings”, he says, and sure enough, a couple of hours later nasty things start to sprout from nasty [...]
- 6/7/2022
- 2:33 pm
- Columns
Loosing Grip - By: Martin
Losing grip – Two face Firebirds
I believe it was a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, the third generation, the one with a square nose and eye slits for headlights. Back then, to me, it was right up there with the Camaro and Mustang. American muscle at its very best. Which, of course, can’t beat European full bloods, but still really cool. Anyway, this particular car was [...]
Losing grip – On wheels and The Wall
G’day folks! Do you remember the fall of the Berlin Wall? I can’t say that I remember the exact date, but I clearly remember hearing the dramatic news on the radio. Years later my wife got to know a German who grew up on the Eastern side of the wall, in former DDR. Her strongest memories of the changes it [...]
Losing grip – Which would you bring?
Which of your rigs would you take on a ten or fifteen mile trail walk? Or, if you could bring any car, which one would it be then? For me, it comes down to four things to consider: funniness, capability, durability and ease of wrenching. First, it should be a fun ride. If it is to be driven for several hours, it [...]
Losing grip – The IFS shaped hole is filled
I called it! Sort of. But I am surprised that Losi was the one to fill in the blank. Surprised, but not disappointed, seing how Doug seems to be absolutely in love with their LMT. There was an IFS-shaped hole in reality, now it is gone, and the RC fauna is better off for it. I haven’t had the time to [...]
Losing grip – New shocks for the rocks
G’day folks! No physics lesson today, but an update on my heavily upgraded SCX24. A wonderful little car it is, suitable for indoors, capable enough for outdoors, small enough to fit in a backpack with room to spare for coffee and biscuits. A lot of bang for the buck, and durable too – it hardly weighs anything, and it certainly [...]
- 4/29/2022
- 5:57 pm
- Axial
Columns
Loosing Grip - By: Martin
Losing grip – Hitting the Traxxas Sledge with a sledgehammer
Right now, a lot of us want a Traxxas Sledge, the latest and want to be greatest bash machine out there. I want one too, but due to a limited budget am sadly not likely toget one. Anyway, suppose I do buy one (birthday is coming up), would I want to hit it with a sledgehammer? Would you? For reference, [...]
- 4/22/2022
- 10:46 am
- Columns
Loosing Grip
monster truck - By: Martin
Losing grip – Weathering the SCX24
G’day mates! Another week of losing grip is here, and my SCX24 has aged twenty years since last week. As you might remember, it was first repainted by Bob’s grandson Rob in a shark scheme commemorating the Curtis P40 Warhawk that Bob once flew. Initially lovingly taken care of, it was then forgotten and found recently, in a somewhat derelict [...]
- 3/2/2022
- 4:10 pm
- Axial
Columns
Loosing Grip - By: Martin
Losing grip – Outside painting
No, I haven’t been outside painting. I’ve been painting on the outside. Of the body of my little SCX24. Last column I mentioned I had some trouble with paint peeling off with the masking tape, but no such trouble today. The idea behind the paint scheme is simple. This car belongs to Rob Smith, son of Junior Smith, son Bob Smith [...]
- 2/22/2022
- 7:21 pm
- Columns
Loosing Grip - By: Martin
Losing grip – More and more for the SCX24
G’day folks! The post apocalyptic landscape of winter in southern Sweden is slowly giving way to something that might eventually turn into spring. Snowdrops have started to turn up in the garden, giving us all a little hope of better weather eventually. With better weather comes more RC. Driving when it’s freezing outside is fun, driving on ice is fun, [...]
- 2/21/2022
- 12:33 pm
- Axial
Columns
Loosing Grip
rock crawling - By: Martin
Losing grip – Active toe, so? So what? So awesome!
Today I present the scariest featured picture ever, at least if you’re not really keen on maths and physics. But fear not, this column will be a light hearted read. The picture is taken from the dissertation and thesis Dynamic Understeer Control Using Active Rear Toe, by Mark Oliver Dixon Kaufman of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach, Florida. I read parts of it, [...]
- 2/11/2022
- 11:14 am
- Columns
Loosing Grip
Team Associated RC8T - By: Martin
Losing grip – Anniversary edition
Happy anniversary to Losing Grip! It’s not the column’s birthday, but this is the 100th column published. All together, they would amount to a novel by now. Editing them into an enjoyable novel would admittedly prove quite the challenge, but the word count sits just about right for a debut. As luck would have it, I even got a present for [...]
- 2/1/2022
- 1:23 pm
- Columns
Loosing Grip - By: Martin
Losing grip – Project time
Any good project starts with a little bit of dreaming. That’s the easy part. After dreaming comes pondering, then calculating and compromising runs in parallell for a while, eventually reaching the decision point side by side and slightly irritated with each other. Both have to be involved, neither can win. Decision point is where it all turns around, but this time [...]
- 1/25/2022
- 1:52 pm
- Axial
Columns
Loosing Grip
Projects
RC Car Bodies
RC Rock Crawling - By: Martin
Losing grip – Arrma’s R&D read my mind
Need for speed? That’s what I wrote about a couple of weeks back, how the speed bug gets me when the sea turns to ice. How all that wide open space calls out for something fast. How “the ice just about always gets covered by a bit of snow, providing a bit of traction. Enough grip to gain plenty of [...]
- 1/18/2022
- 2:53 pm
- ARRMA RC
Columns
Loosing Grip - By: Martin
Losing grip – Speed champions
Dear fellow RC nuts, dear reading audience, dear me, it is a pleasure to write yet another column for this giant of RC websites, for the biggest squid in the pond. All mainly for my amusement, but you are most welcome to read and reply anyway. No joke, no irony, mind you. It is a pleasure and a privilege to [...]
- 1/13/2022
- 10:52 am
- Columns
Loosing Grip - By: Martin
