Originally Posted by
aeRayls
You absolutely DO NOT need any of this to have a chance at a big race! Having a decent motor and a good lipo mean way more. None of this matters if you clip 1 pipe in your qualifier!
I had all this stuff in the past back in the brushed/Nimh or even nicad days. With all of if together, slipper eliminator, alum topshaft, cut gears, lightened out drives, alum cvd's... I could feel a difference in acceleration of course. It wasn't something so drastic that it meant you couldn't make the A main at a big race. This is still offroad! Driving still matters more!
People complain about how stock is now. LOL! Sounds like you can relate.
10 years ago i was rebuilding and putting my stock motor on a lathe after every run at big races, shaping brushes, water dipping breakin, direct wired batteries soldered into the car for every run to eliminate connector resistance. Lightened components, even tire and foam selection was partly based on rotating mass. Lightening tires and re-balancing them is NOT fun! cycling batteries on our $400 chargers, and having 8-10 packs of Nimh batteries (at ~$75 a pack, and you still had to assemble them) since the process between charges was exhaustive to keep the Ir low and the voltage high.
all this and i still missed a State championship by .2 secs.....
Stock hasn't really changed, if anything it is MORE fair and cheaper than it used to be. You guys that have only been in this a few years really have NO idea.
Stock being for new racers is a bit of a misnomer, it is a good class to start in, but by the time your skills develop enough to compete, either move on to mod, or do what is needed to compete.
Still comes down to driving though, if you need to be marshaled, all that $$ spent on making your car faster will still keep you behind the guy who does it clean.