prorcguy

An expensive car has more years of design to back it up and parts will be a lot more available with big brand.

bd581

My humble opinon from experience

The "cheap" cars are often hit and miss, some have been great, others have been absolute rubbish that right out of the box needed complete rebuilds (in the case of RTR cars)
I have never had that problem with the more known brand quality cars.
Once sorted though, they can be every bit as good, just takes, time, knowledge, experience and often more money than its worth.

snoopyrc

iTrader: (2)

I do think that there are advantages at every price point, and some of the low end kits are complete junk. But in some cases you can get a kit that has the same geometry as the premium kit. Cost savings come in by use of cheaper materials. X-ray, Serpent, Yokomo all are high end companies that offer a kit that shares geometry with its flagship kit and in most cases is upgradable using the same parts. On the lower end of the spectrum we have Spec-R, with the R1 and S1. Both are the same kit, but the R1 uses better materials. Even with that being the case, you will see racers that will replace broken c-hubs using X-Ray parts. That is a testament to X-Rays quality. Still many find value in the lower end kits, and find them to be all they need for club racing.

I don't know why but this reminds me of Josh Cyrul when he went with TOP, a mostly unknown company at the time. But Josh designed them a great car and put it on the map at some good sized races. That's another story.

Tam417x

I don't think I would, it's not a proven car yet, besides, I'm happy with the BD7,by the way, it's Colin !!

JustWill75

Just get a TC6.2 and start driving. You will not be disappointed.

davidwills

To be honest, the performance of a car is fixed, few of hobbyist can maximize it performance, most of us just can perform 60% to 80%, a few of hobbyist just can perform below 50%.
So when the performance of RC car don't have a big gap, the man who operate it played a decisive role.

chasingthepack

this years dhi cup a 1st & 3rd for xray

chasingthepack

ok colin ,i had you down as someone else

Silberpfeil

You pay what you get for. Personally I rather buy from the big brands because they're easier to get parts for, get more set up knowledge from etc. Sure some smaller brand cars are good but over-all they're not up there, you can tell in the price and quality.

-Jeremy

frozenpod

iTrader: (1)

Something to think about quite a few manufatures started out building high quality replacement parts for big name TC.

Improving on flaws ect.

daveaustin5

iTrader: (1)

I race a Spec R S1 and whilst I love it, it has it problems.

It came with the wrong size turnbuckle rods so I had to take some from an old kit.

The quality of the turnbuckle ends is questionable to say the least. They don't seem to hold the thread very well. I've had one end come off and another push in giving me massive toe out. I had to upgrade to Tamiya ones.

The lack of support for the car in the UK is also an issue. Nobody sells parts so I have to order from Hong Kong, they take 2 weeks to arrive.

Because it's not supported by a factory team over here, there's no base setups for any UK tracks. If I had a T4, 418, BD7 etc... there's loads online for me to use as a starting point.

At the end of the day, with a little setup effort and a few upgrades (roll bars and Tamiya ball cups), my car is as quick as the MI5's and Xray's at my club. For $100 shipped it's hard to argue against it.

Skiddins

Quite a few manufactures started out making low quality replacement parts that weren't good enough and needed redesigning (step forward SPEC-R) or were just total crap then and now (CSO anyone!)

valk

iTrader: (13)

Think part of what has to be realized is that if no one is buying the cheaper brands because they are unproven by pros at big events, the company really can't afford to spend all that cash on r&d to further their platform.
Big names have vast product families to keep them going but I imagine sending teams to races in the early development period is a total loss, thus the high price we pay for kits.
The sport needs more of the low end to entice more racers. At te end of the day without racers who the fk cares which sponsored car wins sponsored events heh.

I can definitely claim my spec r isn't as well refined as my serpent was. But it costs half as much to own and opperate so if it breaks. Meh.all the while they can improve it cause I baught it and I am effectively doing the testing in place of a race team. I won't have to pay $500 for the next one heh either.