I'm glad you bring that up Joey as it's a perfect example to debate. The Slash worked out well because it is relevent to what r/c off road racing is... lots of jumps, necessity for ride height and fair amount of suspension action, size, acceleration, speed, etc. The Slash had everything going for it, it actually had a place to play both as a basher and as a racer.
Now this XO-1.... not so much. It really has no place, but... neither did the Baja. Fans made a place for it. I mean.. I think Rob had one that was specifically setup to race on-road. If this car can manage to gain that kind of following we may see a boost in parking lot race clubs full of guys who want to run a larger car @90+mph. My reservation come from the fact that 1:8 nitro cars have been able to see those speeds and the popularity of those is not that great here in the states. Now I know of a nice permanent racetrack west of me where they could possibly run these, but I don't know they'd ever get one to triple digits (not that you need to go 100mph just because you can). I highly doubt it, it's just not that big. Even the local 1/4 scale speedway with it's spectacular banking wouldn't provide enough straight to see that speed.
If Traxxas would be willing to invest in a serious promotional campaign they could certainly make something big out of this car. Honestly, the car itself deserves it. I think it's cool as *&$@. However, I don't know that they would go to the necessary extents to boost interest.
Another thing to consider. Racing a car like this is inherantly going to be expensive. High speed equates to expensive repairs and the only way to keep costs down with a 100mph car is talent and all that talent is wrapped up in 1:10 and 1:12 scale programs. Racing a car like this basically needs to be limited to Xperts Only. That's the most interesting part about it. How many on-road experts do you think are going to take the plunge for this? I'm gonna say VERY few.
