imjonah

I have run my car on two Parking lot tracks in front of Hobby stores and three permanent tracks run by Hobby shops.
(One tracks edges are two stacked 2x4s with some kind of concrete sprayed on them)

None of the tracks make even minimal effort to protect my car from damage, by putting some kind of cusioning at those parts of the track where the cars are most likely to hit the boards/pipes and damage themselves.

I understand the logic. The hobby store makes money off broken cars.

If you stop and think about it, that is a little weird.
I watched a father and son run their brand new electric car for the first time at a local track. They seemed to be having a lot of fun; then they hit the hard wall at the end of the straight away and brokea couple kind of expensive parts on the suspension. After that they just packed up and left, not with smiles on their face I may add.

I think this vulture like policy on the part of track owners is penny wise dollar foolish. I think in reality the money spent on replacing broken parts would probably be spent on other RC products and/or upgrades. The hobby stores create disapointment, frustration and bad will and in the end do not really generate more business.

I personally would be glad to pay a couple dollars more in entry fees to run on a track that had installed cushioning at key places around the track.

This is probably not a big deal for you experienced guys who rarely hit the boards; but for many of us who are still learning, it has a major effect on our enjoyment of racing.

gijoe64

iTrader: (30)

You should be glad that you have a local track I have to drive 2 hours just to race.
learn to stay in the middle of the track and you will do fine.

TL_XXX-S_racer

first thing is dont run into any walls. Another thing is that some wall arent as forgining as others. A track i race at they put 2x4's inside the pipes(theye're really gutter pipes) when they put those wooden planks in when u hit the wall u break alot of parts. Some local tracks they just use PVC pipe for their tracks, which will move once u hit them so they have some cusioning to them, but i might still break parts. The only thing i can say is that the hobby store doesnt have to put any barriers up for protection. If you hit a wall its your falt for hitting it not the stores falt. Ya, so just practice and learn the tracks you race at and get better and dont hit any walls. That will fix your part breaking problem. Its better to go out a little further around a pipe or wall than to close. Then u might hit it and then your done (if you break something)

Hope this helps you understand better

Clegg

iTrader: (9)

Theres a cost aspect. if you make a track thats real forgiving you normally damage the walls more, the track owners would need to repair the track more often.

And yes you are sort of looking a gift horse in the mouth, since I would race at a hobby shop track before a non hobby shop track anyday. I mean you break parts in R/C. Its just how it is, I would rather be able to fix the car right there and get back running vs. having to leave for the day.

Dont like what damage a wall does to the car? Harden the car with higher strength parts, or dont hit walls. Slow the car down a bit so you dont hit the walls and as you get better increase the speed more.

This is a driving training issue NOT a hobby shop issue.

GundamWZero

iTrader: (4)

You are right, Jonah. There are better ways to build tracks that are "car friendly". Fantasy World Hobbies does. They use PVC for their track, but in the turns, pit lane and the AMB tower, they have to weight them down to prevent them from moving the shape of the track. If a good 70% of the track is made up of hard materials, then chances are the track is geared to break parts. Learning how to drive shouldn't be costly to the entry level hobbiest pocket.

imjonah

Lets say you and your friends owned a track. You and your firends use the track a lot both to practice and to compete.Lets say your primary goal was to have fun but your other goal was to attract new people to the hobby.
I find it hard to believe that you would not make an effort to put some kind of energy absorbing cushioning at the end of the big straight away and at other points on the track where people might hit the wall.

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Its not just the money either. You spend 6 hours at the track, in the mains you are doing real well and you just tap the wall just at the worng angle, because there is no padding and the edge of the track is so hard, you break a rear arm; that is not a fun way of ending the day.
There are so many ways a car can fail why not remedy and mitigate one of the most common.

wyd

iTrader: (51)

Here is some pipe we hit at a local track. The PVC Couplers stick out 3/16 of an inch so if you ever bump them at all your car is messed up pretty good. Thse are also used in the straights. Everything is held together with couplers. It hurts when you hit them.

Clegg

iTrader: (9)

umm something I am guessing Jonah doesnt understand is that the only thing that really absorbs energy on an R/C track is the cars.

The little plastic/metal/carbon parts on an R/C car will always break before the track will absorb the goodness.

And PVC pipes have shown to destroy cars just as fast as anything else. wood will grab a wheel nut and rip the wheel off the car, foam has been shown to grab the entire wheel instead of letting it slide and ripping the entire wheel assy off cars.

See what you want is something that doesnt cussion to the point it grabs the car but also is like a feather down pillow so your fragile, brittle car doesnt break. Welcome to the dream world.

Yes learning to drive and not knowing that you should start slow is a very expensive process. Welcome to R/C.

Evoracer

iTrader: (24)

jonah,
These guy's are right to an extent. Yes, this is a driving problem BUT....it's funny how we won't let a 10 year old do many things that are capable of doing great harm but we will allow him to buy a RTR Nitro car capable of " 60 mile per hour top speeds " !! and allow him to go out into the world and teach himself how to drive the ballistic missile he was sold.
The problem here seems to be service AFTER the sale. Without accusing the shop you were talking about, I think it would have been good PR to offer some support to the new driver. Even if the shop couldn't do it, they might have suggested a local club or maybe they could have asked a local experienced driver to help them out. This Father and Son will probably not return to the hobby. As usual, frustration is the killer. That frustration can be avoided but it would and should take some effort on behalf of the seller.
BTW, we use the Road Rails system and in 4 months of use by Xray's, Evo's, brushed and brushless.....not 1 driver has broken a major part. Not a perfect track, especially for Nitro or Mod, but in my estimation darn close.

Jack Smash

iTrader: (35)

This seems to be part of a trend that I have seen growing in our society. Not accepting responsibilty for your own acctions and then blaming them on other people. Funny, if I am driving my car and I crash into something that I know is solid, I don't go off about why that solid object is there, I accept responsibility for crashing into it and go fix my car.

The first job of the marking barriers is to outline the track for the competitors to run on. The second job is to protect the specators from cars leaving the racing areas. If you break your car by running into these barriers, you obviously did not have control of your vehicle.

So in your world, we should have padded barriers on our city streets in case someone crashes their $40,000 dollar car into one? Seems more worthwhile than crying over a $5.00 suspension piece.

Evoracer

iTrader: (24)

Well, if we keep things in context...we're talking about RACING vehicles here. Seems to me there's been a huge movement in the last few years to do EXACTLY that......provide track barriers that minimize damage and , in the case of full scale racing, minimize danger to the driver.
I don't think anyone would say there is a perfect and feasible way to prevent all damage when a crash occurs and all drivers are ultimately responsible for their own mistakes but driver education would clearly help us retain more NEW drivers for sure.

GundamWZero

iTrader: (4)

Fantasy World uses something to bend the PVC i seen them before. they heat up the pipe so you can shape them into turns and stuff. Also the ends of the PVC has a flange that accepts the smaller ends, so having couplers to join every PVC is smiply stupid.That corner should have been used on the outside, not inside of a course.

Nrctc3

iTrader: (2)

I say quit complaining, atleast they give you somewhere to race at. If you hit the wall & break something, then you'll learn to stay off the walls which will make you a better driver in the end.

AMGRacer

The hobby shop track I race at DOES pad the track barriers to try and prevent damage. Also they now have changed to the roaddome system to further reduce damage. The racers appreciate the effort these guys have put into the track.

www.hobbystation.com.au

Not all shops are the same.

imjonah

Foam rubber, bubble wrap, (I am sure there are cheap industial materials), whatever placed at 4 or 5 strategic places around the track could easily reduce impact related damage to cars by 80 - 90%.

Explain to me how that is a bad thing for drivers.
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Since when is it a smart business practice to make a profit off your customers misfortune, when you have the capability of mitigating the misfortune.