THE Cub Report- For The Tifosi
Oh yes race fans, Formula 1 season is underway. If you’ve read THE Cub Report for any length of time, you already know I am a huge F1 fan. In recent years, I’ve been rather quiet about F1 though, strictly because even I was tired of knowing the results before the races even started. However… 2017 looks like a whole new ballgame.
2017 in F1 is a big year. New rulers, new rules, faster cars, and miraculously it looks like Mercedes may not dominate again this year. This year Ferrari is off to a grand start, bringing back so many fond memories for me. Some of my greatest days were watching Michael Schumacher crush the field on Sundays. At that time the Ferrari team was the best of the best, and of course, Michael was in a league that nobody will ever touch. Sadly we still haven’t heard much about Michael after his accident, but on Sunday when the German national anthem was followed immediately by the national anthem of Italy, all I could think about was the great Schumacher and his glorious days making the bells ring in Maranello. Any which way, if you aren’t a big F1 fan, this might be a great year to check it out, there might even be some real racing at the front of the pack.
I guess I do need to talk about some rc related items here, so I’ll start off with…
How about that 5th scale Losi Desert Buggy XL-E? Oh heck ya, that is just what the doctor ordered. I remember testing the original DBXL in gas form just like it was yesterday. We were at a local park and were just beating the crap out of it. It kept refusing to break so I decided it was roof jump time and Hawaiian Chris starts flipping out. “You… you can NOT jump a 5th scale off a roof, it will be destroyed!!!” he claimed. To that, I gave the buggy a great chuck and up on the roof of a pavilion it went. I then grabbed the transmitter and told Chris “Yup, you are driving it off. Go 1/4 throttle until you hit the edge, then use the trigger to flatten it out as needed.”. At that point Chris was sporting the “oh crap/deer in the headlights” look in his eyes, but he did as instructed and the buggy landed on all four wheels. Just as it did the next 3 times we jumped it off the roof. Totally to Chris’ amazement, it was still unbroken, then we had to resort to driving it full speed into a giant boulder to finally make it break. Btw, my point here is, if the new 8S brushless powered version is anywhere near as tough as the gasoline, that is going to be one EPIC buggy.
Also… Our CEN Colossus XT review went live late last week. CEN was “sort of” big a decade ago, but they have been really quiet since then. Years ago we reviewed the nitro version of the Colossus when it first came out and I don’t remember being particularly impressed, but the electric version proved to be a beast, at least durability wise. The product segment of “bigger than 8th scale” monster trucks is one that might very well explode any day now, especially with the 8S Traxxas X-Maxx taking off, and personally I like how much better the larger trucks get around over giant dirt clods and washed out sections. Check out the review and expect perhaps one or two more trucks to show up in that category before the year is over.
Ok, so that’s all I have for ya this week. If you would, drop by your local hobby shop and bash spot if ya get a chance. I mean, it is the neighborly, friendly, hobbyist thing to do.
YOUR Cub Reporter
