To each their own. We welcome electric or Nitro power at our track. If we get enough entries for a straight electric class we can split them up. If not, we will run them with the nitro powered vehicles as we have in the past.

Nitro fumes take a little getting used to. After a few weeks it smells like fresh donuts baking.

I never cared for the smell of roasting speed controls or lipo fires myself. The magic smoke inside the wires smells bad.

Always wondered how the electric guys do pit stops for a 45 minute main. Must get some interesting configurations for battery swaps. Sounds cool to me.

with 1, mabey 2 stops in 45min we can afford to take a coffee brake while changing batts

I personal would like to see all buggies run together and all truggies run together regardless of what is the powers source. To me it is more fun racing with more people.

If like last year I am sure that is how it will be - All together.

I have an alcohol motor on the engine dyno right now and after needing to leave the dyno room with burning eyes I can assure you a little nitro in the mix would just make me gag.

The tide will turn, Traxxas is seeing to that with the introduction of the Slash 4x4s. In a few years only old timers will remember the Nitro days so enjoy the smell of nitro while it lasts. With the new generation of speed controlers the electrics will get faster and batteries will last longer. Next motors will become yet more efficient and soon there will be a new generation of more powerful, lighter even longer lasting batteries. 1 hr no pitting, lighter more power, no tuning, longer lasting... why were you guys running nitro again? Oh yeah the smell, I forgot.

Keith.

Me too.

While I agree that Nitro should die, right now, it ain't gonna happen anytime soon. Not like the way brushless took over brushed. Motors are already 80-90% efficient, so not much to gain there. There really aren't any battery solutions (light and small) out there now or on the horizon that will give 1+ hr run time in an 1/8 scale or truggy. As long as the bigger races run 45+ minute mains, sadly there will be nitro.

I don't think nitro should die, I think it will die and while not this year it will in the next couple on its own. Battery types and life will evolve faster than you are saying. Auto manufactures, cell phone manufactures and power tool companies along with the government just to name a few are pouring much money and research into this. You say look how fast brushless took off. Look at speed controls now. Would you have predicted a year ago where ESCs would be right now? Look at the new Thunder Power and MaxAmps lipos. Their ratings have about doubled in the short time I have been involved in the hobby. I think it would be nieve to think there would not be a solution on the horizon, to many industries are working on it. Jason's Truggy already runs 16 min. on a 6000MaH 5s pack with the newer higher rated packs he should be over 20 min approaching 30min. You honestly don't believe in the next few years that won't double?

Keith.

Not to be argumentative with another electric lover but we can have a civil discussion:

Three years ago I was running an 8000mAh/4s battery on a 1900 kv motor and got about 30 minutes. 16 minutes on a 6000/5s seems short to me, but that's beside the point. But using your numbers you will need a 6000mah*60/16 = 22500mah/5s pack to just manage a 1 hour run time. It simply has to be that big, do the math and physics (which I've been doing for several year in 1/8 scale). Sure you could do that now with a really big (volume) and really heavy expensive battery pack. That just isn't going to fly. Guys will stay with nitro rather that having a 15lb buggy with a $1000 battery in it.

The numbers you are seeing that are increasing in battery technology are the C ratings. Eventually we could have 1,000,000 C rated batteries, but that doesn't really effect runtime. The energy density or the Mah/volume-mass is what has to increase and dramatically. The capacities (energy density) are the same as they were when LiPos came on the scene 5 years ago. Very little has changed in that aspect and that's the big thing that has to change to get 1 hour runtime. We need a paradigm shift of a factor of 4 roughly to get that kind of run time.

LiFe is not the solution as it is heavier that LiPo.

As far as brushless tech evolving, it really hasn't done much since it's inception either. The only new thing has been advanced timing. And all of this is old news if you are in industrial motor control. Somebody just got smart and copied what the big guys had been doing for decades. I hate to say there's not much more that can be done with current brushless systems, but there's not. You can only advance the timing so far before you burn up a stator as people are finding out. There will be no new magical motors made that will break the 100% efficiency barrier , so there are no huge gains to be had there since they are already in the 90% range.

The main gains will be in battery tech for sure, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. I mean you can Google a hundred different articles on new startup companies with their new Lithium-Sulphur Nano Tube Turbo battery tech, but nobody even has any prototypes yet. And they usually have some down fall too, like they run at 1000 degrees C. And how long will that take to filter down to the RC world?

Even at a club level, which could change over immediately because we only run 15-minute mains, it will take more than a few years to take hold. Within the electric realm it took brushless about 5 years for people to see the light and that was a really really tiny change (and there are still brushed motors around because of short term costs). Increasing the energy density of current batteries by a factor of 4 is going to take awhile. People want thier smoke, oil, sounds and smells. I don't think it's naive to think this way, I think it's realistic. Of course I could be wrong and I hope I am.

Let's all cross our fingers that those diLithium StarTrek batteries will come out soon!

Yea what he said.
Beam me up Scotty!!!

Any ground breaking party planned?

Keith:
Get a better ventilation system in your dyno room.

I don't run nitro for the smell alone. What about the noise, the sound of a tuned engine ripping down the straight? Don't really get that with an electric.
For some tuning an engine can be frustrating, I look at it as a challenge. The strategy in pitting, mileage, even the mechanical aspect - all is fun. Electric may be for some, but I don't want the plug and play simplicity all the time.
Put the electric and nitro together. There wasn't a problem last year, why should there be one this year?

The board is planning a field trip to the the new site this weekend to scope more things out and start the final planning process. We will be looking at utility hookups and placement of the track and pit areas too. From here we can then order materials and start construction soon.

We will need as many volunteers as we can to help build our new facility. Anyone and everyone is encouraged to come pitch in anyway that they can. Material donations and labor are greatly appreciated and will help keep down the costs associated with the creation of our new outdoor home.

We will have a list of things we need to get done posted soon along with a list of "project managers" to work with for the various tasks.

Things that we will need for sure are trucks and trailers to haul things from the Rockpile site to the new one. The plan is to use the existing drivers stand. Revisions to the pitbox are planned.

We will also want to use a "ditch witch" trenching machine for a day to get the utilites underground. Once track construction starts a vibratory plate compactor might come in handy too.

I have great confidence that our membership and fellow racers will work to make the new Marcca outdoor location an excellent facility. It will take many hours and lots of hard work but the results will be something we will all be proud of and provide us with a great place to enjoy our hobby with our friends and family.

Jeff, are you referring to this current weekend or the following weekend (27-28)? And with that which day, times etc, etc.

Not that I'm defending nitro over electric (thinking of converting myself) but I think I can easily justify the noise attraction by suggesting that everyone turn on a NASCAR or F1 race on tv and watch it with the sound muted for 10 minutes.

I think you are wrong for two reasons. New technology comes at us pretty fast and Traxxas. Last time I was at Trackside there were 9 SCT 4x4 trucks running on a Friday night 8 of them were Slash 4x4 SCTs. Of these 8 maybe one of the guys was over 20. You will have a whole new influx of young hobbiests who don't get the nitro thing just as in my industry there is a new generation of people who don't get the muscle car thing. When these guys advance to a buggy or truggy they will lean heavily towards electric, not nitro. You only need to look out side our area, the Tekno drivers are pretty big on the west coast and ROAR has an 8th electric class. Horizon had an electic buggy class at the shootout. Look at the following Liessure Hours is getting in electric 8th scale. Scotty Ernst told me last year he is thinking of an electric 8th class at his out door events. Most of the manufactures are planning on electric versions or offer conversions.

Run the electrics with the Nitros until the disadvantage of running Nitro is so huge you can't handycap the electrics enough anymore like they do now.


46,000CFM 3 phase 15hp fan. It aint no bathroom unit

Yeah no problem as long as we make those stupid meaningless pit stops.