Did you race bitd, and where is this all going?

[MelvinsArmy]

Browsing through the readers rides the past few days, I've seen all kinds of buggies. I've noticed a lot of big projects and what looks like a lot of well thought out (aesthetically) projects. What I didn't see was many cars that looked like anything I actually saw on the track or in the magazines on the track back in the day. That got me to wondering. How many of us were around, racing, bashing, playing, or even just staring at the magazines and dreaming back in the 80's?

I'm not judging any build, or style of building or anything like that, but I just couldn't help but wonder where are the lean, mean, no-nonsense racing machines? There are some, but they are the overwhelming minority.

Don't get me wrong, I love all forms of RC10 and buggy porn. I know we all want to own our dream car from bitd, and now that we're all grown up, we can finally afford to build those dream machines. Heck, I've built several of my "dream" cars from bitd myself, and then sold some of them off too. But, isn't the biggest part of this hobby reliving the glory days? The cars we would have built to make sure we made (and placed) in a main at the club. I'm wondering where this vintage hobby is going. I'm not even thinking about prices and such, that's an entirely separate subject from this one. But, as history fades, will the projects continue to become more and more idealized? How many more box art builds or famous racer replicas can be done. (not that there is anything wrong with either, they rule)

Thoughts? Opinions? Am I thinking about this too much? More than likely.


But then I thought, maybe I should do something about it. Perhaps a contest. I don't know. I suppose the vintage nats will make for some lean, mean, racing machines in the near future. I know a nats car is my next project.

Discuss.

[Tadracket]

I did not race back in the day, but I have had an interest in RC cars since I bought my first book in the 5th grade back in 1985. It was a thin book I got at the book fair and I must have read it a thousand times. In it was several race pics. Most cars were goldies. They showed an RC 10 kit and a guy building it. The total thing was maybe 36 pages, but it had wonderful color shots and it hooked me on RC cars. No long after that I got a lobo. But constantly drooled in the Christmas book from Sears for a grasshopper. The rest is history but we never had any tracks back in the hills to race on. Just me and a bunch of kids ramping up railroad tracks and through culverts. But I know what you are saying. The restored cars are not like the older ones I admired in RCCA and RCM. But who really races the oldies any more. As cheep and fast as the new cars, my old cars rarely see dirt. And I am more of a nitro guy anyway.

Good topic though. I think we'll see some interesting insites. If I ever find that book, it is here somewhere after all these years, I'll have to do some scans of it. If anyone else here has seen it or owns it, please share

[badhoopty]

i've never raced.

'matter of fact in my adult life i've only ran rc's with another person who also had one 4 or 5 times. (not counting loaning out my basher gt to friends so they can run into everything with it, and then wreck my rig while i'm fixing it for them...)

bitd, i ran rc's with my cousins quite a bit, but it was never anything more than messing around. then i turned 16, and until my late 20's never ever even thought about rc. so i have a big big gap in what little knowledge i had back then.

before this place, i had no idea what was what bitd, and i still dont. i just searched ebay constantly and picked up whatever i thought was cool and rc10 related.

i think its based on that lack of knowledge that i lean more to the 'cool' custom builds more than the period correct ones.

[scr8p]

i think the reason there aren't many ol' skool, hard core race buggies on the forum is because you didn't need a ton of hop-ups on your car to be competitive, if any. and we know how everyone on this forum likes the trick aftermarket stuff.

[MelvinsArmy]

i think the reason there aren't many ol' skool, hard core race buggies on the forum is because you didn't need a ton of hop-ups on your car to be competitive, if any. and we know how everyone on this forum likes the trick aftermarket stuff.

Yeah, I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head on that one.

I'm just surprised in the huge difference between the cars of yesterday and the projects of today. Especially considering that it would be pretty easy to build (or buy and not change) such a machine.

[scr8p]

you know what surprises me the most? the lack of rc10 truck conversions on here. that was popular after the jrxt came out. i'll be putting one together one of these years. if i do it the way i want it, it'll be another addition to my "andy's family".

you can never have too many full-on andy's builds.

[JK Racing]

I began racing in '86. Hopped up Blackfoot, racing dirt oval. I picked up an Ultima and moved to 2wd mod and sprint car racing. Loved it, bought the JRX2 the day they came out, and immediately dropped my wedge body on it and dominated 2wd mod for a while. Took a few years off (maybe 10 ), got back into RC, found NO DIRT OVAL in Southern Cali, so been offroading ever since. A little nitro, then back to electric where I have stayed ever since.

I used to race a JG Ultima Truck conversion in 2wd Mod for a while, till the cars got tired of me beating them!!

I miss dirt oval.

[Daryl Lane]

MONSTER Truck Conversion Kits????

Hopping up the older cars for racing??

Dirt Oval in So Cal......

I feel a book coming on!

BITD it was all about going faster and finishing the race. Most of the aftermarket companies made their money by making parts that made the cars handle better and parts that were stronger to replace parts that broke allot. There were those who also liked to have nice looking cars on and off the track. But the nicest looking car at the track with a broken front arm 2min 33 sec into the main was still a loser.

Well I will have to dig up some old pictures and start a bitd picture thread.
preview:

[Eau Rouge]

<raises hand> I've been racing these silly things since 1984 or so. Off and on through the years, but mostly on.

I'm one of those guys who laughs and shakes his head at some of the insane, "value"-driven builds that take place here, because, "those cars never looked like that back in the day." I get amused at the value of certain things, when I know damn well that those parts were laughed at 20 years ago. That doesn't make those build any less important though.

I have also come to realize that this forum contains all types of hobbyists and enthusiasts. I can appreciate the lust for cars and parts that meant nothing historically but now hold some honor among collectors. I didn't appreciate them before, but I do now. It's just a different part of this funny little hobby we are in the middle of.

I compare this anomaly to the Hot Wheels Redline-era "pink" rage of the late 90s. See, back in 1968, boys didn't buy pink anything, so the beautifully painted pink Hot Wheels cars were virtually ignored, unless your sister got a car at a birthday party. Those cars remained toy pariahs until the collecting boom of the late 90s recognized that few of these cars were produced and fewer survived. They were instantly rare, hard to find and more than valuable to anyone who knew what they were looking for. What was popular in 1969 doesn't make something valuable in 1999, just more emotional to the guy who is re-living his childhood. To a collector, though, emotions don't always factor in the chase.


So this is where we part ideologies. Some of us collect because we want to restore our own history, or history we never got to achieve. Some of us collect for the challenge and the thrill of the hunt. Some of us collect to find something we never got lucky enough to experience the first time. Some of us collect for the cold, emotionless opportunity to "make a buck." Every one of those individual needs drives the market value, and thus, what the market becomes 20 years after the reality.



In the end, we all are here for different reasons, and while I will always snicker and laugh over a feeding frenzy for a Hot Trick or Sassy Chassis or suspension arms with bearings in them , I can completely understand the other side of this hobby. Oh, and this doesn't mean that when someone comes here to proudly show off their newly acquired $500 rare and valuable Great Vigor Beagle, that I would mercilessly rib them for buying it—because I will.



Collect what makes you happy—not what you think other people think is valuable. It makes this hobby far more enjoyable.




d

[siebenelch]

Eau Rouge:

I am absolutely agree with your meaning!

I am just realize, best time of my life was the 80´s and 90´s.

If I see a movie on TV from this period, I am feel great! Terminator, Mad Max, Alien and all the other stuff from this time. Also I hear music from this time again. Guns´n Roses, Nirvana, B52´s.

It´s great to have this memories and the feeling of this time!

Now I am working on my RC10 and feel back in the 90`s. If people come to me at the track, they always talk about the good old times.

Maybe it´s all so, because we are mostly one generation (I was born 1971) and at this modern times we need a piece of the 80´s/90´s to find a strong point from the past to realize, who we are and where we are going.

Is this too pathetic?


Cheers!

Michael

[MelvinsArmy]

Eau Rouge, that was absolutely perfect. I you hit a whole roll of nails on the head on that one. I feel exactly the same way.

Now THIS is what I'm talking about, I can't wait for the picture thread.
Oh, and I've been secretly (not so much anymore I guess) looking for one of those pre-RC10T conversion kits on ebay. My Jrx2 with a truck conversion was my first experience with a modified motor, I still remember the ground shaking when that truck blasted by my feet at full speed.

[aeiou]

I started racing in the early 90’s with the trucks, and I still have my original 7001 RC10T. I’ve also tried my hand at the buggies (Champ), carpet on-road (10L) and dirt and concrete NASCAR style banked oval (10L). I’ve never raced with anything other than Associated.

Besides a love of RC in general, there are several aspects of this particular hobby that are appealing to me:

• I like building the box art stuff and the aftermarket-parts-loaded theme builds. Eventually, I’m sure I’ll probably build replicas of some of the notable championship cars. Like a lot of racers, I used to chuckle at those Hot Trick parts hanging dusty on the wall at the LHS. I now laugh at myself for paying through the nose to add them to my collection.
• I also enjoy building them out to be somewhat like scale models, with aesthetic elements that have nothing at all to do with racing. Call them, for lack of a better description, shelf jewelry. I’ve been a scale modeler since I was a kid – plastic kits, railroads, etc. - and this is a good outlet.
• Collecting NIP stock and hop-up parts. I still haven’t figured out what drives that one. Maybe it has something to do with those model kits & exposure to the glue…
• Then there are the runners. Unless it’s something specific like an RPM Worlds conversion, when I build a runner, I usually set it up like I’m going to race it – which doesn’t include a bunch of aftermarket hop-ups. Like scr8p mentioned, you didn’t (and still don’t) need a lot of that stuff to be competitive. The biggest thing that helped me was being just patient and staying up on my wheels!

What’s really cool about this hobby to me is the diverse interests and the variety of possibilities. You can focus on the “glory days”, reproductions, serious racers / runners, scale-ish models, etc., any or all of the above. It’s all good.

See, back in 1968, boys didn't buy pink anything, so the beautifully painted pink Hot Wheels cars were virtually ignored, unless your sister got a car at a birthday party.

I'm old enough to have been a kid when those Hot Wheels were new. Back then, you'd get your butt kicked if you got caught playing with a pink anything.

[terry.sc]

Started racing with 1/12th in 79, moved to off road in 84 when there were no 1/12 clubs near me. Unlike most racers at the time I learnt that when it became time to upgrade the old race car was worth very little, so I hung on to them instead which is great as I still have most of my originals. Got serious in the late 80s but only been racing locally since the early 90s when it is more about throwing fancy hop ups on it than designing and making your own parts. I guess that's why the only serious competition stuff I do these days is crawling, using old school home built Mod Clods to show these Axial upstarts what it's all about - must post them on clodtalk sometime.

I guess the predominant cars in the reader rises section is down to the type of members. There are those who spend time carefully putting together a nice shelf queen and want to show it off to the world, so we find lots of pristine new built cars with great photography to show them at their best. Then there are those of us old school racers who either still have their old cars or have bought replacements for them, and most of these are bought to recapture our youth to remember the old times and aren't interested in going "look what I got" to the world. It's exactly the same as the 1:1 car threads on r/c forums, they are all full of cool shiny new cars, sports cars, vintage cars, etc and no 10 year old basic Ford Focus battered daily drivers. Personally seeing Jay Halseys original worlds winning RC10 covered in dust with bent and rusted tie rods and worn down and 'wrong' tyres would get me more worked up than any number of pristine replicas.

I'm sure lots of us old racers have old fuzzy photos like Darryls above, I know I do somewhere. Most of my old racers are in my TC showroom anyway, such as my Scorpion Ultima Mid and RC10 and they are all still sitting there covered in dirt with servo tape residue still on them with the photos of them being for reference rather than to show them off. None of them are particularly photogenic, if it wasn't for my personal showroom on TC I suspect very few pictures of my own cars would be anywhere on the net. Most of my cars are what a few people round here would consider the starting point of a restoration.

Building something for the shelf rather than the track means it's all about the looks, not the performance, so there's lots of interest from those who are into that to go for making it as 'cool' as possible, when bitd it was all about performance. Take carbon tubs for example, bitd no one run them because there was no performance difference and were a waste of money compared to the batteries and motors you could buy instead. Today they attract big bids on ebay because they look cool and are rare because no one bought them. Maybe it's because I used to race back then, but I still see all these hop ups that we considered junk back then as junk today, and even today I'd rather spend my money on batteries and motors than a carbon tub.

As to where it is all going, I wouldn't like to say. I hope it moves away from putting together shelf queens to getting them out there and running them, there's something special about the way the old ones drive compared to the somewhat clinical and boring handling of a modern chassis, even if they are quicker round the track. Maybe we'll get a few more vintage race series, so these new kids can see what we managed to race with bitd, give a newish racer a go with a mid 80s buggy and they wonder how he managed to get them round a track.

[RichieRich]

I raced very little but when I did, I ran Kyosho. This was in the mid-late 80s. I couldn't afford much in terms of hop-ups so I could never build a true racer with all the bells and whistles. The craziest I went with hop-ups were a few option house parts and bearings. Bearings used to be ridiculously expensive...remember? I didn't get my first RC10 until '93 and by then I was in college and didn't really have time or money (again!) to build anything RPM, A&L, MIP, Andy's, etc. My RC10 did pretty well in stock form anyways.

By the way, I do run all my cars. I haven't had time to run some of my newest builds but I will during the summer. I'll try to get some pics of a Tekin conversion hitting jumps and we'll see how that A&L handles. Any driving tips Daryl?

[Chrominator]

What does BITD stand for ?