hookem34

iTrader: (17)

I am curious as to why there are no competitive alternatives to the HPI Baja series if 1/5 vehicles. I know that there are foreign products, but they are quite inferior to the quality of the HPI's.

I find it hard to believe that other companies such as Losi, Associated, Mugen ect. have not produced, at the very least, a vehicle to compete with HPI.

jwm2

iTrader: (5)

Its not a very big market yet. Imo hpi pretty much has it covered. Theres very few 1/5 scale races, they are mostly a novelty right now. Maybe eventually when the market picks up but for now 1/8th scale is about as big as most racing gets. There are a few companies making 1/5th scale but until the masses start moving in that direction the market won't grow as fast as other sectors have.

99problems

It requires no skill at all to drive and the cars handle like a POS. So very few want to drive them and they are EXPENSIVE

Ambros303

In Europe there are official 1/5 scale offroad races, and altho the HPI Baja is a populair car over here aswell, you don't see it win those races. It's not competitive compared to the brands that reign in 1/5 offroad.
Have a look at brands like Hörmann, Elcon, etc. and you'll understand why.
They have full alu competition 1/5 or 1/6 buggy models....race ready. Very nice stuff, but expensive.

Ambros303

Looked up some pics...enjoy

Contrast Fuego:



Hörman HT2:





Lot of tuning options for them aswell; pipes, hydraulic independant disc brakes, tyres, engines, etc.

merdith6

iTrader: (3)

Bling Bling. Those are sweet.....

Ambros303

I like the Elcon cleon the best:

Foxxrocket

HPI took a gamble, and won. The other companies know this, so throwing their hat in the ring now could mean a gamble they might loose.

hookem34

iTrader: (17)

Wow I had no idea those brands/vehicles even existed

Now those vehicles look more like what I would expect from companies here in the US. How can we get one of those here in the States?

And as far as cost goes, the initial start up price might be high compared to 1/8 but when you factor all the other things you have to have with the 1/8th vehicles (starter box, expensive nitro fuel ect.) 1/5 gas vehicles actually come out cheaper in the long run.

Ambros303

I'm not a Bigscale (that's what they are called over here) driver myself so i don't know the ins and outs of where to shop etc., but your best bet would probably be to look around on the net and drop some emails at some European shops that sell them.
The price of those competition cars is quite high tho.

Another brand thats populair over here is FG. They have some nice models aswell like the FG marder, FG Baja and FG Monster beetle. Those are not competion worthy from the get go but can be tuned to the max The initial cost of those is similair to a HPI baja.

Jmfknpizzle

iTrader: (39)

I recently traded my savage flux for a heavily modded baja 5t and purchased a modded 5b for 400 bucks with a futaba 2.4 ghz.There are other 5th scale companies such as kings motors which makes a baja clone for around 500 but all the tracks aound here wont let them run at hpi sponsored events.i dont think its fair at all seems like a monopoly to me.

Integra

iTrader: (8)

I disagree
Some of those Fancy 1/5 are upwards of 3000$ JUST for the car.

Davidka

iTrader: (86)

I'm surprised any of those run well at all. All that heavy aluminum (bends) and they look like 1/8th cars from 20 years ago.

Another issue is land, 1/5th cars require huge open tracks to be any fun (ever run a 1/8th car on a small 1/10th track?) and huge pieces of decent land is hard to come by for free in most places.

Dirt Devil

iTrader: (4)

Not only that, have you ever seen a 1/5 scale run on 1/8 track, it completely rips the track up.

Integra

iTrader: (8)

X2...not to mention 24hrs of listening to jet pro style pipe's would drive me Bonkers.