Since my first article with RC Car magazine the beginning of 2007, they have kept me busy... very busy.  In fact in the last couple months I have had just enough time to complete article specific RC projects.  My list of project ideas, parts, and targeted RCs continues to grow, however my "just for fun" RC time seemingly vanished.  I love RC, writing, testing, and creating, however lately it felt like work and that's a very bad thing indeed - I was burnt out.

The un-intended solution came in a two-phased format.  The first part of a solution was an agreement made with my wife.  If we went to iHobby, no RC hobby work for two weeks.  In light of my current state of mind that wasn't tough to agree to.  I also asked Stephen (the editor of RC Car magazine) if I could skip a month and pick up in December. The break was really nice.

Sensing I was on the verge of being RC'ed out, Stephen  fired over the Thunder Tiger ED4 PRO RTR Nitro 1/8 scale buggy at the end of my second RC free week.  If you know me at all you know that I am a brushless guy, and generally consider Nitro to be a giant pain in the ... well you get the idea.  Secondly, if you read the scathing Thunder Tiger EB4 review, you know there are a number of things that make the EB4 kinda suck.  The used, abused and tested EB4 was even worse as delivered. Both front shock shafts and the front shock tower were bent, the deck was actually torque twisted (presumably from the same wreck) and the speed of the steering servo made you want to throw the whole RC through a wall. Even after straightening out all the bent parts and replacing the bald tires, the Thunder Tiger was definitely in the beater category of RCs with little hope of a return to perfection.  Give me a break it doesn't even have a body. Stephen knew that, and knew that this was what we term a therapy car.  A therapy car is you have no emotional attachment to, in fact, you kind of hate it. It generally starts perfectly, goes mildly fast, and begs you to break something.  This is the type of car you would attempt to jump your house with.

I don't like nitro, I really don't.  It's loud, dirty, inefficient, takes 5 minutes to warm up, and another 5 to tune, and yet another 5 minutes of pulling the glow plug and adding a drop of oil in the cylinder after you are done... and let's not even get into cleaning the air filter. However, I must admit, it you are going to take out your frustrations and get a little therapy, all of the above is the perfect solution. Loud, dirty and painful is how I like to let it all out and screaming full throttle with a stinky cloud following was just what I needed.