I'm afraid I have to take exception to the statement regards seeing more OFNA, etc. on podiums around the country. While it may be true at the local level, it has always been that way at the local level. Whatever the local fast guy(s) is running is what the locals consider to be the best buggy available because they see it win more than not. When you move up to the regional and national level where it's the sponsored drivers and the dedicated privateers with proven legit skilz, the platform becomes very important and it's more often either Mugen or Kyosho taking the top spots. In short, at the local level, you have one or two drivers that will always turn better lap times than the rest of the local crowd by a usually lopsided margin due to skills rather than platform, but at the regional and national level the cream has risen to the top and the skilz are so closley matched the top ten or twenty qualifying spots will all be within a second or two of TQ no matter what they are driving. It is in these situations where the platform and/or luck will make the difference between finishing in the money or not. The Wheelers are a prime example of my point. When they were privateers runing K cars they were usually in the top three at any race they attended, but once they signed on with OFNA they still made the A main but usually finished mid pack or lower. I've been to several national level events where the top 5 finishers in the 8th buggy A main were less than half a second apart after a 30 or 45 minute main. I've also seen the same level of racing turn into a 1 buggy runaway not because one driver was that much better than the rest, but they just had the best luck that day.
That said, I can't imagine any platform that Gil and pops had a hand in being anything less than a world beater at the highest levels, and even though my skilz (or lack thereof) would never justify spending the cash on a world class buggy, you can bet I'd be queing up with the rest of the Losi faithful to get one.