Originally Posted by
River19
I think it should be obvious to anyone paying attention that "racing" is a very small segment of the RC world compared to selling kits to people who just plan on having fun.
Back in the 80s and into the 90s manufacturers more heavily adopted the motorsports approach of "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" and the magazines were a great medium for packaging up the action, making it look cool, making the drivers out to be larger than life and kings of the hobby. There wasn't much content to an article about "watching Kevin send his Grasshopper off the skateboard ramp"........
But in a YouTube era where everyone has a portable "TV studio" suddenly there is a lot of attraction and content about Kevin Launching his XYZ at the skatepark. And people gobble it up. Racing content objectively is like watching paint dry, unless you are a fellow racer and appreciate the fine subtlety in setup and driving lines etc.
Let's face it, I think the people racing now, are the bulk of the people who will be racing in 3, 5, 8 or 10 years. Look at us......we can't agree on classes, motors to run, rules on lubrication and tire mods. If I were a manufacturer, without a small number of really strong sanctioning bodies owning those decisions and people actually buying in (I know we have ROAR etc.) I wouldn't want to deal with us either. Sell more 6S bashers to little Johnny to go send it at the skate park.....break it and come buy the 8S version etc.
Bingo!!!
On top of that, racers can't seem to accept someone else's opinion.
I don't recall ever going to a bashing event and hearing people cry and scream at each other. I've seen the teasing between Arrma and Traxxas drivers, but it never went further than that.
Funny and true story. We were at a race, and a guy told my 12 year old daughter, who was racing a Kyosho, "When you grow up, maybe you will get a real RC car like an Associated." Without a second of hesitation, my son said, "It sounds like you still need to grow up."