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March 9, 2010

Team Durango TQ and Win French Nationals Round 1

Filed under: News — Team Durango UK @ 9:04 am

Top French Team Durango driver, Cyril Baldini, took the top qualifier spot and the win at the first round of the French indoor Nationals series during the weekend of March 6th / 7th.

Well done Cyril!

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March 5, 2010

Fancy a drink?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Team Durango @ 3:53 pm

As its Friday, heres a bit of fun…..Team Durango mug

hw7

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Team Durango R explained – prices for the DEX410R

Filed under: News — Tags: , , — Team Durango @ 2:14 pm

Team Durango has made its name around top quality and innovative thinking. This no-compromise approach can make Team Durango cars a little too expensive for some, leaving cars like the DEX410 affordable for only the fortunate few. Team Durango ‘R’ kits will change this.

For Team Durango, ‘R’TD 'R' means Regular Racing specification. Our ‘R’ specification cars share the same Team Durango DNA, performance and innovation, but with a more ‘regular’ specification that is normal or even ‘team-spec’ for most other cars on the market.

Team Durango ‘R’ means performance and innovation, combined with affordability and an accessible, personal upgrade path. Our ‘R’ cars will be available for all Team Durango models as a step-in point for Team Durango ownership, but the no-compromise ‘Team Durango’ premium version will typically arrive first for hard-core Team Durango fans.

Our philosophy is to develop the ‘Team Durango’ ultimate race car first, using handmade test cars and then, later, see where costs can shaved for the “R” version.

At Team Durango we test our theories with hand-made cars, like the DEX210 2wd being raced at the Yatabe Arena in Japan this weekend. Once the theories have been proven with prototypes, we refine the design, make it production ready, do more testing, and finally we launch the best car we can. Only later will it get the ‘R’ treatment.

Other companies design, sell, see what breaks, sell options; then sell a ‘team spec’ car – Team Durango won’t take this approach.

The first Team Durango ‘R’ car will be the DEX410’R’ which is also going through final testing.
Street prices for the DEX410R will be US$350, €230 and £210
(these process all exclude local sales taxes/VAT)
Expected availability – End of April 2010 – full spec and photos available next week

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February 11, 2010

South African National Championship 1st Leg

Filed under: Race Calendar — Team Durango UK @ 11:57 am

Venue: Trap (2009 Worlds venue) in Pretoria

Event : SA National Championship 1st Leg

Date  : 25-28 Feb 2010

Team Durango’s South African distributor ‘HobbyFreaks’ and all the SA Team Durango drivers will be present at the event. If anybody needs help or parts they can just ask for Jaco Van Eeden at the event.  He will be at the track on Sunday 21st February and then again from the Friday the 26 February.

Good luck to everyone!

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January 29, 2010

DNX408 body

Filed under: News, Prototype testing — Team Durango @ 4:19 pm

The DEX408 has the lowest bodyshell around – this has many benefits, like low centre of gravity, minimal frontal area to punch through the air (perhaps giving more run time or speed?) more air flow over the rear wing etc (so that too can be lower), but it also helps with heat management. The engine head in a DNX408 gets the most direct clean airflow of any car, plus the body is designed to direct as much air as possible over the bodyshell at the engine head, rather than through the body. The central engine and low bodyshell mean that all shock bodies are also in clean airflow.  The DNX408s body is long and slim at the rear which encloses the exhaust header and insulates the left rear shock, while it is trimmed to help direct/suck hot air away from either rear shock.

Rear wing – it is as close to the rear wheels as possible, thanks to the forward shock position, this drives the down-force directly to the rear wheels. Too many wings on 1/8 buggies are way out back which means more wheelies than down-force.

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January 28, 2010

Team Durango Japan – Tresrey support driver audition

Filed under: News — Team Durango UK @ 1:30 pm

Team Durango’s Japanese distributor Tresrey sent us this report from their support driver audition race held last weekend at the TRS circuit.

TRESREY 2010 OFF-ROAD RACE ROUND-1 (Team Durango Support Driver Audition) was held on January 24, 2010 at TRS circuit, Matsusaka-city, Mie pref.

47 racers joined the race making it the best-attended race that the TRS circuit ever had for an off-road event. 37 cars raced in the 2WD class and 38 cars raced in the 4WD class, including 10 DEX410s.

Takashi Nobuhara got TQ and best lap for both 2WD and 4WD classes.

In 2WD class, Takashi Nobuhara won the race by pole-to-finish, Akihiro Yasuda as 2nd with Hideki Nakajima 3rd. Team Durango/Speed Passion Japan team driver Minoru Utsugi was 8th in qualifying and finished 10th in the final.

There were 10 DEX410s in 4WD class, and 3 of them made the final A-main.  Kyoji Minagawa, started from 2nd position, and eventually won the race ahead of Akihiro Yasuda, with Shinichi Kurotani in 3rd with his DEX410. (Minoru Utsugi finished 6th and Echigoya finished 7th, both driving DEX 410’s).

Unfortunately, none of the drivers were chosen as “Team Durango Support Driver” this time, because no-one qualified within the target time. However, Tresrey have decided to choose a kind of “Local support driver” soon. The details will be posted on the Tresrey web site shortly.

Thanks to the warm support from everybody who attended the race. Even though it was the first time Tresrey had organised an off-road race, everything went perfectly and everyone had a great time.

After the award ceremony, Tresrey held a “Big Draw”; prizes included a DEX410 kit and Speed Passion ESCs.

TRESREY  www.tresrey.com

TRS circuit   http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~trs/

Race report (in Japanese) with gallery  http://www.tresrey.com/racereport/race/20100124.html

Thank you

TRESREY

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January 21, 2010

The Face of DNX408

Filed under: News, Prototype testing — Team Durango @ 12:10 pm

So far for the DNX408 we have featured photos of the narrow 5mm chassis, the brakes, the leaned back steering, the spec and the price; we’ve also shown the rear suspension detail and the standard memory engine mount.

We have shown CAD based sneak peeks of the bodyshell and talked about its heat management design, we have also mentioned the chassis mounted radio tray and the car’s light weight. That’s lots of cool revolutionary stuff for a very fair price.
Well until we have more exciting photos to show you, like the body and radio tray etc, (which will take a while now) we thought we would reveal the front suspension and the ‘face’ of the DNX408.

By Durango standards the front suspension is pretty standard stuff, we can’t innovate every area of the car – so it’s solid, light weight, with a clean, no-risk design. The face of the DNX408, just like the body and wing, will be easily recognisable on the track.

The front end features all the necessary adjustments, plus hard anodised suspension holders, hard anodised bulkheads, 5mm hard anodised shock towers, outdrive and CVD boots and the 15mm bore PTFE coated shocks. Team Durango style down-stops keep the front of the chassis nice and narrow for best front ground clearance. When it comes to taking the gearbox and centre drive shaft out it should only take about six screws.

So, not too exciting today, but now there is a face to the DNX408 name.

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January 20, 2010

All racers like a good rear end, it’s time to take a close-up look at the rear of the DNX408

Filed under: News, Prototype testing — Team Durango @ 2:43 pm

The DNX408 rear-end design is all about low weight, keeping weight forward, putting the wing over the rear wheels and giving the most ground clearance.

The 408 will probably be the lightest car on the market, this is thanks to many design considerations, but it is easy to see the thinking on the rear-end of the car; minimalistic gearbox case, slender but tough bulkheads and the smallest rear overhang of any car.

We wanted the shocks of the DNX408 to be ahead of the axle, for better weight distribution, better wheel control over bumps/landings and for better protection when the going gets tough; the benefits are just too big to ignore.

However, one possible down side of this forward shock layout is heat soak from the exhaust header on the left rear shock, so we set about removing this problem. Firstly our tests showed that the effect is minimal, but something worth fixing and here is how we did it. After many handmade test cars, we settled on an engine forward position for the best possible weight distribution, it is also only 1mm off being the most centrally mounted engine of the cars on the market today.  So, our engine and its exhaust header are the furthest forward and the most in-board of any current car, taking it well away from the left rear shock.
Problem solved! …well pretty much, but we carried on.

The DEX408 has the lowest bodyshell around – this has many benefits, like low centre of gravity, minimal frontal area to punch through the air (perhaps giving more run time or speed?) more air flow over the rear wing etc (so that too can be lower), but it also helps with heat management. The engine head in a DNX408 gets the most direct clean airflow of any car, plus the body is designed to direct as much air as possible over the bodyshell at the engine head, rather than through the body. The central engine and low bodyshell mean that all shock bodies are also in clean airflow.  The DNX408s body is long and slim at the rear which encloses the exhaust header and insulates the left rear shock, while it is trimmed to help direct/suck hot air away from either rear shock. Still worried? …then foil tape will be available for inside the body.

Anyway, back to the rear suspension; well it has all the necessary toe-in, squat, top-link and shock position adjustments as standard. It has outdrive and CVD boots to minimise debris problems in the race and minimise maintenance between them. We also fitted shock guards to the suspension arms, which are probably also useful at helping rear grip on slippy tracks, you choose; either way the shocks are kept in good order by super flexi & durable shock boots.

Rear wing – it is as close to the rear wheels as possible, thanks to the forward shock position, this drives the down-force directly to the rear wheels. Too many wings on 1/8 buggies are way out back which means more wheelies than down-force and heavy supports to stop it getting snapped off.

More tuning options; on the DNX408 it is easy to switch the rear arms around (shocks out back) to change weight bias and range of wheelbase adjustment. This feature gives the widest range of wheelbase adjustment of any car. We doubt you will need this feature, but no harm in keeping options open.

Finally – The standard one piece engine mount on the DNX408 is another “what, that comes standard?!?” moment; precision and convenience says it all

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January 19, 2010

Hupo for the DEX410

Filed under: News — Team Durango @ 4:01 pm

Team Durango is pleased to announce Hupo Hönigl will be using the DEX410 for 2010. This is great news for Team Durango & we can not wait to start working with him.

HupoDurango1

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January 18, 2010

DNX408 spec & price announced, plus more details of pioneering features

Filed under: News, Prototype testing — Team Durango @ 5:32 pm

Some of the STANDARD features of the DNX408 only from Team Durango

  • 5mm thick hard anodised chassis & one of the narrowest, if not the narrowest on the market
  • Hard anodised alloy bulkheads front & rear (colour shown is pre-production; production will be hard anodised)
  • Gearbox cases front & rear are moulded & separate from the load bearing bulkheads; this gives minimal flex, best bearing alignment, best dirt shielding & easy removal of whole diff & CVD, just like the DEX410
  • 15mm bore alloy shocks, PTFE coated ultra smooth & threaded. Alloy caps, alloy cartridge bottom & polished shock shafts; shocks are everything, so these are quality throughout
  • 5mm hard anodised shock towers front & rear, as standard
  • Forward mounted engine (20mm further forward than some leading race buggies) this gives ideal weight distribution & room for everything to be mounted as low as possible. The RX pack goes under the rear CVD, which is another Team Durango first
  • One piece CNC machined engine mount with gold anodised memory plate is standard in the kit & is designed for maximum engine performance & easy maintenance with a marked-up chassis for easier engine alignment
  • Rear of the car has maximum ground clearance for smoothest landings so you can get the power down faster
  • Radio tray is mounted into the chassis to get centre of gravity as low as possible, but still only 5 screws to slide it out for easy maintenance
  • Lowest possible centre of gravity the servos and RX battery are laid down & mounted into the chassis. Engine & tank are also mounted as low as possible
  • Top quality, hard anodised suspension holders as standard front & rear with full range of precision moulded inserts for geometry changes
  • Angled down stop screws ensure maximum solidity & consistency, without adding weight
  • Lightened transmission parts are used throughout as standard
  • In board & out board CVD joints front & rear protected with rubber CVD boots
  • Centre mounted fuel tank inlet for easy access in any pit lane, with dirt guard as standard
  • Super low body to ensure maximum flow over the adjustable rear wing, while the rear wing sits low to again minimise CofG, while oversized end plates (ROAR legal) ensure stability & protect the engine head in crashes
  • We have built & tested all the leading cars & our plastics fit, finish & durability is second to none & better than many
  • Body, air filter, cultch, once piece CNC engine mount & wheels all included in the kit

The public buying price (street price) for this revolutionary & top quality car is US$699 or 457Euros or 417UK pounds (this price excluded local sales taxes).

Considering the spec of the car out-of-the-box; alloy suspension holders, alloy bulkheads, 5mm shock towers & 5mm chassis all hard anodised, plus black/gold alloy CNC engine mount, lightened transmission; this is a very fair price, something we have worked very hard on.

Check out some of the details of the pre-production car below….

The DNX408 CHASSIS is a work of art, 5mm of the finest aircraft alloy hard anodised & machined away to minimise weight, but also to give the DNX408 class-leading centre of gravity, with almost all the hardware sunk down into it. Minimal rear overhand means the smoothest of landings over a wider range of jumps

Close ups of DNX408 BRAKE SYSTEM pioneered by Team Durango in its test mules. Super solid for the best action, feel, consistancy & durability

Details of the STEERING, angled-up at the same angle as the kickup to remove bump steer, while the ackerman link moves under the CVD.

More details over the coming days

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