The future of 2wd offroad - Your opinons..

[PaulRotheram]

This is an open debate to see what users opinions of 2wds offroads future will have and the implications that will or may have.
Recently we have seen schumacher have various forms of an inboard motor 2wd, which as pictures from silverstone show, could be near a production model.

Xray have just announced they are releasing their XB4 2WD, which the same as the schumacher is a 2wd front end bolted on to their current 4wd rear end.

And the DB1 from rudebits plus the TM2 both giving good showings already.

So with new models on the horizon, what is your opinion on 2wds future?

The way I currently see it, from an early perspective - the possibility of needing three different 2wds is quite high.
The current mid motor for low to high grip
A rear motor for dirt / clay tracks and very low grip conditions
And the new inboard motor for very high grip conditions.

The 4wd class is less populated than 2wd, as current preferences are swayed to running 2wd as most competitive drivers will run that class.
Will the prospect of possibly needing two or three 2wds models sway people away from 4wd even more?

Will the possible need of two, or even three 2wd models be a reality for 2014?

[mintzant]

It's a big question...
I think that all discussion it's going to be around the position of motor.
My opinion it's that the future in 2wd and 4wd it's the new material and new generation battery...
We can see the old but always new associated b4!!!!
So many years but finaly the same car.
The differences ... New tires, new big bore shocks, new lexan, new..., new... But same chassis and same motor position...
Something difference we can see from new schumacher 2wd, this one in word champion with the belt drive...

[450kid]

If everyone is going 2wd why not run separate classes mid and rear motor?

[adey]

Maybe we will see 2wd buggys with a optional chassis layout. We already have cars that can be built in rear or mid motor. Maybe as an addition to that we will see cars that can be built in rear, mid or mid forward motor by design. I do think that shorty lipos will be the basis for cars layouts in the future though.

[Origineelreclamebord]

The future of 2WD... It depends a lot on what the tracks are like I suppose. It seems smooth/flat, big, demanding jumps (a lot of them too) and high grip are the trend, and as such we see more cars that are well adapted to that. Particularly big venues are being maintained meticulously, and since the high level drivers don't visit small venues as often it's no wonder more and more brands develop a car suited to those high grip conditions.

As long as the trend continues of making buggy racing touring car driving with jumps, we'll see more of these cars about I can even imagine we'll start seeing new geometry for the cars and more emphasis on aerodynamics (which includes shocks and suspension, not just the bodyshell).

Just my opinion about buggy racing in general, I'd rather see the development the other way around. The lower speeds of driving on low-medium bite with easy jumps give a lot of benefits:

- It's safer for marshals.
- It's cheaper because your car breaks down less easily.
- The gaps between cars will be smaller (in distance), making it more thrilling to watch.
- Overtaking is easier because you have less distance to gain to your opponent to overtake.
- You're fighting each other instead of grip roll and the right flow through a jump section.
- (Close) racing becomes easier for lower level drivers because you don't need ninja reflexes - plus I think losing the rear end won't cost as much time as grip rolling.
- Contact between cars results in less drama.

That said, the most important thing for will remain to be the fun factor and atmosphere at the trackside, and that's highly enjoyable with the buggy crowd!

[dicky14]

MMMMM, this is going to be an interesting thread, i own all 3 motor layout and personally my mid motor car is the most consistant out of the 3, but the mid inboard (tm2) gives a much better feel and can be driven harder, resulting in faster laps, not necesarraly cleaner laps because of the corner speed, but my driving is addapting to the car and the consistency is getting there.
As for 3 classes of 2wd, yeh bring it on, because us older guys that used to race rear motor will probably all race that class because of the nostalgia aspect, lol

[dicky14]

just another thought, maybe there should be a 13.5 class for buggies on blinky, maybe that would liven things up with close racing etc

[DEXtrain]

Amen to the jump thing! It has gotten out of proportion totally - imagine someone just starting in competition seeing the last Worlds Videos....
The first thing they are thinking is hell i couldnt even get around the track , cleanly let alone be competitive with moderate ammounts of money and no big sponsors....

Watch 2005 worlds videos and then see 2013 worlds vids...
For Gods shake come to your senses... More broken parts means more spare parts bought i short term but in the end why bother when even if you dont crash hard everything gets sloppy and worn out so fast?
When even Tebo cant make clean runs with a car that is slightly off , forget it for the rest...

As for the 3 car thing and the motor far forward 2wds...tyres - lots of them for anything than pure astro tracks...and lets see who can keep up spending ...

I then wonder why 1989 worlds videos with only 1 jump still had exciting racing and very few broken cars...

What's the point of a 1/10th scale car jumping 2-3 meters in the air anyway? Does it correspond to anything real?

Originally Posted by Origineelreclamebord

The future of 2WD... It depends a lot on what the tracks are like I suppose. It seems smooth/flat, big, demanding jumps (a lot of them too) and high grip are the trend, and as such we see more cars that are well adapted to that. Particularly big venues are being maintained meticulously, and since the high level drivers don't visit small venues as often it's no wonder more and more brands develop a car suited to those high grip conditions.

As long as the trend continues of making buggy racing touring car driving with jumps, we'll see more of these cars about I can even imagine we'll start seeing new geometry for the cars and more emphasis on aerodynamics (which includes shocks and suspension, not just the bodyshell).

Just my opinion about buggy racing in general, I'd rather see the development the other way around. The lower speeds of driving on low-medium bite with easy jumps give a lot of benefits:

- It's safer for marshals.
- It's cheaper because your car breaks down less easily.
- The gaps between cars will be smaller (in distance), making it more thrilling to watch.
- Overtaking is easier because you have less distance to gain to your opponent to overtake.
- You're fighting each other instead of grip roll and the right flow through a jump section.
- (Close) racing becomes easier for lower level drivers because you don't need ninja reflexes - plus I think losing the rear end won't cost as much time as grip rolling.
- Contact between cars results in less drama.

That said, the most important thing for will remain to be the fun factor and atmosphere at the trackside, and that's highly enjoyable with the buggy crowd!

[Tom3012]

Hard to tell, and lots if valid points!

I personally have way too many cars! Granted i dont run them all just hate selling most of them! We spend so much and never see any of it back

Currently ive got 3 2wd cars set up and ready to go, TM2, TC02C and a TC02... I do change cars from time to time depending on the track conditions, but i didnt go out and buy them all at once, i had one, a new model came out, bought that then the latest (TM2) came out so i got that...

My three cars all use the same wheels/tires so im not buying tires for each, just a set if wets, and a set of dry, replace when worn out...

It all comes down to the individual at the end of the day, i do quite like the idea of a restricted class though, we used to do dirt spec, 19 turn motors, the racing was soo close! Brilliant fun! But again, its down to cost, motors were £30 then