My Words – Yet another engine!

Mar 282011

Can you name all the nitro engine manufacturers? Unfortunately, your answer risks to be negative. Why? Because, recently many new nitro engine companies have jumped into the R/C industry. So many that we can’t follow them all. Few years back, we only have few brands to choose from. A quick look at an online store showed me near than twenty different engine manufacturers to choose from and this is only for the .21 engine class! That’s crazy! The price varies between 130$ and 545$ for a .21 off-road engine. The 200$-250$ price range is the most popular segment and targets the budget and the local club racers. This is exactly the segment targeted by the new engine manufacturers.

I think we are going head down into a saturated market. I’m opened to the idea of having more choices when the time comes to buy a new engine but not when the engines are rebadged engines of already rebadged engines.

This situation is not only for R/C engines. Look at the tires company, many new names appeared in the last years. The situation looks similar for chassis manufacturers.

Anyway, I’m loyal to the brands I use and support for many years now. All those new names in the R/C industry don’t really influence me. They better have an incredible marketing strategy and good arguments if they want my money. This makes the choice harder for all the new comers that wish to get into R/C without any headache. So, now before you explore the web for a new engine, take two Aspirin!

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Airtronics