Quote:
Originally Posted by asid61
Currently there is a high concentration of WCD, but I expect that to change in a few years. The higher concentration of butterfly and swerve designs will eventually create a new design that will overtake like WCD did.
WCD was not used much in the early years either.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad House
Remember that 6WD does not automatically mean WCD. The KOP is a 6WD, but it is definitely not a WCD. If I were to take a guess, and at minimum count a WCD as a Cantilevered Live Axle drive, the percentage is most likely fairly similar to Swerves, and both are most likely more common then butterfly's. The teams that make good WCD's will most likely continue, because they know how to make them well, same as the teams that commonly build good swerves will most likely continue because thats what they are good at. The teams in the middle will be the ones that will switch back and forth between new drive types.
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Of the teams that played on Einstein this year it would appear that there were 3 or 4 true west coast drives by Thad House's definition (254, 973, 1678?, 2590), 2 swerves (1640, 2481), and 2 butterfly-esk drive trains (1477, 1625), so there were about the same number of 'cutting edge'/'out there' drives (for lack of better terms) as west coasts. However, as far as drop center drives go, there's not a significant difference in performance from a west coast style to a kit bot style drop center, so in those terms the drop centers (67, 254, 469, 973, 1114, 1678, 2590, 2824) far out number the non drop centers (1477, 1625, 1640, 2481).
That said, I could definitely see the drive train landscape change to a more butterfly-oriented field say 3, 4, 5 years out, and it would not surprise me if it's more than just the "teams in the middle" making the change. Just look at a team like 33 or 1732. Two well respected teams that end up in the finals at their events more times than not that put out good drop centers on a year to year basis that switched to butterfly-esk drive trains this year. Either way it's definitely something to be tracking on in the near future.