Class 2 Range Rover Winching out of a ravine
RC Rock Crawling is an area of the RC hobby which is increasing in popularity by the day, but it’s not new, the original scale off-road vehicles were produced by the likes of Tamiya in the 1980s often with metal chassis’, solid axles and realistic styling. They were typically shaft driven and some even sported sequential gearboxes allowing you to have high and low gears options
A Tamiya Pajero originally released 25+ Years Ago
A lot of these early design features were scaled down from 1:1 (real) off-road vehicles, so are still common in much newer RC models as they work well. But naturally people have developed and modified the vehicles to perform better in different situations and as a result the vehicles can often be grouped in to classes depending on the level of modification, for example a class 1 off-road vehicle would pass a UK MOT without issue, where a Class 4 vehicle would be a dedicated off-road vehicle, like a rock bouncer.
This is a Class 1 Land Rover Defender Navigating a steep incline.
The competitive side of rock crawling is based on a similar principle to Trials Driving where a set course will be laid out over varying terrain with gates to drive through, and the objective is to drive through as many gates as you can with out any penalties. It is not about how fast you can go; it’s about how far you can go.
Class 2 Jeep Navigating part of the course at the Recon G6
There are many groups on Facebook and regular events are held globally where people will meet up and sometimes drive their vehicles in convoy (which is always great to see), or depending on the location sometimes courses will be laid out for people to drive at their leisure.
This was a sunday morning meeting with the MRCC group from Facebook
On top of these regular meet ups, there are also a few larger events such as the UK Scaler Nationals where drivers are judged on certain sections for competition purposes, these events can attract hundreds of people and are great fun to attend. Other events include the Recon G6 which is hosted at different locations around the world and many manufacturers aspire to have their products ‘G6 certified’ to prove their resilience.
The Mighty Maximus being judged at the UK Scaler Nationals. Please note this is just one group that provide a series for this class. They don't have any ties to the BRCA
Here are some of the vehicles at UK Recon G6
Links to the events mentioned,
Recon G6 - https://www.facebook.com/RECONG6/
UK Scaler Nationals - https://www.facebook.com/groups/283733735170718/about/
Again please note that the groups above have no ties to the BRCA and NOT classed as an official BRCA National Series.