What is Rallycross

1:8th Off-Road racing is fast, colourful, action packed and extremely competitive. With racing at actual speeds of around 50mph, on a variety of surfaces, the racing action is guaranteed to be exciting. 1:8th Off Road or ‘Rallycross’ as it is more commonly known, is one of the expanding classes of model car racing. Although not a new class, in recent years the popularity of the nitro engine has increased immensely, and as a result, Rallycross has seen many new drivers start racing and indeed many drivers from other classes have been converted.

Rallycross is considered to be one of the friendliest classes of model car racing. Whilst on the track the racing is very competitive between all drivers, however, once back in the pits, you will often see drivers of rival cars openly helping each other and generally having a laugh and a joke.
The cars that are raced are all four-wheel drive, powered by a 3.5cc nitro-fuelled engine with double disk brakes to bring them to a halt.

The engines can run at up to 30,000 revs per minute, which allows the cars to accelerate from 0 to 40 miles per hour in less than 1.5 seconds.
The engine uses a glow plug (like a mini spark plug) to ignite the fuel inside the engine – a nitro engine is similar to a 2 stroke petrol engine, but uses a fuel that is a mixture of oil, methanol and nitro methane.
The engine is started using a starter box and a glow starter, though newcomers may find their engines fitted with a pull start. Once the engine is started the glow starter is removed as the glow plug in combination with the combustion cycle keeps the glow plug hot & igniting the combustible fuel.
The engines are revved when stationary as these high speed racing engines have a tendency to ‘oil up’ and stall the engine when left ticking over for too long, revving clears the oil from the engine.

All cars feature fully independent suspension, which is adjustable to suit the driver and the track conditions. With different spring tension rates, damper settings, anti-roll bars settings, and adjustable suspension geometry, to fine tune the cars handling. Different tyre patterns and compounds complete the set-up.

Control of a car is achieved by the use of two servo's, one operating the steering and one the throttle/brake. The servo's are connected to a receiver which is in turn connected to a 7.2V battery that provides the electrical power for the radio control system.
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All rules for the cars are laid down by the British Radio Car Association including the size of the engine, the car itself and the size of the fuel tank. The fuel tank is limited to 125cc which gives sufficient fuel to race in the 5 minute qualifying heats, but as the finals are either 10, 15, 20 minutes long, it is necessary to have fuel stops.

One of the nice things about Rallycross racing is that you can buy, off the shelf, exactly the same specification equipment that the top drivers are using. This in turn leads to a very level playing field, and it is the skill of the driver that decides the winner.

Go to the Features & Info section for more information.

Affiliated to the BRCA
Membership Number 5150