This has been a long time coming for the multi-world champion and his new offroad team. Choosing to part ways with Yokomo for 2015, Naoto has joined up with the red army and all the Kyosho fans have been waiting patiently for him to debut his new gear. Finally, on the world level Naoto is running the RB6 at the Hudy Arena against some of the world’s finest. Many have been wondering how he would do with his new team and we’re about to find out!

With a few practice runs in the books, Naoto has made comments that his car is pushy, which is an uncommon characteristic for the RB6. Although he is running the Muchmore “Wonderbody” and prototype X-gear CF shock towers, he has yet to find a dialed setup for his RB6 before qualifying. With RedRC commenting that he will try an all new setup for quals, it will be interesting how the car will progress as he searches for more speed. With a team behind him, I’m sure by the weekend’s end he will be hunting for the win.

Another interesting thing to note is Naoto is running the 3 gear tranny from the rear motor rather than the typical spur/pinion flipped on the other side. To do this, he found a way to reverse the orientation of the motor so it goes forward with one less idler gear in the tranny. Sensored motors have issues with wires be switched around to reverse the direction of the motor. Perhaps ESC setting? Special reverse orientation motor? I’m sure we will soon find at as we progress through the weekend.

Thanks to RedRC for the wonderful work they do and for the images. Check out their site for the entire event coverage.