WhAtIsMoUsE

when i got into this sport, i had a choice of high maintenance electric, with short run times, or high maintenance nitros with long to indefinite runtimes. the choice was somewhat clear to do nitro, especially since the electic racing scene was slim. within a year though, i was in over my head, with trips to the hobby shop once a week and my 1/8 guzzling away all my cash. the most fun i had was while racing, and i only made it to 2-3 races, only one of which i got to the main in good shape. this was because i chose to buy a used buggy then sold for a cheap buggy, so i could SAVE money. my my knowledge now, i know it would have been cheaper to spend as much as double upfront.

i feel this is wrong. our sport is small because it is nearly impossible to get into it and stay in it. the price is high, and the maintenance is high, and the learning curve is measured in years.

we have made once huge advancement already, and that is with RTR's. that cuts down on a good 10 hours of learning and building that a huge majority of beginners are absolutely not willing to do. so why can we not take advantage of the next advancement to RC: brushless.

we now have other technologies that make it easier to get into the sport, low cost and low maintenance. i am encouraging the addition of a brushless class for the sake of beginners. this class could be as or more popular than the nitros because they are perfectly capable of going fast, and have much longer runtimes. the maintenance is also much lower. if i could do it over again assuming that there was a 1/10 open class, the choice would have been even clear then mine was to go electric. no longer do i need a starting box, starter batteries, glow plugs, igniters, igniter batteries, fuel, fuel bottles, fuel lines, fuel filters, and temp guages. no longer will i have to deal with engine tuning, cleaning, stalling, or flooding. no, i dont need to read countless hours of text on how to properly break in my engine or keep it optimally tuned. no, i dont need to worry about buying a cheaper motor incase i blow it because i am inexperienced. i dont need to keep a vast inventory of clutch parts, bearings, engine oils.

so why is there any hesitation at all to make a brushless class at any level? i encourage a 1/10, and if possible, a 1/18. a much lower inventory of parts is required, the cost is lower, and motor maintenance is minimal.

10-15 years down the road, fuel cells might be a viable option. this will do even more wonders for our sport. the performance benefits will be vast; the speeds of lipo, but also the longer to indefinite runtime of nitros with removable/replaceable cartridges. but even more important, chargers will no longer be necessary. the dangers will go down as well, no more blown up batteries and worried mothers. your rtr, is now trully a rtr. a raceable 1/10 truck might be $200, and go the speeds of a 1/10 nitro truck, but with the maintenance of a stapler.

until we can encourage begginners to buy into a cheaper and lower maintenance class, we can never grow this sport. when i go to the track, id like to see a bunch of kids racing, but unfortunately i dont. rc is still much more a hobby, then a sport, a hobby for the big boys.

now i want you to look at this link: http://www.teamassociated.com/questi..._brushless.htm . quit clearly the reccomendation is this : "Just ask them if they want to race or bash. Race=Brushed motor Bash=Brushless" NO! why must it be this way. bashers have already jumped on the opportunity to experience better performance and lower maintenance, but racers are held back by rules and restrictions?! why?! the longer we restrict brushless by not having official classes, the more we hurt our sport. we are litterally shutting the door of RC into the face of potential newcomers.

i feel that as soon as brushless is legalized, we can make headway in this sport. maybe we can have brushless RTR's? that would be step 2 of the 3 step process to mainstream, with step 3 being the fuel cells. think how much smoother your entrance into the sport would have been with a brushless rtr 1/10 truck for $250 or so, and a few classes at your local track ready for you?

so, the message of this post is to encourage track owners to start a brushless class. to do this, you may have to encourage some of your regulars to race multiple classes or to switch classes to start it up. but for the most part, i cant imagine it would be a hard task. many are willing to race brushless, many might already own a brushless motor to bash with, but havent found their outlet to race with legally. if many tracks start brushless classes, official racing sanctions will have a much harder time stalling the introduction of a brushless class. but why are they doing this? why should they wait for us? pro racers all have the money to switch to brushless at a moments notice, and their sway in the market is so great, they could have been pushing brushless along years ago!

but this is also a questioning post, when its so brutally obvious that brushless is the future of electric, why have we not taken full advantage of this new technology to bring RC to the mainstream? no seriously, i dont get it. why is ROAR and other official sanctions not pushing along our sport to greater levels? why should they have to react to us, instead of using their market sway to push forward a great new technology?

Doahh

I totally agree... our local track once the off road mini track is put in there is already a brushless class... hence I got the mamba system for my 18T

Gigaah

I'd like to see an unlimited class race where anything goes. Brushless, lithium, multi speed tansmissions, anything. This allows people to try new things and do creative modifications. I've seen anything goes top speed races, why not just anything goes races.
There are quite a few inovative things you can do with an RC car that could dramaticly increase speed and handling that never take place because ROAR does not often allow new technologies to create new classes.

MuffinMan06

I agree that sometimes the maintenance and price of this hobby is high (definitely on the prices... Im on a tight budget lol). But some of the fun parts of this hobby will be lost if there will be no maintenance (with the exception of the motor heheh) because half of the fun is building your own car, putting the stuff in, and watching it run. Then it you are truely dedicated then you will spend some quality time with your car and maintain it lol And I hope that the price of BL motors goes down... soon! Or get an Orion revolution V2 with a lot less maintenance (still brushed tho)

rcxboy

If brushless maybe cost $100US for a SS Stock, it'd be better. And also a all-goes class would be quite money-owned, i'd think.

Roscco

Do Losi not do a brushless RTR ??? Sure i've seen that somwhere.

Overall i can see the point your trying to make, but i'm not so sure brushless is the answer to get people into the hobby. I started with a tamiya electric kit, the day i finished it i sold it to a friend and i went to Nitro and never looked back.

Now looking towards brushless setups, to get the best from them you need expensive (lipo) batteries (yes they work without, but why spend on a brushless setup if your not going to make the most od it ?), that require expensive chargers with specific requirements to monitor voltage. The performance that this can bring can scare somebody not used to seeing RC vehicals at upwards of 30mph. Very exciting yes, but can be off puting in the same regard.

Nitro isn't ideal for everyone. Myself, i love it and have never had a problem so i don't understand why you feel newcomers should start electric. Yes there is a plug and play element, but this is true for nitro also. Anybody new to the hobby should take their time to read up on what their getting into, and in this respect anyone with half a brain can enjoy RC. Nitro is no more complex than Electric, although perhaps hands on it can be more time consuming.

As i said above i can see the point your trying to make, but i'd dis-agree and say there is no real advantage (perhaps even a dis-advantage as less to learn) with starting out with electric models, but if you HAVE to, i say start with brushed.