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Moment with Mike: History repeats itself

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Mike Garrison

0 June 29, 2012, 5:49 a.m.

6/29/2012

By Mike Garrison

LiveRC.com

I can remember sitting in school and my crazy high school history teacher always preached to us, "History repeats itself, and each time it advances a little more...just watch!"

To be honest I never thought much about it, and like the class in general, I didn't exactly follow along with everything he was saying. 6 years later, racing my remote control car, I realize that crazy old man knew what he was talking about. As more and more new products and technology, techniques, and products are released in R/C and various other racing industries, it has occured to me that many of these "new" innovations are simply history repeating itself...with a little fine tuning.

Don't believe me, think about this:

Mid-motor design

While many believe that the mid-motor craze is all-new, they are mistaken. Kyosho released their popular Optima 1/10 offroad buggy in the early 1980's. Shortly following the Optima's release was the Optima Mid buggy. This buggy was one of the first true race-inspired mid-motor designed kits on the market. 30 years later we see manufacturer's offering once again the mid-motor design including Team Durango, X Factory, and TLR.

(Photo courtesy of www.vintagercweb.com)

Multi-Piece Wheels

More and more wheel and tire manufacturer's are releasing their new multi-piece wheels. While the refinement and precision put into these new wheels is far beyond what was available back in the day, the idea isn't new. When Team Associated originally released their RC10T (the first AE stadium truck) in the early 90's it featured 3-piece front wheels. These 3-piece wheels not only made for a glue free tire change, but they were also re-usable. Granted the most current multi-piece wheels on the market are designed for tuning and balance, as opposed to the original RC10T wheels, however the idea of the multi-piece wheel is once again history repeating itself.

1/10 Scale Offroad Aluminum Chassis

With Team Durango and TLR releasing their aluminum chassis 1/10 scale 2wd offroad buggies, the industry was stunned to see they were based off of an aluminum chassis. 2wd offroad racers had never seen anything but plastic or carbon fiber chassis designs up until this point...that is unless you are a veteran racer and remember the original RC10! Team Associated's original RC10 buggy, released in 1994, featured a hard anodized gold aluminum chassis. Nearly 20 years later the aluminum 2wd chassis is back mainstream.

(Photo courtesy of RCTech Forums - User "jamesl")

Extended Chassis Design

Recently in onroad, offroad, 1/10 scale, and 1/8 scale racing there has been more and more manufacturer releases of "extended chassis" kits. Most of the new 1/10 offroad buggies are somewhere close to 15" in overall length. In the late 1980's multiple companies developed 1/10 offroad buggies that ranged anywhere from 15.5" all the way to 17" in length! Once again, today's extended chassis designs are far more advanced and race tested, however, the idea of longer cars was hitting the market by 1989.

(The Kyosho Circuit 10 Wildcat was a staggering 17" long in 1986)

My Conclusion

What can I say, the crazy old man was right! It seems as though his words were spot on! History does truly seem to repeat itself, and each time it does it advances a little more. I mean look at this...Friday afternoon this little guy was walking the pits as a weiner...