Team OvalExpress Racing

My latest project, Twin OS Powered Tunnel

2006-09-17T03:08:00.000-07:00

Well, here is a preview of my latest build, its a Power Surge Racing Products Nemesis .21 size tunnel. I had this extra hull laying around and decided to be creative and build a twin. I have always wanted a twin engine powered boat, and after seeing Mike Talley and Carl Van Houtens twin powered Shaman at the 2006 Tunnel Champs, I knew I had to have one. Initially I planned on using our signature series K&B 8907 water cooled outboard sport motors on the project, but made myself realize the limitations brought forth by a modified sport K&B motor. We really have pushed them to their limits in the horsepower department, and as a result started seeing failures with the engines, i.e. cracked cases were common, as well as finicky needles. Of course it was a nice challenge to make the 30 year old technology, run with and sometimes outrun the newer style OS sport engine, but ultimately I grew tired of all of the work needed to make a K&B fast, only to have it come apart after a few races. The decision was clear to me, OS would be the power plants for my 2007 fleet of tunnel boats, including the twin. OS makes very high quality equipment, and with the right props and slight adjustments, the motors are ballistic AND dependable. It was a no brainer, once I broke the ties I had with the old K&B's.... The great thing about the sport configuration twin is that it can be run in a number of classes including, Open Tunnel, Open offshore, Sport D (.45) Tunnel and Mod D (,45) Tunnel.

Here is a shot of the mount system. I tried to keep it really simple and utilize the stock mount system, and also make it work that when you adjust the height/angle on one engine the other receives the exact same adjustment.

Good side view, looks pretty tough with all of that power hanging off the back of the boat....

Good shot front he rear. You can see where I had to angle the carbs to get the stock needles to clear the other engine, I also added main needle extensions to make the adjustment a little easier. Not much clearance between the flywheel, but a little is all you need.

Right side view, gotta get rid of those Novarossi stickers....

One last rear shot, I extended the water "outlet" of the right engine to ensure no water gets sucked into the left engine while running...

New Team Oval Express Racing Logo

2006-08-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

FE Sneak peak, NEU powered Villain

2006-08-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

Well.... here is my first attempt of a FE tunnel boat, I dont really have a clue about what im doing, but its been fairly easy with a little research and a lot of help from others. I am still waiting on a cowling from Australia (thanks to Kris Flynn), an ESC, motor mounting plate and shaft collet from FFE (thanks to the Fullers) and eventually some M1 A123 cells (thanks to Capt Ron ). Of course, I still have a fair amount of work to do with molding in the cowl to become water tight, but once everything gets here, it can be finished in a few afternoons. One thing I am SURE about is this hull has been a proven RACER, as its made about a millions laps around the pond in the last few years as a MOD and SPORT nitro boat. Because of all of those laps, I decided to rebuild the transom area due to oil and fuel soaking into the exsting transom. The new Transom sports a carbon fiber rear plate and should provide pleanty of support for the newly aquired NEU 1512 2D Brushless motor. The stock radio box was cut off and sanded flat on the top deck, and the steering servo has been moved to the Center of Gravity. I will wait until I have all of the electronics to position everything else.

Summer has finally made it to Germany...

2006-06-11T00:58:00.000-07:00

This is Victors little Tower Hobbies Uproar. Its his latest plane since selling his Trainer to Chief Master Sargeant Gary Coleman. Now Victor can safely say he no longer flys a trainer aircraft and is free (atleast for now) from the ridicule brought forth by his long lost brother Jeff Sweetenburg. Ok so they arent really brothers, but you wouldnt know it because they bitch and talk crap to each other like siblings.

This is the coolest R/C thing i've seen in a while... Its a Huge Turbine powered R/C jet. This thing is sick. The pictures dont show how big it actually is, but I would guess it had atleast a 6 or 7 foot wingspan, For my non R/C friends, it is powered by a real working turbine model engine, just like the full size version. It sounds just like the full size version. It flys just like the full size version. It was an awesome display of fine crafstmanship. It was owned by a German gentleman so I didnt get all of the details but, I understood this to be its first flight, and it cost around 8000 Euro (about $10,000 dollars!!) to build. The kit it self cost 2000 euro, the motor around 3000 euro, and the electronics, retractable landing gear, braking system and other goodies add up to the difference. I only saw it fly a short time, but it was impressive none the least.

This in the inside of the monster turbine powered Jet. Lots of cool electronic gismos in this thing, most of which I have no idea as to what they are... Very nice clean install, It had dual tanks on each side of the fuse behind the intake tracts. They must have been huge becasue it took for ever to fuel it up with kerosene. Very cool...

My Porsche 944, fine German engineering? or Porsche's red headed step-child

2006-06-08T14:44:00.001-07:00

Well, here are some official photos of my little red Porsche. I just got finished cutting the grass in the back yard and thought it would be a good area for a photo shoot of the Porsche since the view is so nice. If you know anything about the 944 series of porches, the title makes perfect sense, if you dont.... You will have to do a little internet reading. While not exactly a 911 turbo, it still is a wonderfully fun car to drive. It handles the curvy German roads with ease, as thats what it was designed to do. Literally. Its got a front mounted, water cooled, inline, upright four cylinder 2.5 liter engine. From the factory, the cars are rated at 148 HP. This particular car has been dyno'd at 186, due to aftermarket, exhaust, header, and intake parts. Its not a Rocket-ship by any means, but it AINT slow either. It was without a doubt built with Autobahn travel in mind, 5th gear is fairly tall, and I have travelled in excess of 140 mph with relative ease. Even better, if you get this car in the tight twisties (which is VERY frequent in Germany) there are few cars that can hang with the true 50/50 weight distribution "glued to the road", "like its on rails" and any other cliche' you can think of handling characteristics of the 944. This happens to be a U.S. spec model, and may end up coming back to the U.S. with us when we leave Germany. Enjoy~

Nice passenger side picture, the awesome view is actually from our backyard. (you have to be here to get the full effect, thats a hint for any of my friends who may want to vacation in Germany, FREE ROOM AND BOARD!)
Cool picture with the camera on the ground.... im slowly figuring this whole photography thing out.
picture of the interior from the open sunroof, note the new MOMO steering wheel and P-Tech steering wheel quick release. :) It has a Kenwood head and Kenwood 12 disc changer
The little engine that could.... I have a strut brace coming from my father that should be here any day, I will post a picture of it once I get it on the car. Thanks DAD!!
Last picture from the drivers side, the sunlight was kinda bad at this time of day, but its the best I could do.

Tower Hobbies Fun 51 Profile Fun Flyer

2006-06-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

This my one and only (at this point) kit build of an airplane. It took a few days worth of work to get it framed up, anther couple to get it rigged out, and yet a few more days worth of covering (my first experience with covering) to get it finished. Of course, this all happened over the span of a month or so, working on it as often as I could. I can honestly say, I am very pleased with the outcome. I've put about 20 flights on it so far, but today, with no wind to speak of, was the first time I could have a little fun with it, after all it IS a "Fun Flyer". It handles pretty well in my non-experienced opinion. I honestly wouldn't know if it didn't, but other guys that have flown it, say so. ;) Even though I've only been flying for a few months, I've been able to do a few basic maneuvers with ease, rolls, loops, some inverted flight and a few lazy snaps can be done fairly well. Ok, so they are not perfect and uniform, but it still looks cool to me, and you only get better with practice right? I've worked out a few issues with the not-so-forgiving landing gear, and got it trimmed to my liking. Got the Dual Rates set up, and also programmed a few snap-roll options on my radio. I am going to start playing with different props in the future, the plane tends to fly to fast right now and its pretty obvious in the air that it wasn't designed to do that. Overall, an easy build, easy set-up, and VERY fun plane to fly. I am currently using a little O.S. FX .40 on it, it seems to provide plenty of power and is getting better after every flight as the engine gets a little looser.

A bad day at the flying field is better than a good day at work...

2006-06-05T12:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I cant really say that I had a bad day at the flying field today, but Breck did. Breck has been flying a V-Mar Big Stick for the past few months that i've known him, its one of those planes that is certainly not perfect in construction, not perfect in owner influenced rigging, and not perfect in looks. But the bottom line is: it flew pretty damn well. With Breck manning the sticks on the radio, and being a typical grossly overpowered Breck aircraft, he regularly did every maneuver known to man to try and rip the wing off it, but it always came back for more. When the rudder wasn't falling off, the elevator wasn't fluttering, and the monokote wasn't flapping in the wind, it was a respectably nimble little plane.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. And end it did. After talking himself out of going home to ride his mountain bike, and staying with the rest of us to fly, the very next flight went to hell in a hand basket all to quickly. The little "Big Stick" that could, met its match with a very large German grown hardwood tree after the Elevator servo decided to quit working. A quick trek in the retrieval truck through the woods revealed the expected. The damage, in my opinion, wasn't as bad as the sound it made when it went in, I was sure there would be a nice pile of toothpicks left. Unfortunately the stick was forced into retirement, permanently.

The good thing from all of this is now Breck has a very nice O.S. .91 FX engine and all of the radio equipment to build a new plane....hmmm.... decisions, decisions

Ronalds New Nemesis, build up of a boat for a friend.

2006-05-21T05:24:00.000-07:00

This is a sneak preview of a new Nemesis I am building for a friend or mine, Ronald Van Essen. I got the boat about a month ago and finally finished my other projects so I could start on this one. It is called a Nemesis and was designed, and sold by Mike Zaborowski of the former business Power Surge Racing Products LLC. Mike got a rare opportunity to take his dream job with the company Aquacraft as an R&D/Development/Professional player of toys person. As a result of accepting the job, Power Surge Racing products was sold to Aquacraft to not create a conflict of interest between the two businesses, thus ending (atleast temporarily) the production of the Nemesis and other items once sold by PSRP. Ronald had this kit still new in the box and wanted me to build it for him as his time is limited due to his profession as a Commercial Airline Pilot for KLM. My current profession of a Student/Sandwich Artist/House Husband, allowed ample time to complete such a project....

Coming soon will be the build of my Villain, (villain #2) I still have a new in the box kit that needs to be finished. Villains make for one of the best sport .21 tunnels ever in my opinion. My original villain has made a million laps around the pond and is officially in retirement after the 2006 Tunnel Championships.

This would be Mike.... This pictures describes his personality better than any words I can come up with.

Here she is, mocked up and almost complete. All of PSRP kits are very easy to build, and Mikes passion for the hobby shows in his designs. At the stage of this picture I have about 6 hours invested total. The left sponson has been sanded and is ready for sheeting, the right side still has to be done. The center section, aside from the fuel cell towers, is completed and ready for the sealing coat of epoxy before paint. ( I hope Ronald will clear the boat instead of covering up the beautiful natural wood finish with colors... :) )

Just a quick shot of the running surface of the sponsons before sheeting.

This is the 1st edition "signature series" OvalExpress racing built boat. Ronald: this is good for atleast 8 more MPH... Enjoy

This is a quick shot of both of my Nemesis'. The bottom boat is the ex race boat of Mike, I acquired it earlier in the year, and I cant wait to race it soon..... The one above is my personal boat and was built by me about a year and a half ago. I am currently revamping a few things on the boat and will be running it soon.

My old Top Fuel Drag Bike. (not R/C, but just as cool!!)

2006-05-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

This was our Top Fuel dragbike we used to race back around 1999-2000, It was built mostly by my Father and I. It took about a year and a half to complete. We also built a prostock bike at the same time, I will post pictures of that later, It was rather unique as it used a Honda CB1100F powerplant instead of the typical Suzuki or Kawasaki motors in todays Pro Stock bikes, anyways, more on that bike later.

The T/F bike was built based on a Kawaskai Z1R block, it had a 1573cc displacement, Nissan pistons, MRE clutch, Falicon Crank, JE Rods, Megacycle cams, A Detroit 530 Blower, 1/4 Hilborn Nitro injection unit, Maxlite Ignition, I-jet fuel pump, and lots of other cool stuff that I cant remember.... It sounded like a Blown Pro-Mod Car, an unbelievable amount of noise from such a relatively small package. The bike gave us a lot of trouble in the tuning department, mainly in the fuel system. We never really it to 100%, but pretty close. Best pass was 6.40 E.T. It got a lot of respect when pulling to the line, no matter what was next to it, and it was an absolute blast to Ride, but it was also expensive. We sold the bike to a gentleman in Florida, and never looked back.

T/F Bike Pictures, we called it "ALCOHOL ABUSE"

The is a nice view of the right side, good look at the injector plates mounted on top of the blower. It also shows the belt driven Fuel pump.

This is a picture of the pneumatic electric-over-air front Line lock system we designed. It worked great and made a burnout a breeze.

Another view of the Fuel pump and Magneto ignition, both were belt driven off of the Crankshaft. Note the exhaust pipe coming from the front.... not much there, four of those things = noise.

Nice side shot of the whole bike with wheelie bar, this thing was huge! There is a hint of the other bike in this picture also (in the open garage door) We used a 28 foot enclosed trailer to haul both bikes to the track and they filled it up!

Left side shot of the Blower Drive Belt system, airshifter, fuel cell, jack shaft and enormous chain.

A good shot of the business end of the bike. Not your average rear motorcycle tire!

A few pictures of old R/C cars, trucks, and boats

2006-05-17T03:19:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few pics of some of my more recent past R/C vehicles, these go back only a few years, but it's the only pics I have. I started in 1992 with R/C and these only go back to about 2001. I will be posting more as I find them. Enjoy ~Gabe

CARS/TRUCKS

This was a wild hair I got and decided to get into R/C drag racing. It was a Walbern Rail. All carbon fiber and billet aluminum and EXPENSIVE. $450 bucks just for the rolling chassis. I stuffed a .21 buggy motor in it and it was ballistic fast, but I quickly became bored with it as there were no tracks to run it within 300 miles of me. It went to ebay....

This is a Kinwald edition Losi buggy. Great buggy, but Im not an electric guy so it had to go..

This is a Matt Francis edition XXXt electric truck. Great running truck, but electric is not for me. If it doesn't have an engine, I don't want.... Off to ebay it went.

This was my GS Storm Pro, much better than the Ofna, but still not up to par with the Kyoshos and Mugens. I sold shortly after purchasing it to buy a Mugen MBX-5, which I cant find any pics of...

This was my first attempt at racing 1/8 scale vehicles. It was an Ofna LX pro or something... A fun car to beat around with, but not much of a race car. I sold it a purchased a GS Storm Pro.

This is the second Drake truck I had. It was loaded with all the performance goodies and I kept it throughout the rest of my racing career. Awesome truck.

This is the first of two Adam Drake edition XXXNT trucks I had. Great truck, handled flawlessly and was pretty durable. I raced it for about a year and then purchased another one. This picture actually made it into the readers rides section of "Extreme R/C magazine"- pretty cool seeing your stuff in a magazine...

This was a RTR Team Losi XXXNT that I picked from a guy, I started racing it and quickly realized that I wanted something more, so I sold it a bought the Adam Drake edition XXXN

BOATS

This was a Great little .21 size boat that I scratch built. I had a piped K&B on it and it ran really GREAT. I sold it to a friend in Belgium, wish I still had it.

This is a Herb Stewart "Full Circle" .21 boat. I had a piped O.S. max on it. It was a cool looking boat but it had some bad handling habits, so it went to Ebay...

This was a scale project that I picked up from a good friend. I had MAC.67 to put into it and it was virtually ready to go. I needed to spend some time getting everything installed and set-up, but it never happened. I traded it for a .45 tunnel hull and motor.

This is another scratch built .21 size rigger that I raced for about a year, the boat was ok, handling was a bit of an issue. I had lots of trouble with the boat spinning out, mainly due to a turn fin problem that I never got corrected.

This is a Scratch built .21 sized rigger that I intended to stuff a .45 MAC into and run it at S.A.W. (straight-away) trials. However I was impatient and ended up putting a MAC .21 in it and tried to heat race the boat. Take note of the lightening holes down the sides, this boat was built VERY light with speed in mind. It was Extremely fast with the .21, but in its first race I nailed buoy 6 and the boat exploded, almost literally, thus ending its life.... oh well

This is the second rigger I ever had, I don't have pics of the original roadrunner which was my first rigger. This is a BBY (Blew By You) .21 rigger, very nice rigger. Made by Randy Naylor of BBY, unfortunately, he doesn't make them any more.

The short version of my R/C background

2006-05-17T00:29:00.000-07:00

This is to document my madness/passion for the hobby of R/C related vehicles. Cars, Boats & Planes, I have officially been hooked on all three at some point or another.

Boats:

I have been racing nitro powered boats now for about 6 years. I started out with an original Topspeed/O.S. XM combo that I picked up at the local Hobby shop, and it escalated (to say the least) from there. I dabbled with three point hydros for a while, even had a short stint with scales, gas crackerboxes and monos, but ultimately resorted back to my love of tunnel boats. I've owned virtually every tunnel known to man and even a few good performing scratch built wood versions. I have realized that I prefer wood over fiberglass, as I like to build with wood. I currently own two Power Surge Racing Products Villain S1's, two Power Surge Racing Products Nemesis, a Scratch built S.A.W. boat, and a .45 Road Runner Extreme Hydro.

My newest pride and joy would have to be my recently acquired Nemesis that belonged to the man, the myth, the legend, Mike Zaborowski, also known to many as Grimracer. Grim gave me the boat after winning this years Outboard Tunnel Championships, hosted by my home club, Charleston Model Boaters. I am waiting on a new powerhead for the boat and will be racing it, along with my new Villain at the upcoming 2007 Tunnel Champs. I have raced at the 2004 and 2005 International Model Power Boat Regatta and plan on doing it again in 2007 or 2008 (its expensive to fly from Germany to the States for just a boat race, albeit THE BIGGEST BOAT RACE, but expensive none the less.) I raced the District 13 High points and Grand Prix series for a few years, doing well in both. I am the co-founder of Team OvalExpress Racing, along with my good buddy Don Gilbert. We have been, and hopefully will continue to be a force to be reckoned with at a pond near you.

Cars:

It all started back in 1992 with the purchase of my first "real" R/C Vehicle, a Traxxas Hawk Stadium Truck. This was WAY before Traxxas got popular with almighty T-Maxx. I continued with R/C Cars for a long time, making it to the S.C. State Championships back in 1994 ( I couldnt even drive then, I had to have my mother drop me off each day of the races...) after that I raced at a few local tracks, but mostly just bashed around with my buddies and their cars. I got a little more serious with it around 2001-2002 when I stared racing 1/10 nitro truck and 1/8 nitro buggy. A friend from Charleston, Karl Kobernus, and I teamed up and started traveling to alot of local and out-of-town races and doing well. We also ran the R/C Pro Series in 2003 and got our butts kicked, but it was a blast. I havent done any racing since early 2004, but I kept a few cars to play with. I purchased a MTX-3 on-road car from a friend and tried that, only to find out im an off-road kinda guy. I currently have a T-Maxx with a .21 conversion, and a couple Losi Mini-t's ( they are fun to chase the dogs around the house with!)

Airplanes:

The airplane thing started after my wife, Meghan, and I moved to Germany about 7 months ago. I have not been able to find anyone to run boats with around the area, but happened to meet Jeff Sweetenburg, manager at our local Power Zone electronics store. We were in the store to purchase a navigation system, and Jeff was our salesman. He mentioned that he flew helicopters and airplanes in our conversation and he immediately had my full attention. After meeting and talking to his flying cronies, Victor, Breck and others, I soon had my first trainer aircraft. Vicor was kind enough to loan me his G3 Simulator for a few months while I got the plane ready to fly and I spent HOURS on it everyday. I finally got the plane ready for its maiden flight, and ended up solo flying and landing by myself on my first day at the field. Apparently this is not always the case with new pilots, but the Simulator flight time made it easy for me. I have since built and flown a Profile Fun 51 .40 size aircraft, an Extra 330S gasser (sweet plane!), a brushless electric aerobatic plane, and a little foam wing electric plane. I am making myself not buy any more planes until I get more comfortable with what I have. They are really different from the trainer and require much more concentration. It comes easy to Jeff and the guys, so I know its just a matter of practice....

Pictures of everything are soon to come!

~Gabe