Remote control cars

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
I have saved a bit of money and wanna buy a sub £150 ready-built electric powered remote control car or helicoptor. just want to buy one to mess about with and possibly take it to the beach in the weekends just for fun. hehe

any remote control car expert out here who can offer advice on where to buy, what to buy or even a particular model i should consider?

perhaps the fastest one i could buy on my budget?

i thought about the Nitro ones but they require too much attention and care and so i thought a electric one would suit a beginner like me better.

check this out, a 73 mph remote control car!! absolutely mad, imagine getting hit by one of those?!

http://www.rccartalk.com/ct4s.html
 

masterbiker

Ex. Club Member
You wont get a helicopter for £150, the transmitters start at that price for a realy rubbish one, unless you go for one of thos indoor ones, but that will not be able to cope with any sort of wind at all.

Also buying a car like the one you linked to would not work very well on a beach, as its ride hight is far too low and you are unlikely to be able to raise it high enough unless its on compleatly flat and slightly damp sand.

If you realy want one to run on sand then I suggest that you get a buggy, truck or a monster truck. Have a look here oh and electric might seem the best way to go when your beginning, but in the end will cost you more as decent batterys cost a fortune. They don't run as long (I am guessing you wont want to run back to somewhere you can charge the batterys up after just ten mins of use. Though with only £150 I think you will have to go electric.

But anyways have a look as this site, it has a huge selection and has some good advice for begginers: http://www.apexmodels.com/ also try phoning them up as I am sure they would be able to advise you on the best model for use on the beach for that price.
 

Allan

Ex. Club Member
I've never heard of that make either so i'd steer clear, i've been a sponsored driver of Electric touring cars for the last 5 years.

Why Nitro out of curiosity? They are harder to maintain and difficult to get them to run as you want, you can get electric to go just as quick.
 
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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
wow thanks for the advice guys. some great sites there, very informative but its still too confusing as there are far too many choices.

tell you what though, £150 is definitely not enough for a nice electric one. thanks for your recommendation i will now look for a buggy cos i think they are better looking and might be that little bit faster despite a descrease in off-road ability compared to monsters.

so how long does 4 AA batteries last in the remote?
how long does it take to fully charge up the buggy?
more importantly does it only last for 10 minutes?

thx for the info once again, i will make a purchase from one of those sites. just doing some maths like which is better value and faster etc :down:
 
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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
just realise a lot of them comes in kit form which means i need to purchase batteries and remote etc at extra price. i just saw a DARK IMPACT DF03 by tamiya priced at £128 but then all those extras pump the price up to about
£200.

Linky----http://www.apexmodels.com/product-search.php?call=moreinfo&man=6&cat=kits&id=487&mysession=69f682aa12fdeef1c159d01a295c9d4e

drifters are nice yea but that means not being able to use on rough terrain like beaches. i bet the tires just die everytime anywaY!
 

Antony

Ex. Club Member
heres some free advise from someone who has years of experience racing buggies and 1/10th scale on roaders, and is also licenced by HPI and Shumacher racing to sell, service and inspect all nitro and electric cars..


dont run one on sand....... ever...... you will clog up the motor, the transmision, you will get sand in the differentials and wear them out incredibly quickly.

if you want some fun for under £150.... then make your way to a halfords store... ask them to get you the HPI RTR3 Evolution.... its a nitro on roader...... retail is at £249.99....... but its curerenty £99.99.... ready to rn, wich means batteries (£6 for 30) and fuel (£15) and your off.... and you have saved up enough money to treat yourself to some rally tyres, so you can go racing or playing in the gravel type carparks and stuff...



but take it from me...... nitro is much easier than electric... i mean once you have dialed the carb in... (bout 3 minutes) then all you have to do is fill her up after every tank... no charging, no soldering, no exploding batteries.....lol

of you could try the cheaper range of tamiya cars from www.modelsportuk.com
excelent site, my best mat works there......

im sure you will find something to help you.
 
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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
right so you just came in and changed my whole perspective about RC cars. damn you :wasntme: hehe only joking!

ok so no playing on sand, i guess i will have to play take it to the rocks or something next to the beach.

Nitro wise, can you tell me a bit more on...well....everything!!

how do you start the engine etc?
Oil mix with petrol as fuel, how does that work? how much are those stuff?
maintainance? breaking in?

please tell me from start to finish!! please, thank you!:doh:
 
U

umar

Guest
Hi there tse_adam
I have a Hpi Nitro rs4 what has a .12 engine in it much quicker then the standard .15 i am thinking of selling it. It has enough mods e.g. twin rear exhaust and also the chrome tuned exhaust Much better servos (futaba) cost £80 each car has two of them one for steering and one for accelration
has loads of spares 3 toolboxes full of sparese.g. 3 shells 2 used 1 brand new 4 sets of tyres laods of screws,etc....
To start the engine you have to have a glo-starter what comes with the car you have to charge the glo-starter after you have used it you insert the glo-start in the engine and then pull the pull start.
The fuel in nitro normally there is a percentage the car is tuned to mine is tuned to 16% so you have to buy the 16% nitro fuel what you can buy from a local r/c shop
Its very easy to maintain if you know how to work them.
My nitro car is capable to go up to 45mph+ but with the .12 engine it it goes much faster and also mine is fitted with 2 gears
Hope this helps
[email protected]
 
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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
umar said:
Hi there tse_adam
I have a Hpi Nitro rs4 what has a .12 engine in it much quicker then the standard .15 i am thinking of selling it. It has enough mods e.g. twin rear exhaust and also the chrome tuned exhaust Much better servos (futaba) cost £80 each car has two of them one for steering and one for accelration
has loads of spares 3 toolboxes full of sparese.g. 3 shells 2 used 1 brand new 4 sets of tyres laods of screws,etc....
To start the engine you have to have a glo-starter what comes with the car you have to charge the glo-starter after you have used it you insert the glo-start in the engine and then pull the pull start.
The fuel in nitro normally there is a percentage the car is tuned to mine is tuned to 16% so you have to buy the 16% nitro fuel what you can buy from a local r/c shop
Its very easy to maintain if you know how to work them.
My nitro car is capable to go up to 45mph+ but with the .12 engine it it goes much faster and also mine is fitted with 2 gears
Hope this helps
[email protected]

sounds like one nice car! how much are you preparing to sell it for?
 

Turtle

Ex. Club Member
I have run 2 cars on my local beach (Bournemouth area...)


The first was a Team Associated B3 Buggy, which was awesome fun, really good to make little sand jumps and impress the kids. I bought it off ebay for £40 (just the car) and stuck some cheap electrics in it and ran it maybe 10 times at the beach.

The second car was a Tamiya TT-01 Touring Car. This needed the tide to be out and the sand to be dead flat (although with enough momentum you could bulldoze through rough stuff :p).

The Tamiya was pretty maintainence free, with very few metal parts to rust..........


gotta eat dinner, will post more details soon.



http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Associated-RC...oryZ2565QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

BID BID BID!! Up to around £80ish and I rekon thats a good deal? Thats the buggy I used.

Right, where was I.

Yeah, the Tamiya didnt rust which was great, so long as you kept the sand out of the moving parts it doesnt wear all that much hehe. At worst I needed to do a full re-build which is a 3 hour job once you know how to do it (you get to the WRC type professionalism, gearbox is out and replaced in 94 seconds sort of thing)...

Uhhh. The Associated Buggy had some steel or iron or something which rusted, unfortunately these parts were sorta the axles so kinda important. That was a shame because it was a smashing car on the beach. Im sure aluminium axles are available.

As for the rest of the car, the motor gets fried after about 5 runs especially if it gets wet. Needs re-building. The speed controller I had was waterproof but I still managed to blow one up (smoke and flames and everything) by errr... jumping the buggy over some sand which was a bit random. o_O

The recievers are the worst part because not many are waterproof and one wave strike and your car's dead until that part dries out (I never managed to do permanant damage). Once I had to turn sharply into the sea(!!) to avoid an inquisitive dog when I was going quite fast.... :grinning:

Im told sticking a condom over the reciever works well as waterproofing but It seems such a waste of a condom to me!

And when you're really annoyed with shopping around and it seems like you can't find the right car, just check out this one and that'll cheer you up http://www.tse_adam.youaremighty.com/

Sensible RC racers will tell you to avoid sand etc etc but having done it (it cost me £40 for the whole year basically, after that the car was shot) I'd say its well worth it for a change. Especially if you're the attention seeking type because you get quite a crowd watching you jump off the promenade etc, kids chasing it, its great fun :unclesam:

I dont think a buggy will go over rocks, theyre pretty small fast light things. You want a nitro monster truck (£300+) if you want to play on rocks.

The cars im talking about are electric, which in my opinion is less expensive, although I havent ventured into the world of nitro so who am I to say... I do know that I would not take a nitro engine anywhere near sand, but a £10 electric motor I would.

so how long does 4 AA batteries last in the remote?
how long does it take to fully charge up the buggy?
more importantly does it only last for 10 minutes?

Get rechargable AA batteries (you need 8, but its worth the investment).

To fully charge a 7.2 volt battery it takes me abour 40 minutes. It depends on the charger and battery!

When racing with a really fast motor (30mphish) you'll get about 6-7 minutes, but ive always found that when im messing about in the road or on the beach the battery tends to last more like 20-30 minutes, because youre stopping lots, not really pushing it and generally messing around.

Also on the sand you spend most of your time doing dohnuts and escaping dogs which doesnt exactly strain the battery in the same way a head to head indoor race will. :grinning:

So.

If you want to race, buy a touring car, Tamiya TT-01, TC3 or similar, everyone has different favourites... you can have a lot of fun with a TT-01 but you wont win any championships.

If you want to mess around and have some fun, get a nitro or electric buggy then take it on the beach when you're happy to spend time cleaning and money replacing worn parts.

If you wanna chat im on msn most days: [email protected]

The key thing is not to let sensible people scare you away from having fun :grinning:
 
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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
the TT-01 looking like good deals, they look good and are on sale in most shops near me. but i dont know how it compares to say a electric buggy, much speed difference? what sort of mods can you do to it?

i have been looking at some other good deals as well and i will post the listings on here so you guys can give me some comments.

heres one i think is quite reasonable.....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-TAMIYA-RC-BAJA-CHAMP-KIT-1-10TH-DEAL_W0QQitemZ160010148221QQihZ006QQcategoryZ2565QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

this one is so nice looking...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tamiya-TT-01-Chassis-Raybrig-Honda-Shell-1-10th_W0QQitemZ290010925357QQihZ019QQcategoryZ2565QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

and then this cheap one....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TAMIYA-SUBARU...34QQihZ004QQcategoryZ2565QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

i do now think nitro maybe too much maintainance for me, i am the sort of guy who would charge the car over night and expect it to work when i go out. definitely not prepared to start it, feed it, charge it as well, then clean it afterwards everytime. perhaps one day when i turn into another enthusiast then im sure nitro is the way forward.

one more thing, is it easy to assemble from box? shall i give it a try even though i have only assembled small electric kart when i was young?
 
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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
allan what car are you selling? more importantly do you have pictures and spec of it i can look at as i dont know anything about different models etc.

on/off road, i dont really care! as long as its fun, fast and not too much trouble. hopefully it wont break down as soon as i lay my hands on it like pouring 150 quid down the drain. hehe
 
U

umar

Guest
Hi ya tse_adam
If your really intrested in the Tamiya baja champ the one that you provided a link on ebay i have one of them with loads of spares also but i havent had it running for a long time so just need to pop in to the model shop to get it cleaned and looking as it was. So if your intrested in it give me a shout email me as [email protected]
With the Tamiya baja champ you get the fast charger what charges the batteries in 30 mins better then the normal one you have to wait for 2 hours
has 4 batteries, it has a TECHNIPLUS ACOMS RADIO with all servos much better motor then the standard one i think the standard ones ratings are 540
and the motor in my baja champ is much higher then the standard one ive had the car in the model shop for 3 weeks to be modifed it has a modified chassi much stronger then the standard one oooh also the car is fullly biult the one on ebay you saw you have to make the kit from scratch. Spent good money on it and now its just sitting in the shelf, dont get the time to run it around.

So if youre intrested just let me know and i will run in to the rc shop to get it cleaned out
give me a price and i shall let you know if you need pics give me a email address and i shall send some pictures of it

And for the Nitro powered car (Nitro BMW M3 4WD )with out all the spares i can sell it for £150-£200 if you need pictures of it just let me know and i shall take some pictures of it. The spares cost me good £200 becasue just the servos cost me £80 each and the shells cost me £35 and i have 3 of them and 2 set of brand new m3 wheels and tyres cost me £15 quid each and also have a twin exhaust for it waht cost £20 so to many spares to listen if you want to buy the whole kit just give me a offer.
Cheerrrssssss
 
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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
hi Umar thx for all of the useful information, i will take that into consideration. as you might know i am busy shopping around and i have yet to decide what i want. different people say different things to me and it makes me very confused! lol

i have your email from your previous post, will definitely let you if i want to buy it off you!

i wonder if you guys can answer a couple of questions for me.

1)how do you determine what fuel/nitro to use in the cars? does manual states this?
2)nitro cars need batteries recharging as well? for use with start up or running?
3)are they dangerous? easily set on fire due to fuel and heat?
4)if say i take good care of it, not allowing it to run for too long per time etc how long can these cars last?
5)which part breaks down the most? and which is the most expensive to replace if its ######ed up?

just random stupid questions, hope you guys understand! tar :down:
 

scottish-sr

Ex. Club Member
I started off with a Tamiya buggy, then got a 4wd Tamiya Escort Cosworth. Ran them both in sand and they worked fine.

Then got a Thunder Tiger TS4N Nitro car, was amazing fun but on-road only. I would look for a second hand nitro Kyosho off road or similar on Ebay.

I wished after I got the on-road nitro car that it was a rally one, atleast then you have the choice of just changing the tyres and using it on road or off road.
 

Allan

Ex. Club Member
tse_adam said:
allan what car are you selling? more importantly do you have pictures and spec of it i can look at as i dont know anything about different models etc.

on/off road, i dont really care! as long as its fun, fast and not too much trouble. hopefully it wont break down as soon as i lay my hands on it like pouring 150 quid down the drain. hehe

Associated TC3, do some reasearch on them, i will get some pics for you. its a strictly on road car however.
 

Allan

Ex. Club Member
tse_adam said:
just did some brief research it seems they are quite expensive. can you tell me more about the car you're selling? nitro? ready to run? what shell has it got and how much are you looking for?

thank you allan

this is the cheapest nitro i can find, is it worth investing?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&item=120009255475&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1


Associated TC3 electric, i have dodge stratus and vauxhall vectra bodyshells, most cost £60 to get painted professionally. I will be selling cheap.
 

Allan

Ex. Club Member
These are 2 of the shells, metallic is a stratus, other is a vectra.
 

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Turtle

Ex. Club Member
Allan said:
Associated TC3 electric, i have dodge stratus and vauxhall vectra bodyshells, most cost £60 to get painted professionally. I will be selling cheap.

Probably worth pointing out that its less than £25 to paint it yourself, and thats much more fun (looks just as good most of the time).


The TT-01 looking like good deals, they look good and are on sale in most shops near me. but i dont know how it compares to say a electric buggy, much speed difference? what sort of mods can you do to it?

Mods... urgh. Loads of stuff, too much to list here. It wont be a winner in competition but for your first car thats not your main concern. No speed difference compared to the buggy because it depends on what motor you are using.

I do now think nitro maybe too much maintainance for me, i am the sort of guy who would charge the car over night and expect it to work when i go out. definitely not prepared to start it, feed it, charge it as well, then clean it afterwards everytime. perhaps one day when i turn into another enthusiast then im sure nitro is the way forward.

With my electric cars I do the following:
-Run the car
-Take out the battery, have a quick clean around with a brush
-Discharge the battery (10 minutes)
-Charge the battery (30 minutes)
-Set up the car for the next run, so... change the pinion or tune the motor, this stage takes as long or as short a time as you wish really.
-Run the car.

I would say that electric cars are low maintainence, but again, I have not had a nitro before. I have a friend with a nitro monster truck though and it breaks almost every time he uses it hehe.

one more thing, is it easy to assemble from box? shall i give it a try even though i have only assembled small electric kart when i was young?

Tamiya's are totally idiot proof (6 year olds could make them). Other makes are usually very good too.

Hope that helps you.
 

Allan

Ex. Club Member
So you can paint shells like the 2 above that i have posted Turtle? Unless your very arty then i doubt it. I can paint shells myself and agreed its fun but nothin to that standard.
 
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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
oh god, another thread crasher!

mini mini mo.......electric........or ...........nitro..........

thx for the advice turtle, really appreciate it!
 

Turtle

Ex. Club Member
Allan said:
So you can paint shells like the 2 above that i have posted Turtle? Unless your very arty then i doubt it. I can paint shells myself and agreed its fun but nothin to that standard.

You just cant appreciate that detail when its flying round a track at 25mph, especially after you have hit the wall a few times. Yeah your cars look great but its only worth it for a show car in my opinion. :)

I attached some pics of my own bodyshells, and my TT-01. I think the GT-40 was my favourite to paint, its really fun doing it yourself. And I normally race in the green and black.
 

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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
wow very nice artwork there turtle. to me 25mph sounds slow but then when i think riding a bike downhill is about 30mph so its actually quite quick.
 

Allan

Ex. Club Member
Turtle said:
You just cant appreciate that detail when its flying round a track at 25mph, especially after you have hit the wall a few times. Yeah your cars look great but its only worth it for a show car in my opinion. :)

I attached some pics of my own bodyshells, and my TT-01. I think the GT-40 was my favourite to paint, its really fun doing it yourself. And I normally race in the green and black.

True however its almost like a trend you have to follow at school. I raced in huge meetings, big championships. When i made it to the final everyone had a professionally done shell. Even for the few minutes it was sitting on the grid.

ps. I didn't hit the wall :D But when i did it was gutting knowing how much you had payed for a shell hehe.
 

Turtle

Ex. Club Member
Hehe yeah I was devastated when I tore my GT40 in half oval racing at Calshot. Check out http://turtle.fotopic.net

I can understand at the top level they'd all want the best, I have a friend who's motto is "if it looks fast... it'll go fast". Its true most of the time, its down to the attitude of the driver

Top speeds reached there were around 45-50 mph.

30mph is slow if its in a big open car park yeah, but on the track its the equivilant of driving your real car at 300mph (scale speeds)... so trust me, it seems fast.
 

Antony

Ex. Club Member
hey if you want to run on sand you can do with a tamiya.... they are made to run anywhere, but make sure its the monocoque chassis as the flat pan chassis will let all the crap in...

nitro is easy...

fuel, batteries (4xaa) and glow starter..... and your away...... simple..

second hand Nitro is a big no no if you want rtelyability..... it will put you off trust me... cos you dont know how many hours the engine has been run.... nor what it was run with....

new is the best way.... garentee's/..... sales support..... readily available spares..... and they arent expensive...



i just got a nitro T-maxx and had done with it...lol


my cars are

Traxxas T-maxx (1998) on its 5th engine now and about £1000 of aluminium

Yokomo MR4-BC Special Buggy (with dynasty spec 19 turn motor, 3600 sanyo team cells, LRP quantum ESC, and a JR propo programable digital reciever and tranny.

Team Losi xxx-s Graphite special "Team" edition, all graphite and titanium parts, front one way diff, adjustable titanium nitride shocks, dual rate springs, 3600 team matched cells, LRP V10 11x4 motor, same radio as yok.

tamiya mini cooper (m 04 chassis) front and rear anti-roll bars, manta ray ball differential, CVD drives, aluminium suspension arms, mini sized kevlar belted slicks, oil filled shocks, dual rate springs, carbon lay shafts, custom "lightened chassis" (i cut holes in it) and full bearings. 12x3 motor, same esc as others,

HPI Nitro MT2.... standard appart from exhaust.... ace, bullet proof...lol
comes with yokohama tyres..lol
anyway
 
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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
there seems to be more RC enthusiasts than i first thought. very nice collection there anthony but its all too technical for me! haha

are the batteries in the nitro rechargeable?
how long do you think the nitro engine will last then?

keep on changing engines doesnt sound like a good investment and it could prove too much headache for me.
i do want a nitro, separating the men from the boys of electrics hehe! no offence to the electric fans, just that all young boys had an electric car at some point in their life and that goes to me too. so this makes me want something different and buy something i wasnt able to afford when i was young.
 

Turtle

Ex. Club Member
I think the batteries are AA in most nitro cars? Its only to power the reciever and throttle and steering servo's. Someone will correct me if im wrong. So you can get rechargable ones...

The engine life probably depends on how you treat it, I guess thats whats different from electric.
 

Antony

Ex. Club Member
the only reason i have changed the engines is cos i chose to.... different engines not changes if you know what i mean?

and yeah, the batts in my rc are all rechargeable..... 1600mah nimh packs in my T-maxx......


sorry bout the technical, but im sure someone on here is gelous...lol
 
R

RIK

Guest
my mate races RC hes not bad..he makes and sells his own cells.better than any off the shelf
i can get his e-mail or get him to come on here if your interested.
 
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tse_adam

tse_adam

Micra Attitude
F*** me, i dont wanna enter the lebanon war you know. haha

yea rik more advice the better!

im still shopping around, my options are still open. it can be on/off road, nitro or electric. as long as i find one thats quite fast, reliable, not too expensive and nice looking then i'll open me wallet.
 
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