ASK Cubby- Your Weekly Questions, My Weakly Answers

“Vaterra Class Happening In NJ

Hi Cubby

Thought that I’d pass this along. Looks like some track owners listen to your ideas. My local indoor track is running a Vaterra stock class this indoor season.

This Is The Link to learn all about it.

This might be enough to make this basher give racing a try. Now if only I could get past dealing with some of the a’holes that pick fights with little kids that are minding their own business watching the practices and races.

Glen W.”

Cubby- Yo hey now Glen, thanks for email and be sure to shoot me a mailing addy so we can hook you up with a sticker pack.

And ya know… that is Freak’n kick ass what your local track is doing. Every track needs a true beginner class, I have always seen the Vaterra cars as a perfect way of doing so. True, the local hardcore guys aren’t gonna like it or remotely even understand why it exists, but with on-road in the state that it is, it is fantastic to see a track at least trying Something to fix the situation.

I just hope your local track keeps pushing the class, even when turnouts are low, as it will take a lot of time for it to actually grab hold. I also hope that word about the class gets spread around widely enough that local bashers and non-racers find out about it and decide to join in. Lastly, I also hope that the crew at Vaterra learns about the class and sends someone out to participate and help show the locals that running the Vaterra cars is important to them. At the very least, I myself hope to make it out before the season is over. New Jersey isn’t particularly close to me, but I am certainly up for the trip just so I can have a good time getting in some racing with other bash oriented people.

So for all you guys out East that want to help see a beginner class succeed, here is the pertinent info that you need to support the class-

Where- RC Car World
4340 Route 130 N
Willingboro, NJ 08046

Phone- (856) 720-0017
Email- mike@rccarworld.com

“T-shirt

Hello Cubby

I noticed in a cub report a while back that you were wearing a Futaba t-shirt. How do you expect us to think you are unbiased if you openly wear a t-shirt from one of your advertisers?

Devin C.”

Cubby- Well hello there Devin, how ya been doing?

Ya know… anybody that tells you they are “unbiased” is probably full of you know what. Those are the people you run from, not walk. While I might try to be unbiased, I know better, I am extremely biased towards certain companies, I am not going to try and hide it. In fact, I think it is impossible for anyone to not be biased at some level. That is why during our reviews we always (ok, mostly) use more than 3 people, with all three people having an equal say in the final scores. While I might hate a certain vehicle, it can still score very well if the other reviewers love it. And our test crew is quite diverse, which typically results in wildly differnt scores, so it is up to me to compile all the data so we can give a final rating.

Furthermore… I work in the rc industry, so I have a lot of rc t-shirts. I certainly won’t wear the shirt of a company I hate, but when out testing at a dirty track or empty lot, I always wear an rc related shirt, no different than any Joe Blow Basher. Just because I am wearing a Futaba shirt today doesn’t mean that I intend to give them a good score on a review, it means it was the first rc shirt I grabbed out of my drawer.

But… that isn’t to say that various companies haven’t attempted to sway things towards a good review. I once received a pallet of free short course trucks. Not one for review, not one for review and one for back-up parts, but an entire pallet. Attached to all the trucks was an envelope with a piece of paper inside that just said “Have Fun!”. Yes, I certainly had fun with a couple of the trucks, but ended up giving the rest away at the track. I also dismissed myself from having any say during our formal review of that particular vehicle.

To boil it down, I am biased as charged, but then so are you, and so is everyone else. The difference is I actually care about trying to reduce the impact of my personal bias when it comes to judging products, something that can’t be said about a lot of people writing reviews out there.

So there ya have it ya freaks, another week of ASK Cubby is in the books. Get those fingers to tapping by writing me an email. The addy you want is thecubreportrc at gmail dot com. If you letter makes the big time you’ll win a sticker pack, if it makes “Letter of the Month” you will win a free BSRC t-shirt.

Over and out…

YOUR Cub Reporter