The biggest news this week turns out to be about one of our sports most elite racers, Jared Tebo. When you think of the biggest drivers in our sport right now, it typically boils down to this- if you are a “Losi” guy, you think Drake, if you are an “Associated” guy, you think Tebo. Jared is arguably the best known driver in our sport right now.

Well, this week, one of Jared’s many sponsors decided to issue a press release letting the whole wide world know they were letting Jared go. Now, in the racing world, that is simply bad form. If someone burns down your building, goes on a shooting rampage and kills half your employees, or gets busted smoking Salvia at a male bath house, then yes, a press release is in order. Otherwise, the press release is an embarrassment for both Tebo and his former sponsor.

So, of course in this internet age, the rumor mill went berzerk, equally bad for both parties involved. Did his former sponsor not have enough money to keep paying him? Was the former sponsor getting rid of a driver that diss’ed on product too much? Did Tebo affiliate too closely with the boyz at Kyosho? Lot’s of speculation with no “winner” in sight. Now certainly Jared won’t have Any problem getting a new 8th scale chassis sponsor. His former sponsor won’t have a hard time coming up with another driver to fill the vacated spot. But, Jared’s name recognition is worth a lot. A win by Jared on Sunday means sales on Monday, and Jared is one of a very small handful of men walking this planet right now who earned an IFMAR world championship trophy. Even during these tough economic times, Jared will find another sponsor willing to cough up “Tebo” money, but the chances of his old sponsor coming up with a driver even close to his talent and name recognition is virtually zero. So who wins now?

When one had thought the crawling world was dropping off, along comes more fresh blood in crawling chassis. The big K (Kyosho), seem unable to come up with a “must have” car or truck, but they did announce their new 2.2 crawler last week, and it doesn’t seem to be a “must have” either. Some props have to go out to them for offering a somewhat different design for a crawling set-up, but I’m still disappointed that even with their “Dream Team” of American talent, they can’t come up the next T-Maxx or Slash. Their new crawler is dubbed the “Rock Force“, and looks to borrow some 8th scale technology to make it extra durable. But, as we all know, anything 8th scale costs more money, and in this economy, too high of a price point can absolutely kill sales.

On the opposite side of the crawling groove, Traxxas released a teaser this week of their upcoming crawler. Traxxas, once the red-headed stepchild of rc, is now the Crown Prince (heck, maybe even the King!). Two things you count on from Traxxas for their new crawler- it’s going to be cool, and it’s not going to break the bank. Also, seeing as how they released a teaser, it might not be based off another platform of theirs, it might be new from the ground up. If that is the case, look for them to pwn the crawling market with something that oozes “well designed” and “great value”. I feel funny giving such props to Traxxas, as I still remember some of their ugly years during the 90’s, but they have totally got their act together, arguably more so than any other rc chassis manufacture right now.

One last note for this week. The BigSquid booth at I-Hobby is simply going to be gnarly! Props have to go out to Brian for all his hard work, which is going to result in perhaps one of the most impressive first showings at a trade show ever. He’s lined up tons of track time, hot babes, and tons of cool gear for the show (even some cool swag I hear?). He will be the talk of the show. For manufactures, he’ll be offering “show special” ad rates, along with loads of data showing how each of your limited ad dollars go further with BigSquid than the other poser E-zine sites. I will also be at the show on Sunday, ready to receive that earful of pure anger that has been festering up in most of the industries belly.

Till next week, read your BigSquid daily, support your LHS, and visit that lonely local track of yours.

Cub

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I know our resident edgy reporter Cubby has been pushing the electric RC scene for a while now, and it looks like Pro-Line Racing is starting to help with his efforts to help bring electric back to the front. This new body is designed to keep those high voltage brushed or brushless RC Kyosho Lazer ZX-5 systems cool! The body is called the Vortex, and is actually a really cool design. It’s got all sorts of places to bring the air inside and seems well thought out! If you have a Kyosho Lazer, you are going to want this body!

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Traxxas Much like the paranoid survivalists that emptied out every supermarket in the country of 50 lbs bags of rice, rc’ers are now beginning to stockpile nitro fuel.
Rumors have been floating for months about no more 30% being produced and prices doubling by Christmas. The best part is, ask 10 guys that work in the rc fuel industry, and you’ll get about 10 different answer to dispel the rumors.

So just what are the “true” facts about the state of nitro fuel? It’s hard to fully trust anything coming out of the rc industry right now. Even those deep in the industry have not been given full disclosure by their suppliers, and others have other motivations to “twist” the truth. But it’s common knowledge that nitro comes out China. Cost of shipping from China has nearly doubled in recent months, and the Olympic games this summer will have big effects on how China is doing business. My best guess? I’ll go with common sense, expect nitro prices to be alarmingly high by this time next year. Of course by then, most people will already be running their new Losi 8BL’s and E Revo’s around their local track. But if you do plan on staying nitro, it just might be a good idea to buy a few extra gallons.

Reports from industry insiders continue to surface about just who is closest to putting out a mainstream 8th scale electric kit or RTR. Popular consensus? Losi, Losi, Losi!!! With Kyosho and Mugen expected to be closely behind. Associated is not expected to jump in till the year 2032.

Speaking of AE, they released info on their new RC10R5 this week. According to them, the “World GT” class is getting REALLY hot right now, and this is the car to fit the bill. In the real world, nearly nobody has ever heard of the “World GT” class, nor do they want an extremely hard to drive and hard to tune car that is basically nothing more than a stretched 12th scale pan car. Good luck on sales numbers for this one boys. Oh and thanks for adding yet another worthless class to the competition schedule.

This weekend I had the “pleasure” of witnessing something I had never seen before. A racer had his speed controller fry on the track, which was actually fun to watch, but even more so was what happened to his battery as it got dead shorted due to the bad speedo. This particular racers battery just happened to be a ROAR certified Li-po. Seems his pack didn’t like a dead short, went into thermal runaway, and burnt the whole dern stadium truck to the ground. Looked like a very miniature scene of Kuwait after Saddam set all the oil wells ablaze. When the pack went up, the fire ignited it’s ABS case rather well, and being strapped into a plastic chassis just tripled the fun/fire/smoke. I’m not sure who thought it would be a good idea to encase Li-po batteries in a butane, ammonia, and coal based plastic, but I have to say, they must have a flair for excitement! (or are just pyro’s at heart)

So immediately after this high priced bonfire, the pits erupted in speculation. What if this had happened in someones house and not on a dirt track? What if this had happened on a Paragon tire sauce soaked carpet track? Who was going to get sued worse- the track, the battery manufacture, or ROAR? If ROAR states in their rules that a Li-po can not go into thermal runaway to become certified, what are the ramifications when one of their “certified” packs burns down a carpet track and the building it was in? Is ROAR packing enough insurance to cover a few dozen racers dying in said fire?

At the end of the day, let’s just hope the fire I witnessed was a fluke, and that every other pack ROAR has certified actually passes their testing as specified in their rules.

I’ve heard from the man with the plan here at BigSquid that Bash-A-Aalooza went off with nary a hitch. And amazingly, that was even backed up by other people that were at the event! Seems the turnout wasn’t huge, but all the participants were awesome, the venue was one of the best in the world (Leisure Hours Raceways in Joliet Illinois), and the event sponsors kicked in major swag to put the event over the top. This type of event just might catch on- less pressure and more fun! Exactly what this sport needs.

After a long, drawn out, narcissistic phone call with BigSquidRC’s resident pro driver, he would not leave me alone about mentioning demo-derby. Seems when he not out pwn’ing people on the racetrack, said racer loves to bash hard, Really hard-full contact rc demo-derby hard. So if you are out there reading this, and would love to either compete in, or view coverage of the “RC Demo-Derby Nationals hosted by BigSquidRC”, shoot us an email. I’m sure we could come up with a venue and lots
of cool swag if there are enough drivers out there with big enough cojones!

That’s it for this week in our beloved sport. Quit jacking around reading here and support your local hobby shops and tracks!!!

Cubby

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Another week, another Cub Report- here’s all you really need to know about what went down in the rc universe last week.

It’s been years since the revolutionary Traxxas T-Maxx came out. Since then, most companies have jumped on the bandwagon and produced their versions of the platform. The HPI Savage was the first, and probably toughest competitor in the category. Guess who is the latest to jump on? Kyosho. They waited so long to release their T-Maxx copy that they didn’t just miss the boat, they missed the entire ocean. And while nitro monster trucks are still good sellers, the big K’s money would have been much better invested in anything electric, primarily an MP-8-E.

Speaking of the MP-8, where is it? Kyosho seems to have jumped from their MP-7/777 platform to the new MP-9. Is the number 8 unlucky in Asia? Who knows, but photo’s have been released of the MP-9. No under body shots have been seen, but it has been confirmed with sources at the big K that it is definitely still nitro powered.

2008 has been a real re-awakening for HPI/Hot Bodies. Last week, information for their new 8th scale off road buggy, the D8, were released. Their older “Lightening” series was not quite up to the level of the Mugen’s and K-cars, but this new model seems to have all the right features to make it a regular in the A-mains all across the country.

That’s it for this weeks folks, keep supporting your LHS and local tracks! The more you support them, the more they will support you!

Cubby

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Shall I jump right into the good stuff here? Of course!

Biggest disappointment of the week? Easily has to go to Kyosho after finding out that their “AKA Brand- World Class Products by World Champions” isn’t going to be some esoteric line-up of cars. Instead, AKA’s first release is 8th scale dirt tires. Yes, 8th scale dirt is the single hottest class in racing. But come on! What the buying public really wants from AKA are the most high-tech, out-of-the-box thinking kits on the planet. While that still may happen, at this point, all roads to AKA just lead to hop-up products. What a waste of talent.

Biggest legal news of the week? Traxxas putting out a statement not to use Li-po batteries in their new E-maxx. For sure, the new E-maxx can pull a lot of current, and will be a hit in the marketplace. It’s simply too bad to see the lawyers step in and issue Li-po warnings to keep their rear ends covered from being sued. Expect much more of this in each coming week.

On another note-

“A factory encased hard shell pack is mandated for race durability reasons that stem from the vulnerability of Lipo cells to physical damage. Any physical distortion, denting or puncture to the cells will cause either an immediate or long term safety risk. A hard cased pack reduces this risk significantly by protecting the cells from crash damage, battery ejection, and general wear and tear at the track.”

Like usual, ROAR is running half a decade behind technology, and is the primary reason the racing side of our hobby continues to decline. After reading their entire text for “Li-po” safety, it’s very clear they are not as concerned about safety as they are to helping someone in China sell ABS plastic cases. Perhaps they don’t even know what real safety is. A123’s Lithium based cells are far superior to any other rc specific Lithium pack on the market for safety, yet A123’s are not legal, and can not be legal with ROAR’s current guidelines.

That’s it for this week gents. Race hard, crash hard, support your LHS and local
track, and be sure to check BigSquidRC for your daily dose of rc news!

Cub-Reporter

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Welcome to month two in 08′, and like always, the rc world did not fail to deliver the goods.

The most news came out of the Nuremberg Toy Fair. When it comes to terms of “cool”, Nuremberg often bests the American shows when it comes to new products.

But first, I must address a huge beef I have with the management of BigSquidRC. Where was my first class ticket to Nuremberg? I was forced to fly coach and spend a miserable week in the Florida heat last week, and this week they won’t even buy me a ticket to Bavaria Germany? Where is the justice in this world? I fully expect a bottle of Dom Perignon Rose’ 98′, with a BigSquidRC sticker on it, in my hand or this will be my last write up for you guys.

So I digress. The biggest surprise of the show looked to be the new LRP NEXXT brushless controller. LRP states that this speedo “provides sensored driveablity without hall sensors”. Now I find that hard to believe, but the latest generation Castle Mamba 25 is truly remarkable in it’s drive quality, and it is non-sensored. It’s common knowledge that the real guys “in the know” about non-sensored systems
make good arguments as to why their technology is second to none, even throttle control from a dead stop. Time will tell if the LRP NEXXT technology is the next big thing, or yet another example of technology that was over hyped.

The only other thing that really caught my eye from the show was the Kyosho dNano 1/43rd scale racers. Wanna talk hi tech? They come stock with a 2.4Ghz transmitter (that looks exact like a phaser from Star Trek TOS!!!), stock li-po battery, and you can easily race a class of ten cars on your kitchen table! They do look really trick. But be careful, hitting a grain of salt will result in a marshalling.

HPI is getting their swagger back. Over the last couple years, they seemed to have quietly been sitting back gaining a fresh breathe of air. Guess what? The sleeping giant is back in full force. For all those serious bashers, the King of nitro bashmobiles is back, bigger, badder, and gnarlier. It’s called the Savage XL, and it looks EKA (extra kick ass). I’ve never seen any truck take a beating like a Savage does. The new version is bigger, badder, and sure to PWN the local dirt lot when it
comes to driving over all competition.

This week HPI also released news on their all new 10th scale, electric, brushless, off road truck called the Flux. In this new world of lithium batteries and brushless motors, you’d be hard pressed to actually find a transmission capable of handling a decent BL motor on 3S lithium from any manufacture. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that the Flux comes with all metal gears in the tranny. Horrray! (and will the rest of the industry please follow!!) I love it when manufacture
actually engineer for durability, not for a price point.

That’s it for this week. Read your daily dose of BigSquidRC, support your local hobby shops, and get off of here and drive your ride. You need to wear it out now because there is so much new gear ya have to buy!
Your all knowing, all seeing,
Cubby Reporter

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