Well James and i just completed our first round for the season although it was actually my second. The swing is sound but the putting and chipping are terrible!!!!

I ran my new Rev.4 yesterday at RSJ and with some tips from Jucha regarding the center shock and the addition of some o-rings to take slop out of the steering linkage it was the most awesome 12th scale car i have run yet! Boy do i wish i had this car a month ago.

On the subject of batteries the biggest issue to me has been the cycle longevity of the cells. 5-10 cycles (charge/discharge) before the loss of runtime is unacceptable and GP is the first company that has made the NiMh cell to get past this barrier.

The Sanyo and Panasonic cells lost runtime within this time frame it seemed to me and thus neccessitated constant replacement with new packs especially if you were going to run modified 12th scale. On-road modified racing uses runtime and permanently losing more than 15-20 sec. of runtime is major in my opinion.:

It's like taking a 410 pack out of the car and running a 390 or 380 pack in it's place and i don't think that is going to cut it in todays racing. With the longevity and performance (runtime, voltage, i.r.) of the GP cells even 12th mod is enjoying a steady comeback which is great for the sport and industry.

If ROAR and IFMAR are going to allow the Sanyo cell than hopefully it will have the robustness and longevity that the GP cells have displayed over the past 1.5yrs.

This quality is the major reason in my opinion behind the resurgence of electric racing, especially 12th scale. The true battery war to me seems to be when you have to buy 10packs throughout the indoor carpet season (Sept.-March) in order to stay competitive because the packs deminish so quickly.

GP along with a slew of great matchers such as SMC, Hurricane and others have given us a cost effective and thus more enjoyable way to race and i hope that other battery manufactuers aren't allowed to mess this up with lower quality cells that promise better performance for the initial 5-10 charges and then die off rather drastically.

Now if i can get the chipping and putting good enough to compete with Paul Lemieux then my golfing summer will be great! Barry how much would you charge me for a few quick lessons?