RE: What's Your R/C Story
Well, I got into this hobby a couple Xmas's ago, when my wife (bless her heart!) got me an Evader EXT2. We have ten acres, so I can run all over the place! It was my first hobby car since playing with slot cars as a kid. (Anyone here still remember when you had to drive to your local slot car track, IF your city HAD one, and you paid to run, by the hour?) (I thought not. I'm probably the oldest dude here) I LOVED it! What fun! My buddy came up and tried it, and got hooked too, and he soon had an Evader himself. So consequently, we started having "race days" where he'd come up and we'd chase each other 'round the yard. One problem with our yard as far as RC: TREES. Not being real good at driving yet, we hit trees frequently. One would think that an RC car made for beginners would have SOME kind of protection against such collisions, but this was before the Brushless Evader came out, which DOES have a proper bumper. We started breaking chassis, and other parts. Of course, we got better at avoiding trees, and to further protect us, we took closed-cell foam sleeping pads and cut them up to use as crash barriers. Sure reduced car damage! Surprisingly, even with the stock brushed motor, we started stripping Top Gears. Many weeks/months waiting for replacement parts from DTX. (Why is it it's always THE part I need that is back-ordered for months?) Eventually, we upgraded to brushless and LiPo (we both bought Castle Sidewinders) And oddly enough, we never had Top Gear issues again! Go figure. Even my wife got interested when she saw US having so much fun, so we got her one too. That interest hasn't continued, so now it's my "2nd" car. Man we were so hooked, we didn't even want to stop for darkness, We installed headlights! Castle wasn't very helpfull or responsive when we had issues with the BL systems, so we replaced them with EZrun systems. New tires and wheels and other little upgrades and we finally layed out a track. Not a smooth one, but one more like a combo ralley/short-course that is far from smooth, so it really works the suspnsion and is a hoot to drive. We have a blast!