How to read performance results!
#1 Performance of a car depends on the driver and the
track.
#2 The things we found and state may differ from track to track and driver
to driver.
#3 So see these things as a guideline for forming your own opinion about
the car.
Building a car is one thing, driving it and giving an opinion
on the drive ability compared to other cars is an other and very difficult thing.
Why, you will ask!
Performance comparing is hard as personal opinions and feelings
count the
most.
Set up a car for your way of driving and you will like the performance where an
other says he is not able to drive it in his opinion!
Where some like some oversteer other like some understeer.
Some like to ride with hard suspension where other like it soft.
Conclusion a real performance result is very difficult to state.
Then there is also the brand addiction that some might have (we at TWF8 do not
have that problem!)
All we try to do at TWF8 is giving my personal (Paco Raap's)
opinion or other TWF8 testers of the car and that might be an other one then yours.
But we look more for durability then for real track performance as this is all
depending on personal set ups and tracks.
So look for what you think is important to buy or drive a 1:8
scale buggy and decide on your own personal opinion.
Paco Raap for TEAM TWF8
Is Buggy X is faster than Buggy Y?
The holy grail is lower lap times. A racer switches from brand X to brand
Y and then proclaims "Wow this buggy is way faster!" or “This buggy
doesn’t handle as nice!”.
Considerations such as going from "well used" to "brand new"
are not factored in.
The largest neglected factor is usually absence of the experience and/or skills
to make a proper comparison.
Most pros have it, but the truth is most club racers lack the ability to quickly
setup a new vehicle to match the track and their specific driving style.
Brand X and brand Y do require the same basic knowledge, the rub is most of us
require quite a bit of experience with a particular buggy to get a feel for
it’s tuning needs and find it’s full potential.
Most realize a pro who drives the same vehicle can give better advice, yet most
club racers assume they can setup a new buggy (or know it's capabilities) just
by driving it a couple laps.
It rarely works like this, if the goal is speed it helps to keep in mind a test
drive or first impression with a new vehicle can be misleading.
Without investing the time to fully explore a new vehicles capabilities; to
practice enough to determine how to set it up to handle both the track and your
specific driving style; the best most of us can garner is a vague generality of
a new buggy’s potential.
It does help to stick with the brands & kits that the pros and the local
fast guys run.
As long as you run one of the top kits in that group the specific model you
choose will rarely change where you finish in the standings.
Each vehicle has specific strengths/weaknesses, though most can be compensated
for if you take the time to learn.
This is why you hear many pros say to get faster the best advice is “Practice
Practice Practice!”.
Not only will your driving skills improve, you will gain valuable setup
knowledge regarding the interaction between your specific vehicle, your driving
style, and each particular type of track.
And that, much more than switching to Brand Y, is the ticket to skinny lap
times.
Bill Riggins for TEAM TWF8.