[Si Coe]

As Terry says the cost bit tends to be exaggerated badly. I always made a point of explaining to new drivers at Bury that I was running a 20 year old RC10 kitted out with a brushless system off ebay - whilst mine is never the fastest there its far from the slowest either. Bury sees plenty of ex-racers coming back with their old cars - we had a meeting last year with 4 generations of RC10 in the same heat!

I really do believe that at most clubs if the best driver ran an out of the box B4.1 RTR they would win. Whilst it doesn't have a sensored esc, the motor is around a 10.5t, the shocks aren't the latest spec etc its actually quite good enough. Unsurprisingly the majority of our new drivers (of all ages) have one.

One thing racers could consider is keeping old but decent gear to sell cheap to new drivers. I sold my old Cat'98 to a lad that turned up with an HPI Brama for £40 - it was old and a bit worn out but still more reliable and competitive than the Brama. In addition I made sure it was set up for our track.

This is why I'm against cost controlled spec classes - ebay and some old gear makes for a better, more enjoyable racer than a 540 equipped out of the box Mad Rat and for less. What is needed is education not restriction!