Originally Posted by
Shaner74
The purpose would be to have an affordable, easy class to enter into racing. Ideally no one would ever sell their car as it should not be more desirable than a brand new one. My local track is inside of a Pole Position raceway (fast indoor electric carts). It gets a great deal of people with no previous exposure to rc racing stopping by to take a look. They are clearly interested in what we are doing but are not willing to drop a $1000 on it. It would be nice if there was truly a class that a complete newbie could buy an inexpensive RTR and be able get racing immediately. A gateway vehicle and class. I realize this would not be for every veteran racer with multiple $1000+ cars. I however just might buy one for the fun of it.
I truly fear for the future of rc racing. When I was a kid I raced (all goldpan rc10s) in an under 16 class. We had a full driverstand every race day. Today we have one, sometimes two, under age racers and they are usually thrown into the novice class with adults. An inexpensive RTR class just might bring more kids and new adults to rc racing.
This is sort of like the Tamiya Euro Truck class and the Tamiya Spec novice class. The cars are cheap and easy to get started with.
These are great classes but I think some improvements will make the concept even better. First is to have a spec tires that is cheap, will make the car handle predictably and long lasting. I think the ride radial tire fits the need well. Second it needs body choices that will make the class attractive. Maybe a scale looking GT class will do the trick. The Euro Truck and Spec novice class falls short on some of these items but are still popular which shows the viability of low cost spec classes.
I hope something similar in off road can be established. Maybe a traxxas based class?