Aero - Durango battle...

[Asso_man!]

LOOK and read Durango seems to have been abused by a Belgian company, what a shame for my country

http://www.redrc.net/2007/04/gerd-strenge-official-statement/#more-2618

[Eau Rouge]

Woa.

I was wondering where that car came from so quickly to win so fast...

[Eau Rouge]

This whole thing is WAY entertaining. I just spent the last 45 minutes digging through all of the dirt from both sides.

From what I can see, Aero has some issues to deal with in front of them...

[Asso_man!]

This whole thing is WAY entertaining. I just spent the last 45 minutes digging through all of the dirt from both sides.

From what I can see, Aero has some issues to deal with in front of them...

that is for sure

[Asso_man!]

Here's Aero Racing answer's:


To everyone who is interested,


This is a one time reaction on the multiple posts that have been spread today about the Aero Company. We were very surprised to see these kinds of accusations on the internet. As you all know the internet is a fantastic medium but it can also be abused in an awful way, this last thing is what happened today. As you probably saw there were accusations about stealing a car and abusing someone’s name as a designer. In the normal world it’s appropriate that you first find some prove and then accuse someone of something, but when you do this in a decent and civilized way you do this in front of a court, and not via the internet (were everybody can post what he/she wants).

We leave some questions open so that the people themselves can think about these:

This is a brand new company, it takes a lot of guts and a lot of thinking and studying to get something started in the real world (especially the r/c world). It also costs a lot of money! Would someone take the risk of losing all their invested money and their honour by stealing something and start a business on this basis?

This project is supported by a University; do you think a University approves a project in 5 minutes? Without checking how businesses and contracts are arranged? Don’t you think with this kind of project you have to persuade a jury to get their support?

If you where in the shoes of the designer and (suppose) you saw your car that was being built by someone else (suppose: without an agreement) and winning a big race, would you wait 2 weeks until the pre-order list (with a lot of orders!) is online to react and claim it has been stolen?

We find this a very sad business that all the websites are making this public without checking out the information (which is very heavy accusations and trying to destroy a young and ambitious company).

We try to handle business in a way of decency and moral ethics. Accusations, lies and jealousy are not part of that; this kind of proper business seems to be odd to some. We also want to say that websites and reporters are due to have a moral code which involves a check and double check of their sources before making any news public, we hope every reporter has done this. Spreading news that isn’t true is also illegal. We hope everyone who spread the rumour will have the decency to put this letter online.

We know who put this onto the net and we wish them a lot of luck in the future. We can only say that this is not our way of doing business and we won’t participate in that low level of business. If someone is thinking they are in their rights they can always go to court, we on the other hand try to answer on the race track and building proper cars for serious racers.


Best regards,

Aero racing

[Eau Rouge]

In my opinion, he didn't ANSWER any questions about the misuse of the Durango name—he only asked more questions of those who have wondered what is going on.



Fun stuff...

[Asso_man!]

that is exactly what I thought

[Mr. ED]

Just curious, who are those 2 belgian guys?
I might know them.

Otherwise: does anyone have any links to pics of the original car referred too, or of the new one?

[Asso_man!]

You will find the info in the following quote, battle is engaged it seems... Having translated numerous invention patents mainly from French to English in my translator career, I really wonder if the original creator did patent the concept, original idea and engineering... When you look at the 2wd R/C scene, some cars are also very similar to each other, it's sometimes even about details like plastic compounds, look of the body and so on... Maybe we'll know after a trial at a European Court, time will tell, but pre-orders will probably not to be satisfied in the short-term

Facts regarding claimed selling of “Durango” to “Aero”

Fact is that I sold the complete Durango project start of 2007 to a major player in the rc industry.

Fact is that during 2006 talks have taken place with Danny Claes (the father of Bob Claes, one of the owners of the Aero company), about selling the Durango project to him. As soon as the financal side of the deal needed to be discussed, Danny Claes withdrew his interest.

I met Danny Claes again during the April 1/8 off road GP in Belgium again and no mention whatsoever was made about purchasing the Durango project, nor about the foundation of the Aero Company.

The alledged statement of Aero, that they have bought the Durango project is false.

There are no agreements or contracts with Aero Racing whatsoever, nor has there ever been any form of payment received. I find it unacceptable that Danny Claes / Aero Company makes such statements and I challenge them to proof it; just show and proof those alledged agreements or contracts as Aero claims such exist.

I will not allow any person nor company to abuse my project-name, my
personal name and image just for Aero’s own commercial benefit, without any form of agreement from my side.

Gerd Strenge

[atomic-carbon]

Links to photos below -

Durango 4wd - http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/durango/imagepages/durango02.html

Aero 4wd - http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/tiverton2007national/4wd/imagepages/aero08.html

[Eau Rouge]

Good call, Jonathan. Those were the two photos from Jimmy's collection that I intended to post.

For a good comparison, here they are next to each other...

[From oOple.com]

Aero-1


Durango

[Mr. ED]

HUh, they both copied my battery lay-out!
I did this in my ultima 1/12 tourer conversion.
Guess I should have patented it


Nice to see there 's finally a g belgian RC producer with some good stuff.
I hope they turn out legitimate, but it doesn't seem that way now.