DriftWoof

iTrader: (4)

When do you consider the "good ol days" of AE?

How did you honestly feel when they were bought out TT?

How can they step up their game and come back to life?

I ask because many many many of us were once diehard fans.

Kraig

iTrader: (81)

This probably has been said before but think back to when some of the these cars were first released. We didn't have Lipo batteries and brushless motors back then. The cars were designed to the current standards of the day. Now we have new technology, although we have had it for awhile now, the new design mentality is starting to kick in and by that I mean take a look at the b5 cars. They seem to be more robust and don't develop the slop quickly as previous kits.

Sure they were probably told to not mess with the suspension geometry and make the car more robust. With the increase in durability it appears we also gained weight. With the increase in weight you get a car that isn't as nimble, take a shopping cart and through in a 10 pound (4.5 kilograms) bag of dog food in it and see how it handles now. Probably doesn't change direction as good as before the bag was added does it. In addition, it might not fly as well as the previous generation either because of the excess weight.

So now they have the B5 cars in the public hands and now the resources of testers has grown. They can now take that information from the customers and team drivers and apply it as needed for the next revision just like almost every company in the world does. Yes it will take time and we have to be patient and that is the hardest thing to do, is being patient.

Trevor Williams

iTrader: (207)

The cars still work right?? Perhaps set all the drama aside thats irrelevant to your racing program and practice more instead of wasting energy in these threads....ok, vent over :-)

EricW

iTrader: (1)

Uh, the Thunder Tiger thing happened 9 years ago. Took them 9 years to do a restructure?

fredswain

iTrader: (1)

What's the big deal with Thunder Tiger owning AE? Cliff Lett is still president. Things wouldn't really be much different if AE hadn't been sold. They'd still outsource to China for parts by now. That was a big reason in them selling the company in the first place. American labor has been replaced by cheaper labor overseas because Americans won't pay for products made by Americans. They want jobs in this country to be high paying and want their goods to be cheap and wish they were made here though but have spoken with their wallets. Capitalism is a beautiful thing and it's a world market.

rctinman

The reason i wont buy j concepts made in china proline and aka for me made in the usa. The b5 is bulletproof the b44.3 is just a update that has some issues that are being corrected. I upgraded my 44.1 with the schelle conversion because i didnt think the 44.3 was much of a update saved some money too. Most 4wd buggies break often i see 22-4s breaking a lot too. If you don't like it switch brands.

Scargoes

iTrader: (6)

I have 3 AE cars. 2 of them had issues with them brand new. My B5 had no issues. But I still don't like all the slop. My TRF201 had less slop after a year of racing than my B5 had just after a month of racing. My other 2 AE kits were missing parts. Bother Kyosho kits I built were missing parts. 1 of my Schumacher kits was missing parts. I should just stick with Tamiya, 7 kits and no missing parts. I actually have spares. (I don't count my Traxxas as that was rtr)

Even with all the fuss with missing parts and stuff I'm still pretty happy with the cars I got. My B5 handles really good and its taken the abuse I've dished out to it. No broken parts yet (touch wood).

Jmuck69

iTrader: (14)

+1

rctinman

+2

Fastforward

iTrader: (5)

+3

Dalton98

iTrader: (4)

they just arnt very good right now lol they need new cars

aeRayls

iTrader: (3)

I hope this is a joke lol

The 8th is coming

Sc who cares

4x4wc... No one cares

44.3... Is new, sometimes you design parts and the samples are fine and the mass produced ones aren't... Car still performs great. The 2nd batch will fix it all.

B5's... No question, awesome

Truggy... Seriously, who cares lol

And who ever mentioned Ryan and Jared leaving.... Seriously? You can't keep the top 3 drivers (Ryan, ryan, Jared) on the same team forever! The sport is better all around with the top talent spread out anyway.

Thunder tiger deal... Total non issue. Besides, no one could afford a 100% American designed/tooled and produced car, let alone a whole stable of cars these days.

RobsRacin

iTrader: (13)

timritchieblue

iTrader: (4)

Bashers want a updated RC8T, so hopefully it happens soon.

Herrsavage

That right there gets at the problem. AE needs a new truggy for racing. The newer truggies like the Tekno and Agama are all thing and light and agile, and handle like a buggy, and that's what people want. It's what AE needs too IMO if they want to be near the forefront ever again..

For bashing the RC8T CE as it is right now is perfectly great. But there you go - everybody's got to have something new new new... In any event, whatever would be wanted to improve a car as a basher would not be needed for a racer. And that's the point. When truggies first came out, you could race and bash both. Even buggies like 5-6 years ago.. AE had all those 8th scale cars sharing parts - buggy, truggy, SC... You could race them, or bash them. There were even RTR versions (which was good IMO...)

It probably would make the most sense for AE to go the way of TLR, AE being the race-focussed sub-brand, TT being for the bashers.... In which case though I would suggest the TT bashers need an upgrade* as much as the racing side needs a new bug and trug. AE is such a mess though...


* But then maybe they don't. TT is the best on the market in 8th scale IMO when it comes to value-for-money bashers.. The MT4 G3 is superior to both the E-revo and Savage Flux, for way less money, with additional advantages (easier to work on, handles better, etc..) to boot... Just needs maybe a face lift and chassis brace...