Originally posted by GundamWZero
Look, guys. I am not here to bash Novak, it would be hipacritical of me to do so. I own plenty of Novak products before and still do now. I simply don't like the idea of putting something out there that no one can get to win races. I talked ( rather argued) with Futureal via PMs. Hey I know you guys made valid points, and I haven't discredit them. Some make sense, and some don't. I'll ask the Novak guys this question; couldn't you have raced the prototypes at local level competitions instead of the Nats or Worlds to get the necessary information you need? I know that this would seem even unfair to the guys at the local levels also. I had a conversation with one of my collegues. He was once a sponsored driver before he enlisted into the Army. I told him about this debacle of a debate and he told me that all manufacturers does this, and have been doing it for years! So maybe this is the nature of the beast..........
Yeah, I may feel like Don Quiote vs. a windmill here, but I still think there should be a better way to test and develop their products.
There's a flip side to prototypes that hasn't been discussed here... They are almost always cutting-edge technology, but prototypes have faults as well. It is not unheard of that prototypes are inferior to the current mass-production item. The way I look at it, driving is still 99 percent of the equation. Gundam, I guarantee you that if you're fast enough such that a gtx would make a significant gain, then there's nothing to worry about. At that point, you would be sponsored and get to try out the prototype stuff anyways!
My point is that the factory guys are in a class of their own, and the fact that they have access to prototype equipment is very irrelevant to the racing success of the rest of us. No matter what type of equipment is available only to the pros, there is always a way to "move up the ladder". I've seen a guy make it pretty high up in the c-main in mod truck at the nationals, surrounded by a swarm of prototype XXT's. Needless to say, he got sponsored shortly thereafter, and definitely got access to all the prototype stuff by becoming one of Losi's top drivers (this was back in 1994, so I'm sure all of you masters guys can figure out who I'm talking about).