Serpent Model Racing Cars

Serpent Model Racing Cars
Private
Industry Research and Development, Manufacturing, Sales and Promotion
Founded 1980
Founder Ron Ton
Pieter Bervoets
Headquarters Heemstede, North Holland, Netherlands
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Michael Salven, Designer, driver & owner
Ronald Baar, Commerce & co-owner , Xu Lau Logistics & co-owner , Lin Lau Production co-owner
Products Radio control model cars and components
Revenue US$1.5 million (2006)
Owner Michael Salven
Ronald Baar
Number of employees
 100
Parent Serpent Ltd
Website http://www.serpent.com

Serpent Model Racing Cars B.V. (known commonly as Serpent, or alternatively Serpent Motorsport, Serpent MRC or Team Serpent) was a company from Heemstede, North Holland in the Netherlands specializing in competition grade radio controlled cars which has won numerous IFMAR and EFRA titles, plus several national title; they are currently Chinese owned and all products are made in China as of printing.

History

The company was officially founded in 1980 as a brand name to Berton BV, named after a combination its founders, Pieter Bervoets and Ron Ton who were both radio controlled car racers.[1] The pair built their first RC car in 1972, using a Kyosho Dash 1 chassis modified by themselves,[2] then in 1977, the duo started to develop their first car under the Serpent name in 1977 and in 1979, both Bervoets and Ton had won separate EFRA 1:8 titles with their Mk. III Pro.[3]

One of its highlights of its competition career is the total domination during the IFMAR World Championship for 1:10th Scale 235mm IC On-Road cars that took place in Apeldoorn, in the Netherlands; when the Impacts, its competition car for the category at the time, dominated the top 10 positions in both the Class 1 (sportscars) and Class 2 (touring cars).[4]

The cars are nowadays developed using 3D CAD software such as Pro-Engineer and SolidWorks and are tested at the nearby race track in Heemstede.[1] Other than competing in national and international championships, Serpent also has its own one-make series Serpent Nitro Tours and Serpent Series, also has its own drivers' development program (Serpent Driver Development).[1]

In 2005, when the company celebrated its 25th anniversary, Bervoets sold the company off to Ronald Baar and the works' championship winning driver and designer, Michael Salven,[1] to allow Bervoets to concentrate on his other project that he had also been running for ten years before, Virtual RC Racing, specializing in RC car racing simulation for home computers.[5]

Following its takeover, there had been a few changes to the company, although the hissing snake symbol has never been changed since the beginning, the company's colour scheme has changed from magenta to the national Dutch colour scheme of orange and the logo has also been changed before the takeover. Another change to the company was, the popular and long running RC community orientated website myTSN was disbanded in favour of a more dedicated company site[6]

In 2008 the Dutch company went into bancruptcy. The recently started Off-Road projects were paused and the brand and the stock was sold to new company VectorRC in Holland. Serpent Ltd in HongKong is now in charge for the production and Distribution in Asia, SerpentEurope for Europe and SerpentAmerica for the American region. Michael Salven, Ronald de Baar are owners of the Serpent brand and run a company ( VectorRC BV) that takes care of the development and the marketing world-wide.

As of 2009, Serpent have won a total of seven world (IFMAR) and thirty three European titles (EFRA) together with five Japanese (JMRCA) and eight U.S. (ROAR) national titles as well as three Winternats.[1]

In 2011, Serpent was once again sold from World Model (Serpent Ltd Hong Kong) to a new company in China which retained the name and all relevant logos and designs of Serpent. By moving to China, Serpent hopes to maximize profit with the lower costs of products being made in China including lower material costs while still maintaining the same pricing that the brand has always been known for.


Product lines

Scale Name Terrain 2WD 4WD Body width EP/GP Year of production Notes
1:8 977 Viper On-road GP 2013
1:10 747 On-road 200mm GP 2012
1:8 966 / E On-road EP 2009
1:8 960-08 On-road GP 2007 Updated version of 960
1:8 960-07 On-road GP 2006 Updated version of 960
1:8 F180 RTR On-road GP 2006 Ready to run version of the F180
1:8 F180 On-road GP 2006 First 1:8 true scale single seater car
1:8 960FD On-road GP 2006 Fabio Domanins edition, uprated
1:8 960 On-road GP 2005
1:8 950-R On-road GP 2003
1:8 950 On-road GP Uprated version
1:8 Vector NT 2002 On-road GP 2002–? Uprated version
1:8 VETEQ 02 On-road GP 2002– Uprated version
1:8 Vector Spec 2000 On-road GP 2000–?
1:8 Vector Spec 98 On-road GP 1998–?
1:8 Vector On-road GP –
1:8 Excel MK II On-road GP ?–?
1:8 Excel 9000 On-road GP ?–?
1:8 Sprint 6020 On-road GP ?–?
1:8 Sprint 6010 On-road GP ?–?
1:8 Sprint 6000 On-road GP 1988–?
1:8 Quattro On-road GP 1982 (1983 for 4WD)–?
1:8 Quattro Compact On-road GP April 1, 1986 SWB version of the Quattro. April Fool of French RC Car Magazine Auto8
1:8 Super Pro On-road GP 1981–?
1:8 Competition MK III On-road GP 1979–?
1:8 Nitro Off-road GP 2008? Currently under development, working name
1:8 Spirit Off-road GP ?–1988
1:8 Cobra Off-road GP 1983–?
1:10 S500/Durango Off-road EP 2009 Sold and manufactured by Team Durango. Named as Team Durango DEX410.
1:10 Tenforce on-road EP 1980s–?
1:10 835 On-road 235mm GP –
1:10 Impact M2 WC/02 On-road 235mm GP 2002–
1:10 Impact M2 On-road 235mm GP –
1:10 Impact Spec 2000 On-road 235mm GP 2002–
1:10 Impact 2 On-road 235mm GP 2002–
1:10 Impact Rally On-road 235mm GP 1995– Body mounts modified to allow for touring car bodies
1:10 Impact On-road 235mm GP 1991–
1:10 720 08 On-road 200mm GP 2007–
1:10 720 07 On-road 200mm GP 2006–
1:10 720 On-road 200mm GP –
1:10 710 Team car On-road 200mm GP –
1:10 710 RTR On-road 200mm GP – Ready to run edition
1:10 710 On-road 200mm GP –
1:10 705 On-road 200mm GP –
1:10 Impulse PRO 4WD On-road 200mm GP –
1:10 Impulse PRO Carbon On-road 200mm GP –
1:10 S400 On-road 190mm EP –
1:12 S120 On-road EP 2008–
1:24 S240 On-road EP 2009–
1:8 811 Cobra Off-road GP 2010
1:8 811 Cobra-T Off-road GP 2010 Truggy version

1:8 811 Cobra Be Off-road

EP

2011 1:10 411 On-road

EP

2011

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Serpent Model Racing Cars - Company - About". Retrieved 2009-05-17.
  2. ↑ "Serpent" (in Norwegian). 2 March 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
  3. ↑ "30+ Years of EFRA Race History" (pdf). European Federation of Radio Operated Model Automobiles. 11 September 2005. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
  4. ↑ "IFMAR 1/10th Scale 235mm IC Championship Results". 27 February 2004. Retrieved 2009-05-17.
  5. ↑ Copied from the official VRC website
  6. ↑ Oisin O'Briain. "END OF AN ERA ON THE WEB (12/12/2006)". Retrieved 2009-05-17.

External links