ASK Cubby – Oh Look, More Questions!

“Radio destruction

Cubby,

What is your take on the radio that got destroyed on the stand during the 1/8 nationals?

Owen D.”

Cubby- Well hello there Owen and thanks for taking the time to shoot me an email.

OK, for those of you that didn’t see it on social media, Ryan Maifield lost his temper at the ROAR 1/8th scale nitro nats a couple weeks ago and decided that breaking his radio while up on the stand was a good idea. I know the social media world was having a meltdown over it. I mean, like OMG how could anyone ever destroy a transmitter because they couldn’t control their temper? LOL

I have seen probably 20 radios destroyed at different races over the years. It really only came into popularity around the year 2000, when people started thinking that racing rc cars was a life or death sort of dealio. When I saw it flash across my feed my initial thought was “Ya, so?”. I mean, nobody does anything about it at the local level, and ROAR doesn’t seem to care at a national level, so why should I care?

If you’ve read THE Cub Report for any amount of time, then you already know I have been ranting about track a-holes for over a decade. But as long as track directors keep doing nothing about things like throwing radios, throwing cars, and cursing at marshals, the sport will never change, it will keep shrinking just like it has been for years. Not that this even needs to be said, but ROAR needs to start DQ’ing people for acting up at the races. What happened to Vettel when he gave Hamilton a “nudge” a few weeks ago? They (the race organizers) didn’t blindly look the other way, they gave him a penalty that cost him the race win. Just stating the obvious here, but ROAR needs to do the same thing, to penalize racers who do unsportsmanlike things, but we know that is never going to happen.

By the way… Ryan has long been known to have issues up on the stand. The other racers already know that too. He makes it wayyyy too easy for them to get him torqued off. Maybe a competitor stands too close to him on the stand, or makes a smart remark just before a race starts. Or maybe a competitor gives him a nudge out on the track, or has a teammate that is further back in the pack be slow to move over when getting lapped by him. Ryan is more often than not the fastest guy at wherever he races, but his competitors know how to make him lose his composure, and when that happens his results falter.

Remember when Kimi Räikkönen was the ice man? He isn’t now days, as he tends to flip out about everything, but back in the day nothing rattled him. He could have been leading the points and gotten taken out by a lapper and he would not have freaked out. Kimi would have calmly walked back to the pits, had some vodka and ice cream, then continued on with life as if nothing had happened. The truly elite rc racers are the same way, they are cool headed.

“This Or That

Cubby,

I am torn between a Pro-Line Ambush or one of the 1/18 RC4WD D90s. In your opinion, which should I buy and why?

Walter G.”

Cubby- Hey Walt, nice to hear from you again. As always, thanks for writing in.

Which should you buy? Well, I am a big fan of the Ambush. It has a nice scale look and is simply loads of fun to crawl with. I’ve enjoyed mine hour-after-hour in my man cave crawling area. I usually have a couple friends over on the weekends and after we get done driving with our larger outdoor trucks, we drive our Ambushes on my indoor course while we kick back and relax. The Ambush is generally issue free and is quite capable for its size.

The RC4WD 1/18th scale Gelande II D90 is somewhat different than the Ambush. It is a bit larger and is loaded with scale metal parts. The D90 looks freak’n awesome but could use a bit more power than what it comes with stock. I also drive one of these nearly every weekend and have had a lot of good times with it.

So… which one would I recommend? If the main area where you will be driving is quite small, I would go with the Ambush for sure. If you have a bit larger area or want to do more outdoor driving, I would go with the RC4WD. So there ya have it, and there ya are…

So there it is party people, another ASK Cubby is in the books. Have a question? Feel the need to rant? Have something that you just gotta get off your chest? My email box is always open – thecubreportrc at gmail dot com. Letters that make our front page will earn the writer one of our sticker packs while being declared “Letter of the Month” will get you one of our very sweet t-shirts.

YOUR Cub Reporter