va_connoisseur

Yeah, there is definitely some friction between some hobby shops. We have a great track here in the DC Metro area, 301 Raceway and Cwhits Hobby shop. When I go to other hobby shops they know about the track but it's like they don't want you to talk about it in the store. Since they don't have tracks, I can't understand because in the long run it would help their business if their customers had a place to run their cars. I don't think the hobbypeople chain has any interest in promoting anything.

41 cent. When I get to $1.50 I may have to ask for a loan.

Jspeed

Yea, that seems to be the “norm”, they fight each other instead of working together for the common good.

Some manufacturers & sanctioning bodies do the same thing as well.

If the Detroit automakers acted the same way, we’d all drive Toyotas. LOL

JLock

iTrader: (4)

Don't most of us drive Toyotas anyway!! Or is it Hondas! Well, it is a foreign-american car anyway.

Ramiel

Here in Brazil 200mm class is growing. Just a little bit, but still growing.
I own a FW05T+ and, with some friends that have the same car, this year we started a RTR championship at our local track.
We hope that with this iniciative more people that start with RTRs fell confotable in putting their car to race with others. Cuz you know, some newbies fell intimidated by those experts racers with their blasting .12 pro cars.
I'm just worried that this RTR season is getting so competitive that people are running praticaly FW05RR with T chassis and GXR15 engines
But the funny thing is that a good driver with a stock FW05T+ can overtake an intermediate driver with the good looking FW05RR/T

I believe that if we promote more RTR championships we can get more drivers that eventually take the next step (.12 pro cars) and stick to this hobbie

fastharry™

iTrader: (4)

having a spec class that uses anything bit a touring sedan is worthless....there is no logical progresion up the chain....


here's what you really need..you don't need a spec class for beginners and pro classes for the graduates....


what you need, is the graduates and long time racers to get involved in the spec class and help these guys....race along side of them, pit along side of them etc.....


we had a couple of young guys show up one week to watch. We are running pro nitro cars and BL electric.......the next week, they come back with some old HPI rs4's they had bought used....obviously no match for our cars.....so they took to racing around during the practice sessions.....but that was, and you could see it, almost like being second tier......

so i took the time to admire their cars and offer help.....I even borrowed one of them, and ran it in a race against his friends......They really enjoyed that, and the next week, I dusted off one of my racer 2's and brought that up. And you know what?......They loved racing with me, And I loved racing with them.......I'd forgotten what it was like to drive an older RC vehicle.....that slid a little, wasn't as fast, or intense.....It's like I could slow down and enjoy the ride instead of trying to get a 50 mph bullet slowed down to take a sweeper.......

Jspeed

Harry,

In a perfect world that would be a solution.

Unfortunately what I’ve usually experienced is the veteran racers are so wrapped up in their cars that they don’t have the time to help the “newbie”. When I started racing in my “State Series” the typical reply was “get rid of that junk and buy a _____. That was the extent of the advice I got.

So, I decided to give VRC a try. Now I have gained some of the “set-up” knowledge needed to actually have fun at the track.

I think the individuals that oppose RTR class racing are basically the ones who know their favorite manufacturer doesn’t make any.

Look at Off-Road, it’s huge and it’s because of the competitive RTR products available to the “newbie”.

Jspeed

While this has nothing to do with 200mm Sedan racing, this is an event RC Pro Series is putting together to help promote R/C racing to the “general public”.

As most of you might know, the Kyosho Inferno GT is a very hot seller across the country. I dare anyone to ask a hobby shop owner how many of them they’ve sold. All of the people that have purchased these cars have no sanctioning body race support, until now.

This RC Pro Special event will feature all of the tried & true race classes but we are also offering 2 classes for these “Rally” cars. The classes will be “Stock” & “Super Stock”.

Due to the location of SS Speedway in Tamps Florida in the heart of the city, the event will attract hundreds of people new to the sport of R/C racing.
As we all know, they will ask the familiar questions about the cars.

Those questions being: How fast do they go and how much do they cost? The magic of this event is that for the first time, we can proudly say “you can get a ready to run R/C race car for under $400 dollars, instead of the typical “about $1,500 dollars for one like mine”

This will benefit the entire R/C community by offering the “general public” an affordable race option. Now before you “purists” all start screaming foul at me, think about the big picture and how this marketing concept will help every sanctioning body, manufacturer, distributor, hobby shop and track across America. The name RC Pro stands for RC Promotions, and that is exactly what we’re doing; Promoting RC Racing.

bvoltz

iTrader: (44)

GREAT!!!!! I will be very interested in how this works out... I agree with you... We MUST race from time to time in very public places.. and we MUST have a price point to get newbies into the game for around the same price as the Xbox, PS2, etc....

1,500 for your car... but then you start to add in all the pit tools.. and the newbie runs away, not walk, but RUNS.... I have seen this time and time again when we run at Bass Pro... They think ok so Rat Shack has them for 30.00, and this is faster, so it should be around 100.00... Then you hit them the price tag... They're drop to the floor when they here the price tag.

Jspeed

Exactly Barry!

I’m not “knocking” anyone’s rides, I think they’re all great.

As the Event Marketing Director of RC Pro I'm just bringing the economic facts out in the open.

If we wish to gain interest from “Big-Time” Corporate America our numbers must grow and turning on the “general public” to a new inexpensive form of entrainment requires a rethinking of our event schedules and classes.

bvoltz

iTrader: (44)

I'm not taking issue with your view... I just wished we had more of your kind in Jackson.... The big complaint here is, "I'm tried of coming out here week after week getting out spent on equipment and getting my butt handed to me. The "Experts" show no mercy to the newbie... Really now many times do you need to lap a new person... if you would just back off, follow them Talk to them, help them out.. they would greatly appreciate this. Then on the other side, we get the experts complain about being on the track at the same time as the newbies, get crashed... I reply with "what did you expect.. they can not control the car..." You need to break them up and the experts need to Marshal there race and talk with them after... Newbies do not need top of the line, they need a car that they can work with, have fun with and maybe, you will find 1 in 10 that want to take to the next level.. Most just want to have fun on the weekend and not think about it until the next weekend. No working on it, just drive it... Or should I say this is what I see from my little corner of the US and R/C racing... It is very interesting to hear what different parts do and have what has worked and what has not worked... The biggest thing I would say is try something.. If it does not work so what, you must mite learn from it, and if works, great and share it...

I personally think it great that we have people getting out of the box.

I will leave you with this one... "The definition of Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

Jspeed

"The definition of Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

Barry, watch out, someone might call your boss and cry like a little "B", "he called me stupid".

"Stupid is as stupid does"

Barry, you crack me up

JLock

iTrader: (4)

The one problem I can see are the r/c car companies themselves. Their push is to make a car that is better than the last, using the latest technology, thus, increasing the pricing. If you haven't noticed, most of the top companies no longer have an "inexpensive beginner car" anymore. For the ones that do, only Kyosho and Team Magic throw a ton of support for their entry level cars (which are upgradable to their top level versions), which are also RTR. However, we racers need to help sell the hobby/sport as a good and constructive alternative to the video game systems and skateboarder craze that is out there. Bvoltz, at his races, has a pamplet that any spectator can take which tells out the hobby, what types of racing is offered, etc. Like many have stated, many of us racers aren't "user friendly" which will turn more folks away than will attract them. Along with Bvoltz pamplet idea, has anyone ever though of making an inexpensive CD/DVD video of a handful of club races, complete with bloopers, that can be distributed to spectators. The more you keep it in folks minds/thoughts, it might be what will draw a few in (remember, out of sight/out of mind is what you don't want). Just my $0.02.

JLock

iTrader: (4)

Here is another idea that I actually tried a few years back. I mentored a newbie at one of our local tracks before it shut down. This kid's family had just recently moved here from Spain and his dad was into the plane side of the hobby. The dad came out to the track one raceday and tried to talk to many racers. Even though I was busy, running two classes, I took time out to talk to this guy and his son. Two weeks later, they showed up with the same type of car that I was running. After talking to the dad, I agreed to coach his son, showing him set up techniques, driving lines on the track, etc. I even coached the kid from the pit area, gently letting him know where to brake, slow down, throttle up, hit the turns and corners, etc (without the yelling like the dad was doing). After about two months of improving skills and a few wins, the kid graduated from the novice to sportsman class (the only two nitro classes this track had). Everyone complimented how he looked like a slower version of myself. In fact, there were a couple of time he almost beat me in his early venture into the sportman ranks. In fact, he did beat me at least two times that I can remember before this track shut down. The moral of this short story is that he and his dad were very grateful that someone took the time to help them without hesitation. Even though the kid does not race today, I have a couple of permanent friends because of my actions. This is what this hobby is suppose to be about.

Jspeed

I wouldn’t be so hard on the R/C companies; for the most part they’re all doing a great job creating incredible race cars, parts and fuel for us racers.

All of us at RC Pro Series, appreciate all the manufacturers, distributors and hobby shops that help support our sanctioning body, events and our crazy radical ideas. Thank you all very much!

JLock

iTrader: (4)

I am not being hard, really. I am saying that many have abandoned the budget racer which is the market you are trying to attract. With the rising cost of gas, food, homes, cars, etc, r/c has to compete for the very few extra dollars that can be spent on "luxuries" from most households. When you can buy a $200 bike, $100 skateboard, $75 set of rollerblades, $400 Wii w/ about 4 games, or a $800 to $1500 r/c race package, which one would you or your parents choose. The lifecycle of the first three are very long so many think that the money is well spent there. R/C cars seem to outdate themselves faster than game systems so you get the picture. If you do like Xray and Serpent, come out with a new car every 6 months, have very few interchangable parts between the old car and the new car, discontinue parts production for the old car to make parts for the new car, again, you get the picture. Kyosho has the right idea with the Inferno GT. If you want the fleeing dollars from the dwindling consumer market, you have to produce a couple of products that fit into that budget niche or your consumers will look elsewhere.