Thread: RC Off Road Cars - Gas or Elec ?????

I'd steer clear of a as car as a first RC car for a kid. Get him a good electric buggy or truck. You can't go wrong with Tamiya,Traxxas or Kyosho.

Gas cars are great ( i own four of the money swilling buggers!) But they can be a bit much for a beginer. The can be tempremental as hell and this could put your boy off. There also a fine line between running great and melting the motor and if he's like any other kid i know speed=good. So the likelyhood of a leaned out cooked motor is higher

A traxxas Slash would be an ideal beginners thrash around toy. A Tamiya dark Impact is a top little 4wd that would also be good if he has any plays to go racing and is avaliable in a kit. Kit cars are becoming rarer and rarer but Ready to Runs RTR's (such as the slash) have come forward in leaps and bound and are now fantastic setups!

good luck in the hunt!

Luke

I have to aggree with lucus. I have had both, my gas car was an el cheepo chinese truck, was as tempermental as hell but when it ran, it ran great. If your kid will be using it, or even you for that matter, make sure there is a fail safe attached to the receiver, or when the radio runs out of range, the car will keep going untill it finds an immovable object ( learned the hard way)

The Traxxas Slash (c'mon Traxxas, wheres the spotters fee?) would be the electric truck I would go for as it is fully waterproof and if you look on you tube, you will see people running them across the bottom of their pool. They are also incredibly tough, and if you ever want to go faster, a brush less motor and lipo battery will make it competitive against the P-Plater in the V8 Dunnydore down the street.

Personally, i think they are more cost effective ways to learn about engines as the nitro motor is a bastardized cross over between a 2 stroke engine and a diesel. And parts are expensive!!

My 2 cents

Ben

As Luke and Ben said, go electric.
Every petrol car sold where I work (dedicated hobby shop) comes back a day or week later to be adjusted or fixed. They are cantankerous buggers. The electrics on the other hand, only come back after high speed meets with gutters or trees, or when upgrading.
I'd like to recommend a kit, as your son will learn how to fix it whilst building it, but they are rare and often more expensive than the RTR version of the same vehicle.
Whatever you do, get a car from a shop not ebay, unless absolutely babied, you will need spare parts sometime and guess which seller doesn't sell spares/support their product?
-Mark

This is my kind of therad.

I'm onto about my 6th rc car (Proper ones, not dik smith specials).

First one was a nitro 4wd stadium truck (HPI MT2). great vehicle, but adjusting teh engine etc and finding somewhere to run was a pain. from then on i've been all electrics.

E-savage, E-firestorm, sprint 2, and a D8 roller to convert to electric (Probably end up buying a vorza to run and use the D8 for parts). For those that know model cars, yes, I like the kits made by HPI

For a beginner, something like the e-firestorm would be perfect. They are relatively cheap, very strong, and easy to drive. and later, easy to upgrade.

Modern batteries actually get quite long runbtimes. I have a 5700 kv brushless mamba max motor in my firestorm and with good quality nimh batteries of a 4200 and 4600 mah rating I get 20 mins plus from a battery.

Then there are lipo batteries which will alst even longer, but can have a few dangers associated with them.

A stadium truck or short course truck would be the way to go. The slash is a nice truck for beginners, especially wit theh training mode on the ESC. their stadium truck, the rustler is nice as well. Parts are probably easier to get than the HPI truck, but I think the HPI is a better vehicle.

If you need a source of parts, or more info I can help with that.

www.ausrc.com is also a handy place

I thought I would add some pics

my e-savage. twin battery, twin motor. an old kit now (sold it to a bloke at work). Big for an electric at the time, and bloody strong! I messed up one jum and it landed from about 7 ft in the air, and only broke the on / off switch.


my e-firestorm. My favorite. I've wanted a stadium truck since I was a kit, and this was the one I picked. it's had a thradsing and some head on crashes, and nothing broken. This is a PR photo, I have some bumpers on mine.


My D8 which will be converted to a big electric system



my first proper rc car, the MT2. Awesome, if only it was electric!



and what I will be getting next, a HPI Blitz (Basically a e-firestorm in drag)

Thanks for your input everyone. Decided to go with a Team Associated RC10 T4 Factory Team Truck Kit. Will have a Hobbywing 13T brushless and 35A ESC, Futaba 2.4Ghz radio gear with Intellect IP5000 40C Lipo battery and Venom Pro charger.
It has gone massively over budget from when I had the original plan to get him into RC but once I started I couldnt see the sense in getting something basic and then keep upgrading, it should be more economical in the long run to get this set up and use the programming of the ESC and Radio gear to start him off slow until he can handle things at full speed.

When he is ready to compete, this rig should make him competitive at club level although a motor/esc upgrade might help eventually.


DSC00691a.jpg

You wont regret buying that one.
We got Lindsay one 4 years ago.Its a bit of a basket case now,but he got a great run out of it.Parts are now easy to get once again,there was an issue for a while whilst the company changed ownership.
It outlasted all his mates gear by many years and blew them all into the weeds even before he started buying more powerfull motors.His was quicker than a nitro 4x4 buggy much to the disgust of its owner.He won a RC speed challenge with the local cops,he got 74kph,closest rival was 55ks.He cheated,brushless hi-power motor and huge rear tyres,wasnt overquick off the mark but flew top end.
Make sure you buy the second even 3rd battery,they last HEAPS longer if left to cool out properly between charges.
ENJOY
Andrew

My personal pref is to go electric . Less tuning , don't have to worry about starters and fuel . But on the other hand the gas cars are wicked fun .