Radio control cars are fun. Stage rally is brilliant. Put them together with a slow-motion camera able to capture 1,000 frames per second and you end up with this amazing video from Safari Cup - RC Rally Championship on Facebook. Aside from the super-sized flowers and the occasional foot in the frame, it’s pretty tough to identify these machines as motorised scale models.
We’ve seen something like this before. Last year we featured another video from this Facebook page, showcasing one of the group’s extensive rally courses. Based in the Czech Republic, the Safari Cup RC Rally Championship holds several events through the year on different tracks, with this footage coming from the group’s recent event called Rally Venezia. If we’re reading the translation correct on the video post, it was actually shot with a camera phone that has a super slow-motion setting. That by itself is rather mind-blowing, never mind the quality of the 1/10 scale electric rally cars and the realistic setting that even features sponsor banners on the corners.
Gallery: RC Safari Rally slow motion screenshots
The realism isn’t the only thing that makes this particular radio-controlled sport so amazing. At typical RC events, drivers will stand on an elevated platform while guiding the car around a course from a single vantage point. The size and complex layout of the stages in the Safari Cup makes that impossible, so the drivers literally run along with the cars, skipping their way across the track while trying to set a fast stage time. It’s an athletic aspect to an otherwise static activity that we both appreciate and respect.
RC car extravaganza:
According to the group’s schedule, the next event is the Daros Rally on May 11. This would be epic to watch – perhaps it’s time to start a Safari Cup RC rally championship in the States. Who’s with us?