Shuming

All this for 1 ONE race a year. Honestly, they themselves are making people not want to attend this one race. They should be doing everything in their power to make NATS as big as it can be. I bet you that there is some local or college TV station that would love to come out and put something like that on local TV. They don't care. ROAR just want everyone to be scared of them. Why else would you make a rule right before the biggest race in the country? ROAR should be encouraging the evolution of this hobby. It is not that big to begin with and now ROAR is singling out one big company in the hobby. A company that 90% of use support. How can we get the current body of ROAR to resign so we can vote in a person who cares about this hobby.

interplanet

iTrader: (10)

just my opinion on whats out of the norm and probably not acceptable in roars eyes.

Nitro Downunder

losi 8ight 2.0, losi 8ight-e 2.0, losi 8ight 2.0 eu, Hot Bodies VE-8, Team Durango DNX408, the new lrp, proline slipstream 8ight-e, bitty design losi 8ight, jc concepts illusion, hot bodies ve8, bitty design fighter 8ight, GS storm CLX, TQ evo.

There is one big difference between these listed bodies and the bulldog/punisher bodies and that is....they all have a sloping rear deck, as where the new Proline Bulldog & JConcepts Punisher bodys have a completely FLAT rear deck and are square from the roof line to rear deck and in my opinion are starting to look more like a truck/truggy in this area of the body. I personally dont have any problems with the cab forward design aslong as it dosnt have a completely flat rear deck.

interplanet

iTrader: (10)

Unfortunatly ROAR's statments are about cab forward and say nothing about the deck though.

robk

iTrader: (22)

Death panels dude. Death panels

rosko

the cab forward looks awesome i think, but the flat rear deck

snowman6869

iTrader: (17)

If there werent rules then who knows what would be going on at regional/national events.I run a punisher and bull dog body at local tracks and such but roar events I dont.It's not really that big of a deal to have a couple extra bodies for roar events.
So who's going to the nationals? I'm thinking of making the 12 hour drive.

Shuming

I think it is that big of a deal. ROAR want you to buy a special body that has a ROAR stamp on it just for ONE race. If it was a series or Regional really had a point to them or all or most or some of the tracks enforced the rule book, that would be different.

Ill be at Nats...

pdmustgt

Round 3

Ten days after ROAR's last clarification / body rules update, they have posted another one. Worryingly they have removed the reference to this only applying to buggy bodies (whether this is implied or an intentional drop we don't know, we assume the latter)

April 16, 2010: ROAR is currently developing more defined standards for body dimensions and proportions to address the recent trend of bodies that are determined to be outside of acceptable limits, and also to provide manufacturers guidelines for the development of future bodies.

In the interim, in the interest of fairness for all competitors and manufacturers, ROAR will enforce a moratorium (A period of time in which there is a suspension of a specific activity until future events warrant a removal of the suspension or issues regarding the activity have been resolved.) on all bodies released since the 2009 ROAR Fuel Off-Road Nationals. Bodies that were used in competition during or prior to the aforementioned event will still be eligible for use, but bodies release since that time may not be used for this event. Decisions made regarding the bodies legal for use during the upcoming 2010 Fuel Off-Road Nationals have been made by ROAR in cooperation with vehicle and body manufacturers with direct communication for the last several weeks.

Once the guidelines are established, all bodies will be scrutinized to determine their legality for use in future ROAR-sanctioned events. Specific dimensions will be published after the 2010 Off Road Fuel Nationals on the ROAR website after review and further discussion with vehicle and body manufacturers contributions.

Please contact the ROAR Technical Director at [email protected] or Fuel Section Chairperson at [email protected] for further information or clarification as to particular bodies not permitted for use at the 2010 national event.


----------------- End of ROAR Statement -----------------


What do you make of this ? At present there is only one Big "ROAR-sanctioned event" per year in 1/8 Off road; also arguably the most important event for some drivers and companies; the Fuel Nationals. We wonder if drivers, racers, companies etc. will broadly adopt ROAR's new rules (when ready) in all non-ROAR offroad racing or... rather more troublingly ignore it completely, effectively creating a split.

Could we see an 'outlaw body class' and a 'ROAR approved body class' in the not too distant future ? The latter possibly a direct result of companies producing low runs of bodies just to use for the nationals... The key lies in consumers deciding whether they prefer the new 'front cab' design over the conventional one - Supply & Demand. If the top-end racers agree there are performance advantages with the new-style bodies over the old ones, then they will naturally use them; reinforcing the problem.
We hope for the sake of things it doesn't go that far, but it seems we may have stumbled onto that path already

RJSI

iTrader: (12)

With the newest developments they have (intellectually) acknowledge that they have pissed PROLINE in the previous ruling. LOL

HiVoltg12

iTrader: (2)

So since the RC8T punisher body was debuted by Maifield at last year's nats it's legal to run this year?

interplanet

iTrader: (10)

so some little p*** ant thinks he can govern and make outlines for what manufacturers should develope, what excactly does roar think it is doing, it is not the overall word in rc car, and who outside the usa need to litsen to what roar has to say anyway.

token

So with the cab forward bodies and all the stuff that was banned here, now that the pros are running all that stuff in Thailand, will ROAR accept it here in the US.... Legitimate question.

awdcameolsx

iTrader: (36)

All I know is that with all the cab forward banning I have heard about I have actually never seen it enforced. Thats a good thing IMO and I am sure with the way that all the new bodies are starting to come about this is going to become a dead subject.

hopsing

iTrader: (13)

Here's where ROAR enforcing a body rule can come into play IMO....... this is a quote from RedRC from the current Worlds race in Thailand - "Fourth fastest was 2008 finalist Travis Amezcua. The American team Mugen driver said the biggest change he made from P1 was a switch from Prolines Bulldog to the Shift bodyshell which made the car easier and more consistent to drive"

Whats to stop racers from bringing two or three different body shells to a race now to swap bodies and pick what works best for them? Its bad enough at big races (heck, its bad enough at club races even!)with all the tire choices out there, now you have a few body choices to "tune" with at a $100 a pop including paint or a wrap? Not everyone can afford that and that's NOT good for the hobby.

Without some sort of regulation as to what can be run mfg's can run amuck and make whatever they want...even if it is the best handling thing out there (which in this case it wasnt for Travis) it doesnt mean its the best for the hobby either.......


Everyone is complaining about what ROAR does, but how many of you are current ROAR members, and if you are did you vote this year for the President or Regional Directors? IMO, if you didnt vote, you cant complain........simple as that. Only 300 out of 3600 members voted this year (which is actually UP from last year) Things cant change for the better with out participation. ROAR does alot more for the hobby than a lot of you guys think. But thats for another thread.

I really am not a huge fan of SOME of the new bodies personally but it is what is. Did ROAR maybe over react a little by their banning of the bodies? Maybe. But its not because they just want to "rule" the racers just for the hell of it. I'm pretty sure they werent sitting around a table and said "hey, lets screw with Proline and tell them they cant run this body" just because it would be fun to. If Proline or JC or anyone for that matter wants to "go out of the box" they could of easily said "hey what do you think of these bodies we've been testing? They work good and we think the public might like them but we're not sure if they fit the rules or not".

And just remember, even ROAR affiliated tracks dont have to follow ROAR rules by the book which means you can most likely run your "jet fighter" inspired body if you want to still..... so really, what's the big deal to running the "legal" body a couple times a year (assuming you have Regionals and attend a National)?

This is all just my opinion....I'm hoping for good change from ROAR which is why I renewed my membership just so I could vote