Making a case for Super Ten revival.
10-18-2011, 10:34 AM
#1
Making a case for Super Ten revival.
Maybe it’s just me, but a thread comes up about every week asking about what the ‘Slash’ of on-road will be, or why some particular class should be. People bring up good points, but I hoped to gather all those together to form a ‘picture’ of why the Slash succeeded and started a whole new class.
The Slash had a great number of things going for it: low cost-of-entry for a RTR, durability, scale looks, the drive-anywhere big size, and a new-ness that made everyone look. I won’t get into the argument of how great or awful Traxxas is, or how the Slash isn’t a race vehicle, but AE, Losi, and HPI along with others have made RTR trucks that are fairly race capable while still hitting the low $200 cost.
Now what about on-road? This is the on-road forum after all. Why doesn’t on-road have its ‘Slash yet? Going to back to what made the Slash so great, I don’t currently see any particular chassis that hits all the right marks that it did. Scale looks are great, I love them personally. F1 cars look great, but there aren’t any RTR vehicles that are race quality, plus there are still too many issues regarding chassis widths, tire diameters, etc. I’m not even factoring in their relative small size. Touring cars are everywhere, but again, RTR vehicles are certainly not anywhere near race-ready against other cars in the same class. I know I mentioned size, and I believe it was a big draw for the Slash and that class. Comparable-sized cars such as the buggy-based on road cars, are still way too expensive to be considered. I only know of the Ofna 1/8 kit, all the rest are nitro conversions I believe. I’m probably wrong as I don’t follow that class as much as others.
What I propose is the resurrection of the Super Ten class, but for electric on-road instead of nitro. HPI made one, the Super RS4, but the rest were conversions I believe. I think with the onslaught of 550 size motors and lipo batteries; they can have their place with the current on-road classes. While I don’t think these are absolutely perfect and hit all the same marks the Slash did when it was introduced, I think it could be the closest bet yet. I think they’ve been gone long enough to have that new feeling again. The larger size, scale looks, and probable ability of most companies to adapt current pieces to a larger chassis (just as was done with the Slash) means it could be done relatively inexpensive. I would say that it would only take commitment from some of the big name manufacturers to throw in some cheap electronics to make a $200-250 RTR vehicle with hop-up and race potential.
They’ve done it for off-road; now let’s see them do the same for on-road as well. Lets get some discussion going!
The Slash had a great number of things going for it: low cost-of-entry for a RTR, durability, scale looks, the drive-anywhere big size, and a new-ness that made everyone look. I won’t get into the argument of how great or awful Traxxas is, or how the Slash isn’t a race vehicle, but AE, Losi, and HPI along with others have made RTR trucks that are fairly race capable while still hitting the low $200 cost.
Now what about on-road? This is the on-road forum after all. Why doesn’t on-road have its ‘Slash yet? Going to back to what made the Slash so great, I don’t currently see any particular chassis that hits all the right marks that it did. Scale looks are great, I love them personally. F1 cars look great, but there aren’t any RTR vehicles that are race quality, plus there are still too many issues regarding chassis widths, tire diameters, etc. I’m not even factoring in their relative small size. Touring cars are everywhere, but again, RTR vehicles are certainly not anywhere near race-ready against other cars in the same class. I know I mentioned size, and I believe it was a big draw for the Slash and that class. Comparable-sized cars such as the buggy-based on road cars, are still way too expensive to be considered. I only know of the Ofna 1/8 kit, all the rest are nitro conversions I believe. I’m probably wrong as I don’t follow that class as much as others.
What I propose is the resurrection of the Super Ten class, but for electric on-road instead of nitro. HPI made one, the Super RS4, but the rest were conversions I believe. I think with the onslaught of 550 size motors and lipo batteries; they can have their place with the current on-road classes. While I don’t think these are absolutely perfect and hit all the same marks the Slash did when it was introduced, I think it could be the closest bet yet. I think they’ve been gone long enough to have that new feeling again. The larger size, scale looks, and probable ability of most companies to adapt current pieces to a larger chassis (just as was done with the Slash) means it could be done relatively inexpensive. I would say that it would only take commitment from some of the big name manufacturers to throw in some cheap electronics to make a $200-250 RTR vehicle with hop-up and race potential.
They’ve done it for off-road; now let’s see them do the same for on-road as well. Lets get some discussion going!
10-18-2011, 10:46 AM
#2
This could very well be the answer, I always thought that HPI killed the electric super right before it would've become popular with lipo and brushless. I have thought about converting mine to electric a bunch of times, but with parts really scarce I didn't bother. I think an electric Super could fight the "onroad slash" bill quite nicely with it's size and streetability.
10-18-2011, 10:48 AM
#3
You left out one important factor though. Advertising. Traxxas spent a TON of money in getting those trucks out to supercross and monster truck events putting that slash into peoples hands and letting them bash them around in the race arena to get them to go to there local hobbyshops the next day to pick one up. Without someone showing these cars to people nobody knows they exist and nobody wants to get one.
Our local outdoor asphault track is acctualy built in a public park and we get a lot of intrest from people about the cars, asking what they are, how much they are, and where to get them because they had never seen anything like them before. Without that exposure there is no intrest
Our local outdoor asphault track is acctualy built in a public park and we get a lot of intrest from people about the cars, asking what they are, how much they are, and where to get them because they had never seen anything like them before. Without that exposure there is no intrest
10-18-2011, 11:23 AM
#4
You left out one important factor though. Advertising. Traxxas spent a TON of money in getting those trucks out to supercross and monster truck events putting that slash into peoples hands and letting them bash them around in the race arena to get them to go to there local hobbyshops the next day to pick one up. Without someone showing these cars to people nobody knows they exist and nobody wants to get one.
Our local outdoor asphault track is acctualy built in a public park and we get a lot of intrest from people about the cars, asking what they are, how much they are, and where to get them because they had never seen anything like them before. Without that exposure there is no intrest
Our local outdoor asphault track is acctualy built in a public park and we get a lot of intrest from people about the cars, asking what they are, how much they are, and where to get them because they had never seen anything like them before. Without that exposure there is no intrest
10-18-2011, 12:37 PM
#5
I honestly thought Associated was on to something with the old RC10 DS. remember that? It was just an RC10 with stubby A-arm and short shocks. It looked like a touring car, was easy and cheap to maintain and I'm guessing were a ton of fun! Bring those back and there is your OnRoad Slash. One of the biggest problems with a dedicated onroad rig is that they are not really suited to running around in the street in front of a guys house. Kind of makes it a tough sell when someone can only use their car at the track.
10-18-2011, 02:02 PM
#7
Surely HPI could bust out those old molds to start churning out parts again. Bodies would be a different story as I'm sure the license agreements are long gone. I sure wouldn't mind seeing some newer bodies for them though. Just think of the new prototype car shells they could make!
10-18-2011, 02:17 PM
#8
I honestly thought Associated was on to something with the old RC10 DS. remember that? It was just an RC10 with stubby A-arm and short shocks. It looked like a touring car, was easy and cheap to maintain and I'm guessing were a ton of fun! Bring those back and there is your OnRoad Slash. One of the biggest problems with a dedicated onroad rig is that they are not really suited to running around in the street in front of a guys house. Kind of makes it a tough sell when someone can only use their car at the track.
10-18-2011, 02:18 PM
#9
I mentioned this idea a while back in another thread...I think Super10 would be a great class and I would love to see an electric version of my old Tamiya TGR 
10-18-2011, 03:40 PM
#10
I know they never caught on. I was just refering to them because I think the formula was right. Simple, cheap, tough as nails and not bad looking. This is what onroad needs to get healthy. Touring cars are way to complicated and expensive for a Novice and you can't run any pancar based stuff in the street in front of your house. Who know's?!
10-18-2011, 05:38 PM
#11
Tech Master
...and ten years too late. We were running converted buggies in the early 90s with saloon shells on them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ6YrryUdSQ Basically, home made super tens.
It was very popular, originally being based on any old buggy we had lying around after updating our race buggies. These were lowered and saloon body mounts added, but the class died out when it got serious and narrow touring cars came along as a cheap and simple alternative. How times change.
Rather than trying to get HPI to start making the Super RS4 again, why not just dig out your old buggies, shorten the shocks and make up some body mounts and you have a modern Super Ten chassis.
It was very popular, originally being based on any old buggy we had lying around after updating our race buggies. These were lowered and saloon body mounts added, but the class died out when it got serious and narrow touring cars came along as a cheap and simple alternative. How times change.
Rather than trying to get HPI to start making the Super RS4 again, why not just dig out your old buggies, shorten the shocks and make up some body mounts and you have a modern Super Ten chassis.
10-18-2011, 05:55 PM
#12
I honestly thought Associated was on to something with the old RC10 DS. remember that? It was just an RC10 with stubby A-arm and short shocks. It looked like a touring car, was easy and cheap to maintain and I'm guessing were a ton of fun! Bring those back and there is your OnRoad Slash. One of the biggest problems with a dedicated onroad rig is that they are not really suited to running around in the street in front of a guys house. Kind of makes it a tough sell when someone can only use their car at the track.
10-18-2011, 06:09 PM
#13
I know they never caught on. I was just refering to them because I think the formula was right. Simple, cheap, tough as nails and not bad looking. This is what onroad needs to get healthy. Touring cars are way to complicated and expensive for a Novice and you can't run any pancar based stuff in the street in front of your house. Who know's?!
10-18-2011, 06:19 PM
#14
Probably because it was. Once the body goes on who cares what's under it. I guess we are all better off having really cool looking On-Road cars sitting on our shelves collecting dust........ Please don't take that as a personal attack, I just don't like this attitude that if it's not a touring car or a pan car then it doesn't belong on the track. Some really outside the box thinking is the only thing that is going to save On Road racing.
10-18-2011, 06:43 PM
#15
There were other issues I had with the car other than it just being a converted buggy which we really don't need to get into at this point. The end result was still the class never caught on because too few people actually liked the car. No other manufacturer picked up on the class to produce alternate chassis. Super10 on the other hand got pretty popular for awhile in nitro and had 3 manufacturers making cars for the class. Now with BL and LiPo coming to the fore front and 1/8th BL conversions becoming more popular I think Super10 has a much better chance of making a revival and becoming a popular class.