Flavour of the month

[Garry]

Why does it seem that the 1/10th Off Road fraternity seem to be more afflicted by the ''Flavour of the month'' disease in RC, more so than any other class?

Whenever a new chassis is announced, it seems like everyone trys really hard to flog whatever they are currently running, to jump on board the next bandwagon?

Not saying its a bad thing (loads of decent condition, little use cars secondhand for new guys to pick up; and the manufacturers love selling kits), but coming from a background of TC, its really surprising to see some people at a Winter series start the championship with an X-factory, jump midway to a Schumacher, then annouce they have paid a deposit on the new Losi.

Thoughts/opinions?

[dpackster1980]

More money than sense, I'd still have my Losi XX4 if they still made them.

I miss it.

[SlowOne]

On any given weekend between March and October, there are about 2000 people up and down the country racing RC cars. I'm now in guessing territory...

25% of them are off-road, so about 500. "A few people at a Winter Series" could be about 10... or 20...? In my experience, those who butterfly around are those who want everyone to know about it (the Facetwits) and so they appear on here, and in loud voices at the track. So, disproportionately, it seems that people butterfly around from car to car all the time.

Reality is that people must change cars regularly, otherwise I would be able to come back to Off-Road with my 1994 LosiXX and be competitive!! Fact is most people do it quietly, and not as often as the loud-mouthed Facetwats (sorry, bee in my bonnet about it - just managed to avoid hiring a student whose pics and tweets make him the biggest prat this side of Simon Cowell!!) who post on here, or let everyone at the "winter series" know about it.

I once pitted at a Club with a guy who would tell anyone who would listen (and many who didn't want to!) how to set up and run a 12th car. This was especially interesting as if I listened to him, I'd been doing it all wrong for 20-odd years!! i don't think the evidence supports off-road being any more prone to changing cars than any other class. All classes are populated by cars that are no more than two years old, so everyone must change their cars regularly. Maybe it's just the the off-road guys at your meetings are a little louder than most! Happy New Year all.

[Aran]

Suppose its the same in many things people always trying to get the next big thing, unless something went severally wrong don't think I would switch from my cougar to a losi or X factory.

[c0sie]

I would imagine that if there was a forum 'dedicated' to 1/10th TC (as oOple is for 1/10th offroad) you would see the same "ship jumping" going on everytime a new TC chassis gets released.

The beauty of this scale to me though is that a top of the range 4WD (B44.1 for example) costs about £300 with shell, wing, wheels and tyres (£15 back if you sell em off).
Top TC will probably set you back over £400+ PLUS your shell, wheels and tyres.

As long as buggy prices dont get ridiculous like TC prices have then everyone will be smiling

[mattJT]

When I started in RC only 7 months or so back, I coudn't really understand why people changed their cars so much, mainly from what I could see at the time due to changing seasons, so changing cars.

I suppose there's two sides to the overall discussion tho.

Side 1 is that the whole changing car thing is what helps noobs like me get into RC as at any given point you can pick up whatever kind of car you want second hand, and 9 times out of 10 for a good price.

And it's undoubtedly the 2nd hand market I feel that really maintains the overall momentum for getting poeple back into or starting off in RC

Suppose the other side of it tho could be the old wanting to experiment with cars to find the car that best suits. So when a new car comes out, some people will want to experiment so sell their current to try something new - be it to race it or just even build it.

In my seven months, I've been through some 7 off road cars, however the outcome of which is that I'm actully left with the one car that I actually like, want to keep and start racing with

Down side tho, now I've found the off roader to keep, have moved over to indoor racing and so the process begins again

[Big G]

I only changed car because I wanted to try something new. No one else had one down my local club so I can't fall on them for spares like I could with my old car.

to be honest I was just bored that 75% of the club all ran the same car as me and wanted to run on my own.

The Cat Sx is a great car, but I wanted a Durango. I'm pretty much Durango's were FotM many many months ago not now.

[RogerM]

The percieved advantage of new = better.

To my mind new = untried / unknown.

I've stuck with the same manufacturer for just about my whole time racing RC (1st Kyosho in 1987!) and have only moved around when they decided to concentrate their efforts away from 1/10th off road. For me it is knowing how the cars are likely to behave and that they will be quality items.

In the "dark days" I pretty much ran just 1 4wd (Predator) but changed the 2wd a few times as nothing really suited me until I found the B3 but I alwasys changed in the off season so I had chance to get to know the car before selling the other one.

I guess that puts me at the extreme other end of the spectrum to those you mention but I can name quite a few guys who have run 10+ years with the same manufactures in my region so it's not that uncommon.

I guess the simple answer is buy Kyosho and don't worry about the rest

[G-46]

Me coming from TC I don’t understand why you would keep jumping ship, you will find that most TC drivers are very dedicated to a team and will only change chassis when that team makes a new one.

Why is this?? (Well in my eys...)
You buy your car then you it the track testing learning as much as possible about it. Experiment with setup changes, tyres, sway bars, springs, shock oil and even shells make a big difference with TC. You could spend a complete session learning your car, which you find the same in any motor sport look at Mr Rossi in the Moto GP new bike, practice year then year 2 goes on to win the championship.

Then you also have to look at the top drives now
Olly Jefferies:
Started off with a Tamiya but soon got his hands on a Team Associated TC3 and now look at what this guy is doing.

Simon Moss (maybe wrong with this one)
I think Simon has been with Schumacher for most of his racing career, and again a top driver

So ask yourself this.. if you keep changing your car are you going to learn how to set it up and learn how to drive it??? I don’t think so.

[Apricot Slice]

If 1/10th offroaders are more afflicted by new flavours I think it may have something to do with the differences in designs.
Most competitive touring cars look pretty much alike but off road models are very different and i think that really puts the seasoning on the latest flavour.