About Stampede Project -StampedeProject.com AKA Tony Arnold
First off Stampede Project is now way more than just an over modified Traxxas Stampede. Along with more than a couple other Traxxas vehicles, I own a fleet of RC's ranging from HPI, Hot Bodies, Schumacher, FLM, Losi, Yusa, and more, to a ton of home brewed concoctions ranging from rock crawlers to the tri-pede. My current run with R/C cars as a 30 something adult has only been since 2003, when I founded this site, however as a kid I was always into R/C Cars. As I remember the last of my R/C vehicles were deconstructed as an early teen to create less socially acceptable remote control devices one 4th of July, exploding in great splendor... you get the idea.
On night my wife and I were at a friend's house for a party and after a few glasses of wine we grabbed his Nyko style RC sport car spent the next hour terrorizing the neighborhood burning up set after set of replaceable batteries. Being a previous RC car fan as a kid, this was just thething to fill the void of time in my evenings which I usually spent watching TV or in general "driving my wife nuts", but I wanted an RC a little better quality, more durable, faster, and a little more all terrain-ish than my friend John's car.
Today the old Stampedeproject.com site is gone and has become this stampedeproject.blogspot.com which began simply as a documentation of the adventure, has become so much more than just a Traxxas Stampede upgrades and has become a source of tips tricks and how to's many modifiers find useful for almost any type of RC and one of the highest trafficked RC sites online.
If you have not already surmised at this point, this site is not my real job, but a diversion to keep me semi-sane and out of my wife's hair, so I apologize in advance if you have a question that goes unanswered for a period of time.
Along with being nationally published and a writer on other non-R/C subjects, I am a contributing writer for R/C Car magazine, a Beta tester and product developer for a number of manufacturers, and am involved in far too many online R/C forums. I hold a MBA in Business and Law, but my background is a meandering path centered around ecommerce, technology, and marketing. Along the way I have acquired a pretty extensive set of skills related to R/Cs including; plastics, metals, fabrication, CNC, CAD, machining, electrical systems, and rapid proto-typing to name a few. In general if it looks impossible to do, I jump in with both feet and become a student until I figure it out.
As featured monthly in RC CAR Magazine.
How StampedeProject.com all started...
Yes, like you, I spent the better part of three months figuring out the best brand and, in my case, truck that would fit my needs and goals. Goals? Yes, I wanted something that was durable as hell, had some hop-up and project potential (read - lots of ways to waste my time and money) and was high end enough that it would hold my attention for more than a week and was even potentially track worthy. After reading everything I could find online, I decided that I wanted something that fell in between a 4X4 and a stadium truck - that truck was the Traxxas Stampede.
Lucky for me in December of 2003, my wife allowed me to buy the Traxxas Stampede with XL-1 ESC ready to go with the MRC Superbrain charger, (3) 6-cell 3000mh batteries, (8) AA batteries... and the Stampede Project adventure/expenditure began.
Today - The Obsession Continues
This site stampedeproject.blogspot.com was originally created simply to document my R/C cars' upgrades for the benefit of others, today several years and hundreds of pages later it has become a nationally referenced repository for R/C car upgrades, FAQ's, and how to's.
About StampedeProject.com
One of the things that pulled me back into the hobby was it's all weather appeal and relatively low expense compared to other outdoor hobbies. Historically according to my wife I stick with a hobby for about $2000 or 1 year whichever comes first. Car audio, expensive stunt kites, mountain biking,... the list seems to go on infinitely but two things were always challenges with these hobbies, weather and time. I loved flying kites, however it was weather dependant, mountain biking requires a trip somewhere and lots of time, car audio although a long term hobby was way way too expensive and required me tearing my car apart every other week. Enter R/C cars - wet, rainy, windy, snowy, hot, or cold, with a relatively water resistant system, convenient fun was a few steps outside for 15-60 minutes while my wife is getting ready to go out for dinner. When you want to stay inside there is always something to work on indoors on your R/C car and in my case plenty to also do online.
Hope you enjoy my site and find it useful enough to bookmark and visit often while you find your own path in this great hobby.
StampedeProject.com
