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Issue 7, 3/18/2006
Much Ado About Truggies
Some years ago, I helped start my local track's very first monster truck race. No, this was not the pioneering "monster truck" racing phenomenon where electric buggies were equipped with truck bodies and "oversized" tires -- that happened in the early 90's, and we call those vehicles "stadium trucks" these days. This was in 2001, the beginning of a whole different craze, one that would grow much larger, much faster. The inaugural contest featured me with the Phase I Ultimate Stampede and a couple 2000mAh packs, "Wild Bill" with his brawny custom Clod, "Wallshot" with his T-Maxx (the first anyone in the area had seen in person), and one other guy I'm not remembering. What a novel concept -- monster trucks, actual, recognizable, high-CG, high-GC monster trucks -- on a race track. Who'dve thunk it? Our founding committee quickly decided that to fit in this new class that we were certain would be the biggest thing since the RC10, you had to have "big tires" (larger than standard 2.2") and a truck body mounted up high. We had no choice but to hold off on separating nitro & electrics because, well, there simply weren't many of either.
If memory serves me right, Wallshot and his fascinating new T-Maxx walked away with that race. Within a few months, 'Maxx mania had swept the nation and I was switching to hotter motors to try to keep up. The monster truck class officially became a T-Maxx class and its novelty wore off, replaced by the same level of seriousness as any other form of RC racing. Racers started looking real hard for competitive advantages, frequently trying to make up for a lack of driving skills. Ride height generally diminished. One guy dropped in a .21. One customized his tires by hand. Another installed this crazy expensive high-tech suspension kit labelled "SuperMaxx."
Then came this one OFNA Monster Pirate. Why, oh, why did dude have to bring that thing out to the track? I think he broke more of the track than he traversed. The MP was oversized at 1/8th scale and its extremely wide, knobby tires had "basher" written all over them. But, it was fast. Really fast. Stable, to boot. With a low-CG pan chassis design, nothing would roll it over. Granted, it broke a lot and the guy was too trigger-happy to do consistently well in races, but the potential was there.
Fast forwarding a bit, OFNA updated the MP and released it as the Dominator, running T-Maxx sized tires. Now that thing blew everyones' brains. Again there were durability issues, but oh, how it could out-handle a 'Maxx when set up properly! Many folks who didn't have one offered up the thought that driving a Dominator against T-Maxxes was cheating! I won't lie, I was right there supporting the notion. It was an entirely different class of vehicle. Sure the tires were the same and it had a truck body, but the Dom sat all of its components on one plane -- a flat aluminum chassis plate that went straight from front to back, under the diffs. Just like a 1/8th scale buggy! The 'Maxx on the other hand used an elevated chassis with some very heavy components mounted rather high up, and lots of extra bracing holding it all together. Given equal drivers and running gear, how could a race between these two be ever considered "fair?"
By this time there were some new rules starting to gel for the monster trucks, keeping the relatively stock "small block" trucks safe from the rip-roarin' .21-powered "big blocks." Anybody who wanted to go fast and be considered a real man went with a bigger engine to get "bumped up" to the higher-powered class. Now of course, there were a fair number of folks who had real driving skills who stayed behind, improving their lines, lightening their trucks, and coming up with better suspension setups, but they were a relatively quiet, sophisticated bunch. The real noise was with the big boys. In the quick & dirty ego race, as always, size mattered.
Well, in this case, size really did matter, egos aside. Bigger motors produced more power, which translated to better acceleration and higher speeds. They were also louder and their crashes more spectacular, making for a great show for spectators. What was most interesting, though, was that a gradual shift to buggy-based designs made the trucks more controllable again, offsetting most of the instability brought on by the increase in power. The performance gap between the truck/buggy hybrids and their pure monster truck forefrunners grew quickly. At the All-American Monster Truck Championships I helped organize just a year after that spanking Wallshot had laid down, there were three separate MT classes: Small Block, Big Block, and Unlimited for the hybrids. That weekend, the fastest & most consistent vehicles on the track were Mugen MBX-5 buggies with the shortest gearing possible, Dominator wheels with 'Maxx-size Bow Tie tires, and MT bodies. The age of the truggy had come.
Today there are RTR and pro kit truggies offered by Kyosho, Mugen, OFNA, Hot Bodies, HPI, and others, with still more in the wings. I used to really dislike the darn things, but I'll admit they've grown on me a bit over time. In the early days most of them, other than the production Dominator, were expensive limited-production or custom conversions that kept them out of the reach of mere mortals and whenever one hit the track, controversy and ill will followed. Now, though, you can get an RTR truggy as cheaply as an entry- to mid-level 1/8th scale buggy, and you get every cent you pay for. These vehicles have nearly the speed of nitro buggies, but have smoother handling and negotiate rough terrain significantly better. In other words, they're they're both easier to race and better to bash. Love 'em or hate 'em, truggies are the real deal, and it looks like they're here to stay.
-Bamidele "The JANG" Shangobunmi
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