The RC Deep Dive

Aluminium Rear trailing arms for the ORV (Off-Road Vehicle) chassis like those made by RcAiDong have suddenly gotten harder to find domestically and seem to only be available as shipped direct from China. But in an age of a global trade war and high tariffs what does that mean for you? The RC enthusiast who's trying to hop-up their Frog, Blackfoot, Subaru BRAT, or their vintage 1983 Lancia 037 rally car? We investigate your options in this episode of the RC Deep Dive Dive podcast. 

Yesterday was our 365th daily episode of the RC Deep Dive podcast and so as we begin our second year of daily R/C hobby podcasting, we are going to reveal the up-to-now anonymous real persons behind the podcast: 

Nikko and his daughter, Ai, both from Japan. 

Ini, originally from Nigeria, and his wife, Gemma, both of the Netherlands. 

Nik from the USA (United States of America). 

R.C. from India.

We also introduce Ai's creation, our new mascot, Mina Suzuki, who has been in some of our previous RC Deep Dive podcast daily episode thumbnails, but will now feature prominently in most episode thumbnails. 

In the 1980s it was a golden era for both radio controlled cars, trucks, buggies, Jeeps, and vans, but also for skateboarding. Professional skateboarders like Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, Gator, and Rodney Mullen became household names. But what were the golden era R/C cats that hatched their personalities and style? We ride the lines that connect them in this 365th episode of the RC Deep Dive podcast. 

Besides CRP (Custom Racing Products) and Parma PSE (Parma Speed Experts), Pro-Line was also another giant of R/C hop-ups, especially for the Frog and other ORV (Off-Road Vehicle) chassis radio control model vehicles. In this episode of the RC Deep Dive podcast, we go back and look to see which of their many hop-up parts for the Frog and ORV chassis radio-controlled model vehicles were the most popular and why. 

Many radio-controlled model vehicle enthusiasts have only run their R/C cars in their backyard, at parks, at skateparks, and/or on hiking trails, but never at an indoor RC car club. What are these radio-controlled car clubs and what brought them to fruition? What resources do they provide to the radio control car hobbyist community? We pull out our membership cards and give you all the reasons why RC clubs can be a boon to the radio control hobbyist community in this episode of the RC Deep Dive podcast.

The vintage Audi Quattro Rally and Lancia 037 Rally are classic Tamiya 2WD (Two Wheel Drive) R/C cars from the 1980s, bit what is available to hop them up and restomod (restoration modification) them? In this episode of the RC Deep Dive podcast we look at all the parts available to upgrade these absolute rally car legends of the golden age of radio control. 

R/C cars have started crawling, bashing, and drifting in a new terrain, the remains of abandoned malls in the wake of the retail apocalypse. We open the doors to the dangers, the adventures, and the fun that is being had in theses empty relics that sometimes look like an exciting wasteland of a future apocalypse rather than the shopping centers that they used to be in this episode of the RC Deep Dive podcast. 

Parma PSE (Parma Speed Experts) made many hop-ups for the Tamiya Frog and the other R/C model vehicles built on the ORV (Off-Road Vehicle) chassis. We go over the most popular Parma hop-up options and explain why these vintage hookups were both unique solutions to weaknesses in the ORV chassis as well as some of the most sought after upgrades that strengthened these epic radio-controlled model vehicles exponentially. 

Many people think that R/C building, racing, bashing, crawling, and drifting is a sedentary activity like playing video games. However the actual science shows that many of these activities give the radio control enthusiast a really good workout both physically and mentally. We break down the radio controlled model vehicle activities that are helping you be a healthier person in this episode of the RC Deep Dive podcast. 

Most people use a standard pen style hobby knife such as a #11 Exacto knife. However, when it comes to cutting decals and placing them on your R/C model vehicle's body shell, this is not the ideal choice nor tool. Instead, a finger loop hobby knife is the best for helping you achieve exact cuts every time. We cut through the nonsense and put our finger directly on both the hows and whys of finger knife superiority for radio control in this episode of the RC Deep Dive podcast.