# King Hobbies and Raceway - Valparaiso, IN



## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

New dNano track in the shop. New inventory of cars in stock. Come buy a car and start practicing for the winter!


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## velcro (Mar 12, 2008)

Picked my mazda up last night, this class is going to be a great time this fall and winter. Jim got quite a few cars in stock along with a parts inventory that should keep all of us running for a while! I'm going to the track tonight for a little test and tune, i'll report back on how things went. Good racing to all...

Kris Poloncak


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## velcro (Mar 12, 2008)

Had a great time with the dnano on its first outing, ran some laps with mark and jim but was most interested in getting a base set-up down that would be easy to drive but still produce fast lap times. I am running the mazda 787; changes that I made were to go to the thinnest fiberglass t-plate, bearings all around, hard front springs with 50K diff lube on the king pins, and a heavy lube on the diff gears. The stock tires were 50 shore front, 10 shore rear and proved to be the best set-up between steering and traction, I did try harder fronts and harder rears but the stock rubber felt the best. Traction compound that was being used is jack the gripper, I left a bottle at the track that is for anyone to use. If you are going to bring your own traction compound, please make sure that it is odorless, thanks. The above set-up proved to be easy to drive and stayed consistant, adding a rear dampner will eliminate what little wheel hop was left, jim should have dampners in soon. I will be adding a ball diff in the near future, the good news is that for a few extra dollars and some traction compound, this little car drives and reacts like a 1/10 sedan at a fraction of the cost. I am really looking forward to racing these cars in the near future, as I make changes to the car I will post things that are working and things that are not. Thanks to Jim and Laura for providing a great place to race, hopefully there will be many the local racers that join this fun class...

Kris


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

*dNano Racing*

We seem to be getting a lot of interest in dNano racing. Come on in and test out the track. New cars ready for purchase! Get yours now.


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

*Racing*

Had our first makeshift dNano race tonight! Lots of fun! We need some more racers....come out, buy a car and join us!


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## BillSmithBooks (Jan 18, 2009)

Have you considered running the new Air Hogs Hyperactives as a cheap "entry" division to get people interested?

The cars are cheap ($40-50), very fast for 1/32nd scale, come with 2.4 ghz radios (the company reps assured me you can run 20-30 or more cars at a time even though some posts on the web say only 10 different frequencies). A lot of fun and a handful to drive even without proportional steering. 

These would make a great rental or starter deal for any small micro track...affordable enough for kids and parents are a lot less hesitant to plunk down $50 compared to the $200-300 of most hobby grade cars.


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## velcro (Mar 12, 2008)

Had a great time running the dnano last night, lots of laughs and some fun racing! After racing many different mini and micro classes for the last decade, it still amazes me how well these cars handle and respond to changes. Hopefully we will get a handful of others to join in on the fun...

Kris


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

Bill, It will be difficult to race Air Hogs here because we cannot sell or support them. When cars break people look to us for replacment parts and help fixing them. The cars we race all have replacement parts available. We may look into running mini z's when we build the bigger track....but that has not been decided yet. Thanks for your question. Have a great day!


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## BillSmithBooks (Jan 18, 2009)

King Hobbies:

I hear you on the sales and support issue, thought about that too from a hobby shop perspective because they are a (well-built) toy grade car.

Here's my angle: Buy 'em at Wal-Mart or Toys'R'Us or Amazon for $49 ($39 on sale) and resell them at $59. 

I believe the angle for the track is using them as a rental car and starter division -- rent 'em for $6-10/night. This is something affordable enough to get lots of curious lookers through the door and get them into racing right away...get them hooked and then upsell them to a DNano, BRP, RS4, whatever your local track runs.

As for parts, yeah that is an issue and at this point, the only choice is to buy a new unit at $50...which is probably less than what most people spend to modify their hobby grade car that they bought. In the end, even if you have to replace the car from scratch a couple of times a year, I believe these still would be cheaper than most hobby grade cars and yet still a ton of fun to drive.

Still, the car is very durable and I really don't believe broken parts are going to be an issue...they can do 8-10 foot jumps with no damage and are light enough that when they hit something they bounce without damage. The rollover hoop absorbs lots of the impact. 

The most vulnerable part IMO is the open-wheeled front end, but you can make pretty decent looking cardboard bodies in about 10 minutes (I've made a few EDM bodies) -- it's not too hard to make them to absorb front end impacts, although the front is very tough. 

The major risk of breakage is with somebody stepping on them, but with the rollover hoop, there is no need for marshalling during races since you can self-right them.

I really think they are worth a look for any mini/micro carpet track.


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

*Bill*

We really need to get our bigger track built for bigger and better dNano racing. When it is done we may investigate maybe running Losi Micro T's that are $79.99 ready to run out of the box. Nothing for sure but we may look into it for the lower end car. Keep an eye on the forum. Thanks again for the suggestions.


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## velcro (Mar 12, 2008)

Great time running the dnano's last night, we had five cars on the track at one time, lots of close racing and many laughs. Bob has really got a nice handle on his car and is running some great laps, Dan and Jim were both doing well and having a great time too. After racing we all talked about starting to do organized racing in the near future, Jim or Laura will post the details soon...

Kris


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## gotmark73 (Sep 10, 2007)

Any plans for doing Mini-Z, 1/28 scale Kyosho carpet racing?


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

*GotMark73 Response*

It is a possibility. We bought a sample mini z to try and when we get the bigger track built we will see if there is enough room to race them. If there is enough room we will gage the interest. We are actually looking at the mini z's, the Lost micro T's and another car by HPI. We are going to build a 12 ft. by 20 ft. track in the back shop area. We had to move some shelving around which we accomplished today. We will soon be buying materials and getting it built. Stay tuned. 

We are running dNano's for absolutley sure. That is the only car I can confirm we will run as of today. 

Get your dNano's soon. KP and Bob are doing laps around the small track in 4 -5 seconds. They need some competition!


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

*dNano Tracks*

Finishing up the big track which is 11 X 20. The small track is 8 X 12.


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

*dNano Racing on Saturday, November 19th from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm.*

$5 to race. Bring your cars. Rental Cars are available on a first come first serve basis. $5 per battery - batteries last approx. 20 minutes. Come out and join the fun!


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## velcro (Mar 12, 2008)

Great time racing dnanos last night,the new larger track is perfect size for close racing with plenty of room for passing. Thanks again to Jim and Laura for providing a really fun and clean racing atmosphere. Looking forward to wednesday...

Kris


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

*dNano racing on Wednesday from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm.*

Good time to get out of the kitchen before turkey day! Hope to see you at King Hobbies! $5 for anyone to race. $5 per battery if you want to rent a car. Rentals first come first serve.


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

dNano Racing on Saturday December 3rd. 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm. $5 to race. $5 per battery if you need to rent a car. See you there!


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

*dNano Racing*

dNano Racing on Saturday, December 10th from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm. $5 to race. $5 per battery to rent a car. Hope to see you there! Take a break from your Christmas shopping......or come race and purchase some RC gifts. See ya Saturday!


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

dNano Racing on Wednesday December 14th : 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm. $5 to race. $5 per battery to rent a car. Come on out and race!


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## King Hobbies Tech2 (Sep 4, 2011)

*dNano racing tonight!*

We have dNano racing tonight from 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm Wednesday, 1/4. $5 to race. $5 per battery to rent a car if you don't have one. Car rental is on a first come first serve basis. Hope to see you there!


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