95% of sponsored drivers in RC still pay a percentage.Thats just the way the hobby works right now. Most are very thankful to get that percentage off.

If you think Pro Performance is selling rebranded Aliexpress junk like some of the others, you’ve obviously never run their stuff. It’s not just hype, it really does have a better feel on the track in the programming and components vs similar units. What’s different? I have no clue.. but I’ve run almost every major brand except the brand new Hobbywing that just came out, including most of the other ZTW ESCs being sold currently, and you can feel a large difference between all the brands.

Maybe Brian didn’t sugar coat it as he should have, but as far as agreeing to refund, you can see in the original
screenshot, he said if they aren’t shipped out tomorrow, he expects a refund… To which Brian Mills replied “absolutely” When it wasn’t refunded by mid day, he threw a tantrum and started saying he refused his refund. Lol 🤷‍♂️ I’ll go out on a limb and say if his refund was actually refused, he would have posted that part.

That's not what I read, dude placed an order not realizing there would be any delays, asked for an update, then waited 6 days and asked for a refund at that point then was blocked from any communication after that. No matter how you try to spin it, this is grossly unprofessional all the way around. Not saying the customer wasn't rude and frankly they're probably not team driver material anyway, but a simple refund and boot from the team was all that was needed, now we have all this drama with fewer people interested in the brand due to their shenanigans.

Telling someone after the fact that they won't get parts they ordered until April which is practically 6 months away from now is long after any buyer protection to get credit card charges reversed. Everything I see about this has SCAM all over it!

I know there are a lot of "discount" drivers out there, but then I do not call them as sponsored. To me they are just people easily abused to advertise products.

Regarding Aliexpress, do not take that too serious. But I know plenty of US based brands who claim to design and produce their own products but actually get their stuff from Asia with their label on it. Like REDS and Ielasi Tuned their electrics are also just rebranded Asian stuff.

There are varying level of sponsorships and typically if someone claims to be sponsored but runs in "sportsman" classes then I agree with your concerns, however the majority of my sponsorships explicitly forbid me to run in sportsman, that's written into the contract.

There's also a big difference between a "sponsorship" and a "factory driver" who actually gets their gear for 100% free of charge where factory drivers are the cream of the crop, majority of factory drivers also earn contingencies which is another method to measure the level of a skill a driver presents for the team.

As far as rebranded electronics go, I would raise caution with AGFrc branded servos which are lower quality with no warranty or support. There are some US based brands which special order premium upgrades to their servos and rebrand them under different names where I know NitroPro offers significantly upgraded servos with one of the best warranties on the market, more info here:

• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly about AGFRC servos

Me like NitroPro.

I believe April was the expected timeline for new unreleased products, not the stuff they ordered.

There are options within the team, you can ask for a PayPal invoice or you can send money in right away. I have had many positive dealings with Pro Perf. I am not here to speculate, there is a lot of communication to the drivers via the private group on FB. I knew there was going to be delays in getting items from reading the posts.

Many great things are on the horizons with Pro-Perf. Also, a lot is happening all at once, there are growing pains and mistakes being made. We are human after all.

Some have been put off by this interaction, for which I understand. Some have stated it is not good business practices, given the details you saw, I can understand that perspective as well. I do not know the whole story, nor do I need to. I have positive experiences with Brian and his company. Pro-Performance, to me, has been reputiable, solid, and a company I want to support. I am not naive or drinking the Kool-aid.

Full disclosure, I have signed on with them as a sponsored driver. It was an opportunity for me to be on the ground floor of working on some great things on the horizon. I would not have signed on if I was treated poorly, or just another number.

Please follow up over time giving us updates on typical lead time from when order is placed to when you get tracking, to include accuracy of orders, etc... I have left other teams due to constantly getting wrong parts placed in my order and/or missing parts from my order with no explanation. On the flip side, I've had other teams include extra parts I didn't order free of charge which has kept me VERY happy

Looks like orders are headed out the door. As someone who has worked shipping stuff out of a small shop, 947 in a week is crazy. Boxing, labeling, and shipping is a time consuming task.. Hopefully all is smooth from here out.

I will Bill. I will try to be unbiased as a sponsored driver can be. I expect things will take time, with that said I expect a certain time period (I will keep to myself) for it to be a bit crazy.

Brian certainly seems to be stretching himself thin. Hope it works out for him, but with all the things he seems to be promising right now, it does make me a little doubtful.

Are you saying pro performance and team powers both don't use ZTW as their OEM? come on, there is nothing innovative about PPRC if you actually do research.

they're definitely using an OEM - it's just not possible for a 1 man business to design, manufacture, and develop firmware for a truly custom one-off ESC. With that said, one thing many OEMs are great at is allowing the customer to spec out a product however they want, so even if the ESC is coming from ZTW it's still more likely than not that you can't get the exact same ESC anywhere other than PPRC.

Besides, there can't be any more than 5 ESC OEMs in the world (honestly I'd be surprised if t was more than 3), but there sure is a heck of a lot more ESC brands being sold than that.

Challenge accepted.