Because It's A Worlds Year...
 

...I thought it would be interesting to set the way-back machine to 1986 and see what the pinnacle of 1/8 nitro buggies looked like 32 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJEbeZ80n0s

Very high CG on those dinosaur models, and I sometimes wonder if the suspension was for show based on how much the rear-ends bounce & kick through the bumps. The track itself was relatively flat by modern standards, and even then the buggies were having trouble remaining upright.
From the (electric) buggies I had around that time, proper grip was a luxury because the tire compounds were vastly harder than they are today and tended to wear a lot faster.

In many ways it's a shame that there are so few (if any) permanent tracks: it would be interesting to compare lap times with the newest generation just to see how much progress gets made every few years.

I was ten and was a few years from mw first rc car...
 

Those old 1/8 buggies looked a handful. I think they look pretty cool...more scale...

And just in case no one remembers Pedro De La Rosa... His humble beginnings in RC got him quite far.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_de_la_Rosa

One interesting thing I noticed was that in 1986, just like today, it was a hobby dominated by old(er) guys.

Really a dirt, off road race, besides almost no jumps...

Just waiting for someone to say its not real offroad....

I don't think those cars would be able to complete a single lap on a modern supercross track.