I went from racing real Formula Race cars last year to this because of some broken ribs. When I hear someone say $100 for a set of expensive bearings, I laugh. I’m use to spending $15,000 a weekend just in tires.
Used to race semi pro back in the day. It got so expensive that racing real cars was less expensive and more fun. Now RC is almost dead due to the expense and cheaper SIM racing.
As a stock class racer (17.5 street stock) you hit the nail on the head here. We can't make it through a night of racing without somebody mentioning that they cant afford to keep up. While i sympathize, i also know that this is how stock classes usually are. On one hand, i hate how much money ive put into mine, but on the other, its kind of amazing what we can make them do. Its been a journey of buying one part after another and testing to find that extra little edge. It also feels good to whoop on 6.3s and 6.4s with my little old b5m, though that could happen in any class. If youre a new guy in a stock class, dont give up or get frustrated if someone has a $$$$$ car and they beat you. Just take your time, learn your car, and upgrade as you go. Sooner than later, you will catch up😎
Honestly, the fact that it's such a common complaint should point out that it's legitimately a problem. Though I think the issue with not being able to afford to keep up is a symptom of a bigger problem, particularly the fact that these higher-traction smooth surfaces have created a demand for more specialized kits and eliminated many of the tradeoffs that used to provide close racing. Back when dirt was still the common surface for 1/10th scale classes, the limited and inconsistent traction and rough surface ultimately made car control the most important factor, and trying to push every envelope and squeeze out every last bit of performance out of your car was generally what you did only when you could consistently turn clean and FAST laps like the pro drivers could. At a club level, it was anyone's game assuming a close skill spread. Races were won and lost on the track. Similarly, the cars had to be designed to handle unideal conditions. Bump handling still mattered. Having massive amounts of steering wasn't always a good thing, especially in the 2WD classes where if you overcorrected in a slide you'd spin out. The lower grip conditions made running really powerful setups risky. And this was reflected in the kits, which appealed to everyone in the hobby, not just the hardcore racers, because the way they were designed they could handle a wide variety of different off-road surfaces. Equipment costs were a lot higher back then because if you were serious about racing you needed to run hand-picked dyno-tested motors and hand-picked voltage-matched cells to compete at the higher levels, but kits stayed relatively cheap, and didn't need that many upgrades to be made competitive. When 1/10th scale moved to indoor clay and _especially_ carpet, it changed a lot and not necessarily for the better. The smooth surface and high traction enabled cars to be specialized for those surfaces. Where before manufacturers had to take into account blown-out 1/8th scale tracks and loamy farm dirt circuits built in repurposed pastures as well as hard-packed clay-mix tracks and blue groove, now they could solely focus on designing their cars to run on what were almost on-road conditions. CGs were lowered and suspensions stiffened without care for how they made the car worse at handling bumps, and steering was increased because you didn't have to worry as much about overcorrecting and spinning out. Drivers started running more power (enabled by but not the fault of the introduction of brushless motor tech) in mod classes, and when they couldn't in stock class they instead looked to doing whatever they could to reduce rolling resistance. Motor manufacturers started looking into boosting performance without changing the motor's turns as well, and you ended up with $200+ stock-class legal motors that could be fully configured and optimized to the driver's needs and wants. And running the latest and greatest setup was now the status quo, rather than tuning to the track and conditions as needed. Races were now won and lost in the pits and at the store counter. Long story short, "just take your time, learn your car, and upgrade as you go" _used_ to be "just take your time, learn your car, and practice".
@@MX-CO Yes on dirt, maybe on sealed clay, probably not on carpet but it could still be good for getting your foot in the door. As for motor and speed controller, honestly a Hobbywing 17.5T Stock combo will be sufficient if you're wanting to run stock, but I'd actually recommend going for a mild modified setup with a 9.5T motor if your local track has a modified class, as the additional power evens the playing field a bit by making driveline hop-ups less relevant. If your local track _only_ runs stock, however, that's a red flag, as a track that only runs a stock class is likely catering to wallet dumpers.
@VestedUTuber Thanks I think they have multiple 17.5 classes, blinky, another and modified. I haven't raced yet but the track looks great, it's hard clay. It's called Whip it raceway in Reno Nevada. There are UA-cam videos from there
I haven't bought three things yet just because I'm struggling with what to choose. That's a speed controller A motor and a battery. I bought the car, a radio and reciever and a charger. I'm most struggling with speed controllers because it seems like a juststock GS3 will be sufficient but I'm wondering why people are running the hobbywing pro elite that's $120 more? Is it just money to burn or is there a real advantage? Thanks
Great topic. Racing needs to be saved from racers. If allowed, racing will always become more and more expensive until the field shrinks to a tiny number of racers. And racers like it this way, because racers want to win; less racers = more chance to win. Almost every form of auto racing began with people racing the vehicles they used every day, before racers, wanting an advantage over others, turned them into specialized devices only good for racing. RC started out with every vehicle being a basher (albeit fragile bashers.) People brought their everyday RC car out to the track, and had fun running it, as is. Now, buggy racing is done with single-purpose cars that are absurdly expensive. One-run tires? Awesome! The sanctions need to set hard rules that lower costs. Racers will complain, because racers are never happy with restrictions, but ultimately, a more inviting race scene will attract more new racers than those who leave. This will take leadership with guts, and unfortunately, it's the leaders in RC who have been in charge as costs rise, tracks close, and participation dwindles. You can't let racers run racing.
As someone who races 1:8 nitro down to 1:10 carpet, more rules just stifles innovation. And the people complaining about price of upgrades would probably see better race results from crashing less more than a few ounces saved from overpriced screws or lightweight gears. This hobby is still exponentially cheaper than 1:1 racing
Actually man if you scale up the cost for tires for RC cars like for example carpet road course and oval and off road and dirt oval the cost of the tires for a RC 1/10 scale racecar costs 3x more then racing slicks do of your racing asphalt circle track 1:1 cars. So actually if you scale up RC racing your paying just as much as you would with a real 1:1 racecar if you scaled up RC to 1:1 including the price of tires fuel and parts. There is no such thing as cheap racing except for one RC racing class and that is the rj speed legend cars on carpet oval and road course cause it's ran as a break out class. And with break out racing it doesn't matter if you have a super fast brushless motor with timing and all that fancy stuff on 2s or running a 2s lipo with a brushed 20 turn motor cause you can't go faster then the break out time and if you do that lap doesn't count, that is the only form of RC racing that is affordable compared to other RC racing classes. You can have you a nice rj speed legend car ready to race for 300 dollars that's including a cheap radio and rx.
All us RC content creators do reviews, bash, maybe a bit of racing. But generally speaking it's largely review oriented stuff with a bit of goofing off, which is great and fun. BUT, this channel does something special that no other channels do by providing the most in depth content on RC history (my personal favorite), and advice on racing along with depth full descriptions on what racing is really like, beyond racing with friends on a made up track ( a total blast BTW), but this guy gives you a fully envisioned experience through excellent writing, and pure knowledge from real world experienc in racing. Sorry to blab on here, I'm just a big fan of this channel and have been for a while. This channel is well worth watching. I used to think I was good at racing until I raced a real racing driver, I got lapped while driving the faster car and I didn't even crash!
I appreciate the kind words man. Yeah I thought I was good at racing until I went to my first Master's of Dirt, and my first nationals. All is the process of being humbled
I will say this, anyone who said that stock was a budget-friendly class in the old days was lying, back then you could spend a good grand or so to get a car ready. But there was still a significant difference and that was what you were spending your money on. In the old days, it was various tires for different surfaces and conditions, hand-wound dyno-rated motors that you sometimes had to buy three or four of before you found a good one, and hand-picked voltage matched batteries. The kits themselves were, apart from a few exotic exceptions _coughtrfcough,_ pretty cheap, and it helped that they often had RTR versions to spread out the tooling costs. The result was that you could stretch the costs out over time, since you didn't need them to race at a club level unless your club was home to a sponsored team. Now, a lot of your money goes into your kit, into aftermarket bearings, and into various hop-ups to reduce rolling resistance and improve adjustability, all of which you need right off the bat.
I have always felt that "Stock" needs to he broken up. A single moniker for "Stock" just doesnt fit the diversity of build completeness under the name. I would love to see a ProStock, or SuperStock category for the Pros/Paid/High Level Sponsored driver. Make it extra spicey by lowering the minimum weight to something like 1400g, encouraging some creative engineering to get the weights down, and make the cars a little less reliable and brittle for added drama. Maybe even implement a triple A Main for the category under ROAR rules for more added drama. Then have the Amateur and Independent Stock classes be "Box Stock", as is, kit components only. And raise the minimum weight to say 1600g, require fixed timing 17.5 or 21.5 motors, and with that motor and weight package, it will encourage the use of bigger batteries, and with that can come longer 10 minute mains for the class, giving the drivers time to sort out their driving, and build consistency. Forcing "Box Stock", could also potentially encourage manufacturers to produce "homologation specials", where they are making lightweight kits, with titanium, carbon, or aluminum hop ups, with alot of the basic go fast bits in the box. ROAR could even regulate that class to make sure the level of hop-ups in the box doesnt get out of control. Where you are selling SuperStock cars for BoxStock. Just to make the entry price reasonable and the competition fair. There are a lot of things that could be done. But leaving "Stock" as it is, should not be one of them. The extremes are too far apart to be in the same classification now.
for a "box stock" (21.5 for the sake of speed) i would saythat it need as little option parts as posible and no titanium as that would just make the kit pricey remember "box stock 21" would be cheap and accessible to the masses that is on a budget and non hard core racers with sponsors and deep pockets..
Great insight and thanks for another great video. I’m old school to an extent as I believe on doing the minor adjustments out of the box and tweaking during the trials, just driving hard enough to get an A main. Now most of what I use is cheap compared to the sponsored drivers, in fact my RTR’s do pretty darn good against some of the more expensive units and they are easier to purchase upgrades for, if needed, as the cars are cheaper up front.
In all seriousness though, people spend more than they need to. Stock racing can provide a new driver an underpowered vehicle that forces them to develop good habits (because power isn't there to save them if they take a bad line) and keeps you from breaking too much stuff due to an overpowerd car, less crashes and less velocity is good for a new driver. I don't think guys in the f-mains necessarily need to copy what guys like Kyle and Mason are doing at all. I didn't do any lightweight mods to my stock class 2wd buggy, other than swapping the literal chassis weights for carbon fiber ones.... But I only did that because I was converting a carpet car to dirt, meaning I was going to need lighter weights to just get to the dirt kit setup anyways. But I was literally in the F main with that car at Masters. Practice will make me faster, not money. On my stock 13.5 wheeler, I started to go down that path a bit. Plastic front and rear diff gears, lightweight factory team center drive line, carbon arms and gearboxes. It was only about $200 to do, and the car feels like it has more pep, but my lap times didn't noticeably improve doing any of it. I was in the G-main at Masters with that car. If my skills improve to the point where I can get into the b-mains at national events, or was getting podiums but not wins at local trophy races (might as well be national events with the speed up here) then all the hopups would probably be something I looked into, or switching to open/mod. And the cost can still be super low, a hobbywing justock for that use case is super cheap and will totally get the job done in the lower mains. All in all, I think people should largely base their "stock vs mod" choice on what is most popular locally if they were to only do one.
"converting a carpet kit to dirt" That's probably why you don't have issues. Surface traction and smoothness makes a huge difference, dirt tends to even things out more.
@@mouseFPV My point is that dirt, and the generally lower amount of traction it provides, makes car control matter a lot more and having an optimal setup matter somewhat less. A good driver can win with a Bandit or a DT03 on dirt, they'd be hard-pressed to do so on carpet. And a beginner isn't going to have nearly as much of an advantage running a modern-day fully kitted out racing buggy against entry-level cars. If you want proof, look at the classes that still run almost exclusively on dirt - 4WD SCT and the 1/8th scale classes. These cars have mostly stayed off-road friendly, as opposed to effectively becoming on-road cars that can take jumps. A box stock ARRMA TLR Tuned Typhon RTR recently won Sportsman E-Buggy JConcepts Beast of the East, and people have had a lot of success running the RTR versions of the Serpent SRX8-E and Kyosho Inferno MP10e. Not to mention the reason why RTRs of competitive racing platforms actually still exist in 1/8th scale is _because_ those competitive platforms are still usable in most non-racing environments as well, the cars appeal to both racers AND bashers. In 1/10th scale, apart from exactly two exceptions (Kyosho Lazer ZX5, Serpent SRX2), the competition platform RTR died when the Associated B5 came out. Every 1/10th scale RTR buggy since then, other than the above exceptions, has been either heavily modified from an older racing platform (Associated RB10, Yokomo RO-1) or a completely different design focused on bashing (Traxxas Bandit, ARRMA Raider, and whenever Tamiya makes a DT03 XB model). Even your dirt-focused conversion for a carpet car is going to be far more suited to clay and well-kept blue-groove tracks than anything rougher or looser.
Calling it stock shouldn’t mean upgrading it to the max! It should be for the inexperienced drivers to run lower Turn motors to gain confidence and improve their performance! Then it should progress to mod faster lighter etc… It sucks because in fact it’s the opposite.
"stock" *looks inside* is the RC of Theseus This channel is a gem, awesome content. And I'm not even part of RC right now (interested in getting back, eventually)
A very nice perspective video. In true American style the name is exactly opposite to the reality. World Series, Stock Racing ... etc, etc. Keep up the great work :)
Over here in Germany 2wd stock is 13,5t and 4wd 10,5t. In my area the most popular classes are stock, at many races there aren´t even enough people to run mod. Only few people are running their equipment right at the limit and not many put in the effort described in the video. To me it feels like the biggest edge in competitiveness at clubrace level are tires (carpet/astroturf). How often are you willing to put on a new set? But maybe that´s just my impression since I´m much more stingy on wear parts than tuning parts
The hard truth, deep down, is that a failure to be competitive lies not in the equipment being used, but in the user of the equipment. Preparation, strategy, attitude, wheel time, setup knowledge...the principal elements to upgrade. Podium spots are not bought, they are earned.
I'm looking to get started racing 2wd buggy but can't figure out where to begin. Clearly neither mod or stock are good for a beginner. I thought the purpose of stock was to be a bit more beginner oriented but apparently that isn't the case.
Very good video....my comment is not related to this video specifically. Every rc race I watch...unless they are professionals getting paid to race....everyone is crashing...hitting the jumps inconsistently...just overall sloppy looking driving....it makes you really question and wonder if any of the hop ups or upgrades that people use are worth it at all....I literally see no difference in driving or speed between any of the cars...the club race driving is so poor it seems as if a car out of the box or a heavily modified car really makes little to no difference if the driving skill can't justify the difference in parts....I havent seen any videos on youtube of club racing where there isn't a crash first turn...inconsistent drive lines all over the place...and tumbles every other jump....maybe it's just me...but it seem like upgrades are just for the placebo effect or cool factor at certain driving skills...does anyone else feel this way or am I just ignorant to the hobby..
I’d like to see stock change the rules to no cut gears, no plastic pinion, no cut gears, no ceramic bearings, no slipper eliminator, and 1600g minimum weight.
This winter I’m planning my first full season of off-road carpet. I have a lot of Oval and On-road, and limited experience with off-road 2wd buggy. The track I went to this summer, all they offered was 2wd Mod (track also runs 1:8 off road and the local guys don’t like how 17.5 runs on the track). So, I was kind of forced into Mod. It’s not bad, I just had to scramble to progressively put in faster motors, as I turned more laps and got a feel for it. I’m thinking, I might just stick with Mod for indoor. The field is smaller, and for all the reasons you point out, stock classes get very expensive as everyone is fighting for a slim edge. I’ve given up on stock classes for oval, for those reasons, and I’m working on getting out of stock classes for on-road. Am I crazy for jumping right into mod? I’ve put a 6.5 turn into my Losi (after a slow 17.5, then a nice 13.5) and I love the power it has. My thoughts are, I can focus more on driving and improving consistency, and learning more about tuning. Without the nagging feeling I need to buy the speed part of the week. Which is how stock oval and on-road feels. Crazy?
I always love to see one of your videos pop up because (apart from the music being brilliant) it gives me an incite into the modern racing world. Fantastically interesting to me but I've been out of the game so long that its nice to catch up. Keep up the great work! P.S. more to your mentors on this video: if one is to add weight back, doesn't that make spending $100 on titanium screws seem a bit frivolous? The weight saving isn't massive (I've got titanium screw sets in two of my cars) and I would certainly argue against the fact that one jeeds them to be competitive. This is just genuine feedback, what i wrote above will always be :) :)
After watching this video and coming from an autocross background, it baffles me what they call 'stock' racing in RC. In autocross, stock means an unmodified car and very little is allowed to be changed. I only recently found out about the 'stock' class while I was looking for a motor for an SCT I want to build. It made me wonder how it even works in the RC world. Well, I never expected it to be pretty much the exact opposite of 'stock'. I doubt it's a class I would ever bother with now that I know how it works. I think it would be a much more fun class if everything was limited to box stock parts and no hop-ups and the 'stock' motors. Which is what I expected it to be, as that would make sense considering the name of the class. Then you would likely get companies that include all these upgrades in the kit like you mentioned, and then it just ends up where it is at anyway. Which isn't really a terrible thing, because then it is the driver's skill that wins the race. Which is what I would want a 'stock' class to be if I were to participate. The kit they choose may affect their ability to ne fast, but companies would push to improve their kits more, and that would foster innovation in the hobby.
Why some of the worlds best stock drivers is winners all the time? Answer is some of them are real good drivers and sandbaging they dont whant to step up from a class they dominate year after year.
I initially bought my electronics for stock class but mod seems more interesting. I reversed the polarity on my last setup (trinity 13.5 motor and esc blew out) so I replaced my electronics with a 7.5t phenom and a g2 esc with reverse polarity protection.
There should be true 'stock' class for entry level/easy budget/out of the box racing with a higher minimum weight and stock-pro for what you described where people spend big bucks to go really slow.
I have race a lot of stock on road and I have to add the the motor and battery war also drives price up. You constantly need to upgrade motors and you're typically running them at the limit and generally being rough with the lipo (high current charging). I am so happy that my local offroad track os mod only... My battery and motors are lasting years. Being overpowered is fun and more cost effective. Too bad stock is still so prevalent in on road and at other off road tracks.
I don't get the gear durability concerns much. I ran a tamiya DT-03 with an 8.5T motor on an outdoor 1/8 scale dirt track without any significant wear on the stock nylon gears. There isn't even a slipper clutch on it. PEEK gears should be perfectly fine for a modern buggy.
My son and I have been racing for a handful of years now... mostly offroad dirt, outdoor style dirt. We have recently set up a 2wd buggy for the local indoor carpet track, they dont even have MOD classes at all, just 13.5 and 17.5 classes. They do however have 17.5 buggy and ProStock 17.5 buggy, which I think it's good to have that separation. I definitely don't like the term Stock, and we definitely don't plan to go all the way down the rabbit hole for carpet racing and "stock" mods ans upgrades... we are just doing this for wheel time during the winter months. I don't even race 1/10 on carpet, just Mini B sometimes... and i dont really do 8th scale on dirt, mostly 10th scale and for the most part 2wd classes. I am really hoping that we dont find it impossible to enjoy without chasing the motor of the month and cooking lipo packs at 10-20A, etc...
How many clubs in the US run clubmans classes? Is that common? They're "fun" classes around here aimed at rookies building up their chops or who don't have the money or the experience to build up a race spec kit or want to dip their toes into racing before they commit. And I think at a local club level, clubmans is a response to the cost of being competitive in stock. Not that I've been actually racing for over 15 years, but I've seen those clubmans classes spoiled by more advanced racers getting in on it who just win race after race. I've always envisaged a ranked approach where you start racing in a clubmans class and you can't enter the other classes until you can consistently rank highly. And if you race and do well in mod, then you can't enter clubmans/rookie classes. But that can be a tough sell in smaller areas too where there aren't enough racers and so they just fill up what races they can with whoever will enter.
So with 1/10th offroad buggy racing here in the UK we pretty much have no stock racing at all. However the biggest 1/10th onroad touring car class is FWD. FWD runs to a set budget fixed timing motor and ESC combo with a controlled rev limit of 15k and a controlled pre glued tyre with control additive as well as a small list of scale bodies tk chose from. We have just had our BRCA AGM here and the 17.5 4wd TC class has just changed from 17.5(blinky) "motor of the month club" to the same control electronics we are using in the FWD class. We still have the standard 13.5(blinky) and open mod classes, open mod being the smallest touring class by far and is really struggling
FWD used to be an affordable class with plastic tub chassis, realistic bodies, and motors in front of the front axle. This kept the cars more affordable, speeds down, and relatable to newcomers, as the speeds weren't insane and the cars looked like, well... cars. That's pretty much all dead now, because racers wanted an advantage. The cars are carbon, the motors mid-ship, and the bodies look like nothing on the road. They're barely slower than the TC class. So what did racers 'gain' by 'advancing"? Higher cost and less opportunity for the class to grow. All the racers now have the same 'advantage', so nobody has an advantage. Except lighter wallets and less people at the races to have to talk to, I guess.
@@guest6423 if you mean Tamiya's you spend more on a Tamiya to stop it falling apart than you would on a high end FWD car. One of the biggest issues we have is they are way too complicated with adjustable castle built into the suspension design on nearly all modern high spec touring cars. Lots of clubs including my own have budget classes for Tamiya touring cars etc... Not sure what the obsession with FFWD is, they aren't as strong as the motor is almost the bumper and it makes the electronics layout a mess over newer fwd cars and perform worse. The class has now done two seasons and has no changes for the 3rd one. The majority of people use the Bitty CA45(Merc) which is very scale looking especially when painted appropriately. Oh and Tamiya don't even make a FWD touring car anymore
@@Luke-en2tk The appeal of Tamiya spec classes because the classes are both uniform (everyone runs the same chassis either box stock or with very limited hopups) and cheap to get into (an "entry level" Tamiya kit costs WAY less than a full-on race car). It's accessible to a wide audience and no one can buy their way to the podium - and in regards to "spending more to keep the kit from falling apart", that's not an issue if you're running the included power system, you only start having issues with that when you start running high-powered brushless setups.
@@VestedUTuber it's definitely more accessible, I do see people spending lots on their cheap Tamiya's though some of the rules allow way to many upgrades. The TT-02R is a great chassis with nearly all the upgrades you need unfortunately Tamiya never have a lot of stock of them and was or is now listed as being limited addition
@@Luke-en2tk Well, if they're allowing a lot of expensive upgrades then they're not using TCS rules at least. And at a certain point it kinda defeats the purpose of having a spec class.
I've been into 1/8 buggies both Nitro & mainly just E-buggys now for last 25yrs off and on just as a hobby not pro and it's extremely expensive if you want to drive all the time and buy decent stuff.
At regional level in the uk for 2wd and 4wd tends to be open class with a controlled tyre and weight. I run a 6.5t in both 2wd and 4wd. I’m not too sure on the uk nationals rules. The controlled tyres bugs me if only suits the tyre manufacturer when championships keeps changing that really annoys me.
Now if only I could convince 3-4 like minded individuals at my local track to switch to mod 2wd buggy Then there’s stadium truck most nights it’s a combined short course/stadium truck heat but at least it’s an open class that most just use a 13.5 due to being a tight track
13.5 and 17.5 refers to the power of the motor. The lower the turn rating, the more power the motor has. As for the scale, these buggies and trucks are 10th scale
Actually guys if you scale up the cost for tires for RC cars like for example carpet road course and oval and off road and dirt oval the cost of the tires for a RC 1/10 scale racecar costs 3x more then racing slicks do of your racing asphalt circle track 1:1 cars. So actually if you scale up RC racing your paying just as much as you would with a real 1:1 racecar if you scaled up RC to 1:1 including the price of tires fuel and parts. There is no such thing as cheap racing except for one RC racing class and that is the rj speed legend cars on carpet oval and road course cause it's ran as a break out class. And with break out racing it doesn't matter if you have a super fast brushless motor with timing and all that fancy stuff on 2s or running a 2s lipo with a brushed 20 turn motor cause you can't go faster then the break out time and if you do that lap doesn't count, that is the only form of RC racing that is affordable compared to other RC racing classes. You can have you a nice rj speed legend car ready to race for 300 dollars that's including a cheap radio and rx. But its a blast eacing rc cars and easier to get into from nothing then getting a full sozed racecar and starting from nothing cause you meed a shop and a bunch of tools, scales, ect. And also i love rc racing because i dont feel the wrecs the next morning loke you would in a real race ar or sore and wore out by the end of the night and dehydrated to heck and back. I cant race real race ars anymore cUse i broke my back in a dirt oval 360 sprint car roll over and have been racing rc for last 3 years since that wreck. Between rc racing and iracing it scratches that rackng bug itch every drover gets when they haven't raced in a few months especially in off-season.
@@RoachRC My 13 and 1/2 turn motor felt like I was going in slow motion most the time so I'm kind of glad I blew it out and bought a 7 1/2 turn. I think even in the mod class it matters how good you drive not what you have.
Some of the best racers are in stock? Yeah Bayer and Gotzl dropped down to stock at the Florida carpet champs and are 1-2 in all qualifying so far……lapping the other people in the ‘top’ heat.
Saying your the best driver in the country but then being a stock only driver, means your not the best…. Mod means, when theres no limitations, you are the best…. If your a 17.5 racer, then your the best if you limit everyone to 17.5… Its easy to just hold it mashed everywhere…
your content is a shining light in the RC community.
I went from racing real Formula Race cars last year to this because of some broken ribs. When I hear someone say $100 for a set of expensive bearings, I laugh. I’m use to spending $15,000 a weekend just in tires.
Used to race semi pro back in the day. It got so expensive that racing real cars was less expensive and more fun. Now RC is almost dead due to the expense and cheaper SIM racing.
As a stock class racer (17.5 street stock) you hit the nail on the head here. We can't make it through a night of racing without somebody mentioning that they cant afford to keep up. While i sympathize, i also know that this is how stock classes usually are. On one hand, i hate how much money ive put into mine, but on the other, its kind of amazing what we can make them do. Its been a journey of buying one part after another and testing to find that extra little edge. It also feels good to whoop on 6.3s and 6.4s with my little old b5m, though that could happen in any class.
If youre a new guy in a stock class, dont give up or get frustrated if someone has a $$$$$ car and they beat you. Just take your time, learn your car, and upgrade as you go. Sooner than later, you will catch up😎
Honestly, the fact that it's such a common complaint should point out that it's legitimately a problem. Though I think the issue with not being able to afford to keep up is a symptom of a bigger problem, particularly the fact that these higher-traction smooth surfaces have created a demand for more specialized kits and eliminated many of the tradeoffs that used to provide close racing.
Back when dirt was still the common surface for 1/10th scale classes, the limited and inconsistent traction and rough surface ultimately made car control the most important factor, and trying to push every envelope and squeeze out every last bit of performance out of your car was generally what you did only when you could consistently turn clean and FAST laps like the pro drivers could. At a club level, it was anyone's game assuming a close skill spread. Races were won and lost on the track. Similarly, the cars had to be designed to handle unideal conditions. Bump handling still mattered. Having massive amounts of steering wasn't always a good thing, especially in the 2WD classes where if you overcorrected in a slide you'd spin out. The lower grip conditions made running really powerful setups risky. And this was reflected in the kits, which appealed to everyone in the hobby, not just the hardcore racers, because the way they were designed they could handle a wide variety of different off-road surfaces. Equipment costs were a lot higher back then because if you were serious about racing you needed to run hand-picked dyno-tested motors and hand-picked voltage-matched cells to compete at the higher levels, but kits stayed relatively cheap, and didn't need that many upgrades to be made competitive.
When 1/10th scale moved to indoor clay and _especially_ carpet, it changed a lot and not necessarily for the better. The smooth surface and high traction enabled cars to be specialized for those surfaces. Where before manufacturers had to take into account blown-out 1/8th scale tracks and loamy farm dirt circuits built in repurposed pastures as well as hard-packed clay-mix tracks and blue groove, now they could solely focus on designing their cars to run on what were almost on-road conditions. CGs were lowered and suspensions stiffened without care for how they made the car worse at handling bumps, and steering was increased because you didn't have to worry as much about overcorrecting and spinning out. Drivers started running more power (enabled by but not the fault of the introduction of brushless motor tech) in mod classes, and when they couldn't in stock class they instead looked to doing whatever they could to reduce rolling resistance. Motor manufacturers started looking into boosting performance without changing the motor's turns as well, and you ended up with $200+ stock-class legal motors that could be fully configured and optimized to the driver's needs and wants. And running the latest and greatest setup was now the status quo, rather than tuning to the track and conditions as needed. Races were now won and lost in the pits and at the store counter.
Long story short, "just take your time, learn your car, and upgrade as you go" _used_ to be "just take your time, learn your car, and practice".
Can a B5M be competitive still?
I just bought one, also what motor and speed controller do you recommend?
@@MX-CO
Yes on dirt, maybe on sealed clay, probably not on carpet but it could still be good for getting your foot in the door.
As for motor and speed controller, honestly a Hobbywing 17.5T Stock combo will be sufficient if you're wanting to run stock, but I'd actually recommend going for a mild modified setup with a 9.5T motor if your local track has a modified class, as the additional power evens the playing field a bit by making driveline hop-ups less relevant. If your local track _only_ runs stock, however, that's a red flag, as a track that only runs a stock class is likely catering to wallet dumpers.
@VestedUTuber Thanks I think they have multiple 17.5 classes, blinky, another and modified. I haven't raced yet but the track looks great, it's hard clay. It's called Whip it raceway in Reno Nevada. There are UA-cam videos from there
I haven't bought three things yet just because I'm struggling with what to choose.
That's a speed controller
A motor and a battery.
I bought the car, a radio and reciever and a charger.
I'm most struggling with speed controllers because it seems like a juststock GS3 will be sufficient but I'm wondering why people are running the hobbywing pro elite that's $120 more?
Is it just money to burn or is there a real advantage?
Thanks
Great topic. Racing needs to be saved from racers. If allowed, racing will always become more and more expensive until the field shrinks to a tiny number of racers. And racers like it this way, because racers want to win; less racers = more chance to win.
Almost every form of auto racing began with people racing the vehicles they used every day, before racers, wanting an advantage over others, turned them into specialized devices only good for racing. RC started out with every vehicle being a basher (albeit fragile bashers.) People brought their everyday RC car out to the track, and had fun running it, as is. Now, buggy racing is done with single-purpose cars that are absurdly expensive. One-run tires? Awesome!
The sanctions need to set hard rules that lower costs. Racers will complain, because racers are never happy with restrictions, but ultimately, a more inviting race scene will attract more new racers than those who leave. This will take leadership with guts, and unfortunately, it's the leaders in RC who have been in charge as costs rise, tracks close, and participation dwindles.
You can't let racers run racing.
Nicely said
As someone who races 1:8 nitro down to 1:10 carpet, more rules just stifles innovation. And the people complaining about price of upgrades would probably see better race results from crashing less more than a few ounces saved from overpriced screws or lightweight gears. This hobby is still exponentially cheaper than 1:1 racing
I semi-agree, but I’d like to see rules that push all the innovation out to the mod class leaving stock be stock.
Actually man if you scale up the cost for tires for RC cars like for example carpet road course and oval and off road and dirt oval the cost of the tires for a RC 1/10 scale racecar costs 3x more then racing slicks do of your racing asphalt circle track 1:1 cars. So actually if you scale up RC racing your paying just as much as you would with a real 1:1 racecar if you scaled up RC to 1:1 including the price of tires fuel and parts. There is no such thing as cheap racing except for one RC racing class and that is the rj speed legend cars on carpet oval and road course cause it's ran as a break out class. And with break out racing it doesn't matter if you have a super fast brushless motor with timing and all that fancy stuff on 2s or running a 2s lipo with a brushed 20 turn motor cause you can't go faster then the break out time and if you do that lap doesn't count, that is the only form of RC racing that is affordable compared to other RC racing classes. You can have you a nice rj speed legend car ready to race for 300 dollars that's including a cheap radio and rx.
All us RC content creators do reviews, bash, maybe a bit of racing. But generally speaking it's largely review oriented stuff with a bit of goofing off, which is great and fun. BUT, this channel does something special that no other channels do by providing the most in depth content on RC history (my personal favorite), and advice on racing along with depth full descriptions on what racing is really like, beyond racing with friends on a made up track ( a total blast BTW), but this guy gives you a fully envisioned experience through excellent writing, and pure knowledge from real world experienc in racing. Sorry to blab on here, I'm just a big fan of this channel and have been for a while. This channel is well worth watching. I used to think I was good at racing until I raced a real racing driver, I got lapped while driving the faster car and I didn't even crash!
I appreciate the kind words man. Yeah I thought I was good at racing until I went to my first Master's of Dirt, and my first nationals.
All is the process of being humbled
@@RoachRC good RC racing really is an impressive skill. I get the same sense of excitement watching it as I do any other form of racing.
"There is nothing stock about a stock car." -Days of Thunder
Still true...
I will say this, anyone who said that stock was a budget-friendly class in the old days was lying, back then you could spend a good grand or so to get a car ready. But there was still a significant difference and that was what you were spending your money on.
In the old days, it was various tires for different surfaces and conditions, hand-wound dyno-rated motors that you sometimes had to buy three or four of before you found a good one, and hand-picked voltage matched batteries. The kits themselves were, apart from a few exotic exceptions _coughtrfcough,_ pretty cheap, and it helped that they often had RTR versions to spread out the tooling costs. The result was that you could stretch the costs out over time, since you didn't need them to race at a club level unless your club was home to a sponsored team.
Now, a lot of your money goes into your kit, into aftermarket bearings, and into various hop-ups to reduce rolling resistance and improve adjustability, all of which you need right off the bat.
I have always felt that "Stock" needs to he broken up. A single moniker for "Stock" just doesnt fit the diversity of build completeness under the name.
I would love to see a ProStock, or SuperStock category for the Pros/Paid/High Level Sponsored driver. Make it extra spicey by lowering the minimum weight to something like 1400g, encouraging some creative engineering to get the weights down, and make the cars a little less reliable and brittle for added drama. Maybe even implement a triple A Main for the category under ROAR rules for more added drama.
Then have the Amateur and Independent Stock classes be "Box Stock", as is, kit components only. And raise the minimum weight to say 1600g, require fixed timing 17.5 or 21.5 motors, and with that motor and weight package, it will encourage the use of bigger batteries, and with that can come longer 10 minute mains for the class, giving the drivers time to sort out their driving, and build consistency.
Forcing "Box Stock", could also potentially encourage manufacturers to produce "homologation specials", where they are making lightweight kits, with titanium, carbon, or aluminum hop ups, with alot of the basic go fast bits in the box. ROAR could even regulate that class to make sure the level of hop-ups in the box doesnt get out of control. Where you are selling SuperStock cars for BoxStock. Just to make the entry price reasonable and the competition fair.
There are a lot of things that could be done. But leaving "Stock" as it is, should not be one of them. The extremes are too far apart to be in the same classification now.
for a "box stock" (21.5 for the sake of speed) i would saythat it need as little option parts as posible and no titanium as that would just make the kit pricey remember "box stock 21" would be cheap and accessible to the masses that is on a budget and non hard core racers with sponsors and deep pockets..
This is a great idea and makes way more sense than what they have going on now with the 'Stock' class.
Cost is even higher when your motor gets decertified...
😂😂😂
That would never happen 🤫
Who you telling man, I got a slot machine for sale anyone wants to buy it!!!!!!!!!😂😂😂😂
😆
$200 for the Titanium Kit for my TEKNO SCT 2.0. I did the whole kit. You are right about the secrets of 17.5.
Exceptional content. Nobody on UA-cam is putting out RC knowledge like this. I subscribed. 🤙
Great insight and thanks for another great video. I’m old school to an extent as I believe on doing the minor adjustments out of the box and tweaking during the trials, just driving hard enough to get an A main. Now most of what I use is cheap compared to the sponsored drivers, in fact my RTR’s do pretty darn good against some of the more expensive units and they are easier to purchase upgrades for, if needed, as the cars are cheaper up front.
That's awesome. I have a Hobbywing stock motor and an R1 stock ESC. Wanna switch? lol Great video, cheers!
In all seriousness though, people spend more than they need to. Stock racing can provide a new driver an underpowered vehicle that forces them to develop good habits (because power isn't there to save them if they take a bad line) and keeps you from breaking too much stuff due to an overpowerd car, less crashes and less velocity is good for a new driver.
I don't think guys in the f-mains necessarily need to copy what guys like Kyle and Mason are doing at all. I didn't do any lightweight mods to my stock class 2wd buggy, other than swapping the literal chassis weights for carbon fiber ones.... But I only did that because I was converting a carpet car to dirt, meaning I was going to need lighter weights to just get to the dirt kit setup anyways. But I was literally in the F main with that car at Masters. Practice will make me faster, not money.
On my stock 13.5 wheeler, I started to go down that path a bit. Plastic front and rear diff gears, lightweight factory team center drive line, carbon arms and gearboxes. It was only about $200 to do, and the car feels like it has more pep, but my lap times didn't noticeably improve doing any of it. I was in the G-main at Masters with that car.
If my skills improve to the point where I can get into the b-mains at national events, or was getting podiums but not wins at local trophy races (might as well be national events with the speed up here) then all the hopups would probably be something I looked into, or switching to open/mod.
And the cost can still be super low, a hobbywing justock for that use case is super cheap and will totally get the job done in the lower mains.
All in all, I think people should largely base their "stock vs mod" choice on what is most popular locally if they were to only do one.
"converting a carpet kit to dirt"
That's probably why you don't have issues. Surface traction and smoothness makes a huge difference, dirt tends to even things out more.
@@VestedUTuber the carpet and dirt kits are like 4 part numbers apart. I swapped those parts. What are you even saying?
@@mouseFPV
My point is that dirt, and the generally lower amount of traction it provides, makes car control matter a lot more and having an optimal setup matter somewhat less. A good driver can win with a Bandit or a DT03 on dirt, they'd be hard-pressed to do so on carpet. And a beginner isn't going to have nearly as much of an advantage running a modern-day fully kitted out racing buggy against entry-level cars.
If you want proof, look at the classes that still run almost exclusively on dirt - 4WD SCT and the 1/8th scale classes. These cars have mostly stayed off-road friendly, as opposed to effectively becoming on-road cars that can take jumps. A box stock ARRMA TLR Tuned Typhon RTR recently won Sportsman E-Buggy JConcepts Beast of the East, and people have had a lot of success running the RTR versions of the Serpent SRX8-E and Kyosho Inferno MP10e. Not to mention the reason why RTRs of competitive racing platforms actually still exist in 1/8th scale is _because_ those competitive platforms are still usable in most non-racing environments as well, the cars appeal to both racers AND bashers. In 1/10th scale, apart from exactly two exceptions (Kyosho Lazer ZX5, Serpent SRX2), the competition platform RTR died when the Associated B5 came out. Every 1/10th scale RTR buggy since then, other than the above exceptions, has been either heavily modified from an older racing platform (Associated RB10, Yokomo RO-1) or a completely different design focused on bashing (Traxxas Bandit, ARRMA Raider, and whenever Tamiya makes a DT03 XB model).
Even your dirt-focused conversion for a carpet car is going to be far more suited to clay and well-kept blue-groove tracks than anything rougher or looser.
Calling it stock shouldn’t mean upgrading it to the max! It should be for the inexperienced drivers to run lower Turn motors to gain confidence and improve their performance! Then it should progress to mod faster lighter etc… It sucks because in fact it’s the opposite.
"stock" *looks inside* is the RC of Theseus
This channel is a gem, awesome content.
And I'm not even part of RC right now (interested in getting back, eventually)
You should get back into it. At your leisure though, don't let anyone rush you into it
A very nice perspective video. In true American style the name is exactly opposite to the reality. World Series, Stock Racing ... etc, etc. Keep up the great work :)
Over here in Germany 2wd stock is 13,5t and 4wd 10,5t.
In my area the most popular classes are stock, at many races there aren´t even enough people to run mod.
Only few people are running their equipment right at the limit and not many put in the effort described in the video.
To me it feels like the biggest edge in competitiveness at clubrace level are tires (carpet/astroturf). How often are you willing to put on a new set?
But maybe that´s just my impression since I´m much more stingy on wear parts than tuning parts
I enjoy all of your videos! Great video and keep it up. Always look forward to a new video from you.
Always appreciate the videos.
The hard truth, deep down, is that a failure to be competitive lies not in the equipment being used, but in the user of the equipment. Preparation, strategy, attitude, wheel time, setup knowledge...the principal elements to upgrade. Podium spots are not bought, they are earned.
I'm looking to get started racing 2wd buggy but can't figure out where to begin. Clearly neither mod or stock are good for a beginner. I thought the purpose of stock was to be a bit more beginner oriented but apparently that isn't the case.
It depends on where you race. Most places will have an Indy stock class or indy class in general. What track do you plan to race at?
Very good video....my comment is not related to this video specifically. Every rc race I watch...unless they are professionals getting paid to race....everyone is crashing...hitting the jumps inconsistently...just overall sloppy looking driving....it makes you really question and wonder if any of the hop ups or upgrades that people use are worth it at all....I literally see no difference in driving or speed between any of the cars...the club race driving is so poor it seems as if a car out of the box or a heavily modified car really makes little to no difference if the driving skill can't justify the difference in parts....I havent seen any videos on youtube of club racing where there isn't a crash first turn...inconsistent drive lines all over the place...and tumbles every other jump....maybe it's just me...but it seem like upgrades are just for the placebo effect or cool factor at certain driving skills...does anyone else feel this way or am I just ignorant to the hobby..
I raced stock as a kid, it teaches you to search for every advantage and forces you to be a better driver
Another great video buddy! 🤙
Great video! my kid is just getting good enough to jump out of novice and now im starting to see the ledger grow large!
Love your videos i think you should begin placing rc race kits you recommend, very new to this so still learning thanks
I’d like to see stock change the rules to no cut gears, no plastic pinion, no cut gears, no ceramic bearings, no slipper eliminator, and 1600g minimum weight.
This winter I’m planning my first full season of off-road carpet. I have a lot of Oval and On-road, and limited experience with off-road 2wd buggy. The track I went to this summer, all they offered was 2wd Mod (track also runs 1:8 off road and the local guys don’t like how 17.5 runs on the track). So, I was kind of forced into Mod. It’s not bad, I just had to scramble to progressively put in faster motors, as I turned more laps and got a feel for it.
I’m thinking, I might just stick with Mod for indoor. The field is smaller, and for all the reasons you point out, stock classes get very expensive as everyone is fighting for a slim edge. I’ve given up on stock classes for oval, for those reasons, and I’m working on getting out of stock classes for on-road.
Am I crazy for jumping right into mod? I’ve put a 6.5 turn into my Losi (after a slow 17.5, then a nice 13.5) and I love the power it has.
My thoughts are, I can focus more on driving and improving consistency, and learning more about tuning. Without the nagging feeling I need to buy the speed part of the week. Which is how stock oval and on-road feels.
Crazy?
I always love to see one of your videos pop up because (apart from the music being brilliant) it gives me an incite into the modern racing world. Fantastically interesting to me but I've been out of the game so long that its nice to catch up. Keep up the great work!
P.S. more to your mentors on this video: if one is to add weight back, doesn't that make spending $100 on titanium screws seem a bit frivolous? The weight saving isn't massive (I've got titanium screw sets in two of my cars) and I would certainly argue against the fact that one jeeds them to be competitive. This is just genuine feedback, what i wrote above will always be :) :)
After watching this video and coming from an autocross background, it baffles me what they call 'stock' racing in RC. In autocross, stock means an unmodified car and very little is allowed to be changed. I only recently found out about the 'stock' class while I was looking for a motor for an SCT I want to build. It made me wonder how it even works in the RC world. Well, I never expected it to be pretty much the exact opposite of 'stock'. I doubt it's a class I would ever bother with now that I know how it works.
I think it would be a much more fun class if everything was limited to box stock parts and no hop-ups and the 'stock' motors. Which is what I expected it to be, as that would make sense considering the name of the class. Then you would likely get companies that include all these upgrades in the kit like you mentioned, and then it just ends up where it is at anyway. Which isn't really a terrible thing, because then it is the driver's skill that wins the race. Which is what I would want a 'stock' class to be if I were to participate. The kit they choose may affect their ability to ne fast, but companies would push to improve their kits more, and that would foster innovation in the hobby.
Great rundown as always. I didn't know there were so many mods in a stock class.
Why some of the worlds best stock drivers is winners all the time?
Answer is some of them are real good drivers and sandbaging they dont whant to step up from a class they dominate year after year.
Love this style.
I initially bought my electronics for stock class but mod seems more interesting. I reversed the polarity on my last setup (trinity 13.5 motor and esc blew out) so I replaced my electronics with a 7.5t phenom and a g2 esc with reverse polarity protection.
There should be true 'stock' class for entry level/easy budget/out of the box racing with a higher minimum weight and stock-pro for what you described where people spend big bucks to go really slow.
Love the format! And yes, stock is expensive 😅
I have race a lot of stock on road and I have to add the the motor and battery war also drives price up. You constantly need to upgrade motors and you're typically running them at the limit and generally being rough with the lipo (high current charging). I am so happy that my local offroad track os mod only... My battery and motors are lasting years. Being overpowered is fun and more cost effective. Too bad stock is still so prevalent in on road and at other off road tracks.
I don't get the gear durability concerns much. I ran a tamiya DT-03 with an 8.5T motor on an outdoor 1/8 scale dirt track without any significant wear on the stock nylon gears. There isn't even a slipper clutch on it. PEEK gears should be perfectly fine for a modern buggy.
My son and I have been racing for a handful of years now... mostly offroad dirt, outdoor style dirt. We have recently set up a 2wd buggy for the local indoor carpet track, they dont even have MOD classes at all, just 13.5 and 17.5 classes. They do however have 17.5 buggy and ProStock 17.5 buggy, which I think it's good to have that separation. I definitely don't like the term Stock, and we definitely don't plan to go all the way down the rabbit hole for carpet racing and "stock" mods ans upgrades... we are just doing this for wheel time during the winter months. I don't even race 1/10 on carpet, just Mini B sometimes... and i dont really do 8th scale on dirt, mostly 10th scale and for the most part 2wd classes.
I am really hoping that we dont find it impossible to enjoy without chasing the motor of the month and cooking lipo packs at 10-20A, etc...
How many clubs in the US run clubmans classes? Is that common? They're "fun" classes around here aimed at rookies building up their chops or who don't have the money or the experience to build up a race spec kit or want to dip their toes into racing before they commit. And I think at a local club level, clubmans is a response to the cost of being competitive in stock.
Not that I've been actually racing for over 15 years, but I've seen those clubmans classes spoiled by more advanced racers getting in on it who just win race after race.
I've always envisaged a ranked approach where you start racing in a clubmans class and you can't enter the other classes until you can consistently rank highly. And if you race and do well in mod, then you can't enter clubmans/rookie classes. But that can be a tough sell in smaller areas too where there aren't enough racers and so they just fill up what races they can with whoever will enter.
8th scale it's called sportsman. But like you said it's sometime spoiled by people sandbagging and racing in a class they really shouldn't be
idk anything about rc racing since its not huge where im at but youd think stock meant exactly that..... stock.
Yeah, old school stock class was cheaper.
Too bad the rules have allowed stock to become the rich mans class somehow...
Maybe have a “Box Stock” chassis class.
So with 1/10th offroad buggy racing here in the UK we pretty much have no stock racing at all. However the biggest 1/10th onroad touring car class is FWD. FWD runs to a set budget fixed timing motor and ESC combo with a controlled rev limit of 15k and a controlled pre glued tyre with control additive as well as a small list of scale bodies tk chose from. We have just had our BRCA AGM here and the 17.5 4wd TC class has just changed from 17.5(blinky) "motor of the month club" to the same control electronics we are using in the FWD class. We still have the standard 13.5(blinky) and open mod classes, open mod being the smallest touring class by far and is really struggling
FWD used to be an affordable class with plastic tub chassis, realistic bodies, and motors in front of the front axle. This kept the cars more affordable, speeds down, and relatable to newcomers, as the speeds weren't insane and the cars looked like, well... cars. That's pretty much all dead now, because racers wanted an advantage. The cars are carbon, the motors mid-ship, and the bodies look like nothing on the road. They're barely slower than the TC class.
So what did racers 'gain' by 'advancing"? Higher cost and less opportunity for the class to grow. All the racers now have the same 'advantage', so nobody has an advantage. Except lighter wallets and less people at the races to have to talk to, I guess.
@@guest6423 if you mean Tamiya's you spend more on a Tamiya to stop it falling apart than you would on a high end FWD car. One of the biggest issues we have is they are way too complicated with adjustable castle built into the suspension design on nearly all modern high spec touring cars. Lots of clubs including my own have budget classes for Tamiya touring cars etc... Not sure what the obsession with FFWD is, they aren't as strong as the motor is almost the bumper and it makes the electronics layout a mess over newer fwd cars and perform worse. The class has now done two seasons and has no changes for the 3rd one. The majority of people use the Bitty CA45(Merc) which is very scale looking especially when painted appropriately. Oh and Tamiya don't even make a FWD touring car anymore
@@Luke-en2tk
The appeal of Tamiya spec classes because the classes are both uniform (everyone runs the same chassis either box stock or with very limited hopups) and cheap to get into (an "entry level" Tamiya kit costs WAY less than a full-on race car). It's accessible to a wide audience and no one can buy their way to the podium - and in regards to "spending more to keep the kit from falling apart", that's not an issue if you're running the included power system, you only start having issues with that when you start running high-powered brushless setups.
@@VestedUTuber it's definitely more accessible, I do see people spending lots on their cheap Tamiya's though some of the rules allow way to many upgrades. The TT-02R is a great chassis with nearly all the upgrades you need unfortunately Tamiya never have a lot of stock of them and was or is now listed as being limited addition
@@Luke-en2tk
Well, if they're allowing a lot of expensive upgrades then they're not using TCS rules at least. And at a certain point it kinda defeats the purpose of having a spec class.
I've been into 1/8 buggies both Nitro & mainly just E-buggys now for last 25yrs off and on just as a hobby not pro and it's extremely expensive if you want to drive all the time and buy decent stuff.
At regional level in the uk for 2wd and 4wd tends to be open class with a controlled tyre and weight. I run a 6.5t in both 2wd and 4wd. I’m not too sure on the uk nationals rules. The controlled tyres bugs me if only suits the tyre manufacturer when championships keeps changing that really annoys me.
worst is if its just one and the biggest UK brand schumie that get to be the controlled tyres that get an unfair deal to the other potential brands.
Now if only I could convince 3-4 like minded individuals at my local track to switch to mod 2wd buggy Then there’s stadium truck most nights it’s a combined short course/stadium truck heat but at least it’s an open class that most just use a 13.5 due to being a tight track
great video and information
Yokomo has a couple variations of their buggies just to charge 1000 of the rip.
Something I'm totally finding confusing is things like what is 13.5, what is 17.5,
What sizes are these trucks? 1/8 or 1/10
13.5 and 17.5 refers to the power of the motor. The lower the turn rating, the more power the motor has.
As for the scale, these buggies and trucks are 10th scale
Actually guys if you scale up the cost for tires for RC cars like for example carpet road course and oval and off road and dirt oval the cost of the tires for a RC 1/10 scale racecar costs 3x more then racing slicks do of your racing asphalt circle track 1:1 cars. So actually if you scale up RC racing your paying just as much as you would with a real 1:1 racecar if you scaled up RC to 1:1 including the price of tires fuel and parts. There is no such thing as cheap racing except for one RC racing class and that is the rj speed legend cars on carpet oval and road course cause it's ran as a break out class. And with break out racing it doesn't matter if you have a super fast brushless motor with timing and all that fancy stuff on 2s or running a 2s lipo with a brushed 20 turn motor cause you can't go faster then the break out time and if you do that lap doesn't count, that is the only form of RC racing that is affordable compared to other RC racing classes. You can have you a nice rj speed legend car ready to race for 300 dollars that's including a cheap radio and rx. But its a blast eacing rc cars and easier to get into from nothing then getting a full sozed racecar and starting from nothing cause you meed a shop and a bunch of tools, scales, ect. And also i love rc racing because i dont feel the wrecs the next morning loke you would in a real race ar or sore and wore out by the end of the night and dehydrated to heck and back. I cant race real race ars anymore cUse i broke my back in a dirt oval 360 sprint car roll over and have been racing rc for last 3 years since that wreck. Between rc racing and iracing it scratches that rackng bug itch every drover gets when they haven't raced in a few months especially in off-season.
Most of the Xray guys run the kit with very few "hop up" parts.
Run more mod and let it fly!
Why have stock classes and why do people like the slower class?
The idea is that most people don't have the reaction time to run a mod motor
@@RoachRC My 13 and 1/2 turn motor felt like I was going in slow motion most the time so I'm kind of glad I blew it out and bought a 7 1/2 turn. I think even in the mod class it matters how good you drive not what you have.
17.5 all day to save $$$ on tires
Some of the best racers are in stock?
Yeah Bayer and Gotzl dropped down to stock at the Florida carpet champs and are 1-2 in all qualifying so far……lapping the other people in the ‘top’ heat.
🤷♂️ my expensive stock car became even better with a mod motor 😂
Saying your the best driver in the country but then being a stock only driver, means your not the best…. Mod means, when theres no limitations, you are the best…. If your a 17.5 racer, then your the best if you limit everyone to 17.5…
Its easy to just hold it mashed everywhere…
My two stock cars are worth more than my mod car and ebuggy 😂
Stock is where the top driver's shine! Keep it as is 👏 I realise it's expensive, that is the point. It's called racing
1/10 offroad. Go mod or Go home! Nuff said. -U10