towertsk

iTrader: (6)

Curious how difficult this would be or how steep the learning curve would?

Randy Caster

iTrader: (47)

In my own experience and from what I have seen over the years it's actually a pretty easy transition, much easier than the other way around. You'll actually end up learning a lot of things that will help you on the off-road track as well.

Go for it!

towertsk

iTrader: (6)

That's encouraging to hear! What would say the biggest challenges are? Setup, driving style...?

samnelso

iTrader: (1)

I'd say driving style. Setup principles are the same. Onroad is more precise and there is less room for small errors. That being said, each discipline complements the other.

Randy Caster

iTrader: (47)

You'll just want to be sure to pay attention to detail during your build, honestly if the car is built right you should be fine on the track in no time.

Just pay attention to what the people at your track are doing for tires and sauce and copy the fast guys. ProtoForm LTC-R is a good baseline body for just about any track, might not want to start off with the lightweight unless you are pretty confident that you won't be crashing too often.

Dan

iTrader: (75)

I've seen guys who are pretty good in 2WD buggy transition very well to on-road. Usually not the other way around but there are exceptions.

I'm usually mid to lower pack in the expert 17.5 class for touring car, but mid-pack in sportsman 17.5 buggy.

DesertRat

iTrader: (2)

I have the opposite problem of Dan, I'm a much better road racer than offroad. I raced offroad for years before racing onroad and I was pretty good at it, and now I'm pretty good at Touring and 1/12 scale, can handle all the power and grip of pan car and nuke motor touring but when I try to set up a buggy for a jump I'm hopeless... always overshooting or undershooting landing points. I'm a pretty good dirt oval racer, though.

It was funny when my LHS was open to give an offroad racer a good 5 minute blast with a 1/12 scale, then have them turn around and try to drive a buggy. Usually ended in many clipped boards for a buggy racer.

Salkin

My son drove 1/8 e and 1/10 2wd buggies for a season before going to mod touring car.

He adapted very quickly to mod touring car. 1/8 e buggies are insanely powerfull and drives on loose surface. It is a constant fight for control and grip.

Especially at tracks with little grip or in cases where the TC slides, he seems to cope a little better than other "true" TC drivers, as a sliding car is not unfamiliar to him.

I believe it may appear that the transition from off road to on road are easier, but that may be illusive. I have experienced that it have been much easier to drive good consistent laps in on road coming from off road, and that you reach a relatively high level quickly, but it is that last couple of tenths of a second that is so hard to reach. Some never get there.

In off road you don't just drive on an even surface, you have to learn very changing track conditions, jumping etc. That may seems to take longer than learning to drive good consistent laps in on road.

Myself, I'm an below average driver, and when driving 1/8 e buggy I flipped a lot and made many mistakes. I have made many walks from the driver stand to the track to flip my car. On my first battery with an on road TC, I stayed on the driver stand for the whole duration of the battery, I didn't flip the car, I just drove lap after lap. I made many mistakes of course, but I did not flip the car.

Does that mean that on road racing is easier than off road. Guess it depends on your ambition. If you just want to drive OK laps without running to the track to flip your car around, yes, on road is easier. But if you want to be at the top level, I don't think on road racing is easier than off road.

Maybe in on road, you can reach a good level quickly, but the last tenths of a second can take years to hunt down. If you succeed at all.

I don't know if there exist any evidence showing which type of racing (on road / off road) produces the best skills.

cplus

iTrader: (11)

Need to ask someone like Hara which is more difficult to excel at!!

Pretty rare to see someone who can make the A-Main in both let alone win titles in both - so it must definitely take a different skill set.

I haven't driven an offroad buggy since being a teenager - must fix that this year, even if it is just for a bash.

303slowdown

iTrader: (24)

In the last couple or years I had to make the move to off road from on road and I don't think either is more difficult. The thing about off road that would be harder is tire selection ,other than that I can drive both just fine. For the guy who wrote about the flipping over in off road and not on road , the off road cars can drive up on the pipes causing the flipping, the on road cars just hit the pipe and for the most part just bounce off.
My first time racing on dirt I had the wrong tires and thought " man this is hard " then I got the the right tires and all was good in the universe.

mschumi101

iTrader: (30)

I made the journey from inroad to off-road about two years ago. The biggest difference for me was driving style and the lines to take. In onroad you always want to apex and take the straightest line through to be fast, but in off-road you may have to go wider to gain better traction. i also think it was hard getting used to how the car reacts over not only jumps, but just changing elevation, especially like table tops mid corner and how to properly steer for it. With onroad being all flat you just steer where you want the car to go.

towertsk

iTrader: (6)

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. I'm very tempted to pick one. What car would you suggest to start with?

towertsk

iTrader: (6)

The driving style and the race lines was the first thing i knew would be different. Road racing motorcycles for a few years, I'd probably need to use similar race lines. Thanks for the advice!

mschumi101

iTrader: (30)

For sure! It's good to have some background or at least follow actual road racing to get a good idea of lines and when to brake etc. So just transfer your full size knowledge over to RC!

As far as a car... You can't go wrong with X-ray! Extremely durable for a beginner, but have lots of potential and are always competitive. I would suggest a used xray to start such as a t3'12 or a t4'13. They are far cheaper than new cars but can still run with the best of em! They are also very responsive to changes so it's easy to narrow in on a set up. Expendable suspension components (if you can break them that is) carry over to all the new models of you ever decide to upgrade to a newer car.

redbarton

iTrader: (3)

...finding a track to race at. Check your area for a track close by before jumping in. I hope you have better opportunities than I do in my area. Frustrating...