dawgmeat

iTrader: (9)

It was sad to hear horsham in Pa and southshore in Ny are closing their doors, Even the one's that are still in business are seeing a drop in touring. IMO we as a whole need to look at mirror and see what can we do to better the LHS

Wild Cherry

We will all be racing 1/8 scale off road by next year.....

Chris Reilly

For me 1/8 offroad is actually cheaper to race than touring. Touring has gotten crazy expensive to be competitive. To bad about the tracks though.

theisgroup

iTrader: (10)

we are seeing the same thing in Dallas. i really think the same as previous posters. it is all about fun vs. cost vs. time. And TC takes a full day and cost a whole bunch and then it seams people have not so much fun because someone hack this or i got hacked that. I believe that off road is more tollerant of "rubbin"

Ass Toot

Chris Reilly

Touring was more fun when things were simple. Foams for example. Double Purple/Orange and Purple. Not all the option s they have today. Same for rubber tires. To many tires and inserts. New ones every run. All the battery this and that. Same for motors. etc... Progress is good. But at what expense.

Offroad is simpler. I have to 2 tire choices basically. One engine and pipe. Of course I have back ups from over the years. It's no fun when it rains or snows but what can I do. It's a more relaxed environment as well. Highly competitive though. It may not be as clean. But that's fine by me.

J-MAN

iTrader: (1)

Ive been racin for over 20 years, and have seen the same thing happen over and over again, and again. Its like a gigantic cycle that are hobby goes through, everyone wants the nice indoor track, then when everyone advances into the serious racer, the new comers cant afford to keep up. i remember when gas and electric touring cars first came on to the rc scene, noone cared how much they were they wanted it, I thought it was crazy the money they were throwing at them. Electric racing as a whole is droping off, in my opinnion their is just to much of a choice for the hobby now as far as different types of racing. I dont think their is enough new people coming in to support all the companies, i was a victim of this myself, with lightspeed products. Is their an easy fix no, but you will see more and more companies headed to the ready to run, back yard bashing type stuff because that is what the demand is for rite know. Im talkin serpent, xray, all the racing companies will make ready to runs. it may or may not hurt or racing im not shure. With our economy the way it is and the cost of living going up, people dont have a couple grand lying around for rc racing. I think the reason for the rise in gas offroad is the fun factor and how easy it is to just buy a rtr and drive it around the track, the set up for these new comers is not as difficult as it is for onroad racing, im not saying off road is easier by any means, but you dont have to have a truer or set up equipment as you do with on road racing. Im not saying you dont use it in off road but its not as critical as it is with onroad. I race onroad because off the realistic nature off seting up a car, i like it! These are just my oppinions thats all!

EAMotorsports

iTrader: (79)

This may sound strange coming from me but I see the biggest decline in TC racing and electric in general is the quality of the damn batteries we have today. I know everyone already knows this but in order to race most guys have to babysit these damn cells and it just takes the fun out of it. There's nothing worse than getting a few new packs and running them the first week and everything is fine. You show up the next week and only 2 of your 4 packs have 6 good cells in them. I dont see a lot of return cells come back my way but I DO replace them and offer a replacement for bad cells on anything I sell and so do most all other matchers. But 95% of the time they just toss the pack and never contact the manufactures.

I wish the cells would just go back to only having to buy a few new packs each year or buying 4 packs twice a year. We all didnt know how good we had it during the GP3300 days although they were a lot harder to match for the matchers! Now if you want to race on a competitive level....even locally you got to buy 2 new packs each month....and thats IF you dont have one go bad on you! This added to the expense of softer tires that wear faster, thin ass bodies that fold up on impact and must have a new one each week and the 400+ dollar TC's!! Its getting retarded.

EA

EricF

The batteries are not up to par. great voltage and run time but BAD reliability. It's one of the reasons that I went to nitro racing.

E

theisgroup

iTrader: (10)

i think economy is definately a factor. remember that 10 years ago the economy was picking up. the dotcom era was just starting. and in its hay day people were throughing around a lot of cash. that was really when we saw the rise of all these companys and when the hobby got big. I remember when I started, hardly anyone had an xray. they were the "exotic" and you had to have money to own one. now most TC are in the same price range. but the economy is just not there to support the 10+ "exotic" TC on the market. also in those days, specialties were the ticket. everyone had to build a niche. and everyone purchased based on the "uniqueness". problem you see is that as the economy slumped, the price of product do not. that is when the market shrinks. if companies do not re-align pricing for the market. I am not sure there is anything we as consumers can do.

to emphasize this fact, look at the type of cars that Offroaders run as opposed to TC racers. Off road racers do not always run the "newest" car or even the "newest" chassis. TC racers on the other hand. if your car is a year old, you are losing 1/10th

rc is just competiting for peoples extra cash and extra time. when those shrink, you need to change how you market or what you market. i beleive the majority, cost is a big factor at this point.

Also the economies in the US that are growing may not be the target market for RC. Dot com guys like gadgets and electronics.

MR JOLLY

yep every thing cost's alot & only last's 3 weeks ,then your out again spending more money to carry on having fun which is what we do TC for

TC cars being release every other month is not good either & asking for like £300.00 ago jeez no wonder we are going away from it

Hebiki

iTrader: (26)

things are not good here in southern california either. The Tamiya track is closing and the indoor asphalt track Socal is also closing.

tallyrc

iTrader: (12)

it's ironic also that everybody likes choice, and competition breeds excellence and all, but more brands and competitive pricing cuts into manufacturers bottom lines.. the ONLY way i stay in the hobby is that i buy everything used, even my touring tires, and am just happy to race.. the "housing boom" has all but killed the cost of living in most parts too.. the average american can hardly find a good home for a quarter mill.. sad.. buy american or this will be the norm outside of rc also..

Leodis

iTrader: (16)

Do you live in the USA? The U.S. economy has nothing to do with electric's waning popularity. Just look at how much money people are spending on 1/8 nitro these days. Also, the economy expanded more from 2000 - 2005 than any five year period in this country's history even though we had 9/11, Iraq/Afghanistan war, and Katrina during that time period. Even today, all the leading economic indicators show that the U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders. The tech boom may have been nice while it lasted, but it proved to do more harm than good. Kind of like the S & L crisis during the 80's...

I think the unreliable batteries, expensive cf chassis, dinky little ozite tracks, and pros sandbagging in stock are the real reasons why electric onroad is dying. I had a lot more fun racing onroad back in the TC3/parking lot days...

A. Rhodes

iTrader: (32)

- name one person that gets a paycheck for racing stock? you knew someone had to throw this in at some point, just figured it would be after nat's....