RCSteve93

iTrader: (11)

I've built my own robot chassis out of lexan and some random hardware and I'm 14(I need to fund my racing so I can't afford the electronics). I agree with you though. Everyone wants instant gratification and no one is interested in engineering or anything like that. That is why I love RC and robotics because I know it will propel me to engineering which I see is going to be a high demand job soon. I am too part of the internet gaming craze, reason being is it makes me a faster driver and it is sort of fun. I only play for 2 hours at a time at most because the ignorant little fools start pissing me off. I play Halo 3 and Forza Motorsport2 alot. Halo 3 for the reaction time and Forza for consistency and smoothness in my lines. I have to admit, some time I have more fun with Halo than RC, because I payed $300 for my X-Box then $60 for the game and $50 for the X-Box live subscription and then I go and have fun. That is about 3 months worth of racing expenses for me. Thank's to my dad though, he helps me out. I still have to buy a $30 set of tires for my car every weekend and then anything else I need, plus entry fee, I am just about at $50 a weekend. That's one of the reason's why lately I have been sparingly going to the track, because for one, the weather is nice out now, and the sheer cost. I have been trying to learn to airbrush and sell bodies to make money to race more often because I view it as something fun, challenging and as a second hobby that pay's me. I only know 2 other kids my age that are not only in this hobby but would spend time trying to make some money, while having fun at the same time. Honestly, I think RC attracts a special type of person. You need to have the drive to earn the money to race and the time and patience. I have seen a good friend of mine leave this hobby just because he did not want to spend the time to work on his car and would rather play video games and get a real car. At first I was real pissed because I knew him for 2 years and we were great friends at the track and he just decided to quit and now he hates RC so much. I realize that RC, is something you can promote all you want, but it will only get certain people to get into it. It is like sports. You either like American football or you don't. You either like Baseball or you don't. Coming back to the subject of the thread... I do see new technology hurting people in this hobby and making them leave. There is no middle ground. In RC there are consumables and that is all it is. Make motors and batteries as efficient as you want you will still need to fix and tune things. Racing is not cheap. I think though, RC is one of the best engineering and closest to real racing experience, for the lowest price.

syndr0me

iTrader: (32)

I won -many- national-level tournaments at Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter in the mid-90's. I was addicted to an MMO so bad, I dropped out of college three times. I attended a gaming convention last year, for the 5th year in a row. If you hear me talk about video games, I speak from experience. If you don't agree games are the problem, that's certainly debatable, but please don't think I'm not clued about how it works. My understanding of the allure of instant gratification is very deep.

And when Street Fighter 4 is playable online, I may do that instead of race... and I'm no kid. :-)

R/C is expensive and hard, and out of reach for most kids unless they have VERY supportive parents. I'm not even sure I'd want my own kids in R/C in lieu of the many other activities available. I think we need to face the fact that this is an adult's sport, and focus on that crowd. Kids are doing other things. Adults have the money, and the appreciation for the depth of R/C.

pug 205 gti

Im glad some one else brought up the obesity problem as i was a little aprehensive to do so myself.. but because someone else brought it to light i feel much better.
It is a problem you only need to look round and see LOTS of guys with huge titties.Back at school their was only a handful of Fatties.
Nowa days their is loads of them
i think someone should invent a new mens sports bra for all the fat lazy guys.

well i guess being a fat over weight waster wont stop peaple racing or playing playstation! but it must being expensive to eat so much that they can tuck their tits in their underpants.So drop the shopping bill by buying less crap when shopping and free up some cash for your hobbies.

Yes im 35 and my bodies a temple it aint easy looking this good but hey i get by!!

tc3team

There has been some GREAT input to this, keep it up

I firmly believe r/c is for any sex and any age. The technical side of it can be something someone struggles at, or simply does not want to partake in. BUT with the help of others gelling at a meeting, this does not need to be an obstacle.

I am a total newbie to brushless motors.... Ive not turned a single wheel with one yet. But, I have the desire to learn about them and see them change the r/c world out there.

But at the same time, I also feel for the ever spiralling cost of this hobby and the impact it has at the introductionary club level.

Spec classes are unworkable, no one likes to be told what to run, they have their own brand favourites.... We just have the desire to buy the best we can afford.

This one sector of r/c is choking our turn out at club level. Stop and think about your next purchase.... Might be great seeing that extra performance... but at what cost will it be worth it if there's no new blood and the smaller group of hardcore racers start to crumble down into even less of a group?????

Pull the trigger at me and shoot me down.... MOST OF US are guilty of it....

tc3team

Yes.... parts on any car will wear out, period. But with frequent maintanance, they can last a bit longer. reoil bearings, clean moving parts, keep motors looked after.... it all helps the turn trouble free for longer....

pug 205 gti

The club where i used to race touring cars their were a good few who would lend a hand at giving advice and helping out newbies.
But they tended to be the peaple who had two peaple running one car.I.e son drives while dad does all the maintenance and setup work.
Their wasnt really enough time between races so the top guys didnt have the time to help newbies, with marshalling and getting their own chassis ready for the next heat.
It all seem to be a mad rush to get things sorted for the next run.
that to me really hindered newbies and also added endless problems that if had suffient time the problems would not have occurred.

TC3 is yor club pretty much the same with the mad rush to get the car setup for the next run.basically you race the heat then marshal then have 5 mins to prepare chassis for the run?

cheers

tc3team

It can be. But im not mentioning club names and I race at quite a few different ones... Reason being I don't find it fair to knock clubs down when they are putting the effort in to getting us out there and racing.

I have enough time to get my cells charged,just if I start charging early and follow a strict routine.

On a full days racing its dead easy, but my sunday racing days are long gone most of the time, unless its my birthday, the trouble and strife is out the country (she's from Belarus) or something similar LOL

95-99% of my racing is only at club level and thats why I felt the need to chime in and start this topic, to help EVERY club out there and discuss the whole racing scene as a complete topic. Not just point the finger at any one club in particular, that's just plain stupid.

tc3team

The wide range of equipment and ability level is killing the club scene. You see the same faces winning and the newcomers/less wealthy finishing behind them.

When I was much younger I had a mentor teach me a lot of things about r/c racing and that was a great help. I was very fortunate to be thrown a HPI Pro 2 with all the eqipment for it, (including spec stuff!) and told to race it at the HPI challenge in snetterton yesteryear.

This same guy also started a serious conversation with me about him starting up a model shop, and wanted me in as staff but it never materialised.

Sadly, I lost contact with this guy quite a few years ago. He had kids, a wife and owned a chip shop, he really helped the local club out too, even arranged for a hall to be used for a winter series and sold parts for cheap money, gave really good advice to anyone he came across.

Then one day, he just sold up the chip shop and left the area

I met some all time great faces at the HPI challenge, Dave Spashett, Mike Reedy and some others (American's I think) I dont remember their names/faces but the atmosphere was GREAT, back in 2001.

Sometimes the well known drivers that will be in the A finals at big events will show their faces at club level, possibly even helping give a bit of advice if they have the time to, and that really needs to continue to see the racing continue, and in a good turnout.

tc3team

RCSteve93- I see my perspective of racing in a very similar way to you.

LOOK at the situation carefully and piece everything out that goes on around you, in some degree or form.

Faces come and go, technology is the same but it has a price to it and the racing scene.... There is a FINE line between cost and convienience of some of the stuff you buy for your car....

Motors, esc's.... and even tyres.

Club rules can also have a knock on effect too.

Likewise, this being a HOBBY, some of us are no longer game to waste our time hearing smack/BS around the track, about ourselves, our equipment or anything else for that matter.

And for the jerks who say "you're taking it too seriously, its just a toy car".... well, I got news for you.

MAN UP, stop playing the idiot, show your track some RESPECT and its members or racers, What would you do without them? Well you won't be hanging around at the track long without them....

I have seen some really STUPID behaviour from people at a track before, on more than one occasion... Sadly its the ones that SHOULD know better

At times of 13 years of racing I would be lying if I said I hadnt enjoyed it. At times its a real headache. And thats not what we are here for.

WTF happened to the days when everyone could just "get on"

tc3team

Sure, by now everyones thinking im only looking at the negatives of racing.... but, hold on..... these are what need dealing with!!! ASAP.

Brushless and brushed motors in the same heat or final?

Whats that all about? Is that classed as a "race" WHAT ARE WE DOING TO RACING? These are two very different motors we are putting in together.

People shouldn't have to be told what to race.... but neither should they be the only one racing a turn/type of motor.

We have allowed in so much equipment to our hobby, so many brands and versions of it, that we are KILLING it.

Lets not point fingers here... We are all equally guilty. The ones who make it and the ones who use it....

When there were 3300 cells and a handful of different motors to choose, life was great, the equipment held up, the performance between each was very minimal.

NOW.... we have brushless motors powerful enough to launch NASA into orbit and back, one run tyres are still readily available and cells/lipo with enough voltage in them to kill your next door neighbours cat.... (dont try that last one... )

Then somehow... ROAR, the BRCA, EFRA etc are all supposed to vote in rules to make things good for everyone....

Wouldn't want to be in their shoes anytime soon?!....

We are all greedy in that quest for first place... Who wants the "golden ticket" now huh?

Damned if you do... damned if you don't. And very few of us will feel any guilt when we win for those who just cant cut it out there.

adamge

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I dunno man. It seems like some people just turned paranoid schizophrenic on us.

oXYnary

iTrader: (4)

Oh so you were an Evercrack addict?

Hey, this convention, is it PAX?? LMK as I volunteer at it.

syndr0me

iTrader: (32)

Nah, I got in before the graphical MMO's got popular, and did my time in a glorified MUD. Not PAX, though I'd like to attend sometime. I'll definitely be picking up PA's game on XBLA when it's released.

-Acronym Dropper :-D

egalsim

iTrader: (44)

I totally agree with you. The dish wheels and ugly airbrushed Hara style paintjobs are what turned me off on Touring Car racing. I just came back because of the Trans Am series, with the realistic bodies and paint schemes. If you can't identify a scale model with a full size counterpart, then it's just a really expensive toy that some old guy is playing with, when it looks like it's full scale counterpart, it's alot more interesting. I think ugly bodies and non scale features are what killed slot car racing. Who races a Dodge Stratus in real life anyways?

tc3team

Theres just that inability to gel as a club sometimes... A weak guy usually shows up, races once or twice then leaves. If he is seeing or hearing smack / BS he won't last long...

Some people just have no idea at all what they are doing to ruin a clubs image... and it's done so easily too.

It's a damn good job we have a variety of clubs to race at these days....