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I was just reading the timeline on Team associated's website but they never say why they made the change from the gold to the black tubs. Does anybody know why?

I don't think there is a good reason for doing so. I guess powdercoating is cheaper than anodizing and maybe their marketing team told them they had to change something visible to their cars... just a supposition

Black was anodized too

Erich Reichert wrote:Black was anodized too

Yeah, right, I'm a bit tired after a hard day at work... An other theory would be that they wanted the tub to match the new Teflon shocks...

aren't the teflon shocks kind of grey?

Black goes with anything. Gold tub and gray shocks? I don't think so. And according to my uncle, black is faster. There was about 20 of us bought Kawa 300 Bayouz back in '86 and he got a black one. Swore it was faster than the red

I guess the old saying holds true. Once you go black, you can't go back.

I would guess it had something to do with all the new black graphite chassis and black parts coming out. Didn't AE go black shortly after the Jrx2 came out?

*cough*LOSIRULES*cough*



Everybody was dying their parts at that time anyway, black was the new black at the time.

I would say its due to all the discoloration in the gold anodizing that haistened the change.

My theory is that black also covers up any blems or imperfections in aluminum a LOT better than other colors. It may have been a way to use up old parts by just anodizing over everything in stock, plus adding in new stuff. Black anodizing may have been cheaper, too, as it is the most common color anodized. Kind that red barn theory (red paint covers better, so they use less, so it's cheaper to paint barns red than other colors like white).


Or it was just an arbitrary aesthetic choice made by someone in charge, and had nothing to do with anything. We do tend to over-think everything, this probably isn't any different.

I pesonally think that it had to do with marketing. Let's face it, the perception was that the "old gold" chassis was nothing compated to the new jrx2. People (including myself) believed that the jrx2 was the new "king of the hill".

During this time, Associated factory drivers were still using the gold chassis even after the introduction of the jrx-pro. Heck, they were still using the stock bell cranks. The only driver that had a slightly modified rc10 was Masami...and his was full of yokomo parts. I almost think that the factory mandiated the use of a near box stock rc10 for local and national events to show everyone that the rc10 was still competetive.

As soon as Associated came out with the team car, the perception changed. People were excited again (especially those die hard Associated guys) because Assoicated just came out with something new. In reality it was just a black chassis, hard coated shocks and a copule of other minor items (the stealth was already on the championship edition, so it was nothing new).

Same car, different color...but's got to be faster!!! Sort of like putting a "type R" sticker on your import. The sticker made you think your car was faster.

Now, from a manfacturing standpoint, black anodizing hides more of the imperfections (stains) than the gold transparent anodizing.

I don't think it had anything to do with the black parts because white parts were on the team car.

just my 2 cents....

regards,
highwayracer

highwayracer wrote: (the stealth was already on the championship edition, so it was nothing new).

Actually the Stealth was introduced on the Graphite Car and Team Car about a year before the CE got it...

templeofspeed wrote:Actually the Stealth was introduced on the Graphite Car and Team Car about a year before the CE got it...

Oh well, what do you expect from a losi guy

regards,
highwayracer

I think it had something to do with marketing also. I remember the gold chassis beginning to look a little outdated with more modern buggies being released with carbon chassis and so on. It was the logical choice I think.

Asso_man! wrote:I don't think there is a good reason for doing so. I guess powdercoating is cheaper than anodizing and maybe their marketing team told them they had to change something visible to their cars... just a supposition

Erich Reichert wrote:Black was anodized too

Asso_man! wrote:Yeah, right, I'm a bit tired after a hard day at work... An other theory would be that they wanted the tub to match the new Teflon shocks...

shodog wrote:aren't the teflon shocks kind of grey?

This seriously made me laugh out loud.