THE Cub Report, My Hubristic View of The World Of RC- Version 12.20.2010
Can you believe there are only two weeks left in 2010? Geez does time fly. Next week I’ll be doing my annual “best and worst of” column, it should yield some juicy reading for you guys. But first I have to bust out this weeks Cub Report…
It’s pretty rare when something really-way-extra-super-dope gets released but last week Pro-Line delivered the goods. No, it wasn’t tires, or rims, or even a body, it was something different, something really cool on a couple different levels. So just what the hell was it? It’s quite obvious the current trend in rc is towards scale realism, a trend that not only gives us old hardcore guys a reason to smile again, but realism is exactly what our hobby needs to bust into the mainstream. On that note, last week Proline showed their uber new short course truck interior, complete with driver. Now, the holier than thou “race” crowd will laugh and say that a truck interior is just a freak’n joke (and a waste of space…. and worthless added weight), but those are the guys who are experts at running people off from our fun loving hobby, not at bringing them in. The new Pro-Line short course interior is a great step in the right direction, towards greater scale realism. The new Pro-Line unit helps bring your 10th scale truck one step closer to looking like a full scale rig. Major props to Pro-Line on that one, I hope they sell a (few) million of’em.
One step forward, two steps back.
Because of it’s scale realism, short course is currently our hobby’s best shot at breaking through to the mainstream. The Pro-Line interior is a real step forward, but the class has slowly, but surely, been losing it’s scale authenticity since day one. Remember when the first Traxxas Slash hit your area? Remember its scale looking tires? Remember how it leaned and slid around in the corners, just like the real thing? Have you looked at the tires being run on short course trucks lately? If you haven’t seen them, they look nothing like those on a Slash, nor like any tire you’ll ever find on a full scale rig. Tracks and sanctioning bodies that allowed “non-scale” looking tires was the first shot towards the death of short course, then last week Pro-Line and JConcepts introduced ribbed front tires for use on short course trucks. For years ribbed front tires have given optimal steering to “stadium rc trucks”, but I dare you to hit a TORC race and find a full scale rig using them. At some point someone has to put their foot down. At some point someone has to grow some balls and make a stern decision to not allow non-scale rims, tires and bodies in the short course class. If this isn’t done the short course class WILL slowly transform right back into the old stadium truck class. Someone in this industry needs to make some “non-popular with the race crowds” decisions. The hardcore racing crowd wants to go faster regardless of how screwed up the cars/trucks end up looking. Who’s gonna step up and do what’s right to keep the short course class true to scale? Thus far, nobody. To be blunt, it’s bad for our hobby to kill off short course, but it appears the writing is already on the wall. What a shame…
That’s it for this week, my sincere thanks go out to all of you for taking the time out of your day to read The Cub Report. Till next week, support your local hobby shops, tracks and bash spots!
YOUR Cub Reporter
