Ike

iTrader: (8)

In regards to battery wars and chassis wars... Lets face one sad but true fact. Lets imagine that today we found a great battery that would have great punch, runtime, and reliabilty with a pack staying very competitive for years rather than months. Then lets imagine the same thing happens with one or a few cars where they stay the best cars on the market for years and there are no real improvements made. While this is something that many people think would be ideal for the hobby it could have a very bad outcome. How many hobby shops and tracks do you think would be able to make enough money to remain open in that scenario? Most of them are having a hard enough time remaining open as it is...

Sure, we could go back to the days of trying to rent out a space and laying carpet and hauling the track around every Sun. But, even 15-20 years ago that didn't work out so well. Facilities where that was possible were few and far between, and eventually the relationship would sour in every instance. Plus, with the greater issue of insurance risks nowadays and costs I doubt we could field enough racers to even pay for the rental space let alone purchasing the carpet and boards. This wasn't working back when there was often at least a couple heats of mod and at least twice that of stock, it's certainly not going to work with 3 or 4 mains.

Lastly, in regards to cells racers today call what's going on with cells battery wars now. But honestly, most of you can't even comprehend know how bad it used to be. You practically had to have an in through someone or be sponsored to even consider running mod, and the same was true if you wanted to win in stock racing. I can recall my dad buying 100 Panasonic 1700SCEs in bulk hoping to get a pack or two that would be good for me to race with. Not only did we not get one good pack, we didn't geta single cell that was as good as the hand me down sponsored driver cells or Danny "Danimals" was nice enough to sell us from his secret stash. And you want to talk about reliability... those things were a nightmare, I believe some guys were attempting to rematch their packs after only a few days of racing.

In short, the batteries today provide plenty of runtime for any class, good cells are pretty easy to attain and you can buy packs that aren't a whole lot worse than what sponsored drivers get, and overall batteries have been quite reliable compared to the cells of old.

Jim, you were with Trinity back in the early 90's right? If so do you remember the Temmes? I still have some of their old Trinity Aluminum endbell mods with the super fast 18 triples and 21 doubles And yes, to you newcomers to the hobby, we still had a hard time making 8 min. in a lightweight 1/12th scale car with those winds.

Ike

iTrader: (8)

One last thing... I really think 1/12th scale could help save onroad racing, but for some reason so many racers are affraid of it. You can still be quite competitive with a chassis from 5 years ago. The cars are cheaper. If you're not chunking tires badly (I know, it's a big if) they will stay faster longer than most rubber tires will. The batteries are cheaper thanks to only needing 4 cells per pack. And above all, throttle control and driving skill are the largest part of being good at it. However, as much as people complain about the cost of the hobby, I think most people would rather try to out horsepower and out equip their opponents than outdrive them.

stiltskin

iTrader: (103)

You know the world is changing when Jim is talking about De-tuning motors.

or8ital

iTrader: (38)

So I was thinking about this further. Is this really good move for Trinity to be exclusive? On the surface it would seem so. But in reality this just means a lot of sponsored drivers (those not sponsored by Trinity) will begin using other cells. Soon after others will follow suit (based on what their track pro is using) and in the end it kinda kills off the IB brand.

Am I crazy or is that a possibility?

RBLove

iTrader: (90)

There are a lot of other matchers that will purchase IB cases in bulk and continue to match them. They were purchasing from SMC and now they are purchasing from Trinity. Some company's will choose to no longer do IB's and some will continue. It will be a toss up as to what people end up actually running.

Ike

iTrader: (8)

In the end whatever the best cells end up being is probably what will sell the best. At least to racers... Would be interesting to see how much revenue is generated by racers vs. bashers. Trust me, if the IB cells end up being superior just about every racer out there will suddely forgive Trinity and IB for any trouble they may have caused in the past...

or8ital

iTrader: (38)

In another thread it sounded as though many of the matchers were going to move away from IB. Not sure if its b/c of the Trinity deal or just think the other tech is better. So long as matchers are still going to be carrying them then as Ike said the better brand can win out.

Rick Hohwart

This pretty much sums it up.

JtDieter

Ike...You are sooo right. I was also doing the same things. And it was impossible to win with a store bought pack. Now you can because there is almost no difference. I need to work to gain a battery advantage at a race over what people can buy. Then it's only a few seconds. Temmes. sure. My first mod was an orange trinity 28 turn, with 1000 mah GE cells, charged on a leisure timer charger in 1980.....damn I'm old Correct on the resurgence of 1/12 scale too, probably attributed to brushless.

Chad Phillips

JB - TRI10217 - 7.5T, TRI10218 - 8.5T

Chad Phillips

yes you are old I do have a question for you? what was it like to be able to hit your women over the head with a club and drag them by the hair?

billjacobs

iTrader: (65)

Let's see. SMC loses the IB account and they will no longer be using IB cells. Does anyone think this is because SMC doesn't think IB's are good, or is it because SMC will now have to pay more for the cells (trinity has to get their cut.) All of the matchers will obviously continue to get IB cells from trinity to match and sell, so the only thing that changes is that some of the profit goes to trinity instead of smc.

Overall, this will have no effect on anything, except that it shows the inner workings of the r/c business, and like all other businesses, profits always come before the consumer. Most racers understand how business works, but for some reason don't apply that knowledge to r/c.

The only place I am using sub-c's in is 1/12 scale because there is no alternative. My only advice to trinity, smc, etc, is to put more thought into LIPO or another new technology because I don't think anyone doubts that nimh sub-c days are not the future, even the near future.

All of the sub-c suppliers should learn a lession from novak and brushless, and orion and lipo. By championing both technologies, they now have the majority of that market. And, that market is growing many times faster than brushed and nimh.

GeorgePravata

iTrader: (171)

Jim or Chad can't I just use the new battery that I pick up at Sears today I'm trying to see how to fit my TC body on with out anybody seening the new Super long lasting never ending DIE HART Do you think I might have a tweak issue..

Chad Phillips

HAHA George, you may want to try the new Black and Decker VPX system. its a little lighter than the standard Sears pack.

JtDieter

bill....all over the lipo projects, and others. I see Novak has a brushed. Spoke with Charlie yesterday about several things, including the new brushed technology taking over....lol...George !!!! How are you ?