Too true bud,,,,,I wass bagged out bigtime by a dude at a local club not far from here for having a ( clone with mods ) as he called it.
He also called me a criminal for not supporting the designer of the car!
Upon close inspection of his baja,,,,,,there was not one single component that had the HPI name tag,,,,,,,,EVERYTHING was aftermarket alloy & carbon fibre!
So,,,,,,I gladly informed him that all he had was a $6000 HPI clone,,and that he was a little rich mumma's boy.
After all,,,you buy what you can afford!
Besides that,,,,,all of us clone owners ARE supporting HPI because the clone companies---KM,,,ROVAN,,,SQ,,,---have to pay annual royalties to HPI for the use of their design,,,,,,,,,,,it is COPYRIGHT LAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So,,,a percentage of our purchase goes to HPI.
We may not be supporting HPI directly,,but we are supporting them,,,be it indirectly or by spare parts.