ASK Cubby – You Keep Writing, I Keep Mashing Keys

“Under tree fifty

Cubby,

What up bro? I gotta get me a new crawler, but da money just isn’t there. Pick me out a good crawler for under $300, a bad ass one.

What I gotta do for some stickers bro?

Gary E.”

Cubby- Yo hey there “Gary”, LOL, thanks for writing in. Oh and, what ya gotta do for some stickers? Simply send me another email with your snail mail address.

So “Gary”, you are looking for a new crawler under 300 bucks. You don’t mention RTR or kit, or this brand or that, or more scale or more performance, so I am just gonna wing it here.

If I had $300 burning a hole in my pocket and I wanted a new crawler, I would cut the check for a… Redcat Gen7 Pro.

Wwwwwwhat? A Redcat? Absolutely, at that price point I am buying the Gen7 Pro all day long. The Redcat easily comes in under $300 (with tax!), leaving some cash left over for a mod or two. Out on the trail, I am a big fan of its chassis and shocks, and it will most likely surprise you with how capable it is right out of the box.

If I didn’t go with a Redcat, I would jump down a scale and go with a 1/18 RC4WD G2 RTR. The RC4WD is much smaller, but it is absolutely loaded with trick metal scale parts. So while the pile of the rocks I would be climbing would be much smaller, I absolutely love insane scale looks of the RC4WD.

So there ya have it and there ya are, keep in touch and let me know what you ended up cutting the check on, BRO.

“No Nitro

Hi Cubby, big fan of THE Cub Report and ASK Cubby. I have yet to buy my first car, but I have been searching the used market for a good buy. With you being THE Cub Reporter, I have a couple questions that I have not seen answered anywhere else. The first question is would ever consider buying a used nitro car, with the second being why did nitro die in the first place? I really want a nitro, but it seems like NOBODY drives them, everybody is electric.

Patrick M.”

Cubby- Hello there Pat, thanks for writing in. Thanks for the kind words, IMO the Cub Report is super boring now days, check out some of the older editions from years past to read the really fun stuff.

First off, why did nitro die? Brushless and LiPo. Brushless and LiPo hit the scene in the early 2000s and has kept on trucking since. Modern electric power systems are capable of absolutely insane power levels, all the while being quite durable and requiring little to no maintenance. Nitro requires constant attention, and while they can put out crazy power, even a high-end nitro race engine won’t have nearly the peak power of a brushless/LiPo system. Nitro tends to be messier (read- fuel all over the place), but I consider the smell and engine noise to be really cool.

Would I ever buy a used nitro car/truck/buggy? NO. NO. And all sorts of more NOPE. I have been a “nitro guy” before. I have had my air filter come off. I have cased triples so hard it stopped the engine. A nitro engine in perfect shape is a PITA, a used one where you have no idea how it was broke in, no idea how many times it was run without an air filter, etc, is just begging to frustrate the heck out of you. Stay away, very, veryyyyyyyyyyy far away.

Oh and BTW, there are still a few guys that drive nitro. The higher levels of racing still have nitro, and there are still hardcore nitro bashers out there. We have one on staff, his name is “Wrench” Bill, and he really loves nitro. He loves the noise, he loves the smell, and he loves the “powerband”, the way the power comes on. Some people are just nitro people, you absolutely might be one, the only way to find out is to pull the trigger on one, you will know within the first minute!

So there ya are ya bunch of lunatics. Do you have a question? Do you need an answer? Have a rant that you just have to get off your chest? Email me- thecubreportrc at gmail dot com.