Originally Posted by
tc3team
two years on and not much has changed, except the economy not looking good for people to throw any "spare" money into the hobby.
cheaper 1/12 scale racing can sometimes help though... It may not help sedan, but it could help to stop someone quitting
I guess my question is how does one measure decline? Decline in your area? In the country? In the world? Or decline in perception?
I think if there is a decline it has very little to do with major issues in our hobby. I think there are outside factors that have a much larger impact on our hobby along with any other recreational endeavors. Where I have seen a hole is with the younger racers. I think that is due to the Playstation's/XBox's/Wii's of the world. It is much easier for a kid to go spend the $300-$600 on a video game system where he can share with his friends and can use anytime he wants rather than drop the same cash on RC, and in most cases more, and have to get driven to a track to race. This hobby (the racing portion) takes a certain level of commitment. RTR and basher type cars are still selling strong for sure. It’s the "racers" that deal with the ups and downs of the hobby. And we are a very small part of the hobby. So do I think there is a decline...not really. Maybe just a shifting around...
Originally Posted by
MACHFIVE
It's gonna be funny just seeing the stock tc sponsored guys racing against each other while everyone else is running VTA or WGT. Touring car is going to die unless they make it more realistic and cost-conscious like VTA or WGT which is the trend now. I also believe F1 (pan chassis) will make a comeback too. And once LiPO has been figured out you'll see an influx of racers come back to rc racing.
I think that World GT will be as expensive as TC soon enough. TC four years ago were a lot cheaper too. I bought my PRO 4 for $275 and an Xray T1 FK04 for $320 and that was the top of the market then. World GT cars cost over $250 and they are a lot less complex than TC's. Also electric off road seems to be doing quite well and those cars aren't cheap at all. Also a lot of guys who run VTA are using Xray and the like to run...and I think VTA was invented to slow down TC and make racing more fun...not cheaper. The cheaper part comes into play because you can use used/old TC's since all out speed and handling are not as important.