By the time I left Brunei, I had built somewhat of a small legacy in RC in the country. I had won my share of races, helped my share of budding newcomers and was integral in the construction of the main off-road track in the country. I was also one of the main characters involved in the running of the Brunei and Borneo League. I've come a long way in RC in Brunei but everyone has to start with humble beginnings.
After completing my further education in Perth, Australia, I returned to Brunei in 2007. I had sold off all my RCs in Perth as I couldn't make space and weight allocation for them while flying. I knew I wanted to continue the hobby in Brunei but I wasn't familiar with the scene.
I looked around for tracks and found that the most active RC scene at the time was 1/10 on-road racing. I went to the local hobby shop (Guan Hock Lee) and met the owner, Edwin Sim. We would become good friends with passing time.
I left the shop with an antiquated Kyosho TF-5 at a time when belt driven cars had already become the industry standard. I got the TF-5 because it was cheap and I felt that the shaft-driven car was still good enough to handle the power of the Hobbywing Justock class (Stock 17.5t).
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The TF5 was outdated but it got me racing competitively. More importantly it taught me how to set up the car and electronics.
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There was a huge learning curve when it came to learning to drive an RC around a track but this time I had help in the form of veteran pilots. They taught me how to set the car and the motor properly and how to drive around a track. Despite the motor being limited in power and speed, I still had my share of crashes. And each crash meant an upgrade so I was driving a pretty tricked up TF-5 pretty quickly.
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| This was pretty much as hopped up as you can get. |
If memory serves me right, by the time I retired the car, it had already gotten upgrades in the form of carbon fibre chassis and upper decks, CVDs to replace the standard swing shafts, aluminium drive shaft, TF-5 Stallion shocks, ZX-5 Lazer aluminium steering racks and motor mounts.
The car drove well and I was keeping up and beating the latest and greatest offerings from Xray, Tamiya and the likes but it could be argued that I could have gotten a newer car with all the upgrades that went into it. Regardless I managed to complete the first half of my first race season with it. It finished three races in the middle of the A-main pack. A big achievement considering it was my first season of proper racing.
Unfortunately I had to retire the car following a bad crash two days before a race. The LHS no longer stocked parts for the car and online orders usually take a month to reach Brunei. I made the call there and then to purchase my second Hot Bodies car. The original Hot Bodies TCX that was previously owned by one of the fastest drivers in Brunei.
Editor's note
The TF5 was well past its prime when I bought it. Though my car was 'new old-stock', it was quite a distance behind some of the newer cars on the market in terms of tech and design. Regardless, the car was still plenty of fun to drive and was fast enough to compete with the top-of-the-line pure bred racers at the time. We were however running the stock class so I can't say how it would have performed with a more powerful motor. It was also no where as durable as the newer cars out there.
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