Where does LOSI go now?

[terry.sc]

Originally Posted by dave g

i think what you have to look at now,is who is left at horizon/losi to design and carry the next buggy on,or indeed carry on the evolvment of the current crop of cars,as i said previous,the big money is in rtr kits,they dont have to be factory spec or the latest all singing/dancing performance car as its mainly beginners who are buyin them..so they can quite happily keep knocking the losi8 rtr buggy out for the next 10 yrs or so..but what happens to the hardcore racer who wants the next racing spec machine?

Jukka Steenari is AFAIK still their lead designer, he seems to know a thing or two about 1/10th electric. Just because Gil has left doesn't mean the company is finished, Associated seems to be managing quite well on the racing scene without Roger Curtis and Gene Husting.

So they aren't sending a team over to Japan at great expense to be beat by the might of Associated again or by the Japanese companies seriously looking for a home win. I suspect it is more to do with where the worlds are rather than what they are, if the worlds were in USA or Europe I'm sure we would see a Losi team there.

Electric off road is a small segment of the market and I suspect what is most likely to make Losi stop making buggies are all those racers who are now going to sell all their Losi cars just because Losi didn't send a team to the Worlds. Missing one race meeting doesn't make the cars uncompetitive, I'm sure all those that sell up will be regretting that decision if Losi wins the next big race meeting.
If racers stop buying their cars they will pull out of electric off road, why still make buggies if it is unprofitable when it is cheaper to develop and more profitable to sell bashers.