The future of 1/10th

[thorns_nz]

Just new to the racing side of RC and was wondering where the future of 1/10th buggy racing is? Is 4wd going to eventually replace 2wd racing?

Being from NZ where the RC scene is quite small, and have mixed classes for 2wd and 4wd most of teh time, so was just interested in teh bigger picture as to wether there are any trends favouring one over the other. Most manufacturers seem to have 4wd these days, but I have noticed that a few are looking to move back into 2wd as well (new tamiya buggy for example).

Is it a case of the two will always co exist or will we see a move to one class or the other?

Any thoughts?

[David Church]

I think both classes are very strong at the moment in Euorpe.
The 1/10 off road is the most subscribed class in all of Euorpe.
The UK National scene has seen a 10% rise over last year and the Europena Championship has has the most people want to enter I have ever seen with 180+ wanting to take place.
My region in the UK, the South East has seen it's best numbers in years with 40+ being a low attanded meeting and 70+ about the top.
1/10th off road is becoming more popular also because it is a very fair formula, you don't need the best of anything, there are many competitive manyfactures and equipment.
I see both classes being around for a long time

[Mr. Red]

I totally agree! Up here in Sweden the scene has improved significantly over the last few years. More and more people join every week. Just the other day I went out to our new track we are building and I meet several new people I have never seen before in my own hometown and they were there to race. Sweet

[Chesty]

Maybe it's just here in the east of england where it seems to be dying

Seven (of which four completed the meeting) at the last EoE regional in 2009, meaning that there's no series for 2010...

RC racing in general will never be as popular as it was back in the early nineties (120 entries at each regional) for a number of reasons, but here's hoping we've hit rock bottom in this area. The only way is up

[Hog]

Originally Posted by Chesty

RC racing in general will never be as popular as it was back in the early nineties

I beg to differ - as Dave Church and Mark Headling have stated here, we're going from strength to strength here in the South East. Not only drivers making the transition from TC to Off Road, but plenty of newcomers to the sport as well.

Perhaps the EoE needs to look at why it's getting so few drivers?

[sparrow.2]

Over in Germany we have had a large injection of new people come over to offroad from touring cars since the cars got so fast a lot of people had trouble keeping up with their kit.
Over the winter we held the Longfield Sixdays and were totally overwhelmed by the interest it generated. Entries went up from 35-40 people per race in 2008/2009 to a regular 100 entries per race in 2009/2010. A nice touch is that we had a good 20 or so newcomers per race as well who have stayed on as we went outside.

Offroad does seem to be clawing it's way back out of the slump caused by touring cars in the 90's bigtime now. The cars are at their best ever and the choice of cars is incredible with all cars being more or less on the same level of performance making it easy to choose.

Now all we need to do is figure out a race format to mix things up a little now that we can run 15 minutes + with lipo. Bump-ups would be really cool

[nicefrog]

I think within 5 years the 10th electric scene will be every bit as strong and competitive as it was in the early 90's. Still along way to go yet but that's my prediction. I believe nitro which killed the 10th scale and with it most small clubs will be as dead as it was in the early 90's and the universe will be restored to it's correct order

[MHeadling]

Yes 10th electric is going from strength to strength, at our local club (Faversham Off Road Club ) we are getting 60-70 drivers on a Wednesday night!
Alot of people are coming over from TC due to costs and seem to be having a great time at off road. I see far less tantrums at an Off road meeting than at TC, the whole scene seems a bit more laid back and just as competative

On a side note I believe Oople has had major input to making the class it is, the great reviews, forum, race reports are superb, long may it continue!

Well done Oople!