Did Traxxas do it again?
 

Could the new Traxxas 1/16 Rally VXL do for On-road what the Slash did for Off-road?

http://www.traxxas.com/products/elec...-low_green.jpg

http://www.traxxas.com/products/elec...chassis_fs.jpg

http://www.traxxas.com/products/elec...ont-low_fs.jpg

I think it's real neat and all, but I dont think it'll form into a new class or anything. It will be a great car to take out and zip up and down the road as fast as you can. However, I dont see much of a racing future for them im afraid. And that's not really a bad thing if you ask me... It always seems like as soon as a new car/class comes out, we immediately want to race it. The problem is, some things are just not meant to race, it's not their target market so to say.

I see your points, but it looks like Traxxas might be departing a little from its non-racing focus on this one...as least from a marketing standpoint.

From the site:

Traxxas Rally VXL
1/16th Scale Brushless Rally Racer!

Experience Rally Driving Excitement, Gymkhana Style!

* 30+mph Out Of The Box…50+mph All-Out!
* Velineon® Brushless Power with VXL-3m speed control
* Powerful Velineon 380 motor—largest in class
* Ready-To-Race® With Included Traxxas Power Cell NiMH Battery

From Wikipedia:

Gymkhana is a type of motorsport practiced in Canada, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and South Africa. Similar to autocross, gymkhana courses are often very complex and memorizing the course is a significant part of achieving a fast time.

Gymkhana events are time and/or speed events in an automobile. These can feature obstacles such as cones, tires, and barrels. The driver must maneuver through a predetermined "track" performing many different driving techniques. What separates gymkhana from traditional autocross events is that the gymkhana requires drivers to perform reversals, 180 degree spins, 360 degree spins, parking boxes, figure 8s and other advanced skills. Drifting is also encouraged where helpful or necessary. Essentially, a gymkhana is any event featuring a starting point, a finish line and some sort of "obstacle" to get through, around, or by, all within a time limit.

Looks like it's sharing a lot of parts with the 1/16 Slash...I can see converting my Slash and head for the Sugarbowl track for some fun with this !

It would be cool to see a European-style rally track set-up for these things. I remember seeing in magazines back in the late 90's (over in Europe) they used to set-up tracks with dirt, gravel, asphalt, and any other surface smooth enough to race on. Imagine trying to figure out your set-up when the terrain changes from one end of the track to the other.

There are a lot of carpet tracks around that are racing SC trucks with wood jumps and bumps. I think this will be another hit out of the park for Traxxas.

When did they do it the first time? /8)

I think he is referring to the SLASH and the creation of the SCT class in offroad.

I would be willing to race these. I like this concept a little more than the mini offroad stuff.

id prefer if it was a 1/10th scale, however, i do hope that traxxas does well with it

no doubt it will get raced, its human nature to race anything that has wheels on it it, be it a shopping trolley in your local car park or an r/c:lol::lol:

I'm running 1/16th Revo VXL on 3S in parking lots and you can barely hold onto the car. I LOVE IT and I'm certain these cars will be the next big thing.

VIDEO:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...h_IMG_0511.jpg

Kills tires quick!


http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d5...1/IMG_0507.jpg

I know of one being built

I think it would be nice to see a class of 1/16th and 1/18th SCT and the new rally come together. On road and off road tracks together like a real rally track, that would be interesting.