THE Cub Report, Version- The Newest Version of the Old Me

Aloha one and all, welcome to THE Flip’n Cub Report. Love it or hate it, it’s what all the industry types are talking about around the water cooler on Monday mornings.

Hey, the Texas behemoth aka as Traxxas announced some new products at the table-top show in Vegas last week. Their two new trucks, the Skully and the Craniac, aren’t big news. I mean, if you’ve been in the hobby more than a few months you’ve more than likely already owned a Stampede of some sort (or several of them). However… the Traxxas Stability Management System is newsworthy. Why??? Because it helps solidify traction control/artificial stability control in our hobby. When a big name like Traxxas jumps on that bandwagon, the technology is here to stay.

Yes, I know all the poser racers love to hate on stability control. They whine and cry saying “It’s not legal!”. Well guess what? I can assure you it is 10000% legal at every backyard and city park that I drive at. The racer types also complain that “All the driving should be left up to the guy behind the wheel!!!”. Guess what again? I’ve seen many of those whiner guys drive, and they are prime examples of people that could use the help of a good stability control system (read- many of them drive like crap, constantly crashing, constantly spinning out, etc).

We’ve been very pro-AVC, which is Horizon’s (read- Losi, Vattera, ECX) active vehicle control system. The AVC system is extremely easy to use, easy to turn off, and easy to dial in. When “turned up” it can turn an undrivable car into one that is actually fun to wheel around. We have not gotten a chance to drive the new system from Traxxas, but if it works half as well as the one from Horizon, it should help many a basher have fun instead of just getting frustrated.

And to all the stability control haters out there- don’t be afraid of technology. Do you honestly miss running on channel “orange” and searching around for a frequency clip to put on your antenna? Do you honestly miss turning comms and using break-in drops? Do you honestly miss cycling batteries and storing them in your freezer? And…. even if you are an IFMAR worlds A-Main category driver (like thousands on the web seem to be) who would never require stability control to keep your car going straight, don’t be the A-$#%&*#@ raging against technology that can make rc a much more pleasurable experience for the masses that pay for all that high-zoot racing gear you enjoy so much.

That’s it ya lunatics… have a great week and support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter