This has been a huge topic of discussion on the Traxxas Forums, on both the Rustler and Stampede posts, that I though I would expound on it a bit.
A post from Midge - Monster.Traxxas.com
"The more I read on places other than the Traxxas forums, the more I hear about stampede's and rustler's simply not cutting it on the local track. Don't get me wrong, even if this is true, I have absolutely no regrets about getting a stampede as my first car. The availability of Traxxas parts, the help I receive on this forum every day, and other great things about Traxxas made it the right choice for me. I just wanted to know, is there truth behind these rumors? As far as electrics go, I honestly do not see that huge a difference in performance as far as the base of the car goes. I was under the assumption that two 2wd's with similar components will perform similarly, is this not true? Do people just say it because some of the stock components are sub par? Just interested to see what some of you think."
My Response
When I was looking at getting "back" into RC when I purchased my Stampede, there were three types of RC design categories - 1. Race specific, 2. Race Oriented 3. Fun Durable Project R/Cs.
The Rustler falls into category #2, and the Stampede into #3.
Although it is possible to get the Stampede and Rustler into category #1, you are pushing the limits of the car and the design, keeping in mind those cars designed for that category are already that much ahead of the Stampede and Rustler right out of the box. From and inverse perspective, taking a car from category #1 and attempting the absolute idiotic behavior we all do with the Stampede (and or Rustler) would be an expensive experiment in breaking plastic.
Traxxas makes great trucks, very durable trucks, easy to maintain trucks, but durable and easy to maintain does not typically equate to a really light, and a set it and forget it track winning race RC. Pick you battles. For example - I focused on Shear Durability (on this site StampedeProject.com), Jang focused on Racing, Swami on Speed, Mis-Behavin on documenting the heck out of everything as well as some great upgrades. It's hard to take a potato and make it an orange so I have some great respect for those people like Jang and Swami who can and do make it happen.
Learn to drive. I was just at a huge regional event here in Omaha for indoor racing and these guys were incredible... no they were astounding drivers. I watched for almost an hour and didn't see one barrier hit, not one missed turn, about 50 racers running on a track at 30-40 MPH like slot cars - AMAZING
From my experience driving is the key more than anything else. Timmy with 6 months of experience who's daddy just bought hit the latest greatest "whatever" with blah blah blah upgrades will get blown away by a seasoned R/C'er on the track running some Frankenstein looking bashing RC and man is it embarrassing - I have seen it happen over and over and it isn't pretty.
Learn to drive.
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More on the Topic
Learning to drive on the track, not hitting anything, taking turns efficiently, and picking a good driving line and be able to do it consistently over and over again is how to beat others on the track. Racing and winning is 95% or more driving skill and only 5% the car. My example above is referencing that fact that so many people believe that just by buying Z brand of RC that it makes them a better R/C'er than someone else with X brand. What makes a great R/C'er is practice, patience, and skill.
The Stampede is capable of being a race placing competitor with the right tires, suspension tweaks and maybe even moving under-mounting the battery such as Jang's famous Stampede on UltimateRC.com, but most importantly only if you know how to drive it. Additionally, I believe that if you learn the skill to tune the Stampede to be competitive, once you have the driving skill you will be a tweaking master with a higher end race oriented R/Cs. Learn to drive and you will win.
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