PREMIUM EXCLUSIVE: Pro Talk With MIP’s Eustace Moore Jr. (Full Interview)

At the recent Short Course Showdown tour stop at S & N’s Trackside I got a chance to sit down and talk to Mr. MIP himself, Eustace Moore Jr. MIP has been offering RC products for over 30 years now, and before Eustace formed the company in the late 1970’s he was an accomplished professional off-road racer competing at our industry’s highest level. This combined experience in both racing and manufacturing has given him a wealth of RC knowledge over the years, and he shares some of this with us now in this edition of Pro Talk:

Radio Control Car Action: How did you first get involved with RC cars?

Eustace Moore Jr: Well actually I started with RC airplanes. I used to design and build my own airplanes as a kid, and there were a couple of guys in the neighborhood who were hardcore into airplanes, so I picked that up. At the same time, while viewing the RC magazines, you’d notice they had cars there also. I had an interest in cars as I used to build model cars, very early on I constructed some from found items like eraser wheels with bread twist wire axles, and pretty soon my model cars became RC cars, and that was the end of it.

RCCA: At what point in your RC career did you decide to start up your own company? Or was that always a goal of yours?

EMJ: Well initially it wasn’t a goal. I’d say the first plan started when I was about 16, when I was initially designing some parts for myself, which initially became products, and it just kind of went forth from there.

RCCA: What is your official job title and day to day duties over at MIP?

EMJ: Currently I am CEO Genius and my duties are vast. I work with every department of the company from sales and marketing, to product development, I work with the factory race team, the manufacturing group, quality, engineering, shipping, receiving, packaging….I am involved in every aspect of the company, so I would just say that I am involved.

RCCA: The company name MIP stands for Moore’s Ideal Products, but before you settled on that name were there other names you considered? Maybe there is a funny/interesting story that went along with choosing this name?

EMJ: There is no story. It was actually Moore’s Ideal Products and Hobbies – initially there a small Hobby Shop I had started with, it didn’t quite open, it was more just gathering all the information, and at some point I had just decided to drop the hobby part and just focus on the manufacturing…no story. The Ideal came from the ideas sparked from where the products came from – participating in racing, and just talking with the racers and finding out what they need and also from what my needs were at the time, you know, for RC racing.

RCCA: Over the years RC has transformed into the hobby that we all enjoy today. In your opinion what are some of best changes you have seen in the industry? Are there some bad ones?

EMJ: Well the best ones are going to be the lipo batteries, the chargers, and the motors that go along with them. You are able to run extremely long periods of time with tremendous amounts of power as well as create power. The guys are running 100 mph now with these little cars…it just really made a big difference in what we are doing. The 2.4 radio systems have made it possible to run endless amounts of trains, planes, and cars radios so that has definitely been a stride forward. Backwards? I’d say that when nearly everybody decided to go to China and have things made there, and the products and cars became just commodities, rather than the custom, specialized vehicles for RC racing and for the true enthusiast.

RCCA: Lately you and factory driver Matt Olson have been attending a ton of nationally recognized races like the Short Course Showdown to compete in short course truck classes. Do you feel it is important to see this class grow and why? What about short course buggies?

EMJ: When I decided to get back into racing, I actually ran the short course buggy class in the series and won it. The buggies are really nice. I don’t know if they are going to catch on. They are just not quite as fast or as aggressive because they do not have the aerodynamic package that the trucks and smaller buggies do, so they are just a bit different from that aspect. You can’t really put a modified motor in there and get those things to hook up and really go – that’s what really appeals to people. It would be nice to see the class grow as a beginner or stock class, so we will see where it goes. I think it is important for all the classes to grow. Whatever people are enjoying, that’s the direction we will go. As a company we focus on many areas, so whether it is one class or another, we are still going to contribute our products, our designs and concepts in that direction. We decided as part of our marketing plan that it is really important that people take us serious in the arena we are in, which is performance RC car parts. So really, the only way to get people’s attention is to go out and win, and we’ve definitely done that. We have been very successful nationally with the short course truck events we have gone to – fastest laps, top qualifiers, and actually winning 20 plus events, so just dominating completely. And right now it seems as though, generally, no one can touch what we are doing – and that goes to represent that what we are doing is pretty badass. Period.

RCCA: At the recent 2013 Pro-Line Cactus Classic many manufacturers opted to run a mid-motor setup, and traditionally US drivers run a rear motor configuration. Do you see trend continuing at more races and why?

EMJ: I do see the trend continuing. I think it is just an evolution in the car design and concept, but there is quite a bit of development to go along with that in order for it to work on loose surfaces along with high bite surfaces. We have some projects that are going to send us down that road, so as a company, we definitely think the trend is going to grow. As for what anyone else is going to do, good luck.

RCCA:  Over the years you have offered many conversion kits and performance packs, but have you ever seriously thought of designing a completely new car?

EMJ:  Yes we have.  We actually did car kits twenty or thirty years ago in 10th scale, 12th scale, and 1/8th scale.  They were custom, specialized cars.  There is a possibility in the future we may do that again.

RCCA:  Of all the MIP products you have offered over the years, which one would you say is MIP’s best seller?  

EMJ:  That’s hard to answer.  Our servo tape has done very well.  Our MIP CVD™s has done very well.  The Bypass1 shock pistons and valving project has done very well.  When we did Tire Buddies several years ago, they did well.  We have done a slew of products that have done very, very well – probably a good 50 odd products that have held well in the marketplace for long periods of time.

RCCA:  Which MIP product are you most proud of?

EMJ:  You know that like asking which kid do you like the best!  I can’t say one specific product because there have just been so many that have just been amazing –  from our differentials to the CVD™s, our servo tape, the tire buddies project that we did, the Pro4mance Package.  Our tools – the allen drivers that we have done have been extremely innovative – there has not been a company in our marketplace comes close to what we do, and that has been going on for over 20 years – that shows not only innovation but longevity. The CVD™s have done exceptionally well, in every configuration we offer them in – the C-CVD™s, the reverse R-CVD™s, the X-Duty CVD™ package, and now we are working on Race Duty as well as our Light Duty.  We would have to go back decades, to the last century, to really examine more. The products and designs that we had in the beginning of my career, from originating the CVD™ to bring the constant velocity drives to the RC market, to the MIP Legend™ and 4 Wheel Drive conversions, the chassis, the suspension systems and shock parts…all of those things were extremely innovative!  The differential designs that we introduced, the slipper designs…The thing that separated what I did, as opposed to other companies, is we really pushed the envelope in terms of materials and concepts, with finishes and substrates on materials that at the time weren’t considered to be standard.  Now, a lot of those things such as high-end plastics that are used in clutch systems, the finishes that are used in shocks and shock shafts, the hardness of materials used in drive systems, are somewhat standard.  We are still developing and testing new materials all the time that we continue to manufacture right in our US factory where we have built a great team that allows us to respond quickly to the marketplace, it seems that everyone will continue to hopefully, try to catch up with us.  In our current designs, it’s just pushing the envelope from both the visual, which you see in our Pro4mance Packages, to the technology and performance – working with weight biases, with polar points of inertia, for the actual handling and stability of the car.  It’s the Bypass1 and working with our patents-pending RealShocks systems that no one has really done before, not just offering those concepts and ideas, but actually building scale dynamometers and other test equipment to prove our design concept and technology.  So we have definitely pushed the envelope with everywhere we have gone and with everything we are doing. The difference is we are willing to actually prove something, not just follow the leader – we are trying to become the new leader. There is a lot that I have been proud of working on, as well as people I have been working with, there isn’t just one specific.  I’d say that after 30 years of doing this, and looking at another 25 to 30 years of doing this – that puts me at the halfway mark, we will see as time goes on.

RCCA:  What is your favorite class to compete in and why?

EMJ:  Here we go again, which kid do you like to take to the ballgame with you!  I have raced just about every class, electric/gas, on road/off road, everything.  I really don’t have a preference. But I would say what really reflects best on my capabilities as a designer, as an engineer, a business person, and a racer, has been the 4 Wheel Drive class.  I won the ROAR National title in 4 Wheel Drive.  With our MIP Legend™ 4 Wheel Drive conversion kit for the RC10, I competed twice in the IFMAR Worlds ranking top 10.  We’ve had tremendous national results with our MIP Pro4mance™ Chassis and Tuning Package. Our success in 4 Wheel Drive has been standing for decades – whether it’s electric or gas, it’s all good.

RCCA:  Name your most memorable race moment at the RC track.  Something that you still think about even to this day.

EMJ:  I was in Hawaii in the early 80s, and I had won a race there, and I remember being on the driver’s stand yelling out “I won, I won, I won, I won!” because I was so happy!  Because as most of you know, you can do this for quite a while and actually never win!  At that particular event, there was a tremendous amount of competition, and we were introducing new products, and some new ideas and concepts, so it was a really big one for me.  But there are many more! There are a lot of events where we have done really well and it felt really good for me and my team racers.

RCCA:  Everyone needs a break now and then, so what do you like to do in your spare time outside the RC world?

EMJ:  Race RC cars!  Well, I definitely love spending time with my family.  We love to go to nice restaurants and enjoy nice meals, and movies, and just kind of hang out with my extended family also. I got involved with golf about ten years ago, so I do love to golf, although I have not had much opportunity this last year because I have been racing so much.  Sitting around the house, just chillin’…that’s always good!  Also, my son has gotten involved in downhill mountain biking so that’s exciting, although a bit scary, as a parent, watching your kid fly down the hill on a bicycle! But he enjoys it and we enjoy it as a family also.  My daughter is away in her second year of college, so every once in a while we get to spend a little time with her when she is on break, so that is always good, kind of watching her grow up and become a person.

RCCA:  What is one thing about you that might surprise people to know?

EMJ:  Well, I am going to say the thing that shocks people the most, lately, is that I am 52 years old, and have been racing model cars, literally for 40 years.

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If you like this article, check out this additional article on MIP.