Were The Good Old Days Really All That Good?

Were The Good Old Days Really All That Good?

The quick and dirty answer is–drum roll, please–yes and no. For me, there are a few segments that qualify as the good old days of RC. The first segment is the mid eighties when I discovered hobby-grade RC and almost immediately started racing. These were the good old days because everything was new and exciting. I was young and having a great time. It was pure fun and racing was simple. What wasn’t so good was my racing equipment. Specifically, I hated dealing with plastic bushing,mechanical speed controls and horrible batteries. Eventually it became easier to find affordable bearings, but it was a few years before I had an electronic speed control. The batteries eventually got better, but they also got complicated (matching, zapping and losts of money) until LiPo batteries came out much later. If you compare the equipment available, the good old days weren’t all that good…compared to today. My second good old days took place during my college years and beyond when I raced with the Keene RC Racers club. This was a great group of people and simply the best racing you could ask for. The club’s most popular class was Street Spec and, overall, I had decent equipment. Again, racing was fairly simple and pure fun. Those really were the good old days. That said, were those good old days all that good compared to today? When it comes to the equipment available, the answer is absolutely no. The vehicles and support gear keep getting better. No matter how fond my memories are of the past, I can’t help but think that the good old days really weren’t all that good thanks to simply amazing vehicle designs and technology that simply spoils us such as 2.4GHz, LiPo batteries and brushless motors. Sometimes we just realize how good we have it. Enjoy RC.

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Updated: July 20, 2015 — 3:38 PM
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