Tamiya Solar Eagle SRC-6000 - 56101
(Radio Controlled Model Review)

  Released by Tamiya on September 29, 1992, the Solar Eagle SRC-6000 (#56101) was based on the full sized solar cars that were being developed to race 2000 miles across Australia in that time, using the sun as the only power source.

  The three wheel model is constructed from two lexan shells. The top half having three solar panels, each with ten cells wired in series and providing a total of 7.5v. A 280 motor drives the single rear drive wheel via electronics taken from their 1/16 Tamtech cars.

  Three capacitors store the solar energy to keep the car rolling when the sun isnt strong enough to drive the car, with a top speed of around 5MPH.

  Now considered rare, good examples of the Solar Eagle for the collector are hard to find, but are occasionally available on ebay.

Rating: 4 RCScrapyard

My First National

   When I first started in RC, way back in the late 1980s, I would turn up to the weekly club meeting, with my Tamiya Boomerang, Acoms transmitter, two sets of crystals, a couple of 7.2v batteries, a charger and a tool box with a wheel spanner and a few spares.
   It was three five minute qualifying rounds and a final, and every month we would have a trophy meeting. The trophies were donated by a two of the older semi professional guys who basically ran the club and over the years had collected what must have been hundreds of trophies and had no space for them anymore. The lure of a trophy always brought out the "not as enthusiastic types" and the small church function room was always packed on those nights.
   About a year in, my collection of B final trophies was beginning to clutter my room, and my dad bought me the new Tamiya Manta Ray. That was the big turning point in my RC career.
   From then on it was A finals all the way. Then one day in the summer of 1992 the club organisers (the semi pro guys) asked me if I would like to go to a BIG national meeting way down south in Malvern. I asked my dad and with a bit of prompting he said "why not".
   When we got to that meeting we found there were around a hundred competitors, with ten groups of ten. I was in group "H". a two of my friends went down with us and they were in group "I" so were on just before me.

Bearing Seals

   If you were to ask anyone with a modicum of experience in RC, they will tell you that the best modification you can make to a basic RC model, is to add a set of ball bearings.

   Quite a few of the entrance level models at the time this article was written, come with plastic and sintered brass ring type bearings. If these bearings are installed in the model and coated with grease as advised in the car manual, dust and grit can be caught in that grease and be dragged into the bearing where it can abrade the shaft that spins in it and it won't be long before it becomes a very sloppy fit, causing all kinds of problems.

   But what should you look for when buying bearings? There are a number of types of seal used on ball bearings, and there is much debate concerning which is the best for RC.