Model Expo 2005 NEC Birmingham

The UK's biggest RC and Model Exhibition, Model Expo 2005. CML and other drivers out to demo and promote RC Drifting.

Some of the events going on:
Indoor circuit: Stock cars, 1/10 touring cars, 1/10 buggies, hovercrafts, drift cars

Outdoor circuit: Motorbikes, Top Stocks (1/5scale), 1/8 Rallycross with some awesome jumps, nitro 1/10 touring cars

Off Road display: There was a whole arena set up for the trucks and buggies, with some huge ramps. The Traxxas T Maxx, Revo and Jato, Losi LST, HPI Savage etc were all getting stupid air off a 4-foot high kicker built for a bike! Awesome show (we went to watch it 3 times)!

There was in indoor and outdoor flying area even one with some jets, an rc boat/ hovercraft pool, loads of things like train sets and static models...

Anyway, the drifting... There were 4 drift demos a day on the indoor carpet track. There were about 8 cars out, driven by people from total drift beginners from CML's staff to 1/10 TC national(?) champions! Certainly seemed to pull the crowds in! The commentator didn't quite get all his facts right but was close enough to give people an idea of what its about and emphasised that its just really good fun. Most of the cars were running the standard Yokomo shells, there were a few light kits and it certainly looked awsome having about 8 shiny drifters hoofing round the track! Getting the drifts connected was tricky but towards the end of the day even the beginners were getting the hang of it. The racers seemed fairly uninterested to begin with, but by just after lunch they were all coming trackside to watch. A lot of them were interested in giving it a go, especially the younger guys. Most of them said it just looked like a laugh, and would make a welcome change to being (over)serious racers!

CML did well selling lots of kits and got a great interest for the hobby.

Here are selection of photos taken from the CML stand and a shot of the track. The Option 350z shell is a neat bit of kit, comes with lights and wheels... Do nismo ones too!