This hobby has always been expensive. My mom paid $400 each for my brothers and I tamiaya set up.... I was 11 years old.
If I had a nice track 30 mins from my house i would be there everyday. You guys can complain about he manufacturer but guess what, they are still around. The amount of money they sink into R&D to get a high quality buggy made is ridiculous. Try to make one your self.... I honestly dont think the manufacturers make all that amount of money once everyone involved gets paid and benifits bla bla bla - I bet they dont get tax breaks..
People talk about tracks like it only cost a couple hundred dollars to start. You people are delusional. I have seen and been apart of a track opening and he had free land and he still sunk 10 grand easily. And not to many people will give you free land to play with dangerous toys...... ALOT of tracks do not have their own insurance and rely on ROAR for this purpose. What is it like a million buck in coverage for each track. Im not a fan of ROAR rules, but with out them we will have to travel hundreds of miles for a track then pay 100 bucks to race.
I will not by a "clone" of an engine. OS, RB, NOVA even the other asian engines spend ALOT of money in development of these eninges... You think its cheap to produce......hahahahaha. You think metal that can with stand the abuse these things take is cheap.... You think a "clone" of a RB would be the same as the real thing.......
The only problem I have with this hobby is tire cost. BUT if your smart, and shop, you can get them for about 25 bucks a set of 4.
Local hobbies shops are here for us. Yes they may charge a little bit more but its there when you need it in most cases.....
Fuel Prices - thank our federal government for that....... Thanks to home land security we now pay a extra 10 bucks per gallon for fuel. Some hobby shops eat that, and some pass it on to customers.
Getting in to RC Racing at a serious level is expensive, dont care if its gas or EP. If you just want to play with one in your back yard will cut the price down by 80%.
You got to remember how small RC Racing is compared to RC as a hobby. It will grow, hell we are in a recession and I dont remember it being bigger.......