EFRA Off Road Euros 1986 Italy - Model Cars Monthly

[Luke Burley]

Hi All,

I thought that the Euros may be of interest with the release of the new Optima. This was the time when the Optima was king and took over from the RC10.

Luke

[Welshy40]

Oh my, what a blast from the past. Did you compete at this one?

[Luke Burley]

A few year before I got good enough. I remember the excitement of reading about the big races back then.

[V12]

Nice to see that report after all those years. But the 1986 Euros had been held in Bologna, Italy. Not in France. I know because I was there.

[Luke Burley]

You are correct, I should have re-read the first paragraph. In your memory was it a good meeting? It looks and reads like the cars must have been a real hand full!

[V12]

My first Euros had been one year before in Halifax where we had 3 days of rain in a row, not really fun. Coming from 1/12 scale racing before I just had started offroad racing and had not really offroad experience but managed into 1/4-final.
Bologna was a completely different race with dry and very hot weather, what you could expect from being held in Italy. I remember we couldn´t trust our eyes when we arrived at the track as it was held on a soccer field or something. So not a large but a very large track, maybe the largest track I ever raced offroad. Also quite a high speed track.

2WD cars actually were fast on the straights but lost a lot in the corners. Jamie Booth was the only 2WD driver at the final and this was really deserved. Actually we knew Jamie as we knew Nick and the Demon team, but we never have seen Jamie acting like this before. He had a special way of entering corners with his RC10 and it was really pleasure watching him.
Some of my friends had been converting their RC10s to 4WD, not mentioned at this report but at some other reports at different magazines. But it didn´t work out, RC10 4WD usually were too slow comparing with real 4WD cars also there had been a lot of problems with drive train. One guy used the early MIP cable drive where the cable detached from the gearbox all the time. Another guy was super fast in practice but his homemade chaindrive eat all his spares and when qualifying started he was out of race as all spares were gone.
I personally bought a box stock Optima before that race and that´s what I used there. I was not a sponsored driver and it was quite a shock seeing the factory Parma team and the French guys. Their Optimas were optimized a lot and the cars to beat. As the report says it was quite a challenge finding a good setup regarding tires, but also finding a fast motor what also lasted. Most drivers including me were slow and lasted or found a fast motor but dumped early. I remember I had a really good motor but dumped each round at last lap. Went trough all my batteries, ESCs etc. and finally found a setup what went into one of the semi-finals. I think I was the only non-sponsored driver there and that was where it ended, no chance for the final.
But good thing was I meet Pete Stevens who told me what to change at my car regarding drive train, suspension etc. what paid off at other races later.

[Luke Burley]

Brilliant memory. The meeting looked like a really tricky one. Great that you met Pete, he was a great friend of mine. I met him in 1987 and still have the Optima chassis with his shock mounts from that time.

Dumping and struggling for power is something people who started racing in the last ten years just don't understand. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Luke

[AscotConversion]

Can anyone comment on the apparent absence of Yokomo? Gil Losi Jr had won in 1984 the ROAR nats, and 1985 the IFMAR worlds, yet this race is all about Optimas.

None the less, an excellent look back at the exciting, constantly shifting early offroad scene. Nothing was written in stone yet, design wise. I love the early eras in any class of racing, so much experimentation and unique takes on what will work.

[DaveM]

Hi,

Well bugger me, I just realised I have this magazine, I will have another read.

I bought some magazines off a guy on Ebay, I asked specifically for any mags with RC10 4WD's.

I have one Jan 1988, Pete Winton builds a MIP 4wd conversion for the Associated RC10, it's the chain

drive version.

Cheers, Dave.

[Lonestar]

Yokomo was very, very exotic in Europe back in the mid-80's... There were close to none, they were a US/JP-only thing.

I can't believe how dominant the Drastic folks were in the days... Blandin who made the podium in Bologna went on to win the Euros 2 yrs after with the LWB mid in Genay (France) and French-made (not just asembled) SAFT batteries. Rosas was a world-class driver, he made the A in the 12th WC a few times in that decade.

The article section about J. Booth discarding his 4wd MIP prototype because it wasn't any faster than his 2wd, and then realizing his clutch had effectively put him in 2wd is funny.

And, lastly, all cars were different back then... I was a kid and the most RC I would do was running my Monster Beetle in my backyard (I got a Mid Custom later!) and I would learn all these articles by heart because of all this exotica...

thanks for sharing!

Paul

PS: For those who want the French-speaking report on this fantastic event, here it is. Note that Blandin himself wrote the article for the then-leading (at least content-wise) Auto8 french mag Thanks to REtromodelisme.com!

http://www.retromodelisme.com/article_page/865/championnat-deurope-tt-1-10-a-bologne-86.html

and a mouth-watering pic:

[AscotConversion]

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure if Yokomo just wasn't a thing in Europe or if the tracks maybe didn't suit the car.

[bluewormx]

Would anyone have a scan or photo of Jamie Booths RC10 from this race? I think there was a color picture in radio race car.
One of the most iconic RC 10 out there.

[prp]

The RC10 of Jamie N°1

[bluewormx]

Thanks prp,
From memory (very fragile) Jamie Booth's RC10 was short wheel base. Drilled back on the nose plate and cut off the original 3 holes. The RC10 in 2 euros.JPG is definately SWB, I cant tell in the picture you posted, also it would have had the wide front axles which most UK RC10's of the time had.

[terry.sc]

Thanks prp,
From memory (very fragile) Jamie Booth's RC10 was short wheel base. Drilled back on the nose plate and cut off the original 3 holes. The RC10 in 2 euros.JPG is definately SWB, I cant tell in the picture you posted, also it would have had the wide front axles which most UK RC10's of the time had.

There is a very good example of the modified RC10 that was run by the team drivers here http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=19561