Originally Posted by
garen
I can't do anything about the cost of starter boxes, radio gear (although you don't need $100+ servos for these cars), fuel, or travel, but I can assure you spares are not that expensive and there's not a whole lot to break. You don't need a $300+ novarossi, or any $300+ motor for that matter. I currently offer a motor with header and pipe for under $200. Rolling chassis is not $600. I am trying to get a package put together to include the rolling chassis, engine, header, pipe, set of tires, receiver battery, and GT body for about $650. I keep repeating myself, but it is true, operating cost on one of these is a fraction of the operating cost of any 1/8th 4wd. You are correct, wrenching between heats is also minimal and that is true with the P8C line of cars.
Shoot me an email if you are interested, go to the contact page of motonicausa.com for my email.
Appreciate your offer but already have it under control. First, on breakage, I was referring to Mugen, I don't know how many times I saw the Mugens go out, hit anything, and then have to recover the pieces. I know the trick to racing is not to hit anything, but we all have accidents.
Second, while I appreciate your offer, I went with the Razor2 4wd from Edam and have about 400 in it between rolling chassis, engine, pipe, tires, body, bump box, etc. I also picked up on a spektrum digital radio setup for about 60 bucks. Point is, I spent some time this winter looking and searching for the best deal I could get, but I know a lot of possible new drivers wouldn't even know what to look for in the first place. Then, of course, they mimic what a lot of drivers currently have, which is the Mugen/Nova setup, and which is expensive as hell. I will be driving pan this year to have fun. I will be driving 4wd this year to try to prove that a person can be competitive in 4wd on a reasonable budget. I know Capricorn is a hot product because Art drives it, and I know Serpent is respectable because Rick drives it, but these are top of the line cars and other than Edam there is no decent entry level car in the 4wd class. I'm also talking with a few people to see if either a second gen Delta or Thorp could be produced for pan class, I'm looking at a target price out of door of about 200 for the rolling chassis and it'd be mostly aluminum (chassis, servo tray, bulkheads, blocks, etc.) If I go the Thorp setup, I'll be looking at a 2wd with one belt and no gears, variable speed pinion, and if I go Delta setup it'll be the same old gear to gear which seems pretty fast down the backstraight still. And just for general notice, at the GLC this year I'll be running a Thorp that was never assembled till this year, probably punched out in '76 or thereabouts, a little RC history on the move. But many thanx for your input, kudos to you for your efforts to help.