serpent to get back into offroad
 

hey all:found this on the redrc site and thought it was interesting so have a read... "Serpent have just announced that they are to return to off road racing and have signed one of the sports top designers in the process. Gerd Strenge, better known as Mr Duango from Germany, has entered into a long-term cooperation with Serpent, for the development of offroad rc racing cars. Strenge is famous in the electric offroad scene, for his very innovative Team Durango 1/10 scale 4wd offroad project. Gerd started this project in 2002 and he has been developing the car ever since. His Team Durango car has been European Champion and his cars have reached many GP, EC and even WC finals in the hands of famous drivers like Hara and Marc Reinhard.

This obviously also announces a return of Serpent in the offroad arena. Serpent has been very active in 1/8 offroad racing from mid 80-ties until late 80-ties. Cars like the legendary and EC winning Serpent Cobra and its successor the Serpent Spirit.

Click here to read more…

Serpent’s R&D team and Gerd Strenge are now working together on a number of projects for the offroad market, but it will take some time before you will see the actual cars being introduced. Although proto-types have been running for a while already. Serpent will introduce offroad cars in 2008 (both 1/10 electric as 1/8 scale) and Gerd will be one of the R&D team to work on those projects for Serpent. His massive experience in offroad and his innovative idea’s will be a major asset for Serpent to create some of the finest offroad cars the market has ever seen. His emphasis is always very much on simplicity and ease of maintenance, which fits right in with the product-strategy that Serpent has choosen.

Serpent will not be making a copy of the 1/10 Durango as it is now (as others tried or are still trying), but will take the design a few steps further into a new concept, which will ofcourse share many of the basic idea’s behind the successfull Durango 1/10 car.

At the same time development work is in progress on the 1/8 scale offroad car too. Some major races have been attended already (Proline UK race) and the proto-type will be used in a number of other large races now to further develop the car." :spidey:

Thats great news.:nod:

2WD or 4WD only?

I know that they have signed Billy Easton to help with designing the cars, he lives up by me and he told me that he will be helping with the 4wd 1/10,and the 1/8 buggy.

so far all they have is a 1/8th buggy

From what I understand its only 4wd at the moment, however I would think they will also introduce a 2wd sometime in the future!

This is great news for the 1.10th off-road scene, there are now so many new and interesting deigns out on the market!

So Gerde bringing the Durango 4wd concept with him is nowt then? the 1/8th Gerd has been working on is a modified car from another manufacturer.

The car Gerd is posing with is a thunder tiger with losi shocks and lots of custom parts. But the 8th buggy won't be like that - its a testbed.

So whilst they don't have an 8th they certainly do have a 10th 4wd buggy.

Hes gone through just about every company now hasnt he:lol:

If they really want to take the market by storm they should try to do something innovative... like launch a 1/10 electric truggy for example
A 1/10 buggy would not be the best choice in my opinion... already too much competition out there

OMFG....

There's virtually no market for a 1/10 electric truggy, and I don't think Serpent is the kind of company to take a chance by creating a new class of cars.

There's hardly any competition in 1/10 electric compared to 1/8. In 2wd you have Associated, Losi, Kyosho and Xfactory and 4wd those and Academy, JConcepts, Hot Bodies and Yokomo are the only companies in 1/10. Now look at 1/8, that class has 30+ competitive manufacturers...guess they shouldn't make a 1/8 buggy either, right?

yep that would do it. that would take the market by storm. trying to invent a new class in a saturated market by a company that hasn't built an offroad car in how long? are you serious? that would be a great way to fail. good thing you are not their marketing director. LOL.

i am not so sure what the hype is about with a 10th scale 4wd stadium truck is anyway.