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I've noticed a trend in the last couple of months, 2wd Buggy is making a comeback in the local club racing scene. Mostly in part to the Short Course trucks.

Short course truck racing has gotten to competitive, in a fun way, that people are left wanting more. That's when 2wd Buggy comes in, and with the release of the 22, 2wd buggy has begun to make a comeback.

At our track, in the last couple of weeks, many of the Short Course drivers have picked up 2wd buggies and are planning on running them with 17.5/13.5 motors, we could possibly be looking at 2 full rounds of buggies on any given club racing night, at the same time Short Course truck has stayed strong.

What do you guys think??

BTW...
I despise the look of SC, but they are fun, I run my SC10 with a LRP SXX and an X12 7.5, and that thing drives as good as my B4.1...

I agree. At my local track SC is crazy! Everybody and there mama is racing short course. I talked to a guy the other day who was running the new 22 at the track and we were talking about the same thing. Buggies look to be making a comeback. At least 2WD. If the manufactures each put out a new 4WD I'm sure they will too.

2wd is making a come-back around here too. I am not sure if it is because of SC, but it may have something to do with it. We mostly only race 4wd SC around here. 4wd buggy has a pretty solid following here too, not huge, but fairly consistent. The problem for us is that most of the tracks in the area are designed for 1/8, and are not very 1/10 friendly.

We had just as many 2wd buggies as SCT trucks last night. 2 full heats of each. The 22 has brought out a lot of old faces.

The 22 seems to have been what is bringing people back to 2WD buggy. Before it came out you'd find 3 or 4 cars in a race. Now there are 9 and 10 car heats and 6 or 7 of them are 22's.

It is the modern elelctronics with lipos and brushless motors that has brought people back to electric. For a while all I saw was gas/nitro. Now many tracks don't even allow them at all anymore. They are also very expensive which hurts.

When I first saw Short Course trucks I wondered what the point was. I have always personally thought that the ST truggy fad was the dumbest thing I'd ever seen and I still laugh when I see them. It's just not for me though and if others like them then so be it. That's their right. The last thing I felt we needed was yet another stupid truck based item. The short course trucks however look like the real stadium trucks that you see and I'm fine with that. I do find it sad that modern hobby shops are dominated almost exclusively by trucks with a random buggy thrown in the mix somewhere just so they can say they have one. I know modern buggies don't look like real buggies, especially not the ugly cab forward bodies, but they have been an evolution from buggies that did resemble the real thing. I'm actually starting to like the short course trucks but I'm still not getting into them. Buggy is where my heart is and always will be. That hasn't changed in over 25 years.

I purchased a SC10 RTR so I could have something that could race at my local track after being told it was the biggest class. I also wanted something that I could get parts for easy.

During practice I was watching the 2wd buggies and started to miss running that class.

I already made a big purchase for the SC10 RTR, so a new 22 was out of the question. Then the thought of converting my SC10 to a B4. One weekend B4 the next SC10. Well that would cost over $100.00 to convert...

I decided I will run my Whats Old I s new RC-10 in 2wd buggy mod, but I will be careful not to crash..

But yeah, I think Short Course gets the people out to the track, and they get to watch 2wd buggy between races and get hooked.

ED

VERY interesting subject - and one that is very near and dear to my heart.

Like everyone, I have a theory on why the SC trucks are so popular - and it's a two bladedd sword.

(a) They look realistic and drive very much like their full scale counterparts on TV. IF you go back to the roots of our hobby/sport/addiction (pick one!), early r/c builders went to great lengths to create vehicles that LOOKED like something that was actually being raced. As we entered the mid '80s, function began to over run form and the r/c worrld of 3 years ago was the result. Vehicles that really didn't resemble the 'real world' too much. Traxxas introduced the Slash and began to generate some numbers and from that point, IT WAS ON! And to this day, Traxxas is the king of cross promotion of our hobby to those who follow full scale short course racing. PLUS, they are resourcefull enough to drag product and create tracks in the same enviornment as the full scale vehicles that they emulate. DO people make $200 - $300 'impulse purchases' in these times?? Traxxas would NOT be going to this much trouble if they didn't, now would they?

The same 'realistic' approach is driving a number of other types of racing/vehicles too. VTA is getting bigger by the month - why? They look real and drive closer to scale speeds and don't require the 'technology' of traditional sedans.

(b) They're relatively inexpensive and are durable. With full bodies and rugged construction they don't require a lot of maintenance and therefore can produce more track/bashing time. In some cases, they are competitive right out of the box!

Now, fast forward to 05/11 - and look what's on the Horizon (yes, pun intended):



NOW, this will probably have a HUGE effect on folks who want to race buggy - in a realistic sort of way!

For those who don't know, most parts are shared with the XXX-SCT and are currently available (or as available as any parts are right now). I will be most interested to see a couple of things with the SCB - # 1 is will it spawn imitators???? # 2 Will it be popular??? There was a LOT of talk about it when it was announced several months ago (when the traditional indoor season was still in full swing) but there hasn't been a lot of talk (that I've read/heard/seen) as the release gets closer.

Am I on board? You betcha'!!!! WHY??? I like realism and have lotsa wheels and tires that will work just fine on it!

How will it impact the 'traditional' buggy class??? It will be interesting to see. I know that from my perspective, 1/10th scale buggies tend to be a bit finicky, a bit hard to drive when not set up perfectly and somewhat fragile (when compared to SC trucks). My thought is that it will probably spawn another class in a many parts of the country - at the expense of what? Traditional buggy??? Could be, the folk who populate the B & below mains may look at this as a whole new class; one which isn't populated by sponsored and heavily funded drivers. One that they can be competitive at a lower cost and a lower level of technology....

Agree or not, it's going to be an interesting racing season for the balance of 2011!

idk about the scb's. kyosho tried it and now losi. only time will tell if scb takes off.

2wd buggy is and always will be the drivers class, and where driversof other classes will look for more "cleaner" racing.

scb will most likely be a hammer class just like sct.

just my .02