What in the R/C would you do?

[Dangeruss]

So, I'm reading this article the other day about the future of R/C charging. A company was touting their technology which allowed over the air charging of cars while they were running, with a tagline like, "Never charge your R/C car again!". And it got me to thinking... is the R/C industry as advanced as you think it should be? More so? Less so?

If you were the captain of the boat, where would you guide the industry? What changes would you make?

Over the air charging should be a thing, obviously... but I rather like seeing the trend moving away from full plastic chassis (didn't much care for it when they moved towards them). An RC10GT style lip on Associated's new chassis', or a billet rail to get rid of the plastic ones would be nice. Losi returning to Stadium Truck racing would be awesome... with a fully carbon fiber chassis... of course!

[RC10th]

I would bring back what made 90's RC special.....

[1911Colt]

I would "loosen" the tracks resulting in lower corner speeds and cars sliding around. This promotes passing. Passing (or at least trying to pass) is racing.

I am not a fan of what (to me) is just processional Formula 1 with hills. I tried watching EFRA (I am a Schumacher fan and they compete mostly in Europe). I found myself fast forwarding through 5 minute races Pretty much nothing happens unless someone crashes. Carpet, astroturf, and the glue that we call "dirt" here in America simply has too much grip. And what happened to bumps? Tracks are smoother than billiard tables now. I honestly think Orlowski's modern CAT goes around corners faster than Masami's CAT went down the straights back in '87.

This one is 30 years too late, so no point doing it now, but I would have had teams designate their race cars at the start of the season and race them that way all year. I hate convergence of design. It is inevitable, but maybe I could slow the process It is just more fun watching RC10 vs Jrx2 vs Top Cat than watching non-descript Chinese buggy vs identical non-descript Chinese buggy with different stickers.

Oh, and I would yell at everyone to get off my lawn.

[Frankentruck]

For racing, I like how the older batteries would run down and dump to a lower voltage that was still drivable. Racers had to gear their RC to what the battery could support. In local podunk races, the fast but overgeared car would have a notable slowdown at the end of the race. The rest of the racers would feel like they had a chance for a last second win.

I do like the light weight of Lipo though. Holy cow!

[clm]

I would merge compatible hobbies. 3d printed mainstream cars where you purchase a license to the files and purchase a hardware kit of harder to make hardware from the manufacturer. bring back the creativity and and ingenuity into the hobby. Imagine a main line manufacturer that created car designs capable of competing in the various sports and yet the design is printable at home for the majority of the bulky and easily damaged items.

[JosephS]

I would merge compatible hobbies. 3d printed mainstream cars where you purchase a license to the files and purchase a hardware kit of harder to make hardware from the manufacturer. bring back the creativity and and ingenuity into the hobby. Imagine a main line manufacturer that created car designs capable of competing in the various sports and yet the design is printable at home for the majority of the bulky and easily damaged items.

I was thinking at one point that a local hobby shops would actually be high quality and speed 3d printers with parts models being supplied for a fee from manufacturers. The manufacturers would have a registered affiliate program and approve certain materials and printers for specific parts.

Imagine being able to be trackside and just order up a new a-arm between races. It allows for long tail monetization of parts for long canceled kits without tooling costs.

[RogueIV]

Bring back real off road dirt.
Make bodies that actually look good instead of this cab forward crap or worse those god awful Truggy bodies that look nothing like a truck.
Fix "stock" racing so it isn't a game of who can throw more money at their car for an advantage.
Encourage more self innovation.

[clm]

.. or worse those god awful Truggy bodies that look nothing like a truck...

This has been an annoyance for a long tine, all the way back to what the RC10t started. I was somewhat thrilled when short course trucks became mainstream, they were more what I envisioned as a stadium truck as I have never seen an offroad race truck with ginormous balloon tires sticking so far outside of the body in full scale... but hey they handled good.

[RogueIV]

.. or worse those god awful Truggy bodies that look nothing like a truck...

This has been an annoyance for a long tine, all the way back to what the RC10t started. I was somewhat thrilled when short course trucks became mainstream, they were more what I envisioned as a stadium truck as I have never seen an offroad race truck with ginormous balloon tires sticking so far outside of the body in full scale... but hey they handled good.

I don't mind stadium trucks so much but this is an atrocity

[clm]

That is.. indescribable. That looks like a chassis cover they added windows to...

[Dangeruss]

Make bodies that actually look good instead of this cab forward crap or worse those god awful Truggy bodies that look nothing like a truck.
Encourage more self innovation.

... as I have never seen an offroad race truck with ginormous balloon tires sticking so far outside of the body in full scale...

I've always enjoyed the exaggerated proportions of Stadium Trucks over the scale proportions of Short Course trucks. To me, Stadium trucks (and their buggy counterparts) are akin to Formula 1 where as Short Course are more, Nascar, in how form or function follows one another. Resultingly the cab forward trend, in hindsight, was inevitable. But, as F1 has rules regulating body design, so too should Stadium Trucks. Minimum height above the tires for rail and hood height, required greenhouse height percentage, etc. to keep from ending up like that Tekno thing RogueIV posted.

I will say tire technology has come a long way... they're a lot more pliable now than they were in the 90's

And bearings... oh the bearings... Back in the day spin a wheel and it was, "Hey that spins pretty good"... now it's like, "Is that thing ever gonna stop?!?"

[Retro rc]

.. or worse those god awful Truggy bodies that look nothing like a truck...

This has been an annoyance for a long tine, all the way back to what the RC10t started. I was somewhat thrilled when short course trucks became mainstream, they were more what I envisioned as a stadium truck as I have never seen an offroad race truck with ginormous balloon tires sticking so far outside of the body in full scale... but hey they handled good.

I don't mind stadium trucks so much but this is an atrocity
tkr9600.jpg

May as well just call it what it is now… 1/5 buggy

[THEYTOOKMYTHUMB]

Someone probably said it already, but I'd go back in time and rid the world of RTR. Even at the expense of killing the hobby. Yes, the R/C community would be even smaller than it is today, but ok...

[Toaster]

For about the first time in about 30 years I subscribed to an R/C magazine and quickly learned just how much the hobby has actually changed. Almost the entire issue was dedicated to rock crawlers, which I completely understand, cover what sells but there was nothing about 4wd cars, electronics etc.

I would love more discussion on the basics, battery types, different cost options, motors, new brands out there, getting some rides of the month (like on this site which I love), racer profiles (who is the new Masami out there) and possibly a bit of discussion about the vintage stuff

[1300GT]

Bring back Dick Brinton and his "Budget Racer" series in RCCA. Columns like that and other individual articles about people's mods to their cars, explaining how they got more out of them were and still are part of the reason that keeps me playing with these things.