Durham County Model Car Club
Hello fellow RC car enthusiasts, I hope you are all well.
In this post I am going to be visiting an RC car club based in/near the Sunderland area . The visit was a spur of the moment thing brought on by the meeting of a young chap in the supermarket this morning. I was in the queue waiting to pay for some shopping, when I noticed the chap in front of me was wearing a Schumacher tee-shirt. It's not every day you see someone who (obviously) has a passion for Schumacher, so I quickly struck up a conversation with the young chap and he told me about the RC cars he had and that he was going to his local track that afternoon for some practice laps. The young fellow told me the name of the track and when I got home, I quickly did some research and found the place of the track. The young fellow told me he would be there from 11AM, so I set off to find the place at 10.45AM. The track was on the grounds of a local karting centre and was easy to find.
As I had never been to this model car club before, I didn't know what to expect...
And I was more than pleasantly surprised. It was an astro turf surface and the circuit was brilliant.
The chap I had spoken to earlier that morning was very there and he made me feel very welcome. He even let me drive one of the clubs owned cars.
The car was a 2 wheel drive Hobbytech X-Mid. Although I didn't drive the car on the circuit, it was a blast and seemed to be a very capable car. The steering was fast and accurate and the handling was awesome provided by the excellent adjustable shocks.
The young chap told me that the X-Mid is a ready to run car with everything included. The only things that are needed to get running are batteries for the remote, a shortie LiPo battery and a charger for the LiPo. Priced at £279, it is a bargain and I will be looking into buying one to race.
The car was very smooth to drive.
What a lot of car for very little money.
As you can see the car is equipped with fully adjustable shock absorbers and turnbuckles.
The car comes supplied with a 2.4GHz, 2 channel transmitter and receiver.
As you can see, the X-Mid has a aluminium chassis that makes for a great handling buggy.
I was very impressed with the X-Mid buggy and I could have spent many hours looking and taking pictures of it, but I needed to turned my attention to the circuit.
And what a circuit it is...
The young chap I had met had brought a couple of his cars to the track and he put them through their paces around the track. The first one he took around the track was a Schumacher Cougar.
The Cougar in action around the circuit.
The Cougar was a sight to behold going around the track, taking to the air and soaking up the jumps. It wasn't super fast but it was agile, sharp and handled the circuit like a pro buggy. Although it wasn't breaking any records, it wasn't out of it's comfort zone either.
The next buggy the young chap took to the track was the Schumacher Storm ST-2 stadium truck.
I had never seen an ST-2 out on track, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting any ground breaking handling or performance. However, I was so very wrong. The stadium truck took to the track perfectly and handled everything the track had to offer with ease. I expected the ST-2 to be top heavy and to roll badly but it whipped around the track with speed and agility. It was awesome in the corners and great in the air.
The Schumacher ST-2 Stadium truck.
When the young fellow had finished his run, he was kind enough to let me get up close and personal to the ST-2 and take some pictures.
A beautiful looking car.
A rear view of the Schumacher ST-2 Stadium Truck.
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I was so impressed with the MT-2 that I would love to add one to my humble RC car collection.
There was also another couple of people at the track that day and among them were two young lads who were running a car that I have never heard of before.
They were running a buggy called the Serpent as can be seen above and wow, these buggies were fast. The boys were incredible drivers and made their buggies go like the wind. The lads were obviously serious competitors and I was so impressed with their driving abilities. I really wanted to have a closer look at their cars but I didn't want to distract them from their practice runs. They kept their Dad busy with maintenance and battery replacements during the couple of hours I was there.
The picture above shows the right hand side of the RC car circuit.
Whilst I was at the track and talking to the young chap I had met earlier that morning, he told me that this track will be closing at the end of this season, due to the cost of renting the track and that the owner of the land wants to repurpose the land. What an absolute shame. The lads were very sad about this and I'm not surprised. It's a great track with brilliant facilities and quite local for the lads.
The lads did tell me that there is another track not too far away at the Nissan Car factory in their sports hall so all is not lost. At least they have a back-up track to use.
After a couple of hours at the track, I had to head home but I did enjoy myself, saw some great cars, watched a couple of races and even drove an RC car. The lads were great and very welcoming and I give them my thanks before I left.
The track will probably close in October of this year but if you get the chance please visit them and maybe even take along your RC car for a blast around their circuit. I'm sure they will welcome you with open arms.
Their post code is SR3 2PR.
Well that is all for this post guy's and I hope you enjoyed it.
Please join my for future posts and please leave a comment.
Take care.
3/8/2025
catxls.com
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