Wow modern buggies are fugly

[nolunchman]

Maybe i'm just being too nostalgic but after coming back to the hobby after decades I'm not too impressed the aesthetic evolution of RC buggies. If you stand back and look at how the arrangement of shock towers, the car looks like a 4 poster bed. The mid motor design mandates a "cab forward" (what cab?) design. The wheel diameter is out of proportion with the car. The tires have rubber band profiles. The result looks like a prop from a bad sci fi movie (which is where it belongs).

I get the form follows function design philosophy. Fine but don't call these cars 1:10 scale because they are not scaled down from anything. In real life the wheels would be 22" and the tires something like 375/25/20. Good luck finding those tires at Costco.

This is what an RC10 scaled up would look like

Clearly someone at HPI has a good grasp of scale


Now scale up this contemporary monstrosity



If anyone just threw up a little in their mouth, apologies. That was an extreme example of fugly. If anyone owns that particular body, sorry, not sorry.
So what's the point of the rant? I dunno, maybe a manufacturer will wake up and design a proper buggy that looks as good as it performs.

Or maybe I'm just old.

[mikea96]

I felt the same when the cab forward bodies first came out but they have definitely settled down on there goofey looks from one they first came out. And the new buggies can handle some serious power so smoothly.

[Dadio]

From what I gather the "Cab forward body " has more to do with air flow when jumping than aesthetics , its supposed to act as a front wing that helps with nose down flight angle and landing , the very flat body beneath the Cab level is also meant to help , I always wonder where the drivers legs go ?

[Bakauata]

I just re-read the title of your post, and noticed it does say buggies exclusively. While I do agree that some of the more sober productions from back in the day are leaps and bounds more tasteful than the current designs, there were some very ugly buggies back then.

I have always thought the real cataclysm in taste happened in the truck arena.

What is this?!




Just as I was picking this image off of their web site I saw they claim that it is "self-righting". Well, of course it's self righting if you can't tell the top from the bottom!

Why don't they just give it a proportionately sized body and call it 1/5th scale?

The advent of stadium trucks (back in the 90s) is, too me, what kicked off this goofy, silly-wide-wheelbase, wheels-that-don't-match-the-wheel-pockets, design.; basically stretching a buggy out sideways and putting larger wheels and a truck cab on it.
I remember disliking them when I first started seeing them in magazines, and thinking, "what is this meant to be"?


In all fairness to Traxxas, they also make this, which I feel is a welcome return to scale (and taste).





But going back to buggies, I think the HPI Baja buggies is the little oasis for design and looks these days.

[nolunchman]

that HPI sure does look nice

[Jim85IROC]

I don't really mind the cab foward look as much on the buggies as I do on the stadium trucks. To me, stadium trucks & truggies have gotten absolutely ridiculous looking. I've got a T5M and I can't bring myself to finish it because I can't find a body for it that doesn't look stupid.

[scr8p]

I don't really mind the cab foward look as much on the buggies as I do on the stadium trucks. To me, stadium trucks & truggies have gotten absolutely ridiculous looking. I've got a T5M and I can't bring myself to finish it because I can't find a body for it that doesn't look stupid.

Jconcepts Hi-Flow T5m body is what you'd want. Doesn't have that goofy roofline.

[Jim85IROC]

I don't really mind the cab foward look as much on the buggies as I do on the stadium trucks. To me, stadium trucks & truggies have gotten absolutely ridiculous looking. I've got a T5M and I can't bring myself to finish it because I can't find a body for it that doesn't look stupid.

Jconcepts Hi-Flow T5m body is what you'd want. Doesn't have that goofy roofline.

Yeah, that's definitely the least ugly of the bunch. I actually want to try an RC10GT body to see if it'll fit. I need to get around to buying the body. Even if it ends up not fitting the T5M, I need it for a T2 project that I'm putting a T5M transmission into.

[RCveteran]

On a related note, do you guys find the modern buggies easier to drive or not? My comparison experience is on black carpet track modern B6.1 vs my rere World's car. I am not a great driver and not surprising my lap times don't change much between the cars. I get the pros would be a different story. But I find the old style easier to drive even on the high grip. I can clearly see and feel the B6.1 turns in sharper and is way more precise but it's almost too sharp for me for lack of a better description. I find myself crashing more with it than the Worlds car or my Slash which is the ultimate in precision

[R6cowboy]

Have to agree most modern buggies and stadium trucks look awful in my opinion. The older RC10's were awesome looking buggies. My all time favorite being the 1990 RC10 Team kit buggy pictured below. Friend of mine still has his from when it was new. Also love the old looks of the FXT, RC10T & T2 and Hawk 2 to name a few. Even though I do like the factory RC10T4 Interceptor body, I recently I picked up a JConcepts Ford F-150 RC10T2 body to fit to my T4.3.

1990 RC10 Team kit.jpg (19.39 KiB) Viewed 1891 times

1990 RC10 Team kit.jpg (19.39 KiB) Viewed 1891 times

[GoMachV]

You think the buggies are ugly.... yikes

[R6cowboy]

holy moses, that makes my stomach turn. I motion to remove that pic. Please and thank you... lol

[jkelm24]

What tha'...!

No wonder RC is struggling. How does that thing pull at anyone's heart strings?

[TRX-1-3]

The "driver" must have an excellent view of that front shock tower. What a steamy pile!

[Coelacanth]

The "driver" must have an excellent view of that front shock tower. What a steamy pile!

That's what I was getting at years ago when the same topic came up...I don't see the point to even having a body with a windshield as (1) there's no driver doll anymore and (2) there's no attempt to design a body that's realistic, anyway. Just slap on a Lexan shell that fits as close to the chassis as possible and stop even bothering to make a "body". For the same reason, seeing all these truggies being made with wheelwells that have no bearing whatsoever to where the wheels and tires are actually located just makes me gag. What's the point of even cutting wheelwells out when the wheels and tires are an inch or more forward or behind the cut-outs? It looks like ass IMHO.