thesuper

another perspective from another driver....

i started back in 2000. the ONLY....and i mean ONLY reason i picked up the R/C hobby is because i LOVE watching the WRC (world rally championship...THE most amazing form of motorsport, period.)

tamiya makes touring chassis for on-road and a few chassis that can be _modified_ for off-road use with the proper _scaled_ body sets of some noted rally cars.

i start up and it's great fun. we get out to some parking lots, parks with gravel areas, or baseball diamonds. tons of fun.

i'm in texas and there are a few tracks around here but i don't use them. never have. never will.

and i think this is where the problem is.....it's with the hard and fast focus on _racing_. everything is about racing and competition. even the RTR market really pushes the speed and how fast something is.

most of the guys i drive with are not into racing. we don't want or NEED a second job spent tweaking cars, taking on "winter projects", learning about amps and volts, taking hours out of our day to mask and paint a body, having to deal with a manufacturer/distributor/dealer system that never seems to get me the parts i need in a timely manner, on and on......

R/C is _not_ in comptition with girls or games or even computers.....it's in comptition with LIFE.

sure...girls, games and computers are PART of life....but they aren't everything.

at some point i stopped driving my cars.....i'd rather live and experience life rather than feel confined to a small and marginal segement of society that has ALWAYS seemed.....well.....uncool.

i know there will be some who pipe up and say......if R/C means i'm uncool then i'm PROUD to be uncool and racing rules and so on......

unfortunatly...these statements aren;t solutions...they're simply....to a casual observer.....the vitriolic ('cause it never helps to proclaim that being uncool is cool) expression of unease.



it's the same with music....i'm a guitarist. sure...you could plunk down about $400 for a starter guitar but it's all you must learn after the purchase that will make you a really good player. and it doesn't matter if you're in a band. most guitarists i know aren't even in a band anymore. it's hard. again, it becomes almost a second job.


it's the same thing with cycling. i'm a mountain biker. attendance at races is DOWN. why? again, to compete you have to train and eat well and change the way you live. you have to go out to practice rides and spend the cash for parts and maintenance. again....it's like a second job.



and maybe you're thinking...man...people are just lazy. they don't want to put any effort into anything. they want it all to come easy and naturally.

people's lives are already complicated by a LOT of things. more complexity isn't the answer. slower motors aren't the answer. marketing isn't the answer.

the answer is.....there really is no answer.



every industry will get a SMALL percentage of people who want to get into some hobby for whatever reason...usually it's cause their bored or think it's exciting (how long does excitement last?) or whatever.

the other larger majority will do something else. they will live.......and live well.



take some time and keep asking _yourself_ the same question for the entire week: how are you living?


half won't answer truthfully because they know they compromised their DREAMS somewhere along the lines and ended up somewhere they don't want to be.

the other half can't clearly see where they are going and sense and uncertain future.