, rc's biggest problem is the aftermarket. no matter what car you buy, unless you pay more for the car you gotta have shipped in from Japan, you have to get aftermarket parts...or feel you have to in order to be competetive.
Oh my gosh...I have to agree with you because I always face this problem. A racer came to my pit while some racing was going on adn he wanted to get into the racing scene. One of the first things that he said was, "I notice that the shop didn't have that much stuff..."
This guy came from another country (never really asked where), but he was obviously referring to aftermarket parts. Then I showed him my kit and said, "my race car has around 5 hop-ups and some other tuning parts, but that's it." I get in the A main with it, while guys with cars that could cost twice as much as mine don't. Sure Hawaii doesn't have racers like So Cal, but I sometimes wonder why some people get stuck on the idea of aftermarket parts being better.
I think that this idea that you need tons of 'race-quality' parts to be competetive comes to people (especially the teenager with their first rc car) comes from the magazines. They show sections that tell what you need for racing, and have projects that are the 'ultimate race setup' which cost thousands. When these guys come around, and I ask "what kind of a car do you have?" then they sheepishly admit that they have no hopups on their
'X-brand' race car. Since these guys haven't seen a race before, all they can rely on are the info from mags which show only shots these 'project cars' and the sponsored racers' cars. They don't realize that all they need is tires and some simple suspension tweaks.
I have only talked about racing, but if this guy that wanted to race, but thought he couldn't because he thought he needed to spend 500 more dollars to really race, then maybe his rc dream has been snuffed and can't share his experiences about rc with his friends. I think spec classes are the best way to let these guys in on the racing fun.