VehiclesLosi

Losi

Losi is an RC car brand that Gil Losi Jr. and his father started in Reseda, California, in 1980, selling option parts to help cars survive off-road racing.1,2,4

VehiclesHistory and background

Founded
19801,2
Company
Team Losi; sold to Horizon Hobby in 20002,3
Brands
Losi; Team Losi Racing (TLR), created in 2010 for race kits1
Distributor
Horizon Hobby1

Key models

Losi vehicles

Truggies

Buggy chassis with wider arms and truck tires

Stadium trucks

Short course

Monster trucks

Including stunt and speed monster trucks

Crawlers

Trail trucks, scalers and rock racers

Oval

Dirt and asphalt oval: late models, modifieds and stock cars

Other classes

GT, formula, 1/8 on-road, side-by-side and others the classes above don't cover

About Losi

What it stands for

Losi says it was "founded on a racing pedigree to be better than the rest" and sums itself up as "Race. Inspired. Losi is RC."10 It says it is committed to "partnering with the best full-scale companies in the world," and that every car it sells is tunable straight out of the box.1

Known for

Its first car, the JRX2, used a five-link suspension when the RC10 relied on A-arms.5 In 2002 Team Losi became the first maker to win both 2WD and 4WD at the 1/10 off-road World Championships.6 The 8IGHT platform, launched in 2006, has won local and major races since.8

Product portfolio

Nearly the whole range comes ready to run. It spans the 1/18 Mini-T 2.0 and Mini LMT and the 1/16 Mini-B up to the 1/6 Super Baja Rey 2.0, Super Rock Rey and 8IGHT-X Super Lasernut, and the 1/5 DBXL-E buggy and 5IVE-T 3.0 desert trucks. Buggies and desert trucks make up the largest share, next to LMT solid axle monster trucks, Rey and Lasernut rock racers, Tenacity trucks on the TEN chassis, and 1/12 oval stock cars. Most models are brushless; the minis and stock cars run brushed motors, and the 5IVE-TG 3.0 runs on gas. The 8IGHT-XE, 8IGHT-XTE and Mini-B carry over TLR race platforms.

Racing record

Co-founder Gil Losi Jr. won the 1985 IFMAR 4WD World Championship as a driver.4 Team Losi's first IFMAR world title came in 1997, when Brian Kinwald led a Team Losi one-two in 2WD.5,11 At the 2002 Worlds in Pretoria, South Africa, Matt Francis won 2WD with the XXX and Jukka Steenari won 4WD with the XX-4.6

Timeline

  1. 1980Gil Losi Jr. and his father start out at a skatepark in Reseda, California.2
  2. 1988The JRX2, its first race car, after three years of development.4,5
  3. 1997Brian Kinwald wins Team Losi's first IFMAR World Championship.5
  4. 2000Sold to Horizon Hobby.2,3
  5. 2002Wins both 2WD and 4WD at the 1/10 off-road Worlds, a first for any maker.6
  6. 2003The Mini-T, a small stadium truck built on the XXXT platform.7
  7. 2006The 8IGHT 1/8 platform debuts after four years of development.8
  8. 2010Race kits move to a separate brand, Team Losi Racing.1
  9. 2016The Baja Rey, a 1/10 desert truck.9

Sources

  1. Losi, About Losi.
  2. LiveRC, Talk It Up Tuesday: AKA Products Gil Losi Jr., 22 April 2019.
  3. Wikipedia, Horizon Hobby.
  4. Losi, Mini JRX platform.
  5. LiveRC, Flashback Friday: Timeline of Team Losi Racing 2WD Buggies, 3 March 2017.
  6. LiveRC, Flashback Friday: Team Losi Racing sweeps the 2002 IFMAR 1:10 Offroad World Championships, 29 November 2013.
  7. Losi, Mini-T 2.0 2WD Stadium Truck Brushed RTR.
  8. RC Car Action, Racing Made Easy: The Losi 8IGHT-XE 1/8-Scale Buggy Aims to Be a True Race-Ready RTR, 24 July 2024.
  9. Big Squid RC, Unboxing The Losi Baja Rey Desert Truck, 26 September 2016.
  10. Horizon Hobby, Losi.
  11. LiveRC, Flashback Friday: Kinwald and Hirosaka won 1997 IFMAR Worlds, 2 November 2017.