THE Retired Report – Goodbye, Hello Again, & I Gotta Fix On-Road?

Well hello there, I am Cubby, I am retired, and yet here the freak I am!

Ya know, I was gonna do a column on saying goodbye to Doug and Jeremy. But, I’m known as a hardcore slacker, so I slacked so long, Doug retired and came back before I could even say goodbye. LOL

So, goodbye Doug. You started up the “Everybody’s Scalin'” column during the start of the scale era and did a LOT to help promote the genre. Doug went on to do some scale monster truck articles, a bunch of them, then decided to leave us high and dry.

Oh wait, then he came back. I guess hello again Doug? Yes indeed, Doug came back with an all new “The Backyard” column, which of course is perfect for BSRC. At our core, our main passion is turning RTR monster trucks into piles of rubble, so even I personally can’t wait to see what kind of mayhem Doug has planned for future columns.

While many of you have met and know Doug first hand, for those of you who have not, he’s done sooooo much for not only scale crawling, but even more so for scale monster truck racing. Doug even puts on his own scale monster truck series, where people from across the country (and world) come to throw down with the best of the best of the genre. Putting on such fine events helps manufacturers like JConcepts continue to design trick new scale monster truck parts and upgrades. Anywhos, thanks for all you’ve done Doug, and I know you have a LOT more headed our way.

So I guess it’s goodbye Jeremy?! Is he gonna be back next week with a new column too? Who knows. What I do know is, Jeremy was a fantastic brand ambassador for Big Squid, and for scale rc as a whole. Jeremy always had a unique take on the scale scene and even today he continues to promote the scale rc movement with wild builds and a constant on-line presence. We definitely miss ya around these parts buddy, but we know you are crushing it and having a blast down south.

Segway to next topic…

Ya know, if you were to ask 100 different on-road racers how to “fix” on-road racing, you would get 100 different answers. But, I’m Cubby, and people actually listen to me (for better or worse, mostly worse), so I gotta put in my 2 cents (which is now worth around .00002).

Back in the day, the kinda days where I probably was having the most fun racing rc cars, I would run 1/10 buggy outdoor off-road all summer, then grab my Associated TC3 and hit the carpet all winter long.

Since those days, on-road has gotten, I don’t know what say here, it’s gotten too dern hardcore maybe? When you do the exact same form of racing for decade after decade, it becomes not only stale, but just boring as well. I stopped racing on-road during the winters probably around 2010’ish, and quite frankly have never really missed it.

However IMO, if a few changes were made (read – COMPLETE FREAK’N OVERHAUL), I’d love to get back to racing on-road during the winters. So here is Cubby’s crazy plan to make on-road racing great again. Shall we just jump right in? Of course!

The first BIG change, is to the tracks. The tracks NEED to be more scale realistic. The tracks, of course need to be grey or black in color, but they also need bigger changes like… wait for it… nearly there… elevation changes. They need scale road markings on the track. They need a scale realistic scoring tower and start bridge. The ultimate would be to do an entire full scale track, in 1/10th scale. Now, because 1:1 tracks are soooo huge, that would make it hard to see our cars on the “backstretch”, so maybe do part of a full scale track in 1/10. Do the tighter sections (to scale) of tracks like Laguna Seca, Monaco, etc. From perfectly replicating the layout, to the elevation changes, to the banners trackside, increasing the scale realism of the actual tracks would be HUGE.

But, what about the classes? ALLLLLLLL of the classes now are cooked AFFFFFFF. Geezus, people still run 1S 12th scale pan car? And enjoy it? Those people must not have had a burn-out switch installed by God at birth. But I DID get one and change is massively needed. So here’s the 3 classes that I would like to see run when racing on-road indoor carpet.

The starter class – Stock Class (aka- the Fun class!). Ya I know, there are lots of stock classes out there, but those are all about gearing a poor low Kv brushless motor to within an inch of its life. The NEW Stock Class would be just that- 1000000% bone stock RTR. That’s right folks, got a bone stock RTR Traxxas Toyota GR Supra GT4? That’s PERFECT for the class! The sanctioning body would post a list of approved RTRs for use in the Stock Class (no mods allowed!), of which these cars would not only have to have a sealed brushed motor for power, but must also LOOK scale realistic and have a fully licensed body.

The Expert Class. The second class is for more experienced racers. This class would let you do any mods ya want, but scale realism is a main factor. Oh and, this is a 2wd class only. For example, lets say you do a Honda Civic build for this class. If you race a Civic, you’d have to have a front motor layout, along with front wheel drive. Maybe you want to build a Ford Mustang. In this case, you’d have a front motor with rear wheel drive. But wait, the realism doesn’t end there! Fully licensed bodies must be run (including INTERIOR with driver!), as well as fully licensed wheels and tires. The tires would have to be rubber with DOT levels of treading. 8.4 volts DC maximum, but you can run whatever brushless system that you think you can put down to the track.

Then we come to the fast class, for the real experienced racers. This class is the Pro Class and uses 1/10 4wd platforms. The cars can be a typical touring car chassis, or even a pan car 4wd style, as this class is truly about showing the world just how fast an rc car can go around a track. Any power system can be used and up to 25.2 volts of battery. For looks, the cars would use licensed LMH styles bodies, that work really well 1:1, and give lots of tuning options for 1/10. Fully licensed wheels are a must, but the tires have to be foam, ’cause this class is about going FAST, not screwing around.

And that’s it! All new tracks, all new classes, and something new for racers and manufacturers alike, to look forward to.

Anywhos, just putting that out there for those with a head on their shoulders. I’ve thrown lots of crazy ideas out there to get bounced around and several of them actually took hold (read – made it to production). I’ve always been known as a dreamer, thankfully I’m not the only one, maybe someone will change on-road racing and get people back indoors during the winters. Nawwwww… lets just keep burning up 25 turn brushless motors in the same old UGLY UFO looking monstrosities that we’ve been driving for decades. LMAO

That’s it for now folks, as always, support those local hobby shops and bash spots!

YOUR el Cubbo Reportero