Has RC Ever Been This Big?
Just lately I’ve been amazed at the amount of effort going into the RC car industry. The sheer number of manufacturers, tracks, racers, specialised press websites etc is so encouraging. Has RC ever had it so good?
The Cars
So many manufacturers are out there these days. Back in the day there used to be the big ones, such as Tamiya, Kyosho, Associated, Schumacher, Yokomo, Losi.
But now we have fantastic efforts coming out of much smaller companies such as Xray, Durango, V-Dezign, Atomic Carbon. And that’s by far not a comprehensive list.
And these new companies are winning too – V-Dezign did jolly well in the recent 12th Euros.
Durango is busy, no sooner has it brought out a 4wd buggy than we’ve seen not one, but two flavours of 2wd prototype.
And Tamiya seems back on form with it’s TRF efforts, topping the touring car and off-road mains everywhere. It too seems to be working on a 2wd buggy as well.
So much development is happening at grass-roots level too. People such as Fabien Simonini busy working on a mid-motor chassis for the RB5. And other’s working on their own custom chassis cars.
It’s all so very healthy, a lot of competition, a lot of manufacturers.
The Racers
RC really does have professional racers these days it seems. Manufacturers are now employing top racers to race and develop products for them.
Watching the international reports, you see some of the top guys racing all around the world, all the time. One week they’ll be in Europe, and the next in the Far East. Racing multiple classes, working hard.
And club racing has never been so good. In my local area there’s no less than 3 or 4 clubs within 10 miles or so. And I’ve heard of some local clubs getting 70-100 drivers for normal club meetings, OUTSIDE IN WINTER!
That all means there’s more and more racers all the time.
The Tracks
Tracks come and go, but there’s been more and more interest in the UK of late for indoor facilities. Maritime, PDA, Ardent are all excellent indoor facilities.
Then you look overseas and see even more amazing facilities that must have cost someone tens of thousands to set up. Multiple tracks open all week long. Sounds brilliant!
And it’s not stopping, I know of several more tracks that are in the planning stages in the UK. There are certainly some gaps to fill geographically…
I’d predict in the next 5 years we’ll have year-round racing on whatever surface you desire.
The Press
There’s many websites out there now, Red RC, oOple, RCRaceChat, RCTech, etc, etc, etc, there’s dozens of them. I can’t keep up. I should probably get my act together and create a directory of them.
These sites are mostly amateur affairs, but more it seems they are gaining sponsorship, especially to cover large events. The quality of event coverage has increased so much in the last year or two.
And we’re not only limited to words and pictures, video is getting bigger and bigger. And RC Racing on Motors TV is bringing RC direct to the television too.
The Future?
I guess where all this is heading is soon the sport will move out of it’s traditional cocoon, and begin attracting sponsorship from companies outside the sport.
And when that happens, more and more money will start pouring into the sport, meaning bigger and better everything.
What will we all do? We’ll carry on messing around with toy cars!
