strangwz

My son, Henry, & I have some first hand experience w/ the Rally 10 (R10). Let me say up front that it's an excellent mill, imo. I'll also apologize up front for the long post.

Rick Brake recommended the R10 to us in the fall of 2010. We needed something for a Losi 8 2.0 buggy, and Henry, my son, did not want a ballistic bottom end, but something with a linear feel to keep the tires hooked and make driving easier. Rick modded an R10 for us (ceramic rear bearing plus whatever Rick's mods are). Very reasonably priced; as an aside, absolute hobbyz had R10's on sale for $172 earlier this year.

The motor broke in extremely well. After about 1/2 gallon we had it on the track -- the Ohio RC Factory. As said earlier, the motor is really easy to tune (hell, if I can do it, anyone can). Early on, we were getting only 6:30 per tank. However, after ~2 gallons, we were right at the 10:00 mark to empty. This w/ the RB 2045P pipe, 192P header, old O'Donnell 30%, 7.0 carb insert, OS P4 plug, four Al shoes w/ two green and two gold springs.

We had been using two composite shoes and two Al shoes, but the composites would not last more than a weekend w/ the R10 (they'd last weeks w/ the RB B10 we had previously).

One of the layouts at The Factory had a slight bump about 1/3 down the main straight. Henry had to take it easy over the bump, otherwise the buggy would wheelie the entire rest of the straight. On two occasions, he had the buggy on the rear wing the entire length of the straight, having to dump it at the end so he could make the turn into a sweeper.

Henry had some good fortune at the Ohio State Indoor Championships and won Pro 1/8 scale buggy. He won it due to two things, imo: First, he can drive, but second, that R10 was just ballistic on the straight. He was in second place w/ 1 to 2 minutes to go. It was nip and tuck w/ the leader for a lap or so, but they entered the straight essentially dead-even. Henry opened up probably a one second lead through the straight and follow-on sweeper.

I heard a comment or two from others later that once Henry got about 5 feet out, it was game over.

We found the OS P4 plugs to not last well with this motor -- they often broke after cooling down after a qual or main. We tried the Orion #6 plug and that held up much better -- heck, those things just seem to refuse to die.

Also, we did try the RB 3001P pipe for two races after the OH State Champs race. We really wanted to get to 10:20 to empty, reliably. We found that pipe to not offer any economy improvements and to substantially reduce the 'grin factor' of the R10. It really made the motor pretty mellow and tame.

We put about 4 gallons on the R10 before the rear bearing seemed a little rough. So sent it to Rick for his assessment. Rick said the rod, bushing and crank were literally like new. There were some fine scores on the cylinder, which Rick said he could tell was not due to filtration problems, and wondered if I had let dirt get in when changing/inspecting the plug. He's probably right. Anyway, he gave it a small pinch, replaced the rear bearing, and that was it.

Henry has since stopped racing, much to my disappointment, so the R10 has a place of honor on my desk!

On edit: Forgot to mention that the Rally, Fire, and Classico are all essentially the same engine, going by the part numbers listed in the exploded views for each engine on the RB site. Different cooling heads and I think the Classico has a different front bearing.