Team Corally (also known as Corally or TC) is a belgium radio-controlled vehicles manufacturer founded as PK Model Racing in 1984 by Constant Paul and Jan van Kooij. The 'P' and 'K' in PK Model Racing represented the family names of the founders which was later changed to Corally then Team Corally.
In 2014, Corally was acquired by JSP Group International, an investment group behind the European Reseller Pro Models.
Corally has won multiple World and European Championships as well as countless National titles around the globe.
History[edit | edit source]
Back in the mid-eighties when Schumacher dominated the 1/12 scene, Constant Paul's father decided to design on paper the ultimate 1/12th car using high tech materials to improve on the strength and consistency of the cars used at the time. The designs looked good and so they had a few cars made, which were tried by Constant and a few other top 1/12 drivers in Holland. This was back in '86 and as the tests of the cars proved promising, they decided to use them at the World Championships in Las Vegas. Only five cars were used at the Championships and Jose Rosas proved the cars special by making the Worlds A final, an amazing result for a group of privateers from Holland and France with a scratch built car. After the Worlds results interest in the car grew and several were sold at an extraordinary high price which reflected the superb engineering involved and the very small numbers made. At this point, it became clear that it was possible to make the sale of these cars a viable commercial venture and so Corally was born.
The name Corally evolved from the 'nick-name' given to the original development cars which used a very high quality aircraft aluminium for the chassis and suspension components called 'Coral', hence the name Corally.
Development[edit | edit source]
Corally started with a stick pack car back in '86 which was the way to go at the time. The car used 'independent suspension' front wishbones, complete with an anti-roll bar and rubber sealed dampers. The tweak of the car was controlled by the front springs rather than the usual rear T-bar and due to the use of superior materials the car maintained very consistent handling characteristics.
Corally were quick to see the advantages of using the saddle pack nicad configuration and their cars developed along these lines into the World Championship winning SP12GII.
When Corally became a commercial organisation, they realised the importance of results at major meetings, but being a small European company they knew that it would be difficult to compete with the might of the large American Teams, whose resources were considerable and who at that time dominated big car racing.
Firstly Corally recognised that the pin connectors being used back in the mid eighties weren't man enough for the job and so they developed the Corally connector. This was their first step in making the electrics within the car more efficient, in an attempt to close the gap between the Meads and motors available to their small Team and those of the huge American organisations.
The next area they looked at was the electronic speed controller. Fets were being used at that time, but research showed that much valuable power was still being wasted by the controller. With this in mind they developed the Corally 'credit card' speed control, so called because of its shape. Its introduction was probably the most revolutionary step in the history of electric RC model cars. This controller had a switching frequency of 5000 Hz. It had an inbuilt current limiter plus regenerating braking, which at the time was quite earth shattering stuff.
This single development put the Corally team on par with the very best around at the time, just by the more efficient use of their available power. The established speed control manufacturers moved quickly to catch up with this major development, and unfortunately for Corally they did so just before the '88 World Championships and so Corally's advantage was removed on this occasion.
Corally Motors[edit | edit source]
Corally started looking into motor design in 1988, when they began testing various combinations of motor types on their permanent indoor test track. Over the next three years they built up a thorough understanding of motors and their design thanks to continuous testing and the production of their own prototypes and modifications. Each aspect of a motor's design was looked into in great detail, and numerous mechanical and electrical tests were carried out to back up their track findings.
It wasn't until 1991 that Corally started to produce motors commercially with a level of quality which surpassed anything that most people had seen before. With their high-quality motors, Corally went on to win every single 1/12 and 1/10 on-road European Championships in the following years.
In the 90s, Corally remained one of the most race successful RC manufacturer and in 1994, David Spashett and Team Corally won the 1994 IFMAR 1/12 World Championships in France with the Corally SP12G2 chassis. David Spashett went on to win the World Championship again in Italy in 2006 with the Corally SP12X "US Spec" chassis.
Recent years[edit | edit source]
In later years, Corally went on to develop a full range of mass market products developing and distributing buggies and truggies similar in design and shape to Arrma's most successful cars. Although hampered by quality in the early years, modern Corally cars have raised the bar to be on par with products from other major manufacturer but so far, the lack of brand image in recent years has not allowed Corally to attain the level of sales of its American or Japanese competitors.
RC products[edit | edit source]
Team Corally has a long RC cars manufacturing history which started in 1/12 competition racing and has transformed into a more standard mass market approach. Yet, Corally still offers high-end racing cars such as the SSX823.
List of Team Corally RC vehicles on RCpedia[edit | edit source]
List of on-road electric cars[edit | edit source]
1/8th scale[edit | edit source]
- SSX823
1/10th scale[edit | edit source]
- SP10
- SP10X
- SP10G
- SP10V
- C10
- F1
- F1 New Generation
- C4 Prototype
- C4 Andy Griffiths
- CCT
- FSX10
- SSX10
1/12th scale[edit | edit source]
- PK Corally
- SP
- SPII
- SP12
- SP12G
- SP12V
- SP12G2
- SP12G3
- SP12M
- SP12M Ahonimie
- SP12X
- 12SL
- SSX12
List of off-road electric cars[edit | edit source]
1/8th scale[edit | edit source]
- Jambo
- Dementor
- Punisher
- Kronos
- Muraco
- Shogun
- Radix
- Sketer
1/10th scale[edit | edit source]
- SBX410
- Triton
- Mammoth
- Moxoo
References[edit | edit source]
External links and sources[edit | edit source]
Let's Talk Team Corally[edit source]
Express your views or ask questions about Team Corally: