Off road or not?

[K-Brewer]

Off road buggies, do we do them justice by running indoors or should we set them free by running outdoors when we have the chance? Opinions would be great guys

[cunawarit]

In many ways I find indoors more fun, specially as there's way less to clean after racing.

[K-Brewer]

Yeah I see the cleaning part but using a off road buggy indoors pains me as love the bumps an jumps of an off road circuit an cleaning is all part of the daily grime

[Danny Harrison]

Originally Posted by Zippy Wizz Kidd

Yeah I see the cleaning part but using a off road buggy indoors pains me as love the bumps an jumps of an off road circuit an cleaning is all part of the daily grime

Id say you need to visit some better indoor tracks if your not getting bumps and jumps. York is excellent for this with awesome rythem section, awkward bumps on corners and entering jumps etc. Makes the tracks there really challenging too. Batley indoors is also real good for this, but maybe a bit far away.

Outdoors is ace too though, but I love them both.

[Robby]

Since when does mandatory excessive cleaning & maintenance equate to off-road?

At that rate > Is it actually racing if we're doing it with toy cars instead of real cars?

[Origineelreclamebord]

For me, if the grip becomes extremely high, it feels more like onroad with jumps than offroad - this is usually only the case indoors on carpet (like the EOS).

I really prefer outdoors - most indoor tracks seem to be ill prepared to keep your car intact in a bad crash (A concrete floor that is left exposed, walls at the end of a straight that don't have any damping structure on there to prevent broken shocktowers, sharp edges, hard barriers and awkward places to get your car stuck or break your car on, etc) - the lighting isn't good enough for the best action pictures, and there are a couple other reasons why to me outdoors is superior - even when that means you'll have to completely rebuild your car because the clay is stuck everywhere!

I think I also feel most at home on dirt/clay and wet astroturf My car, setup and me as a driver just seem to work better as the surface requires some sliding!

That said, it's all good fun, and indoor tracks are the bomb when the season is not suitable to run outdoors But when it's above 10 degrees and the track is not covered with leafs, snow or a flash flood, I will pick to drive outside any day!

(This leaves me to conclude it might be cool to have a retractable (stadium) roof over a track)

[johnnygibbon]

Outside hands down
We race off road
Like motocross or rally
It's dirty but miles better fun
And more manly than or carpet Tarmac racing hahahahaha

[AfroP]

the problem with outdoor racing is the great british weather, and additional running costs.
Running indoors the weather doesnt matter and and in most cases there is always an electrical point to charge from. so no need for heavy, expensive car/leisure batteries or gennies.
running indoors also allows the option of running a different track every week due to different setup etc
so should help with driving skills overall and keep things interesting

[grovenik]

I enjoy off road outdoor racing most but with the British weather that we seem to have got recently then indoors is a good option.
Yes it's not what buggies were designed for but even if indoors is only used for practice we are still getting out there and racing, enjoying what we do.

[Jamesk]

I have always enjoyed out door racing, not a great lover of Astro but grass is huge fun and in my mind the most natural place for buggies. As others have said the british weather can be a problem, but some of my best/most enjoyabale racing outings have been in poor rainy conditions.

Carpet for me is for winter months.

Like most things in life its all down to choice.

jK

[MrMagoo]

To be honest (and no offence to indoor clubs is intended by this at all), I tend to view indoors as a neccessary evil if you live in the UK. We're not blessed with amazing weather like California, and we don't have huge tracts of unused land either, so that means that for a lot of the year if you want to be guaranteed race action it's got to be indoors. Ultimatelly this country also doesn't have a big enough family of racers to justify the kind of indoor 'dirt nirvanas' that you see in the US - now that's offroad racing indoors! What we do in the UK on carpet, I'm not so sure it's really off road, but we do it pretty well.

As for outdoor racing - again I can see why astro is so big in the UK. I've helped out at dirt tracks (I come from 1/8th) and it's a lot of hard work and money to maintain a dirt track; you're also even more vulnerable to the elements. Astro outdoors is at least runable as long as it's not stupidly wet, it's also a lot lower maintanence. The downside? Crazy amounts of grip, which to me limits how 'off road' it really is.

Again, as long as it's racing, my buddies are there and we're having fun, it's all good. I just may spend some of the day dreaming about a nice, big, well groomed, clay track. One day when my numbers come up...

[cunawarit]

Originally Posted by johnnygibbon

more manly than or carpet Tarmac racing hahahahaha

Manly? Off road or not I don't think the general public not involved in RC racing thinks that getting up on a podium on a Friday or Saturday night with a little "controller" to drive a little "toy" car is all that manly

[Origineelreclamebord]

Well if we'd ask the general public, they may say that playing in the dirt is gross. They may also claim gross is not for girly... And finally, they might say that playing is not for grown-ups.

So, that makes us a group of immature gross boys I'll confirm the stereotype at my next race on clay: I'll come home with grease smeared over my hands, the face of a mineworker and clothing like I've been swimming in mud Hail the mighty clay outdoor track!

[jsw123]

Having only started in this hobby a few months ago I'm hardly qualified to comment, but I'm going to anyway! It's all about the outdoor for me, if we had nicer weather I doubt we'd even have indoor clubs? I love the uneven unpredictability of outdoor off road, I can't imagine enjoying indoor.

[Robby]

Originally Posted by jsw123

Having only started in this hobby a few months ago I'm hardly qualified to comment, but I'm going to anyway! It's all about the outdoor for me, if we had nicer weather I doubt we'd even have indoor clubs? I love the uneven unpredictability of outdoor off road, I can't imagine enjoying indoor.

And that's where it might have been wise not to comment - because if you'd had 2 years or so of experience to base such a comment, you wouldn't have even bothered because you could have counted your dirt races on one hand.


And that's where it might have been wise not to comment - because if you'd had 2 years or so of experience to base such a comment, you wouldn't have even bothered because you could have counted your dirt races on one hand.


Otherwise, it's like saying that you prefer the tall super-model type of birds -
- despite being well under 2 meters tall, and weighing in at 130kg.

Ain't gonna work for ya, mate.

[Lee24h]

All i can say is ild love a proper dirt track near northampton and to race on dirt i wouldnt mind having to clean my as it wouldnt be as bad as the fine astro fibres that start getting past the shock seals from indoors.

[K-Brewer]

Originally Posted by Robby

And that's where it might have been wise not to comment - because if you'd had 2 years or so of experience to base such a comment, you wouldn't have even bothered because you could have counted your dirt races on one hand.


And that's where it might have been wise not to comment - because if you'd had 2 years or so of experience to base such a comment, you wouldn't have even bothered because you could have counted your dirt races on one hand.


Otherwise, it's like saying that you prefer the tall super-model type of birds -
- despite being well under 2 meters tall, and weighing in at 130kg.

Ain't gonna work for ya, mate.

It doesn't matter what experience u have the question was really what do u prefer an everyone is welcome to comment even if u have only raced for a day

[Robby]

Originally Posted by Zippy Wizz Kidd

It doesn't matter what experience u have the question was really what do u prefer an everyone is welcome to comment even if u have only raced for a day

Didn't he say he was "hardly qualified to comment" ???

[K-Brewer]

Originally Posted by Robby

Didn't he say he was "hardly qualified to comment" ???

He thought he wasn't an I'm saying he is

[jsw123]

Originally Posted by Robby

And that's where it might have been wise not to comment - because if you'd had 2 years or so of experience to base such a comment, you wouldn't have even bothered because you could have counted your dirt races on one hand.


And that's where it might have been wise not to comment - because if you'd had 2 years or so of experience to base such a comment, you wouldn't have even bothered because you could have counted your dirt races on one hand.


Otherwise, it's like saying that you prefer the tall super-model type of birds -
- despite being well under 2 meters tall, and weighing in at 130kg.

Ain't gonna work for ya, mate.

I should have said 'Astro Turf' I wouldn't even try a dirt track, far too much cleaning.