Originally Posted by
MNiceGuy
Stand up was definitely the norm but there were laydown transmissions out there. Yokomo's YZ-2 was a laydown car that predated the 22 3.0 by approximately 11 months. Where my memory is not clear is how we got from 'that Yokomo with the flat transmission' to most mainstream companies offering one. As you said fantomdude, it seems like you can blink and everything is different.
I do recall the 3-gear phenomenon though. I purchased a T5M right around the time AE released the conversion parts and remember people raving about how much better it was. Heck, my 22T feels better to me as a 3-gear.
I think it went from the Yokomo to mainstream when the worlds were held on turf/carpet. The EOS is also a driver with a series of high-profile carpet races. FWIW, I think there's a lot of people running lay-down in situations where it's not the best choice, just because it's the new & shiny thing, but we'll see.
An important distinction in the TLR timeline - the 2.0's 4-gear was something of an anamoly in that it moved the motor pretty far forward from the rear diff, necessitating the weights.