| 4/18/2013 |
The 2012/13 WCICS series will go down in the history book as the most successful year in the series long history. With attendance up a whopping 30% with well over 1000 total entries over the 6 race series coving Western Canada. The racing and competition was fierce in every class at every leg of the series. In The 12th Scale Super Stock (10.5 Boosted) It was Korgae Scales and his Reedy/LRP powered Speedmerchant REV 7 that stood on top of the podium claiming the overall championship in the pinnacle 12th scale class of the series. This will be Korgae's 2nd championship with Speedmerchant, running a SpeedMerchant X-Ray 12 conversion last year to capture the Stock class championship before making the switch From Xray to Speedmerchant for this season. In the WGT category of the series it was once again Korgae Scales taking advantage of the award winning Speedmerchant World-GT3 allowing him to capture the WGT Series Championship for 2013 with races in hand. Korgae secured enough points in the first four races to secure the Championship with a dominating performance of TQ's and Wins, allowing him to sit out the last two events and watch the battle for 2nd. Great Job Korgae!!! Class Equipment: 1/12th Scale 10.5 Boosted SpeedMerchant Rev 7 JACO Tires Reedy 10.5 Reedy 65C Battery LRP Speed Control Airtronics M12 Radio Protoform AMR 12 Body 1/10th Scale 200mm World GT SpeedMerchant World GT3 JACO Tires (WGT Spec) Reedy 13.5 Reedy 65C Battery LRP Speed Control Airtronics M12 Radio Protoform Sofia Body
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| 2/27/2013 |
  Hi Guys, Here's our new Associated TC6 Front and Rear Lowered Shock Towers. These towers are designed to fit the new style TC6 or 6.1 with the Vertical Ball Stud Bearing Caps/Bulkheads. Both towers have had the shock mounting positions lowered by 2mm. On the Front Tower (Part# 6040) we removed the Inner most and outer most stock position mounting holes. The Rear Tower (Part# 6041) has had the 2 outer most holes removed, but we have added 2 new Inner holes for mounting your shocks. The Rear Tower also has lowered the Rear Body Mount position by exactly 1 body clip hole, but the post is in the same location as the stock tower for a painless change over. The Towers were lowered as much as possible while still being able to use the stock Associated springs. They give your sedan a lower CG, and by utilizing the new mounting positions on the Rear Tower, your TC6 will gain a ton of rotation. They are machined out of 2.5mm quasi-isotropic carbon fiber for superior rigidity and durability. They are up on-line today for sale to the public, so they will be legal for the upcoming R.O.A.R. Carpet Nationals in all sedan classes. The Front Tower is Part# 6040 and is available HERE. The Rear Tower is Part # 6041 and is available HERE. Good luck & have fun! - Bruce |
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| 2/11/2013 |
 We just got a great race report in from our friend Dave Berger on the left coast. Dave's been tearing it up lately, and that continued with his domination of the Region 12 champs with his SpeedMerchant World GT3! Dave TQ'd the class, and came within 1 second of lapping the entire field in the Championship A-Main! Really sharp looking 90's Alfa paint scheme too.  Great job Driva. Congratulations! Take care.-Bruce Remember, we love to get your race reports. Send your picture and race report to bruce@teamspeedmerchant.com, and I'll get it up on the site. |
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| 2/7/2013 |
Due to work commitments, Donny wasn't able to fly down to the race until Wednesday evening, missing all of the organized road course practice. Using the race qualifiers for gathering your set-up information is never ideal, but sometimes it's your only option. Donny's Rev.7 was quickly on pace and his SpeedMerchant "New School" front suspension was carving up the track. After some small tweaks early Sunday morning, we knew we had the car to beat in the A-main later that day. The race went well and Donny's Rev.7 assumed the lead over Corally's Ray Darroch and CRC's Andrew Knapp around the 3-minute mark. After that, Donny put it on cruise control, fending off one attack by Jason Schreffler and bringing home the win with a comfortable 2-second lead.  In 1/12th 17.5 class Steven Boice drove his Rev.7 up to a 2nd place finish in the A-main. Steve runs a box stock Rev.7 Sport, and only races 12th scale twice a year, so to finish at the top of one of the most highly contested classes at the Birds is really quite remarkable. Steve and Team Associated's Joe Trandell had a great battle for the top spot that lasted most of the A-main. Both drivers held 1st place at some point during the race, and in the end it was Joe taking the win by a scant 3-tenths of a second. Steve also joined Donny in both the World GT & 12th 13.5 Pro Stock A-mains. A big thanks to our sponsors: JACO Racing, Protoform Bodies, Team Trinity, Xenon Racing, EA Motorsports, Horizon Hobbies, Team Tamale & TQ Wire. See you at the R.O.A.R. Nationals in March. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 1/28/2013 |
We're off to sunny Florida for the 2013 Snowbird Nationals put on by Mike Boylan and his crew. Like last year, SpeedMerchant is the class sponsor for World GT. We will be out of the office from Tuesday the 29th thru Monday the 4th. All orders placed while we're gone will ship out shortly after we get back. Have a great week. Take care.-Bruce  |
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| 12/19/2012 |
Hi Guys, SpeedMerchant would like to introduce our 1/18th Scale Pan Car Racing body, the OR-18. This is the same body that SpeedMerchant drivers used to SWEEP the 2011 & 2012 Mini Carpet On-Road Nationals held at R/C Madness in Enfield, CT. This project was designed from the beginning to bring all of our years of winning 12th scale racing knowledge to the 18th scale pan car class. The body features everything that is at the cutting edge of 12th scale body design, just slightly shrunk down, to take your 18th scale to the podium. The Aero characteristics include a dorsal fin for better straight line tracking, more rear down force to help calm down the insanely overpowered 18th scale brushless cars, as well as more side force and side bite to help produce much higher corner speeds. It's truly an unfair advantage that you can put on your car for the next big race. The SpeedMerchant OR-18 is available HERE. Good luck and have fun! Happy Holidays.-Bruce
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| 12/5/2012 |
Hi Guys, I have a super limited edition deal for you Asc R5 owners out there. Larry at Team Tamale did a special order of 4 BLUE Adjustable Pod sets for the Asc. 5 series 12th scales. Unfortunately, the original customer pulled a disappearing act. So he sent them to me. I'm going to sell the 4 of them for our standard price of $85.00 ea. So no extra charge for blue. There are only 4, and after this, I very much doubt Larry is going to be making any more special request items. They will fit the R5.1, R5.1 Lipo, and the new R5.2. If you want a set, it will be 1st come 1st serve. Send me an e-mail at sales@teamspeedmerchant.com, and the first 4 customers I get an e-mail from get the pods. After I'm contacted, I will send you a PayPal with the charge.
Take care.-Bruce |
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| 12/5/2012 |
We finally got our front axles back in stock after several weeks. Unfortuanatly, we had a bad batch that wasn't up to SpeedMerchant specifications...and they had to go back to the machinist. The new batch is perfect and we should have plenty for a couple of seasons on quantity. So, if you've been waiting to order our new machined steering blocks, you are good to go. Here's the links to the shop. #1289 - Front Axles #5025Blu - Blue Steering Blocks #5025Blk - Black Steering Blocks Take care.-Bruce |
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| 12/4/2012 |
A couple of belated race reports. 1st Dave Berger took down the TQ Raceway Summer series with his World GT3. Nice way to end the summer after placing 4th at Vegas too!  Next our long time friend Fernando took the GORC 13.5 Title with his Rev.7 Sport. With over 80 entries Fernando laid it down with the TQ and Win.  Great job guys! If you're a racer, we would love to get a race report and picture of how you did with your SpeedMerchant ride. Send your picture and race report to bruce@teamspeedmerchant.com, and I'll get it up on the site. Have a great day.-Bruce |
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| 10/9/2012 |
We just got back from the IIC race in Vegas. As always, it was a great time with Scotty and his crew doing a superb job of running the race. Congrats to all the winners in the various classes. The SpeedMerchant team did great. Mike Dumas and Donny Lia battled for the win in Expert World GT all week long. Mike held TQ in 3 out of 4 rounds, and was just edged out by perennial A-Mainer Josh Cyrul in the last qualifier. In 12th scale, Donny Lia TQ'd 13.5 Expert with the ONLY 51 lap run of the week. Unfortunately, Donny had a body tuck in the main while holding a commanding lead that cost him the win. Mike Dumas ended up bringing home 3rd overall and Pete Robinson stuck his Rev.7 in the Expert A Main also. In World GT 13.5 California fast guy Dave Berger brought home a well deserved 4th and our very own Joel Vautour took 7th in the A after building his car at the track. Great job guys! What's New??? We've been working on a new front suspension over the summer and got to debut it on a few select team cars at the race. The "New School" front suspension was on Mike's 12th cars and his World GT, and it was also on Donny's Rev.7 that took TQ in 13.5, and Pete Robinson's 13.5 car as well. We are ecstatic with the performance of the New School so far. You can do testing at home, but nothing can compare to a high traction National Level race. To be able to do comprehensive testing from Old School, Asc R5 and New School...back to back to back was just invaluable. To have the New School TQ 13.5 Expert 12th scale in its' first outing was just the cherry on the top. We still have some small changes to make, but you can look forward to the New School to be available before the Snowbirds. It will fit ALL the current 12th scale chassis on the market......and make you faster. We've got to get back to catching up on orders placed while we were gone. Have a great week. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 9/25/2012 |
The SpeedMerchant crew will be out of the office attending the IIC race. We will be gone from September 27th thru October 9th. All orders placed during that time will be shipped as soon as we get home. You can check out the IIC website here... http://www.intchamps.com/ Take care.-Bruce |
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| 8/2/2012 |
Got a race report from our friend Kazuki Endo from Japan. He won a large World GT meeting with his just built WGT 3hree. Best thing in the picture though.... Besides the obviously super nice trophy girl..... The absolutely pimp Gold & Black sponser shirt. Hope everyone is having a great Summer. Vegas is right around the corner. Take care.-Bruce
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| 06/29/2012 |
Unlike standard adapters that use a round or cone nut to center the rim and tighten the rim to the truer....which usually results in distorting the plastic. The Tamale adapters fit into the on-road rim's mounting holes, pressing the back of the rim directly onto the flat of the arbor. You then use the separate 6mm nut to tighten the adapter to the truer's arbor. The result.......a much, much truer tire. Team SpeedMerchant used the prototypes of these for the 2nd half of last season, and they are really good. They make a HUGE difference on the track. More so than we thought they would. Big "Thumbs Up"...go get yourself some for the coming year. They are available direct from... Team Tamale You can also "click" the pictures below to go to the Team Tamale on-line shop. Hope you're having a great summer! Take care.-Bruce
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| 5/30/2012 |
Hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial Day Weekend. We just got in our new Aluminum Steering Blocks...again anodized in Blue and Black. These blocks are the same geometry that we have offered on our machined Delrin blocks for years and our team guys have used aluminum ones done by Team Tamale to win several National level events. Our blocks are slightly lower in height than most out there, and let you adjust your axle position for ride height as well as letting you play with your front roll center. The new blocks also have the 4-40 Ball Stud moved away from the king pin and closer to the centerline of the chassis. This gives the car some different Ackerman options, as well as giving the servo more leverage on the front wheels during hard cornering. Another feature of our blocks is that we have our front axles trail slightly more than most others out there. This really helps take away that "touchy on center" feeling, as well as making the cars track straighter and it even helps to avert the dreaded traction roll. The new blocks come with 4-40 set screws that let you tighten the block to your king pin for added security. They will fit pretty much every 12th & 10th pan car out there with a standard 1/8th inch King Pin. They are designed to use our #1289 Machined Front Axles w/Hardware, and with a couple of packs of our #2091 1/8th Inch Front Shims, you're in business. Happy testing.-Bruce
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| 4/20/2012 |
They're finally back in stock. Thank you for being patient. I had them done in Blue & Black on this batch, and they came out great. Part #'s are SMR5015Blu & SMR5015Blk. Click the pics below to go to the shop. Have a great day.-Bruce
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| 4/14/2012 |
Here are our new Front Springs. There are a lot of front suspension springs on the market, but we've always preferred the feel and got our best results from the standard Associated spring. For years the staples in racing have been the .018, .020 & .022 variety. In hand and on the track, these springs have always felt/worked the best. About the only issue everyone has with Associated springs is that they "collapse" way too easily. So, we met with our "Spring Guy" who has done a tremendous job for us over the years starting with our line of Progressive Tweak Springs and then more recently our Linear Tweak Springs which have been adopted by tons or racers all over the World, and used to win every major race in the past 2 seasons since their introduction. Our biggest goal was to get that "dampened" feel that only the Asc. springs seem to have....but we didn't want the "hit one board and collapse a spring" syndrome either. We also wanted a slightly longer spring so the "sweet spot" in the springs' range was larger. Going .020" longer gave the best results. What we came up with was a front spring that is "pre-worked" by the manufacturer. Through a special process, the spring material is manufactured in a way that it is less susceptible to collapsing while at the same time having a dampened feel that is awesome in hand and works even better on the track. When SpeedMerchant Team driver Pete Robinson put a set of the new .019's on his Rev.7 at this year's Nats, the first words out of his mouth were...."These things are like R/C Porn". LOL. Donny Lia ended up TQ'ing & Wining the Nats World GT Class with them on his car & Dumas took 3rd with his World GT. In 12th Mod, Dumas ended up 2nd over all while putting in the quickest 8-minute run of the week taking the win in the 3rd A-Main. Donny ran the new .020's on his WGT & .019's on his 12th, while Dumas had new .019's on both 12th & WGT cars. By the end of the week, several "Team" guys throughout the building had switched to them..... we got nothing but "Thumbs Up" from those drivers. The new springs are part #'s.... #7001 = .017" SpeedMerchant Front Suspension Springs #7003 = .019" SpeedMerchant Front Suspension Springs #7004 = .020" SpeedMerchant Front Suspension Springs #7005 = .021" SpeedMerchant Front Suspension Springs #7001 = .023" SpeedMerchant Front Suspension Springs As always...thank you for your support, & have a great Summer.-Bruce
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| 4/13/2012 |
The new .024 Linear Tweak Springs are now available. They are part#5069. I also updated the Linear Tweak Spring Conversions (part#5065) so they include the full range of springs .018 thru .024. The stiffer Linear Tweak spring was used by Paul L. to win the 2012 Birds in 12th Mod. It's a set-up that we haven't run for quite a while, but Paulie certainly proved that it is a very viable solution, even with the lighter LiPo cars. Back in the "round cell" days, I would often set the cars up with our firmer .023 Progressive Tweak Springs hovering about 1mm above the link ends. This set-up made the cars very smooth & easy to drive "on center", but when the car got into a corner, the chassis would lay over, hit the very firm .023 tweak spring, and presto....instant steering. The set-up was exactly what we had on Mike Dumas's cars used to win the 2007, 2008 & 2009 ROAR Carpet Nationals. When we started testing our Linear Tweak Springs, as well as moving the springs in-board, we got away from the "hovering" method. I think Paulie proved it's something we should at least re-visit in testing. Maybe you should too. Good luck.-Bruce
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| 4/12/2012 |
Just put up the World GT3 Front Bumper. Pete Robinson did a ton of great testing over the Winter, and we came up with this design. Besides doing its' obvious job of protecting the front of your chassis, the bumper also gives the car a little more high speed steering especially at the end of the straights. Pete used one of the 1st production ones to TQ the Snowbirds, and Donny Lia TQ'd and Won the ROAR Nats with one too. It's part#1774, click the Pic below to go to the store. Thanks.-Bruce
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| 4/12/2012 |
I've got the new Optional Top Plates/Shock Mounts up in the on-line store. Part #1772 is the set for the Rev.7, and part#1773 is for the World GT3. We've been testing these for a while now, and they are a great tuning aid. Donny Lia just TQ'd and Won the ROAR Nats with the Long/Middle set-up on his World GT3. Mike Dumas ran Short (stock Top Plate)/Middle on his 12th Mod car taking 2nd overall and putting in the fastest 8-minute run of the week in the final A-Main at the Nats also. Click the Pics to go to the store. Take care.-Bruce
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| 4/01/2012 |
Well....I got a lot of new stuff up on the site. The largest update I did was to the Race Report section. I started to work on this Winter's season, but it was really nagging me that I never had gone back and updated my pre-2005 race reports. In 2005 I updated the whole website, and I never transfered my Old Race Reports from 1997-2004. Pre 2005 I just had a little 'News Ticker' at the bottom of the front page that would have Race Results, New Products, etc. Very few pictures because they really slowed down how quickly a page would load back then. Remember....the Internet was a very ugly and slow creature in 1997. LOL. So, I just spent my entire Saturday, Saturday night and now into Sunday mornig updating race reports from 1999-2004. I tried to find the corresponding pics for the reports. I did pretty well, butI still have 3 old hard drives to go thru when I get a chance. One of them definitely has those first few years with Blackstock's Modified win over Josh at Josh's home track, and the run Dumas went on with his Rev.2. I think Mike actually lapped the field in 12th Stock Class at every major event for an entire season. Lots of cool memories. Check out the Old Race Reports HERE. Take care.-Bruce PS = I promise to get to this Winter's reports today. |
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| 3/31/2012 |
Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. I'm getting some web things updated today. I should finally get my race reports done from the Birds and the Nats. I'm just waiting on some pics to come from Donny of his Top Qualifying and Winning World GT3 from the Nats. I already have some good pics of Mike's Rev.7 he ran in Modified. After going thru the results, it turns out that Mike's 3rd A-Main run was the fastest run of the week at the Nats! Old Skool Front Suspension laying it down in Mod! I also have lots of new parts that have to be uploaded. Both Donny and Mike ran our new optional Top Plate/Shock Mount-Battery Brace combos on their cars at the Nats. We also Introduced our new line of Front Suspension Springs. They came out really well....they were on both Donny and Mike's cars as well as several other drivers in the building. Just like our Tweak springs, we spent a lot of time getting the best quality and best "feeling" springs for your car. Pretty cool to debut a new Spring line a the Nats and have them go on to TQ & Win World GT, and take a 2nd overall in 12th Mod with the fastest run of the week! I updated the Parts/Price PDF. You can see a lot of the new parts that are here now, and ones coming down the line in the next few weeks. Here's a LINK to the PDF. Also, we are Sold Out of Tamale Pods for both SpeedMerchat and CRC. Larry at Team Tamale is working on more for us. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 3/22/2012 |
Hope everyone is doing well. We're back from the Nats in Texas. Great race, very well run at an awesome facility. Congrats to Donny Lia for TQ'ing and winning World GT, giving SpeedMerchant its' 26th National Title. Also, a big congrats goes out to Mike Dumas for taking 2nd overall in 12th scale Modified with 3rd, 2nd and 1st place finishes in the A-Mains. I'm going to try to get the full race report up this weekend, but we still have lots of orders to catch up with. We did get our Bearing Carriers for the Tamale Pod Sets down at Texas, and those orders have started to ship the past 2 days. We should have all the back orders done by Saturday. Thank you for being patient. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 3/15/2012 |
Hope everyone is doing well. We'll be out of the office from Thursday March 15th thru Monday the 19th. All the orders placed in that time frame will go out as soon as we get back. Also, some of you are still waiting on orders that included Team Tamale Rear Pod Sets. We apologize for the snafu, but we ran out of the Rear Bearing Carriers for them, and getting them done took a lot longer than originally projected. I talked to Larry(Team Tamale) yesterday, and he is going to hand deliver the Bearing Carriers to me down in Texas at the Nats. As soon as we get back in the door, we will be sealing up your orders (there's a big pile of orders just waiting for the Bearing Carriers on the ship table), and getting them right out the door. I sent out e-mails to customers that orders were on hold, but I think I missed a couple of you, or maybe some of you have different PayPal e-mails and personal e-mails. Either way, your orders will be out the door next week, and the pod sets are definitely worth the wait. Thank you for being patient. Take care.-Bruce P.S.=Believe it or not, I haven't forgot about the Bird's Race Report. That's just how busy we've been since we got back. I will get that and our Nats Report up when we get home. |
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| 2/10/2012 |
We're back from the Birds. We had a great week culminating in 2 TQ's and a Win. Pete Robinson drove his Rev.7 to an impressive TQ in 17.5 12th class, throwing down some lap times that were untouchable by the competition all week long. He went on to a wire to wire win in the A-Main, again laying down the quickest laps on the computer. In Open World GT, Pete had a top 3 car all week long, and put in a masterful drive in the last qualifier to grab the TQ over a completely stacked field. I'll have pictures, set-ups and a full race report done this weekend. We're also getting all those orders placed over the past week out the door ASAP. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 1/28/2012 |
We're off to the Snowbirds in Sunny Florida. We'll be out of the office from Jan 29th thru Feb 6th. All orders placed when we're gone will be processed starting on the 8th, and shipped shortly afterwards. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 1/13/2012 |
We have JACO 12th scale rims/tires back in stock at a great price. We also got in the new White Rim WGT Spec rims/tires...also at a great price. Looks like the JACO 1/12th molds have been refreshed, and the new plastic is a very bright white. Check out the JACO page HERE. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 1/4/2012 |
Larry {Team Tamale} sent us pod sets right before the Holidays, but I'm just updating the website now, so.... all Tamale Pod Sets are back in stock! Check them out HERE. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 11/4/2011 |
Well...that was quick. You guys destroyed my stock on Tamale Pods sets in just under a week. Nice Job! Don't fret...we have Larry tied up to his CNC until he gets us more. The out look right now is about a week and a half...maybe two. The Tamale Pod page located HERE will be updated as soon as they are back in stock, as well as the News section. We still have a few left for the new Rev.7's, but we started with a much larger pile of those. We have some new Part #'s for you: We are about 95% caught up on orders that built up over the last week because of the snow storm/power outage. Altogether, we lost power from Saturday afternoon until Thursday evening at the shop. Obviously, you can't run a CNC without power, so we still have a lot of cutting to get done over the weekend. I think we sold out of all the Rev.7's I had in stock in 2 days. That's pretty awesome. You guys are going to love your new rides! Thank you for your support. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 11/01/2011 |
Thanks for being patient. We've had so many projects going at the same time that we can barely get all this stuff up on-line for you. We were also waiting on a batch of shocks to get back from the anodizer. They shipped and are already in the kits. We're going to offer the Rev.7's and World GT3's in Sport, Formula and Custom. The Sport cars will come with our 'New' Machined Old School front suspension. The Formula kits will come with our full on race Formula 3 front suspensions, the ultimate in adjustability for various track conditions. The Custom designation is a new one for us. In an effort to get you guys into kits at a lower initial cost, we've decided to offer 7's without Rear Axles/Hubs, Center Shocks & Front Suspensions. This will allow you to convert many of the current 12th scales available over to a SpeedMerchant Rev.7 for a lot less out of pocket money. The Custom kits will accept any of the 12th scale front suspensions that use the standard Associated bolt pattern, and any 12th axle that features the narrow right side differential hub. Even if you have an older axle with the slightly wider hub, you can buy the new narrow hub from us. It's Part #1796, available HERE. Most of the current 12th shocks are fairly universal, and will fit with just trimmed 4-40 ball cups. Tons of HQ pictures and information about the new and innovative Rev.7 avaiable HERE. Click the box art to go to the corresponding on-line store page.
Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 10/28/2011 |
Working with our friends at Team Tamale, we are proud to introduce our new line of Adjustable Axle Ride Height Pods. They feature a new ride height adjustment system incorporating a set of independent bearing carriers. These bearing carriers have small precision machined serrations in the face of them that mate to matching serrations on the back side of each rear pod plate. These serrations are .5mm apart allowing for quick and easy ride height adjustment. Simply loosen the four screws at the back of the pod, move the bearing carriers to the new position using the engraved lines to match each side and then retighten in the new position. No need to disassemble the rear axle or hunt down the correct ride height adjusters ever again! The design of the pods also allow us to use larger 1/4 x 1/2 x 3/16 inch bearings which roll more freely, are more durable and last much longer than the old small flanged bearings we have used for all these years. The pod sets are available for the SpeedMerchant, Team Associated, CRC, XRAY (new & old), and we have Serpent, CFEX and TOP models coming soon. The new rear pods use a different bottom plate and back plate, but use the stock top plate for each manufacturer's car. As always, the aluminum Team Tamale uses is the best aircraft grade 7075 or 7050 aluminum available, for unparalleled strength and durability. Each Set comes with:
All of the different pod sets are available for purchase by clicking HERE. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 10/19/2011 |
We shipped out the new Rev.7 just days before the race, so Takahiro (RC Champ House) and Watanabe had very little prep time to get his car together and race ready. Turns out, they did a great job. Watanabe TQ'd EVERY round of Qualifying, and Won the 1st & 2nd A-Mains allowing him to sit out the 3rd.
Naoki ran a pretty standard set-up on his Rev.7, including the new machined Old School front suspension. The only "optional" parts on the car are the Carbon Fiber Side Links, Aluminum Front Braces, and our ultra cool Team Tamale Rear Pod Set. A HUGE congratulations goes out to Takahiro & Watanabe! Great job guys! Below is the finishing order of the race. 17.5 Overall Results - JMRCA Japanese 1/12th scale Nationals 1. Naoki Watanabe - TQ / SpeedMerchant 2. Kazuma Murai / Corally 3. Gou Matsumoto / Associated 4. Kouji Iizuka / Yokomo 5. Kouji Yokoyama / Kawada 6. Yuichi Iida / Yokomo 7. Hideyuki Matsushima / Associated 8. Atsushi Takeshita / 9. Kazunori Watanabe / Yokomo 10.Kunihiro Fujii / Corally Have a great day.-Bruce |
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| 10/15/2011 |
We had a great trip. The race was awesome and run very well as always. There are some really nice pictures taken by Joel from RC Car Action up on-line of our stuff. Here's the link... http://www.rccaraction.com/blog/2011/10/07/cfx-rc-paintworks-parmapse-7th-annual-iic/ We are swamped with orders from when we were away. We're about 70% caught up right now. Everything else will ship by Friday of this week. We also got word that our back ordered shock shipment is finally on its' way. So we can get the 7's and WGT3's up online. Also, look for HPI F10 and Tamiya F104 conversions to be boxed and ready to ship within a month. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 10/1/2011 |
All orders placed during that time will ship starting October 10th. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 09/21/2011 |
Here's a cool conversion for the R5.1 LiPo chassis that lets you run SpeedMerchant Damper Tubes as well as our very popular Linear Springs. The kit includes: A quick and easy change that will make your R5.1 LiPo easier to drive, quicker in the corners, and more consistent lap to lap. Part #6030 and available now. Have a great day.-Bruce
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| 09/7/2011 |
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| 08/22/2011 |
Well...Here's another one for you. We got so many e-mails, PM's and flat out personal requests to "please make an in-line conversion for my Gen-XL", that we finally broke down and did one. Much like our X-Ray 12th conversion, this kit allows you to mount the battery in-line on the left or right side, or across the back like normal, but with more for/aft adjustability than stock. When drawing up the conversion, it quickly became apparent that the cleanest, easiest and strongest design would be to box in the rear pod with a new Top Plate, and give the car a full length Tweak Brace. This allows the battery to sit further back in the chassis and stiffens the rear end of the car. By adding a matching motor/pod plate on the left side (CRC#3340), we really strengthened the rear pod area which increases durability as well as helping your rear axle stay perfectly aligned after a misadventure with an immovable object. We also added mounting holes so you can adjust shock length for finer on track tuning. The kit comes with almost everything you need to convert your CRC Gen-XL. *** You also need one CRC# 3340 - Low Profile Motor Pod - Gen-X to complete the kit. *** The Conversion kit's is part #6020, and is available HERE. Have a great week.-Bruce
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| 08/05/2011 |
Here's our new conversion kit for the X-Ray 10th scale World GT car. I had drawn up the 10th scale car at the same time as the 12th scale conversion, I just wasn't sure if there would be a large enough demand for a 10th version to cut a full batch. Well, that was answered pretty quickly by a lot of e-mails and PM's asking if & when we were doing a WGT Conversion Kit. The 10th conversion features most everything found on our 12th version. The kit includes two Tweak/Body Mount Braces. The one shown on the car is the wide version designed exclusively for the Protoform Sophia body. The Sophia is really the de facto WGT racing body, and the wide body mount really helps you mount one perfectly. The 2nd Tweak/Body Mount Brace (pictured laying next to the car) has in-board body mounts (like the stock X-Ray piece), that lets you mount virtually any 200mm body on the car. We stayed with the center mount battery (we use the stock X-Ray Shock Mount/Battery Brace), and the wheelbase was proper also. The kit comes with our Linear Spring kit mounted in-board and our proprietary Damper Tubes. Much like the 12th Conversion, the WGT version is easier to drive and carries more corner speed than stock. The kit comes with everything you need to convert your X-Ray 10 over... The Conversion kit's is part #6010, and is available HERE. Have a great weekend.-Bruce
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| 08/03/2011 |
Really nice track, run by really nice people, and a bunch of great locals. It was a lot of fun meeting many old friends that I hadn't seen it quite a long time. Congratulations to Mike Haynes for taking 2nd overall in 12th scale with his Rev.6. Mike and his 6 were pretty dialed all weekend long culminating with a TQ run in the last round of qualifying. Mike went on to take two 2nds and a 1st in the Triple A-Main format. We would also like to send out a congratulations to Billy Spence. Billy bought a SpeedMerchant X-Ray conversion just a week before the race. Billy doesn't even have a local 12th scale track to run at anymore, so he was trimming his car out at the Nats. Unfortunately, due to the rain, he got very little practice with his new ride. That didn't stop him from qualifying 5th for the A-Main right behind Joel Johnson. Billy went on to finish 4th overall, and had just an incredible battle with Joel in the 3rd A-Main. Billy and Joel ran within 10 feet of each other for about 7 minutes. Awesome racing and tons of fun to watch. Not too bad for just a handful of packs thru his new conversion. Finally, a big thumbs up goes out to Joel "Lady's Man" Vatour. Joel helps out at SpeedMerchant as well as being a very talented up and coming racer in his own right. Joel had never run on asphalt before, and like everyone else, got very little practice due to the weather (and the fact that we didn't get to the race until Friday morning). Joel took his Rev.6 (with his set-up from Friday night carpet racing), threw it down and was dialed. He never turned a screw on the car all weekend, and the only set-up change he made from carpet club racing was tire selection. Joel went on to finish 6th in the A-Main in his 1st asphalt race ever. Great job guys! Take care.-Bruce
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| 07/15/2011 |
Click the picture for a larger view. Have a great weekend.-Bruce
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| 07/12/2011 |
We're releasing our conversion kit for the X-Ray 12th scale car. It will be on-line tonight. This is the same kit that a lot of the Team X-Ray drivers were using at this year's Nationals. We took all the information gathered at the Nats and weekly testing since, and have come up with a really nice conversion for you X-Ray pilots. What's changed... The kit comes with everything you need to convert your X-Ray 12 over... The conversion is much easier to drive, has more corner speed, and a ton more rear traction. We made sure that there is plenty of room for electronics with the in-line option too. You can obviously fit a Tekin RS/Pro, but we also made sure an LRP drops right in without overhanging the chassis. We'll have some better high resolution pictures up by the weekend with assembled kits, but we wanted to make sure and get this on-line for anyone that wanted to use them at the asphalt Nats at the end of the month. The Conversion's Part# is SMR6000, available HERE. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 03/21/2011 |
We'll be out of the office from March 21st - 29th. All on-line orders placed within that time will be sent out starting Wednesday the 30th. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 03/06/2011 |
We're selling them at a very discounted rate to help you guys get your cars on the track. Fronts will sell for $9.95 and Rears for $10.95.... instead of the $16.00 and $18.00 dollar retail price. We'll be carrying Black and Lilac Fronts and Orange and Pink Rears. Generally, our team guys run Black/Orange for 17.5 class, Lilac/Orange or Lilac/Pink for 13.5 & Lilac/Pink or Magenta/Pink in Modified. The Tires page can be found HERE. The individual Tire part #'s are... #jaco2738 1/12th Lilac Fronts #jaco2742 1/12th Black Fronts #jaco2832 1/12th Orange Rears #jaco2930 1/12th Pink Rears We'll do our best to keep these in stock, but our 1st large order is almost 1/2 sold, and I never even got them up in the shop until today! Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 02/25/2011 |
By far, the most requested are the #1785 Carbon Fiber Side Link Conversions. They come with a 4 new machined pivot sockets, 2 carbon fiber side links, and the new adjustable carbon fiber pivot plate. We've been testing these for about 6 months, and haven't a failure yet....and trust me, some of the guys have really been testing them. LOL.  We also put up the #1651 Complete Formula 2 Front suspensions for all SpeedMerchant 12th scale chassis,  and the new 1/10th 200mm World GT2 Formula #1715 and Sport #1720 Competition kits. 
Hopefully, this weekend, I'll get the rest of all of the new parts on-line for you guys. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 02/10/2011 |
 The race was great. Big turn out, very competitive, and expertly run by Mike Boylan and his staff. Team SpeedMerchant had an excellent week, capped off by a win in 12th Scale by Mike Dumas and his Rev.6. We'll have a full race report with how the whole team did, pictures, info, and set-ups from the team up this weekend. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 01/23/2011 |
We'll be out of the office from Jan 23rd - 31st. All on-line orders placed within that time will be sent out starting Wednesday the 2nd. You can follow the race line on-line at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/snowbirds Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 01/15/2011 |
 SpeedMerchant is now an official distributor for JACO racing . We will be stocking their 12th and 10th foams. 12th foams will sell for only $9.95 for Fronts & 10.95for Rears and will be available as soon as we're back from the Snowbirds. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 09/17/2010 |
Scotty Ernst and the IIC crew did a wonderful job as usual and put on the premier RC event in the Wotld....Again! Team SpeedMerchant had a great race with several cars making the Top Ten A-Mains. A big congratulations goes out to Donny Lia for taking the 13.5 12th scale A-Main Win!!! Donny's Rev.6 even set fast lap of the event with a 9.345 second lap!!! Well done Donny!!! We'll have a full race report and high-res pictures and set-up details of Donny's Rev.6 up by the end of this week. We're processing all the orders that came in while we were gone, and everything will start shipping this Monday. Have a great weekend.-Bruce |
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| 09/03/2010 |
We'll be out of the office from Sept. 4th - 14th. All on-line orders placed within that time will be sent out starting Monday the 20th. You can follow the race line on-line at www.LiveRC.com. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 08/27/2010 |
Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 08/01/2010 |
The Formula Rev.6 is part#1700. Check it out HERE. The Rev.6 Sport kit features all the new 6 chassis parts and rear suspension with Linear springs, but features the 'Old Skool' front supension. The #1705 Sport kits can be viewed HERE. Orders will be processed 1st come, 1st served, and we will start shipping mid-week. The rest of the new parts....springs, carbon fiber parts, Rev.5/5L to 6 conversions, etc. will all be available by the end of the week. We just have to take pictures of everything for the on-line shop. Thank you for your support. Have a great week.-Bruce PS = How about a big shout-out to "WG".... Ralph Burch for winning the 200mm Gas Worlds in Texas. 43 years young and making it look easy. Great job Ralph...congrats to you and your team! |
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| 07/28/2010 |
*** On sale Sunday, August 1st ***  |
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| 06/24/2010 |
 You can follow the action here... www.dmc-online.com/wm (offical site of the wc) www.mac-burgdorf.de www.myrcm.ch (timekeeping-system) www.rcracing.tv (livereport online screen) www.redrc.net and the RC-Tech Thread HERE |
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| 05/12/2010 |
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| 04/27/2010 |
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| 04/22/2010 |
I'll have the website updated with more pictures, a feature list, and part #'s this weekend. Happy Racing! - SpeedMerchant |
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| 04/19/2010 |
for his 4th place finish at the 2010 Asian Cup On-Road Championships!  Kazuki Endo & Asia Cup Sponsor Teru from Xenon Racing Our exclusive Japanese Importer, RC House Champ (http://www.rc-house-champ.com/) debuted the new Rev.6 to the World with a great performance under very tough circumstances. We'll have a full race report from Japan with pictures of the new Rev.6 on the site shortly. The Rev.6 has been thru extensive testing for several months culminating in Donny Lia's TQ at the 2010 SnowBird Nationals over a star-studded International field! Pictures, prices and part #'s for the Rev.6, the new World GT2, the final version of our new 235mm 7.4 chassis as well as a couple of surprises will all be updated very soon! Have a great week & Happy Racing! - SpeedMerchant |
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| 01/22/2010 |
Hi Guys,
We're jumping into the 18th scale pan car market with both feet. After a couple of months of design and testing, we're very proud to release the MiniMerchant. The first batch of kits available to the public will be 'Team' kits that come fully assembled by SpeedMerchant and feature Titanium Tie Rods, Blue Aluminum hardware, and Machined Alloy Bulkheads and Steering Spindles. To finish the Team kit, you will need a Scalpel axle/differential, ride height and rear bearings. Obviously, a body, tires... and electronics to make it move. The MiniMerchant uses 1/8 x 5/16th front wheel bearings (included). You must ream your Scalpel front wheel to 5/16ths to use them on the car.
Over the next couple of months we will be releasing sport kits as well as conversion kits for the 18th scale Scalpel that uses the Scalpel's entire front suspension. Due to time constraints, the initial release of Team kits will be somewhat limited. As of Monday the 2nd, we are out of stock of the new MiniMerchant. More will be available after the 18th Scale On-Road Nationals held this week at RC Madness in Enfield, CT. Hope to see you there! Have a great day.-Bruce |
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| 07/28/2009 |
Hi Guys,
We're doing a small running change to our 1289 Front Axles. We've been using a reverse thread, screw in type for about a year, but we've been having problems with customers threading them into the steering blocks a little crooked which was resulting in the axles being a degree or so off from 90 to the King Pins. It wasn't a huge problem, but after replacing several sets of steering blocks, I thought it should be addressed. So we had some new ones made that press into the steering block, but instead of an e-clip holding the axle in place, there is still a 4-40 nut securing the axle. We also had the axles case hardened and then the bearing surface precision ground for the utmost accuracy. The axles will be included in all of our kits going forward. Have a great day.-Bruce |
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| 07/22/2009 |
Congratulations to RC House Champ and drivers Hiroyuki Matsumoto (5th Place) & Naoki Watanabe (9th Place) for their outstanding performance at the All Japan Championships held at Yatabe Arena last weekend. RC House Champ just started as our sole Japanese Distributor in the Spring. They have made tremendous progress in a very short time. Putting two Rev.5's in the A-Main is a great accomplishment. Congratulations RC House Champ, Matsumoto & Watanabe for a job very well done! We will have some pictures from the race and the drivers up soon. |
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| 05/23/2009 |
The guys at PetitRC.com did a really nice editable Set-Up Sheet for the Rev.5.
Click HERE to check it out. |
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| 05/17/2009 |
I finally got around to updating our "Cars" section from the main menu.
It's still got a ways to go, but most of the stuff has been updated.
Click HERE to see the SpeedMerchant line of cars. |
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| 05/17/2009 |
 The PDF Instruction manual for the Formula Rev.5 Lipo kit is posted under the "support" tag off of the main menu. Click HERE ....they're at the bottom of the page. |
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| 05/15/2009 |
The new, super cool, way ahead of the game, Rev.5 Lipo is now available in the on-line store.
Click HERE to be faster than everyone else. |
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| 05/11/2009 |
Hi Guys,
The Rev5Lipo 1st production run is done. Kits will be on the website in a day or two. We've been doing a ton of Single Cell Lipo testing, and we think everyone is really going to enjoy it. The cars are easier to drive, more nimble, and less work. By taking the weight out of the cars, there is less tire & mechanical wear also. The new kits come with black anodized, laser inscribed aluminum bulkheads, and the new black Teflon coated HPS micro shock. After a lot of testing, we feel it's the best shock on the market right now. Click on the pic for a larger view.
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| 03/28/2009 |
I finally got around to posting all of the recent race reports from this season with pictures and set-ups of the winning cars.
You can check them out HERE |
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| 03/27/2009 |
SpeedMerchant is very happy to annouce that RC Champ House in Tokyo will be our exclusive distributor in Japan.
Click HERE to visit their website. |
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| 03/25/2009 |
We have our race report from this year's ROAR On-Road Carpet Nationals up. Mike Dumas and his Formula Rev.5 bring home #25 for SpeedMerchant!
Click HERE to see it. |
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| 3/18/2009 |
Hi Everyone, Hope you all had a great Winter.
We had a excellent winter racing season with Donny Lia taking 2 more huge wins at The Cleveland Indoor Champs & The Snowbird Nationals. Two more races......2 more TQ's and Wins! It's been a loooong time since one driver/car combo dominated a racing season like Donny has. Great job Donny. Donny is excited to move up to Modified for next season, and we're sure he'll pick up right where he left off in Stock. We've been doing a lot of testing with the 3.7 volt Lipo's available from SMC. So far they are working better than we could have hoped for. Some of the electronic manufacturers are already updating their speed controls to work better with the lower voltage, and Novak has a small Booster that lets the single cell Lipo work with all of the currents ESC's on the market. The nice off shoot of the Lipo technology (beyond just the ease of use of the battery), is the reduced weight has made the cars much easier to tune for your average racer, as well as tire and mechanical wear is way down. The 3.7 Lipos have such a flat power curve that a lot of people are putting their "fast" laps in towards the end of an 8-minute heat....something that virtually never happened with our current cells. We're on our way out the door to go to the ROAR Carpet Nationals in Cleveland. It's become pretty obvious that this race will probably be the swan song of "round cells". So....since we're always a couple of steps ahead of the competition, we figured well give you a little glimpse of our new SpeedMerchant line of Lipo friendly chassis. We'll be offering our current Formula Rev5, our 200mm World GT 3.7 and a 7.4 WGT chassis as well. We'll also have a 7.4 235mm car for those crazy Europeans, or anyone who wants to go really fast across a parking lot. LOL. The Rev5 and World GT cars will also be available as "conversions" if you already have a current car. All of them will be available as Full Kits, and we should have part #'s and pricing in April. Click HERE to go check out some pictures of the cars, and we'll have more information for you after the Nats. I've gotta go pack my suitcase. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 11/4/2008 |
We finally got our Aluminum Pod sets done for the Rev.5 & World GT cars. They are part #1465 and available in the on-line shop.
These are the same pod plates that were on Donny Lia's winning 2008 Vegas Rev.5. They are machined out of the highest quality 7075 aluminum, and we had them anodized Black for the cool factor. They feature a small relief cut on the left side plate that allows a little more room for the sensor wires on some of the various Brushless motors. Click HERE to see them. |
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| 10/12/2008 |
Wow...what a busy Summer. Hope everyone had a great one.
We finally got our race report up from this years International In-door Champs. For the 3rd year in a row, SpeedMerchant takes a 12th scale class. This year it was Donny Lia and his Formula Rev.5 taking the win! Chick HERE for the race report and pictures of Donny's car. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 03/22/2008 |
Both the Formula Pro-10 and the SpeedSpec II are available in the on-line shop.
The Formula Pro-10 is part #1505 and The SpeedSpec II is part #1510. Both will ship this week. Happy Easter.-Bruce |
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| 03/21/2008 |
Hi Guys, Well, Spring is finally here. For those of you in the warmer climates, that probably doesn't mean as much to the people that have been locked inside their houses since December. LOL. Personally, I can't wait to go outside and get some fresh air and sun every day. We have our race report from the 2008 R.O.A.R. On-Road Carpet Nationals up. You can see it HERE. We had a great week, with Mike Dumas piloting his Trinity powered Rev.5 to another Modified National Title. That's back to back Modified titles for Mike, and number 24 for SpeedMerchant! It was really cool meeting a ton of SpeedMerchant customers at the Nats, and making some new ones while we we're there. We've done a lot of testing over the past month with our new Formula Pro-10 200mm car. It has gone really well. The car handles excellent, is easy to drive and set-up. For local/Regional racing, I really think 4-cells with a 10.5 or a 13.5 would make for a very enjoyable class. In case you haven't seen it go, we posted some clips on YouTube. If you go HERE you can see clips of some of the testing Both the Formula Pro-10 and SpeedSpec II will be available in the on-line store this weekend. I tried to get them up there before we left for the Nationals, but just ran out of time. Thank you for being patient. Have a great Spring…get out and enjoy the weather! - Bruce |
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| 03/11/2008 |
We're off to the R.O.A.R. Carpet Nationals. You can get info on the race at http://www.2008roarnats.com/
I put up some pictures of a couple of the 200mm bodies we've been using. Check them out HERE. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 03/02/2008 |
Here's some direct links to the new Rev.5 parts so you don't have to search the shop.
Have a great day.-Bruce |
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| 02/29/2008 |
Leap Day...cool.
All the Rev.5's new parts are available in the on-line store, and under the "Support" tag on the main menu, you can find the new Rev.5 instructions in PDF format. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 02/14/2008 |
Hi all,
I hope everyone had a safe and happy Holiday season! We've been crazy busy for months now, but it's a nice problem to have. We're about 60% moved into our new building, but we'll have to wait for a few dry and sunny Spring days before we get any of the machinery over to the new place. As of this week, we're finally caught up on Rev.5 production. I still have to get all the separate part #'s up on-line so our customers can purchase spares, and we should finally start production on Formula Front Ends for all the other Mfg's cars. We've had the prototype parts done for months; we just have never caught up on Rev.5 orders to even think about cutting accessories for other vehicles. On that note, we've hired a machinist to help us keep up with production. He's got 25+ years of experience to help us grow and expand our machining capabilities. He's been working out great, and has already shown me a few neat tricks with machine set-up that I never knew…..he also works about 10 times quicker than I do. We've been to the Cleveland Indoor Champs, and just recently got back from the Snowbird Nationals in Florida. Click HERE for a quick re-cap of those races, with some pictures and set-ups of the cars. In modified after struggling at Vegas, we've made some really good progress with our brushless program. Trinity has re-hired Jim Dieter to head their race team/motor program, and he's been an absolute pleasure to work with. We still had some electrical hiccups at Cleveland, but those were pretty much just ESC set-up problems, and at the Snowbirds we had ZERO failures all week long, and were always one of the quickest cars on the track. Mike's Rev.5 never had less the 50 seconds of run-time left in his Trinity cells after a full 8-minute run….which is amazing if you saw how insanely fast these 1/12th cars are going now. In other news, several manufacturers have been working on reviving the pan-sedan/200mm pan car class as an alternative to full-blown 4wd sedans. I'd like to thank Jason at BMI for getting the ball rolling again. It's very obvious that the sedan class is seeing it's numbers drop across the board. Unfortunately, they've just become too complicated, too expensive, and with today's electronics, too fast for the large majority RC drivers. We've offered our SpeedSpec Pan Sedan as a beginner car since the mid 1990's. Back when I first designed the car it was really supposed to be a good quality, easy to drive, inexpensive way to get into a pan car. At the time, I was really thinking of a way to get off-road guys into carpet racing. Even back then, jumping right into a 12th scale car was a daunting task for a beginner or intermediate racer. Compared to off-road cars of the time, 12th scale cars looked like rodents on crack. On top of that, you had to drive them for a full 8-minutes. Invariably, you would get the off-road brain fade happening right around the 4:30 mark….LOL. So, it seemed like making a larger, easier to drive, pan car along with 4-minute races would make for a nice transition into carpet racing. Remember, there wasn't a sedan class at the time. Just 12th Mod and 12th Stock. The only sedans back then were Tamiya "play" types with hard rubber tires and plastic chassis. Occasionally, we would race our 235mm RoadKill car, but that was more of an asphalt racecar, and even back then, 6-cell pan cars (12th & 10th) were just getting ridiculously fast. I believe that last time we raced our 235mm car was the R.O.A.R. Carpet Nats down at the Minnreg track. At the time, Mike Blackstock was driving for me, and I think there were only 5 or 6 entries in the mod class. Our biggest problem….melting spur gears! Not stripping, but melting. The amount of traction that a 1/10 shoed straight axle pan car on carpet gives you just can't be compared to asphalt. Fast forward a few years, and SpeedSpec cars had settled on 19-turn, 5-minute racing, generally with a GT (Corvette, Porsche, Viper, etc.) body. For several years, this was a nice balance. You can see several customer SpeedSpecs HERE. Because of the large 1/10th foams, and only 4-cells, they were very quick, but still very easy to drive. On the majority of indoor carpet tracks, a properly set-up SpeedSpec with just 4-cells and a good 19-turn would do comparable lap times to the full blown modified 4WD sedans that were starting to take over carpet racing. Although the performance was great, it was also becoming a problem. With the new batteries, Speed Controls and 19-turn motors, my "beginner" pan car class had turned into a car that was getting too quick for a lot of people. Over the past few seasons, we've started to tone down the SpeedSpec class on the Regional level. It's put a lot of "fun" back into the weekly racing scene. We decided to really slow the cars down by enforcing a Mubuchi/Johnson 540 motor limit. Although that might seem drastic, it's what was really needed to get the cars back down to a speed that a true beginner could learn with and have fun. To go along with the beginner theme, I re-designed my SpeedSpec to be even more geared to the true beginner into pan car racing. The SpeedSpec II was released about 2 seasons ago. I've actually never even sold them on-line just because we can never keep up with our 12th scale sales and racing program. On a regional level though, sales have been great, and more importantly, the design has been an excellent transition car for many racers getting into on-road. The new car is virtually indestructible, super easy to drive, and with all of the various 200mm bodies available, they look cool as hell. The HPI muscle car bodies look awesome with big fat 10th pan car tires on the back. The other nice off shoot of the Mabuchi/Johnson motor is that it really shows off your driving skills, and forces you to drive a smooth fast line to keep up with the other cars on the track. Because the motors don't have a ton of torque, you really have to carry your corner speed to post a quick lap. Pinch a corner and you scrub your speed. It's really just a fun class, and a super way to "learn the line". Great for beginners, and fun as a 2nd class for more experienced drivers. Finally….almost zero maintenance. My SpeedSpec has literally been in the back of my SUV for at least 6-months. The battery has never come out, the motor at best has maybe gotten a shot of motor spray 2 or 3 times, and though the tires look like a rabid dog got at them, it still handles great. I let anyone who feels like it race it on club nights, and they always have fun. Honestly, some of the most enjoyable times I've had, is watching one of my better (i.e. Nat level) drivers wheel a SpeedSpec for a heat, and come of the driver's stand with a big grin on his face. Now that we have our new building, and more workers, we'll be offering the SpeedSpec II. If you're a beginner or know someone that wants to get into the hobby, I sincerely recommend it as fun, low cost, and easy way to get into the hobby. If you're a more experienced racer, it makes a great 2nd class to blow off some steam with your friends. Pictures and pricing of the new SpeedSpec II are available HERE. Okay, enough about the past lets look towards the future. Like I said earlier, Jason from BMI got several of us motivated to try to start a National level 200mm pan car class, and it really looks like the timing couldn't be better. We're going to have some bugs to work out, but overall, it's a "no brainer" to get these things racing on the National circuit. I've decided to keep mine as a 4-cell car. I know some people would like to see these cars be able to run a 6-cell or a 7.4 Lipo, but honestly, unless you're racing on an absolutely huge out-door track, I just don't see any reason to carry the extra weight or need for the extra voltage. These cars are only a little larger than their 12th scale counter parts, but have more traction, and only have to run 5-minutes. Trust me, with a properly set-up 4-cell mod brushless combo, 99.9% of the racing population would not be able to handle the available horsepower made by today's mod motors. Case in point….HERE is a picture of Mike D's Rev.5 after an 8-minute heat at Cleveland last year. To be able to flip an on-road car over backwards after a full heat is just nuts. We've done brushless testing on a 95 long indoor carpet track, and had one of our Rev.5's break 50mph on the back straight, (51 to be exact)….geared for 8-minute racing. If we geared that same car for 5 minutes, I'm guessing we would be over 60mph. If 60mph isn't quick enough for you, you must be really, really good. I actually think if there is any change in the future of 4-cell racing, it will be making our current cars work with a 3.7 Lipo pack. I've already talked to Charlie at Novak and the LRP reps in the US, and both say that their current Brushless ESC's will work fine on 3.7 volts. Really the only problem is making servos work properly with the lower voltage. Yes, I know we could just use a receiver pack, but that's going in the wrong direction. We're trying to make these cars easier and less expensive to run. Plug and Play as it were. I've also talked to SMC as well as a couple of other battery companies about making a 3.7 Lipo that will drop right into a current 4-cell car. I think we'll be seeing product relatively shortly. As far as classes go right now, Stock, 19-turn, and Mod power translates just fine into a Pro-10 class. Obviously, throw in the brushless equivalents. Our other big hurdle for this class will be bodies. We've all pretty much agreed that we would like to get away from "sedans", and more into the current GT class cars. There are several very cool 200mm bodies out there right now, and when the class takes off, there is bound to be more. Our largest problem will be making these bodies comparable to each other with out one certain type becoming "the" body to run. A year from now, we don't want an A-Main filled with 10 Corvette bodies. We need to make at least a few (and hopefully more) bodies handle relatively equal. I've had a few nice talks with Dale Epp (ProtoForm), and he's going to try to get together a set of guidelines that will hopefully keep us away from the 1 body class that sedan racing has become. If anyone can make that happen, Dale can. In the coming months, we'll have to discuss possible price/class limits. Possibly making Stock class run a lower cost Fiberglass chassis and a spec tire. Jack from JACO already said he would be willing to do a tire/rim combo just for a new 200mm pan car class. I think it's quite important that we have some very strict guidelines to start the classes with. In turn, that should keep costs and frustrations down. We obviously have to gear Stock class to a true Stock/beginner racer. Let the mfg's battle it out in 19-turn and mod…..let's try to get some new blood into out sport/hobby. You can find pictures and pricing of our new Formula Pro-10 HERE. We will also be offering a Fiberglass Chassis/Old Skool front end model geared more to the intermediate racer with a much lower street price in the coming month. I hope everyone has a great Spring (just around the corner), and we'll see you at the Nats. Take care.-Bruce |
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| 10/20/2007 |
The new Rev.5 is now available in the on-line store. All replacement parts and the separate Formula Front Ends for SpeedMerchant cars, and the various other manufacturers will be up on-line next week.
Click HERE to go directly to the Rev.5. |
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| 10/07/2007 |
The Vegas IIC Race report is posted with pictures of Steve Boice's winning Rev.5. Click HERE to read the report. |
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| 09/18/2007 |
Well, it's been a very busy summer at camp SpeedMerchant. My wife Krissy, and I received a couple of priority packages on July 2nd...... Enzo and Gianna Carbone entered the world happy & healthy, and ready to use up any and all the free time I thought I had to do things around here. LOL.
Actually it's been great, and we couldn't be happier......or more tired.
The other big news is SpeedMerchant has bought a new building(actually, it's being built for us), and we will be moving most (or all) of the company over there in October. This will allow us to hire a few more worker monkeys to get stuff packaged and out the door in a more timely manner. We'll also be taking on some International distributors, which up to this point, I've shied away from because we have enough trouble just trying to keep up with Domestic orders. Finally, after 6-months of testing, we're very close to releasing our new Rev.5. I would like to thank all the locals at RC Excitement in Fitchbug, MA for their cooperation during our testing. Hardly a whisper of the new car made it on to the Internet, which made my life a lot easier. So thanks guys, and a big thanks goes out to RCE's proprietor, Todd Anderson for letting us use such a nice track. As far as the 5 goes......way cool. Now that we have all of our own machines, we're able to make a lot of things that I could have only wished for in the past. We have a new rear pod design, that takes "easy access" to a new level. You can literally drop in any motor (brushless too) with a big honking pinion attached with ease. The new pod plates are actually machined Delrin, and they save a ton of weight over standard aluminum ones. Due to batteries getting heavier every season, and brushless motor/ESC combos weight and handling differential compared to their brushed counterparts, we decided to go with the Delrin plates to off-set some of the weight in the rear of the car. When we 1st started testing them, I really thought it would just be a "team" option part, but after several weeks of bashing, we found out, that they hold up just fine for weekly racing. The other big news is up at the front of the car. Our new "Formula" front end is just awesome. We've done testing, and testing, and testing, and we're ecstatic with its performance. I really wanted to get away from molds anywhere on the new car, especially in the front end. So we worked on doing a link front end that was sturdy enough to hold up to the speeds and forces generated in today's cars. By supporting the top of the king pin with 2 balls, the upper link arm is very stiff and strong, and doesn't move during a crash. Next, we are machining our own proprietary steering knuckles. Again, we used the super stiff 19,000psi Delrin we're using for our rear pod plates. The king pin rides on a Teflon O-ring that is captured by a 3mm quasi-isotropic carbon fiber suspension plate. Obviously flex or deflection will not be a problem with this lower arm. The king pin movement is ultra free and silky smooth while being slop free. If you're the type of driver that partakes of the boards a little more than you should, no biggy, pop the o-ring out, press in a new one, and you're good to go. Obviously, the front end is ultimately adjustable. Caster, camber, reactive caster, reactive camber, roll center, long, medium of short upper links, and more, are all adjustments you can use to dial your Rev 5 in for your specific track. Adjusting the front end is really easy too. Just pop out the king pin, and drop thru any 1/8th inch rod; personally, I use one of our carbon fiber roll over antennas. Then, just using your standard camber/caster gauge, adjust your turnbuckles to get your desired caster and camber. We put the rear link in line with the king pin, so basically, you adjust caster using the front link, and camber using the rear. There is very little over lap of the two adjustments. Because the Formula front end mounts to the standard Associated bolt pattern, we will have it available as a separate product for all the various 1/12th cars (Asc, CRC, Corally, etc.) The only difference car to car will be the CF bottom plate's 4-screw mounting hole pattern (width). All front suspension geometry will stay the same for the various cars. Note, just because we're releasing a new front end doesn't mean we're "bailing" on the Old Skool. We just won all 3 ROAR 12th scale titles just a few short months ago with the Old Skool front end bolted on to all of our cars. We just feel that with the advent of brushless technology migrating into our 12th scales, that the new front end will let us explore more "brushless" specific set-ups...especially in the modified division. But, for probably 85% of the racing population, the Old Skool is going to be just as quick, less expensive, and easier (less adjustments to screw up), then our new Formula front end. We will offer a Rev 5"Sport" edition with the Old Skool front end at a lower street price once we get this first big batch of Formula 5's out the door. The Rev 5 will be available on-line the 2nd week in October. There are a few "pre-production" kits I was able to send out to customers that just HAD to have them for Vegas. LOL. I think Brood & Ampdraw will have some of those kits for sale at the Vegas race. Well, since my Outlook box is full of "Can I see some pics yet?" e-mails…. go ahead and click on the Rev.5. Take care.-Bruce  |
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| 03/29/2007 |
There's a nice story posted at DonnyLia.Net about his recent win at the R.O.A.R. Nats. You can read it by clicking HERE.
I'm for anything that gets our sport more main stream exposure, so kudos to Donny and his web guys. |
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| 03/26/2007 |
Donny Lia continues his winning ways...... After winning the R.O.A.R. Stock National title just a couple of weeks ago, Donny headed North to race at the R.O.A.R. Region One Carpet On-Road Champs. Donny and his Rev 4.5 TQ'd and won the Stock Title on Saturday, and then Donny & motor-man Sal hopped in his real car and headed back South to New York, to race at South Shore Hobbies end of the season Showdown. Donny went on to TQ and win the A-Main by over a lap. Great job Donny! Congratulations on all of your recent success. |
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| 03/23/2007 |
Hi Guys, We've got another cool product to show you. As you know, we just got back from the ROAR Nats. The race went very well for the team, and about the only complaint to be had all week was the really tight pit area.
The CEFX crew even built a 2nd story inside the shop to accommodate all the entries.
When pitting is that tight, it's very important to be organized, especially if you're trying to help out customers as well as your team. It's always a pain in the but digging in a pit box every couple of minutes to reach something you need, or even worse, having everything you just laid out neatly in front of yourself get knocked over by the guy pitting across from you. It's happened to all of us. So after my super glue, and Tube Spooges got knocked over for the 100th time last week, I told myself I was going to make a cool little stand just to hold the bottles I use all the time during a race day. So, here it is.....Part #5045 is our new Carbon Fiber Spooge Stand. It holds all three of our new Tube Spooges, a Losi Super Glue container, and a bottle of Parma Fashine cleaner/wax. All products you use several times every race day, and all products that are normally lying on their side's leaking on to your pit towel. LOL. Happy Racing!-SpeedMerchant |
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| 03/21/2007 | We've got pictres of Donny Lia's National winning Rev 4.5, and his set-up posted. Click HERE to check it out. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 03/17/2007 |
We've got a few new additions to the on-line shop. Since we've been testing the various brushless motors, we've found one of the hardest things to do is to get your wiring to look neat and tidy.
To help remedy the situation we've got some cool colored wire-wrap for the sensor wires coming out of the brushless motors. Our stuff not only looks cool, and lets you match your paint job or the other wires in your car,
but they also fit much tighter than the stock stuff while still staying very flexible. The part numbers are:
#5087BLK = Black,
#5087BLU = Blue,
#5087CLR = Clear,
#5087GRN = Green,
#5087RED = Red,
and #5087YEL = Yellow. We've actually had a couple of customers use these on their roll over antennas. It protects your antenna as well as matching your paint job. Pretty cool idea. We are also offering a 3mm x 8mm cap head. This is the proper size motor screw to use with brushless motors. We've found that the standard 3mm x 10mm we usually use can actually travel too deep into the can and contact the windings on the new brushless motors. The new part number is #2053. |
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| 03/16/2007 | The 2007 R.O.A.R. Carpet Nationals Race Report is up. Click HERE to read it. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 03/13/2007 |
We're back from the 2007 ROAR On-Road Nats. Just a crazy good week for the SpeedMerchant race team! Donny Lia took the 1/12th Stock National Title, Ray Darroch grabbed the 1/12th 19-Turn title, and Mike Dumas won the Modified title! Three classes entered......three classes won! We'll have a full race report with pictures and set-ups in the coming days, but first we have to catch up on orders. We do have a few new products available in the online store. After extensive testing, our line of "Tube Spooge" lubricants are for sale to the general public. We've been testing these since the Fall, and they were used in all of the team guys cars at the Cleveland Champs, and later at the SnowBirds. Now, "Tube Spooge" equiped cars took home three National Titles. The new part numbers are 5080G-Thin, 5080R-Medium, and 5080B-Thick. Donny Lia's Stock winning Rev 4.5 was running the thick Blue spooge at the Nats, while Ray Darroch and Mike Dumas were both using the medium Red spooge. |
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| 03/04/2007 | The SpeedMerchant crew will be attending the ROAR On-Road Nationals in Detroit, Michigan. We will be out of the shop from March 4th-12th. All orders placed within this time frame will be processed on the 13th, and shipped shortly afterwards. You can follow the race at http://liverc.rccars.com/. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 03/03/2007 | SpeedMerchant would officially like to welcome Ray Darroch, Donny Lia and Johnny Carey on to the race team. Ray actually works at JACO racing products, and is a consistent A-Main finisher in modified sedan racing his XRAY ride.
Ray says he's looking forward to the challenges and intricacies of 12th scale racing.
Donny and Johnny are both really quick stock racers and long time SpeedMerchant supporters. Donny was just an A-Main finalist at the 2007 SnowBirds, and his home hobby shop NYC Hobbies will be carrying the SpeedMerchant line very soon. Look for them at a track near you. |
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| 02/26/2007 | Hi Guys. I put up a small page on installing a Novak GTB system in your 12th scale. Pretty easy install, and maintenance free racing!!! Click HERE to see the install. Take care.-Bruce | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 02/16/2007 | Hi Guys. I get a lot of e-mails asking how we off-set the JACO front rims to give our 4.5's a wider stance for high traction conditions. It's actually pretty easy with the proper tool. We use an American Standard prop reamer.
They are available thru Tower Hobbies, and are under $15.00. Here's a direct link. Prop Reamer Have a great day.-Bruce |
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| 02/15/2007 | Back from the Birds. Another great week of racing and testing. Check out the race report by clicking HERE. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 02/04/2007 | The SpeedMerchant crew will be attending the SnowBird Nationals in Orlando Florida. We will be out of the shop from February 4th-12th. All orders placed within this time frame will be processed on the 13th, and shipped shortly afterwards.
You can follow the race by listening to Racing Radio.
More information can be found HERE. |
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| 12/01/2006 |
We just got back from the US Indoor Champs in Cleveland Ohio. How'd we do??? Not too bad :) Check out the race report by clicking HERE! |
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| 11/17/2006 |
The SpeedMerchant crew will be attending the U.S. Indoor Champs in Cleveland. We will be out of the shop from November 17th-28th for testing followed by the race. All orders placed within this time frame will be processed on the 29th, and shipped shortly afterwards.
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| 10/31/2006 | The website has been updated with a few new part #'s. We've changed the screws that hold the 'Old Skool' front ends on our cars. The new screws are parts #'s 2045 and 2046. Since the Worlds, we've been testing using steel screws on the front ends. The new screws have a lower profile countersink, and the countersink angle is matched exactly to our chassis. By using the steel screws you gain strength in the front suspension as well as lowering the CG of your car slightly. We've also found the little extra weight up front gives the car a tad more steering. All pluses, which is good. We've also added part #5075, which is a 10 pack of O-Rings that are the exact size to fit over 4-40 ball studs. Generally, we use this size o-ring underneath the VCS shock ends, to take out any 'slop' in the ball cups. Most people just use 1/8th silicone o-rings commonly found in sedan shocks, but they are slightly oversized, and the soft silicone deteriorates too quickly. The SpeedMerchant o-rings are sized perfect, and made out of a tougher material which will work and last much longer. |
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| 09/30/2006 | We're back from Las Vegas, and we had a great trip. Scotty Ernst and his guys put on the most professional RC race ever held. Awesome facility, and just a very well run race. Congrats to Scotty, Boomer and the hard working crew. SpeedMerchant had a super week. Mike Dumas piloting his Rev 4.5 Top Qualified and Won the 12th scale Modified A-Main over some of the best drivers in the World. HERE is a link to the full race report with pictures and set-up off of Mike's Rev 4.5. All orders that piled up while we were gone have been picked and processed, and everything will ship by Monday the 2nd. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 09/13/2006 | The SpeedMerchant crew leaves for the 2006 International Indoor Championships in Las Vegas. We will be gone from the 14th-26th, and all orders placed in that time frame will be processed and shipped from the 27th-30th.
You can follow the race by visiting the website at http://www.intchamps.com If you're attending the race please come over and say hi. We'd be happy to help you with set-up or any information we can supply. Have a great week.-Bruce |
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| 09/06/2006 | The website has been updated with some new parts. The #1410 Rev 4.5 full kit is available, as well as the bottom and top plates. There are some new #2087 hollow countersunk washers in the hardware department. We've changed a couple of part numbers also. Suspension balls #1266, high roll center cones #1267, and low roll center cones #1268, are all avalaible separately. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 08/14/2006 | We would like to welcome "The Fabulous One" Barry Baker onto the SpeedMerchant race team! He joins Mike Dumas, Jake Pritchard and Andrew Gray on our modified team. Barry has been in the upper echelon of RC drivers for years, and is looking forward to continuing his wining ways with his new SpeedMerchant ride. Lets hear what Barry has to say - "When I realized I was going to be leaving Team Associated, I started to think what companies I would like to race for. I realized right away, that for 12th scale I wanted to race a SpeedMerchant. Their cars always seem to be ahead of the curve, and for a relatively small race team, they kick a$$. I'm really looking forward to racing the new 4.5 this season". Thanks Barry.....we sure you'll kick some a$$ too! Look for Barry to make his debut at International Indoor Champs in Vegas this September. |
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| 07/04/2006 | We're back from Italy. A big congratulation to Mike Dumas and his Rev 4.5 for taking 6th place at the On-Road World Championships!!! Mike had a great week and ran in the top 10 all thru practice and qualifying. He had one tough (traffic) qualifier that really hurt his qualifying position on Saturday morning, but followed that up with an awesome last qualifier to put himself back in the A Main. Mike ran really well in all three mains and ended up taking 6th overall. Mike consistently had lap times that put his Rev 4.5 in the top 3 for all 3 A-Mains. Great job Mike!!! |
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| 06/12/2006 | The SpeedMerchant crew leaves for the On-Road World Championships in Turin, Italy. We'll be out of the office from Monday June 26th to Wednesday July 12th. All orders placed during that period will be processed on the 13th and go out shortly afterwards. Thank you for being patient. Between the outstanding sales of the Rev 4.5 conversions, and the preparation for the World Championships, we are really struggling to keep up with the shear ammount of orders. All back orders either went out today or will go out immediately upon our return home. Have a great week.-Bruce | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 07/14/2006 | Congratulations to Jeff Brown for Top Qualifying, and taking the win at the 2006 R.O.A.R. Paved On-Road Nationals! Jeff just had a stellar week, he set TQ in all 4 rounds of qualifying, he then went on to win the 1st and 2nd A-Mains to take home the title. Jeff ran a stock Rev.4 with the new style Asc. front end (set for non-reactive caster). He says on asphalt, he likes that front end because it's easier to adjust camber with. HERE's a pic of Jeff and his car, we'll get some better shots, and post a full race set-up for you soon. We'd also like to congratulate Nick & Shawn from Team Kwik. They gave Jeff plenty of horsepower in that blazing California sun to bring home SpeedMerchant's 20th National Title! |
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| 06/07/2006 | The new Rev 4.5 is here! Don't get too excited, it's only a conversion to the new 4-bolt style rear end, but, it's still pretty cool. Pictures and information can be found HERE. The on-line store has already been updated, and conversion kits are available HERE. The new top plates, bottom plates, and a full Rev 4.5 car kit will be released very soon. Thank you for the support. Have a great day.-Bruce | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 05/14/2006 | Hope everyone is enjoying their Spring! We have a few new part #'s to be aware of. Part# 1273 are the new larger tweak brace stand-offs for the Rev.4. We've had the team guys testing them for a while now, and they work great. They have a larger profile that helps support the tweak brace better, and we've also found their tolerances to be a little tighter than the old ones. We also have two new roll over antennas available. Part# 5053 is your standard 8-inch white fiberglass roll over, and part# 5054 is a very trick 8-inch hollow carbon fiber roll over. This is easily the lightest weight roll over available for your 12th scale. It's not as tough as the fiberglass, but it's just insanely lightweight, and awesome for racing applications. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 03/21/2006 | We've just returned from the R.O.A.R. 2006 On-Road Carpet Nationals held at Stockton Raceway in Stockton, CA. This years Nats was one of the best organized and well run races in years. A big thank you goes out to Ruben and the entire Stockton crew for showing everyone how to execute a National level event. Great job guys! On the racing front, SpeedMerchant had a great week. In 1/12th Modified, Mike Dumas and Andrew Gray both had their Rev.4's tearing up the carpet. Andrew ended up in 5th overall, and Mike took 2nd place after some very hard fought battles with Trinity's Mike Blackstock. In 1/12th Stock, SpeedMerchant dominated the class with 7 out of 10 of the A-Main drivers running Rev.4's!!! A Big congratulations goes to Peter Robinson for giving SpeedMerchant it's 19th National Title. Peter is the newest member of our Stock racing team, and picked a great way to start his tenure with SpeedMerchant. We'll have a full race report with pictures and car information up in a couple of days. |
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| 02/22/2006 | *** New Tweak Springs *** In a continuing effort to give you the very best product we can, we've decided to make our own tweak springs. In the past, we've bought our springs from another manufacturer, and although they've been fine over the years, I thought we could make a better product ourselves. So after some serious testing, we've developed a much higher quality tweak spring for your SpeedMerchant ride! The new springs will no longer be colored like in the past (after testing the old springs we found that the thickness of the paint was actually effecting the spring rate). Instead, the new springs will be designated by their wire size, just like front springs. The springs are matched to the old colored ones in feel and lbs. .021 equals Blue, and .023 equals White. We will offer the entire line in the near future. There is a slight price increase do to using a much higher quality spring steel, as well as just using higher quality manufacturing standards on the product. You'll find that the new springs twist on to the tweak carriers perfectly, hang completely straight, and most importantly feel and perform awesome! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 02/22/2006 | Thank you for being patient. We came home to another huge batch of orders to get out the door. Everything started to ship over the past few days, and if you are waiting for an order, it should be there soon. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 02/21/2006 | Back from the SnowBirds! Another loooong week with no sleep. Congrats to Mike Dumas for his 5th place A-Main performance. We had MAJOR radio problems with Mike's Rev.4 all week long, so we'll take the 5th with a smile and move on to the Nats. Congrats to Andrew "Drew" Ellis and T.J. Bradley for their 12th Stock A-Main runs. Drew was less than one second off of TQ at the event. Nice job guys! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 01/27/2006 | The SpeedMerchant crew will be traveling to the Snowbird Nationals in Orlando Florida. We will be out of the office from February 5th - 13th. All orders place withn that time will be processed on the 14th, and shipped shortly after. You can check out the race at...... |
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| 01/27/2006 | Good News....Carbon Fiber is on its way. We sincerely apologize for running out of stock. The Carbon Fiber we purchase is of a very high grade, and is just very hard to get in a timely manner. We were on "back order" with the company for well over a month. Rev.4 full kits, conversions, etc. are all available in the on-line store. They will start shipping again on Tuesday February 2nd. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 01/01/2006 | *** Happy New Year *** We would like to thank all of our faithful supporters for another great year. We hope everyone has a great year ahead of them! On the news front: After such a successful reunion of SpeedMerchant and Mike Dumas at the Cleveland Champs this year, we have officially "inked" a deal that will have Mike running SpeedMerchant cars for the next couple of seasons, and hopefully longer. We are happy to have Mike on-board, and he is happy to be here. Together, we look forward to a lot of good times, and great results. I hope to see you "on the road". Take care.-Bruce |
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| 12/07/2005 | The Rides page has been updated with some submissions that have come in over the past couple of weeks. Check them out HERE. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 12/02/2005 | Pictures and set-ups from Mike's and Jake's Cleveland cars are up. Check them out HERE. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 12/01/2005 | We're back from the 26th Annual U.S. Indoor Champs, and we had a great week. Mike Dumas and Jake Pritchard TQ'd and took 1st & 2nd in the Modified A-Main!!! Chuck Lonegran placed 3rd in the A-Main of 1/12th Masters, Drew Ellis picked up 4th in the 1/12th Stock A-Main, and Chris Mockerman took 2nd in the A-Main of 1/12th 19-Turn. Just an awesome weekend for the SpeedMerchant Rev.4! Check out the race report by clicking HERE. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 11/21/2005 | The SpeedMerchant crew will be attending the U.S. Indoor Champs in Cleveland. We will be out of the shop from November 22nd-29th. All orders placed within this time frame will be processed on the 30th, and shipped shortly afterwards. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 11/14/2005 | SpeedMerchant would like to welcome back Mike Dumas on to the race team. Mike started his racing career with SpeedMerchant, and won several national level events as well as the ROAR On-Road Nats with us. It's great to have you back Mike. We look forward to a super year! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 09/13/2005 | SpeedMerchant is proud to announce that we are a "Silver" sponsor of the International Indoor Championships in Las Vegas. Visit the website by clicking HERE. This looks like it's going to be the closest thing to an indoor carpet world championships since the early 1990's. It's going to be just an awesome event. Look for live webcasts, radio and TV spots as well as a complete coverage from all of the magazines. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 07/10/2005 | Do you want up to date, straight from the team information about your SpeedMerchant products? Check out R/C Tech.net. They have a great thread about SpeedMerchant cars as well as a million more to choose from! Just an excellent resource for the R/C racer. Check out the thread by clicking HERE. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 04/07/2005 | In case you've been living under a stone for the past few months....Big News: Scotty Ernst is putting on the 1st Annual International Indoor Championships.....In Fabulous Las Vegas!!! This race will draw the very best on-road racers in the world to compete in several classes to determine the 1st International Indoor Champion! The race will be held at the historic Stardust Hotel & Casino from September 21st - 25th 2005. |
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| 03/28/2005 | R/C Excitement is holding their 1st Annual Spring Fling On-Road race on Saturday April 9th 2005. All the information you need can be found by clicking HERE! Hope to see you there, it should be a great race. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 03/27/2005 | REPORT: - * Hurricane Motorsports Stock Challenge * Team driver Drew Ellis just got back from the 2nd Annual Hurricane Stock Challenge after dominating the weekend with his SpeedMerchant Rev.4. Drew TQ'd the 1/12th scale class by over a lap, and then went on to win the A-Main by over a lap. Great job Drew! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 03/21/2005 | We just got back from the 2005 R.O.A.R. On-Road Carpet Nationals. How'd the weekend go?.....Chalk up National Championship number 18 for Team SpeedMerchant! A huge congratulations goes out to Chuck Lonegran for laying the smack down, and bringing home the win with his ballistic SpeedMerchant Rev.4 racer. Congrats also go out to T.J. Bradley and Mark Strasnick for their A-Main runs, as well as Andrew Gray with his 1/12th Modified A-main performance. Great job guys! |
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| 03/15/2005 | The SpeedMerchant crew will be attending the R.O.A.R. On-Road Carpet Nationals. We will be gone from March 16th-21st. All orders placed within that time frame will be processed on the 22nd, and shipped shortly afterwards. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 03/10/2005 | Updated the 'Drivas' section of the website with a few mug shots of the SpeedMerchant team members. We'll get more pics and some information about these guys up in the coming weeks. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 03/09/2005 | Updated the 'Rides' section with some new submissions. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 03/07/2005 | Gran Turismo 4 kicks but. If you don't have a Playstation.....go buy one, get the force feedback wheel & pedals, and set aside about a month of your life.....you won't be sorry. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 02/16/2005 | We're back from the Snowbirds, and all orders have been processed and shipped. Congratulations to Andrew Ellis for his 4th place A-Main finish in 1/12 Stock. Drew, had some tough traffic in qualifying, and just squeaked into the A-Main in 10th posistion. At the start of the main, it was clear he was one of the fastest cars on the track. Even with the usual first turn mayhem, Drew weaved his Rev.4 thru traffic for 8 minutes, and finished with a strong 4th place finish. |
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| 02/15/2005 | SpeedMerchant would like to welcome Travis Schreven on to the Stock racing team. Travis is another Xray driver that has joined the Rev.4 bandwagon. Lets hear what Travis had to say: "After watching my Xray team mates run their Rev.4's, I just had to try one. My very first battery pack with the car was awesome. Tons of steering, but very predictable. I can't wait to get home and start to practice with it!". | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 02/04/2005 | The SpeedMerchant crew leaves for the Snowbird Nationals tomorrow. We'll be out of the office from Saturday the 5th to Tuesday the 15th. All orders placed during that period will be processed on the 16th and go out shortly afterwards. Have a great week.-Bruce | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 02/03/2005 | The Parts Catalog Page has been updated with all of our current part numbers and descriptions. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 02/01/2005 | Looking fo some low cost, high quality stickers? Check out HighSpeedGrafix.com. We needed Rev.4 stickers to bring to the SnowBirds race next week. We gave these guys all call, told them what we wanted, and the stickers showed up in the mail just a few days later. Quick service, and great looking stickers, give them a try. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 01/31/2005 | Live in MA, CT, NH, area? Like racing? You're in luck. There's a new track going up in Fitchburg, Mass called R/C Excitement, which is truly going to be a world-class facility. In-door Carpet on a pool table flat 75 x 45 foot track, in-door off road, out-door off road, out-door asphalt, plenty of pit room, lounge, cafe', arcade, and a full service hobby shop! They're looking to open by the beginning of February. Check out their website by clicking HERE! | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 01/29/2005 | We're doing a little re-design on the web-page. Look for more updates under the "News" section(which you're reading now). Racer profiles of our sponsered team guys under "Drivas". We're also going to start a SpeedMerchant "Rides" category which will let you...the SpeedMerchant faithful send in a photo of your car, your name, where you race, and we'll post them up on our site to share with the other "Drivas". | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 01/26/2005 | Rev.4's are back in stock!!! The new #1405 full kits come with IRS lowered pod sets. Click HERE for the Rev.4 page, or HERE for the Rev.4 at the on-line store. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 11/27/2004 | The SpeedMerchant Race Team has grown. We would like to welcome Ralph "WG" Burch, and Jarred Scott, to our Modified team, Andrew Ellis, Ron Atomic, and Michael Toast to our Stock team. Look for their racing profiles off of the main page, under "Drivas". | ||||||||||||||||||||
