Of course, you haven't seen a lot of them. It is a fairly new car and people tend to be followers instead of innovators. No one was racing 1/8 electric either four years ago until a bunch of us decided to use Neu, Lehner, Pletty motors and modded 1/10 ESCs with $250+ lipo packs because we saw potential... Enough of us did it and the mfg's listened and now we have RTR stuff out of the box instead of our old Franken buggies...
The point is that 1/8 buggies don't need to be 8.5lbs. From what I have seen racing this 810e for the past three months is that they can be around 6lb-6.5lbs with no loss of durability but
significant gains in run time. Sure, us weekend hacks probably can't take advantage of a significantly lighter car, but you best believe a pro level driver could. This is why we have weight limits in the rules.
I am not bashing ROAR. However, when the rules are suffocating it prevents innovation. I don't like super long race days either, but 1/10 days are long because there are too many freaking classes. Realistically, the technology is to the point where you don't need a stock or mod class. Stock is as fast as mod. This is driven by ESC tech gains and battery/motor improvements. The classes and short mains are merely a throwback to when the technology was limited. Nothing more.
Nitro did not have the same constraints hence why they have longer mains and fewer sub classes.
More too the point, you can build lighter 1/8 electric cars and there are advantages. Longer mains are the main one which appeals to guys coming from nitro backgrounds. Lower costs are the second. You can use smaller batteries. C rating isn't as important. Not to mention the cars are just a bit cheaper. Fourth, it is safer. I rather have a 6lb buggy going 40mph hit me than a 8.5lb buggy. Both hurt, but one hurts more.
This is especially true during indoor season.
We were talking about building lightweight 1/8 cars back in '07/'08 if you look at the big electric conversion thread. Running 3s with high KV 1509 Neu motors. The issue was there wasn't a decent platform available.