Where does LOSI go now?

[terry.sc]

Originally Posted by dave g

i think what you have to look at now,is who is left at horizon/losi to design and carry the next buggy on,or indeed carry on the evolvment of the current crop of cars,as i said previous,the big money is in rtr kits,they dont have to be factory spec or the latest all singing/dancing performance car as its mainly beginners who are buyin them..so they can quite happily keep knocking the losi8 rtr buggy out for the next 10 yrs or so..but what happens to the hardcore racer who wants the next racing spec machine?

Jukka Steenari is AFAIK still their lead designer, he seems to know a thing or two about 1/10th electric. Just because Gil has left doesn't mean the company is finished, Associated seems to be managing quite well on the racing scene without Roger Curtis and Gene Husting.

So they aren't sending a team over to Japan at great expense to be beat by the might of Associated again or by the Japanese companies seriously looking for a home win. I suspect it is more to do with where the worlds are rather than what they are, if the worlds were in USA or Europe I'm sure we would see a Losi team there.

Electric off road is a small segment of the market and I suspect what is most likely to make Losi stop making buggies are all those racers who are now going to sell all their Losi cars just because Losi didn't send a team to the Worlds. Missing one race meeting doesn't make the cars uncompetitive, I'm sure all those that sell up will be regretting that decision if Losi wins the next big race meeting.
If racers stop buying their cars they will pull out of electric off road, why still make buggies if it is unprofitable when it is cheaper to develop and more profitable to sell bashers.

[burgie]

the 2wd ttech car (as was) was designed by Richard Weatherley about 10 years ago, and then put on hold.

the design stage of the car was briefly resurrected shortly after the X10 was released, and then put on hold once again. When xtreme bought ttech, they basically took stock of what was there (4wd, 2wd and tourer I think) and then put their design ideas onto them. Hence the X11 was born from the X10 and the 2wd was resurrected again and updated, but i am not sure of the touring car status. Lewis has said to me that he wishes to offer 4wd, 2wd and touring cars to the market, so i am sure the touring car will be out one day.

As for configuration and layout of the 2wd, apart from it having one wheel on each corner I am not certain that it is mid engined or not. I gleaned that snippet of information during a conversation with Richard a few months back.

[Nick Goodall]

It's all very well going down the RTR route, but not much good if you get all these people into racing and they then need something competitive so have to turn elsewhere to companies such as Associated/Kyosho?

I can understand why they're not putting in $$$$ to 1/10th though, it's all very well saying "half the field at Oz were Losi's" - But that to me makes up what 60 cars max??? On the grand scale of things, that is absolutely feck all is it really???

America is where it matters to be honest, if it's dying out there for them they're not going to justify all the $$$$'s needed to design anything new just because there maybe 60 Losi cars at a UK national........ the scene over here must be like a drop in the ocean compared to what gets spent in the US?

Considering we don't have one off road track (that i know of) that has a permenant shop just shows really as sooo soooo many in the USA do - think how much money they must turn over daily and not just on race days as they can provide a testing ground for people to come and have a play! That's got to be the best way to sell these kind of products?

[Lee]

If the uk had a shop with a track open all week, would it be successful?

I know of a piece of land and i know a shop that would snap up the chance, but how successful would it be?

[Nick Goodall]

Who knows Lee? Guess that's the problem really.

The only way to do it would be to have a proper indoor Dirt track (So Cal or Comp Hobbies style) so you could have a really good proper supercross style track allowing all classes of Off Road, then you could hold big meetings there at weekends and let people come and practise/try/buy stuff in the week for a fee.

I guess market research would be needed, but i think the problem here is that everything is expensive in the UK and people generally don't have the spare time/money for a hobby like R/C??

[MarkWesterfield]

Its really tough for hobby shop owned indoor r/c tracks to survive out here in the US. Any good property that has visability in a high traffic area is very very expensive, all the cheaper property is in a low traffic hard to find industrial park (not that much cheaper really). The problem is that an r/c track and the pit area, along with the amount of parking space a larger race would require is ALOT of square footage that dosen't provide much income per square foot (which is what your rent is based on).

Most of the kits sold at the hobby shops with tracks, never get run on the track, of the few that do get run on the track, even less of those get raced during a organized race.

I wouldn't waste your time unless your already own the property, have a good education (and budget) with advertising, and are genuinely intrested in getting new people intrested in the hobby and want to spend time helping them learn.

[Lee Martin]

Originally Posted by terry.sc

Jukka Steenari is AFAIK still their lead designer, he seems to know a thing or two about 1/10th electric. Just because Gil has left doesn't mean the company is finished, Associated seems to be managing quite well on the racing scene without Roger Curtis and Gene Husting.

So they aren't sending a team over to Japan at great expense to be beat by the might of Associated again or by the Japanese companies seriously looking for a home win. I suspect it is more to do with where the worlds are rather than what they are, if the worlds were in USA or Europe I'm sure we would see a Losi team there.

Electric off road is a small segment of the market and I suspect what is most likely to make Losi stop making buggies are all those racers who are now going to sell all their Losi cars just because Losi didn't send a team to the Worlds. Missing one race meeting doesn't make the cars uncompetitive, I'm sure all those that sell up will be regretting that decision if Losi wins the next big race meeting.
If racers stop buying their cars they will pull out of electric off road, why still make buggies if it is unprofitable when it is cheaper to develop and more profitable to sell bashers.

Jukka stopped working for losi and retired from RC a few years ago now...he lives back in finland

[Chrislong]

Talking to Paul, I hear a lot of the tracks which are formed indoor ones attached to a shop are actually a little 'out of town'.

I think the issue for a potential track is the catchment area of racers. In the USA they seem to think nothing of travelling 100miles for a club meeting, compared to the majority of us who consider 70miles too far for anything other than a regional/national. Perhaps we work too many hours to pay for life. Perhaps the cost of motoring and the joys of congestion is worse than USA meaning we have a different concept to travelling.

Personally id like one of these in the UK, something which is reformed every couple of months to keep it interesting, ran properly, well presented and thrived. Id even consider being part of the team to be honest, but the truth is, its too big of a risk in this country.

Chris

[Lee]

Chris, the reason why i asked is, my brothers girlfriends parents are pretty loaded, Her dad got about 5 fields with the house they bought but he cannot get planning permission for them even though there is "stables/workshops" at one end. these fields are huge, approx 6 football pitches side by side.

I wouldn`t of thought a bit of asto/dirt/cobbles etc would require planning permission as it would always be changing so therefore not a permanent fixture?

At the moment these fields are making him no cash so a couple of hundred quid a week is better than a kick in the nuts for him.

[Chrislong]

Lee, that is awesome! Sounds like an ideal situation for something to be started with..

[Lee]

Its in the northwest too so its nearer to you than me

the only problem is bury and southport clubs are within 50 mile, and they seem to struggle for numbers?

[Chrislong]

Hey Lee, thats even cooler.

Southport have a very loyal club base, but it may be worth making contact with Bury (Stuart & Roger Wood) to see if they'd consider being part of this? Honestly, its worth a thought.

Chris

[Doomanic]

A few years ago I priced up an industrial unit in a regeneration area with enough space for 2 indoor tracks and parking/pitting for approx 100 racers.......


....How does £46K plus vat per annum sound?
That excludes rates, utilities and insurance.

Not really practical imho.

[Markoxx4]

Only a few weeks ago I was looking to set up an indoor track in Bradford. The business model was very good and would have worked. The thing that stops it from happening is the local council, this applies to any council not just Bradford.
1. What ever the rent of the building is, im my case it was £65k/year the council slap on as business/council tax. So now your rent is £130k/year

2. The type of unit you would need is industrial and that is what the council has set its usage license as. To use it as a track you need to obtain a change of use. And they won’t let you!!

Now I always thought that your local authority would welcome a new business start up to improve the region. But they actually make it really difficult!!
When all out going costs were added up it came to over £150k/year. Because of the risk associated with a relatively small sport/hobby and the large outgoings no bank would ever entertain giving you a business loan to set up in the first place!!

So say thanks to the government of this country!!!

[annie_himself]

The XXXT-CR has been announced from Losi, its on RCTech and Ultimaterc.com

[mark christopher]

http://www.redrc.net/2007/07/team-lo...-racing-truck/

[Chris Doughty]

Cool, XXX-T JR eddition... (Jesse Robbers)

[antnee]

who needs 1/10th offroad? lets all buy 1/36th micro-t's!!!

on the track note, many people from notts, derby area travel quite far to go to phil booth models(j26 m1) and he also has a website, so being 'near' the racers doesnt matter, if i had the money/land i would set up a shop and track now, the instant! the internet does wonders you know, i think many hobby shops do more internet trade than actual shop trade. RCmart in HK is run from a flat!

[terry.sc]

Originally Posted by antnee

the internet does wonders you know, i think many hobby shops do more internet trade than actual shop trade. RCmart in HK is run from a flat!

Not quite. How many shops can compete with this.
http://www.rcmart.com/catalog/about_...a5976382219ba8

[jimmy]

"Beauti Receptionists" lol