RC Cars - Where To Start?

[CPT_BEEMO]

Mornin!

 

I am interested in adding a new hobby to my life (Like I already didn't have enough). I have quite a few friends on my airsoft team that enjoy electric RC cars. They have made a few recommendations to me for what to buy at an entry level standpoint, but I wanted to reach out to this awesome community to find out if anyone else is in this hobby, so that I may ask some questions:

 

I am looking at the TAM58664 Tamiya Ford Mustang 4WD 1/10 scale. Some US based hobby stores sell just the car, no high speed servo, no controller, no motor no battery no nothing for about $200USD , whereas others in the US as well as HK sell the entire kit with everything for about the same price, so this throws me through a loop on where I would want to purchase this model, or if this kit would be worth while to begin with. I am kind of looking for a type of car with a decent upgrade path, Rally RC cars I do also quite like.

 

What are some trusted resources to research the products and upgrades? Where would I find reliable retailers for such products? (I have a store in my city called PM Hobbycraft, but due to covid they are closed until further notice) I am based out of Alberta, Canada, so I would be trying to keep my purchase within the North American continent. I have no problem ordering and aquiring products from the US.

 

Really appreciate any advice you can give. Thank you!

 

P.S. I do not have much of a budget at this time because I am unfamiliar with the hobby. If $500 is a reasonable budget for the everything that I need for an entry level kit, lets go with that.

[Hackentosher]

Have a look at HPI and Traxxas, they should be in your price range. Just keep room in your budget for gear, especially a half decent charger and a handful of batteries. 

 

Personally, I found RC cars a bit too boring as a kid, there's only so many times you can rip a 40mph car up and down your street. In high school I got into FPV drones. A lot more freedom there when you add the third dimension into your place space, plus I found it was cheaper (barely) with a more friendly community surrounding the hobby. 

 

As for research, I found a lot of information on rcgroups.com and local facebook groups.

[Beerzerker]

Yes, there is plenty of info out there - You just have to look for it.
If you should change your mind and decide to go with a different type RC, a drone isn't bad or even an aircraft you build yourself, plenty of stuff on those too you can find.

There's even RC boats and subs if you want, I found a vid on just that and it's..... Interesting.
BTW there was another vid that had a sub with torpedoes that actually detonated when they hit their target but it's no longer available on Youtube.

AMAZING RC SUBMARINE TORPEDO FIRING/LAUNCH DEMONSTRATION - YouTube

 

 

 

 

[MadAnt250]

11 hours ago, CPT_BEEMO said:

What are some trusted resources to research the products and upgrades? Where would I find reliable retailers for such products? (I have a store in my city called PM Hobbycraft, but due to covid they are closed until further notice) I am based out of Alberta, Canada, so I would be trying to keep my purchase within the North American continent. I have no problem ordering and aquiring products from the US.

If you want the almost no brains option; go for a Traxxas ready to run model.

Pros: Durable, parts are sold almost everywhere, a ton of aftermarket upgrades.

Cons: mostly not used for serious racing.

 

Also check out this Canadian.

https://www.youtube.com/user/djmedic2008

 

[straight_stewie]

4 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

Personally, I found RC cars a bit too boring as a kid, there's only so many times you can rip a 40mph car up and down your street.

Did you ever try bashing gas/nitro trucks?

That never gets old for me.

[StDragon]

Depends on what you want to do with RC. There's everything from dirt racing, crawling, pavement, to do-it-all where you can readjust settings depending on type of activity you want to do. Different strokes for different folks. It really is a genre with sub-genres.

 

I recommend Traxxas because the parts are easy to get online or in store (recommend purchasing in store to support your local hobby shop). There's also lots of 3rd party aftermarket options too.

 

If you're into  1/10th scale racing, here's the TLDR for each lineup from Traxxas:

• Bandit - rear-wheel drive and light weight. Great for flat offload use. Can jump mounds pretty well.
• Rustler - Similar to the bandit, but heavier. Has better steering control and can drive in short grass. Performs better on pavement than the Bandit, but it's not well suited for jumping.
• Rustler 4x4 - Superior to the Rustler, but heavier. can go faster and take offloading to the next level. Sucks at jumping as the added weight will slap the bottom. Consider better shocks and thicker shock oil if you plan on mound jumping. If you like pavement racing while wanting some offload activity, this is the best option if you can only pick one car.
• Slash - THE car to have for dirt track racing. Has a higher center of gravity which doesn't do so well for pavement like the Rustler, but does offer a superior off-road experience. They're made for mound jumping; Hop hop hop!  Also you can get them dirty with ease of hose-down for quick cleanup.
• E-Revo - The ultimate in offload outdoor racing. This dog needs plenty of space and the road is whatever happens to be under the wheels; can go anywhere. But if you must go rough terrain or tall grass, stick with a Monster Truck. In many ways, it's like an amp up rustler, but far heavier. It takes lots of battery power to control this beast. If you like light and nimble racing, unfortunately this isn't for you.

Personally, I love my Rustler 4x4 VXL. I'm using LiPo batteries with aftermarket shocks and thicker oil. I can flat-out hit 65+ MPH on the local school parking lot. The extra shock ability helps at those speeds. Because at those speeds the pavement isn't as smooth as you'd imagine. It's trial and error to tweak to your liking.

 

One tip I have for newbies is to stay light on the throttle. These cars have WAY more power than you expect. Easily can flip the car on two wheels if you yank on the trigger. More impressively, you can do so while it's rolling along at 15+MHP. Ease into the throttle. Do NOT think of controlling the throttle like and on/off switch. As you get more confident in both your abilties to control the vehicle, and the limitations of it, only then should you push the envolope a little more.
 

Note: If your first time, YOU WILL BREAK SOMETHING. I hate to say it, but sooner or later, you will break and axle or bumper. Trust me, it happens, and will happen. Do not let this discourage you. It's all part of the learning process. But do be aware that RC racing can be a money pit. But, it is fun the repair your own car too. So long as you're willing to wreck the car and walk the walk-of-shame to fetch it (which means sucking up your pride), I think you'll enjoy the hobby.

[CPT_BEEMO]

1 minute ago, StDragon said:

Depends on what you want to do with RC. There's everything from dirt racing, crawling, pavement, to do-it-all where you can readjust settings depending on type of activity you want to do. Different strokes for different folks. It really is a genre with sub-genres.

 

I recommend Traxxas because the parts are easy to get online or in store (recommend purchasing in store to support your local hobby shop). There's also lots of 3rd party aftermarket options too.

 

If you're into  1/10th scale racing, here's the TLDR for each lineup from Traxxas:

• Bandit - rear-wheel drive and light weight. Great for flat offload use. Can jump mounds pretty well.
• Rustler - Similar to the bandit, but heavier. Has better steering control and can drive in short grass. Performs better on pavement than the Bandit, but it's not well suited for jumping.
• Rustler 4x4 - Superior to the Rustler, but heavier. can go faster and take offloading to the next level. Sucks at jumping as the added weight will slap the bottom. Consider better shocks and thicker shock oil if you plan on mound jumping. If you like pavement racing while wanting some offload activity, this is the best option if you can only pick one car.
• Slash - THE car to have for dirt track racing. Has a higher center of gravity which doesn't do so well for pavement like the Rustler, but does offer a superior off-road experience. They're made for mound jumping; Hop hop hop!  Also you can get them dirty with ease of hose-down for quick cleanup.
• E-Revo - The ultimate in offload outdoor racing. This dog needs plenty of space and the road is whatever happens to be under the wheels; can go anywhere. But if you must go rough terrain or tall grass, stick with a Monster Truck. In many ways, it's like an amp up rustler, but far heavier. It takes lots of battery power to control this beast. If you like light and nimble racing, unfortunately this isn't for you.

Personally, I love my Rustler 4x4 VXL. I'm using LiPo batteries with aftermarket shocks and thicker oil. I can flat-out hit 65+ MPH on the local school parking lot. The extra shock ability helps at those speeds. Because at those speeds the pavement isn't as smooth as you'd imagine. It's trial and error to tweak to your liking.

 

One tip I have for newbies is to stay light on the throttle. These cars have WAY more power than you expect. Easily can flip the car on two wheels if you yank on the trigger. More impressively, you can do so while it's rolling along at 15+MHP. Ease into the throttle. Do think of controlling the throttle like and on/off switch. As you get more confident in both your abilties to control the vehicle, and the limitations of it, only then should you push the envolope a little more.
 

Note: If your first time, YOU WILL BREAK SOMETHING. I hate to say it, but sooner or later, you will break and axle or bumper. Trust me, it happens, and will happen. Do not let this discourage you. It's all part of the learning process. But do be aware that RC racing can be a money pit. But, it is fun the repair your own car too. So long as you're willing to wreck the car and walk the walk-of-shame to fetch it (which means sucking up your pride), I think you'll enjoy the hobby.

Really appreciate the advice!

 

I grew up tinkering with RC cars and the like, I dont know if you have ever heard of X-MOD's, but they were a small customizable RC car that was sold by Radio Shack (or The Source by Circuit City once the name changed). I quite enjoy it and I fully anticipate it. I do really like that mustang model, but none of my local stores seem to carry it, albeit they can probably order it for me.

 

The recommendations you listed sound pretty fair, I will have to take a deeper look in to them when I have some time.

[StDragon]

3 minutes ago, CPT_BEEMO said:

The recommendations you listed sound pretty fair, I will have to take a deeper look in to them when I have some time.

Check out ARRMA too. I've read pretty good reviews about them. They seem to have a cult following. I don't have any personal experience with them, but it's worth checking out. I'm not pro-Traxxas insomuch as I at least can easily get replacement parts for them. I only know what I know. By no means will I claim which is the better of brands.

 

 

[Scheer]

Every time I got into RCs I would get bored of them very shortly after, so every time the allure came around again I told myself if I just buy a bigger better one and upgrade more and more on it, I will enjoy it more, but that was never the case.

 

Started on the normal $2-300 RTR kits, put around $2-300 in aftermarket parts on them so they didn't break every 5 minutes. Then stepped it up to a Mini E-Revo with a Castle Creations 1/10th scale setup, RPM arms and beadlocker wheels, wasn't much more at around $750 all setup, but at the time (and maybe still, haven't looked in years) there were no good options for chassis upgrades so you'd snap the bulkheads every time you took it out and spend an hour or so replacing it. I thought it was too small, and didn't to spend the money on a full size E-Revo, so I took my old E-Maxx, put in dual brushless motors, hardened gears, every aluminum part I could find, and absolutely hated it, because when you give it that much power and strengthen almost everything, every break is expensive. So then it was time to really step it up and moved to "pro" levels with a Mugen MBX (4 or 5?, was still Nitro at the time, did a conversion to brushless on it) and while it held up way better than anything thus far, it still did break and parts were really hard to find at the time so it would only be usable every other weekend. 

 

Now, its not like these are all fragile as glass, if you are careful with them and just taking it easy around a track or backyard they'd likely never break... but that is boring.

 

At this point I decided to give up on RC cars for good, and then the Losi 1/24th scale came out.... My son was maybe one at the time, so I thought a cheap yet still hobby grade RC would be fun and exciting for him, and I fell in love with it. Nearly 10 years later I still drive them around every so often, making little mods and tweaks. Parts are extremely cheap, they rarely ever break, and you can drive them indoors. They are still nearly as moddable as the bigger ones, I have a few Micro's that can do 60mph if you can find a smooth enough road.

 

Also in all that I had a 1/12 scale hydroplane boat, which was nitro and spent quite a lot of time keeping it running, which is no fun... still have plans to brushless convert this at some point. A few Blade Heli's, the little Coaxial MCX was actually a lot of fun, but anymore I'd rather just fly a quad copter around. And my brother had some Axial crawlers, but I've never had anything put me to sleep so fast.

 

So long story short, I've tried about everything RC (aside from 1/5 scale and road cars) and 1/36 or 1/24 Losi have easily been the cheapest AND most fun I've had with RC.

[thepoorgamer]

If you just want to bash and you want to test the waters before blowing a lot of $$$ get a redcat raceing blackout xbe pro. It does 35 mph and it is only $200! It is also 1/10 scale. hope this helps!

[CPT_BEEMO]

1 hour ago, thepoorgamer said:

If you just want to bash and you want to test the waters before blowing a lot of $$$ get a redcat raceing blackout xbe pro. It does 35 mph and it is only $200! It is also 1/10 scale. hope this helps!

What is the upgradability like on this car? Is it easy to find parts, add ons or upgrades?

[StDragon]

I might later pull out the RC again once camera tech reaches the following criteria:

• Becomes cheaper
• Smaller and lighter
• Improved image stability

That seems like a tall order, but at the rate of current technological progress and innovation, it's happening. Just couldn't tell you what the reasonable time-frame would be.

 

Anyways, the whole point is to mount a camera and drive the car around high speed with FPV goggles. Would be so badass!

 

https://www.dronezon.com/drone-reviews/fpv-goggles-for-drones-to-experience-the-thrill-of-flying/

 

You would think that criteria has been met thanks to the cell phone industry and the fact it's currently used by drones. But unlike drones, RC cars are constantly under shock/impact at high speeds. So you can't use a gimbal either due to added weight and their fragility.

[thepoorgamer]

It is relatively easy to upgrade. The brushless moter can be upgraded, however you are stuck with the same esc. You can get metal driveshafts for it witch make the blackout xbe pro more durable, as the stock plastic ones break easily. 

[steelo]

On 5/9/2020 at 10:19 AM, CPT_BEEMO said:

Mornin!

 

I am interested in adding a new hobby to my life (Like I already didn't have enough). I have quite a few friends on my airsoft team that enjoy electric RC cars. They have made a few recommendations to me for what to buy at an entry level standpoint, but I wanted to reach out to this awesome community to find out if anyone else is in this hobby, so that I may ask some questions:

 

I am looking at the TAM58664 Tamiya Ford Mustang 4WD 1/10 scale. Some US based hobby stores sell just the car, no high speed servo, no controller, no motor no battery no nothing for about $200USD , whereas others in the US as well as HK sell the entire kit with everything for about the same price, so this throws me through a loop on where I would want to purchase this model, or if this kit would be worth while to begin with. I am kind of looking for a type of car with a decent upgrade path, Rally RC cars I do also quite like.

 

What are some trusted resources to research the products and upgrades? Where would I find reliable retailers for such products? (I have a store in my city called PM Hobbycraft, but due to covid they are closed until further notice) I am based out of Alberta, Canada, so I would be trying to keep my purchase within the North American continent. I have no problem ordering and aquiring products from the US.

 

Really appreciate any advice you can give. Thank you!

 

P.S. I do not have much of a budget at this time because I am unfamiliar with the hobby. If $500 is a reasonable budget for the everything that I need for an entry level kit, lets go with that.

If you enjoy building kits, you can't go wrong with tamiya or kyosho. I'm an 80s child and personally can't stand the soulless ready to run Traxxas' of today. To me, building a kit and tweaking it to my liking is much more rewarding than buying a prebuilt/prepainted model.

 

I was so excited as a child watching my dad run his kyosho optima... it's a beautiful rc buggy and I recently built one of my own when they rereleased this model from 1985. In my opinion, it looks way better than any modern traxxas and actually can hold it's own against more modern designs.

[CPT_BEEMO]

13 hours ago, steelo said:

If you enjoy building kits, you can't go wrong with tamiya or kyosho. I'm an 80s child and personally can't stand the soulless ready to run Traxxas' of today. To me, building a kit and tweaking it to my liking is much more rewarding than buying a prebuilt/prepainted model.

 

I was so excited as a child watching my dad run his kyosho optima... it's a beautiful rc buggy and I recently built one of my own when they rereleased this model from 1985. In my opinion, it looks way better than any modern traxxas and actually can hold it's own against more modern designs.

kinda like building PC's? hahaha. I agree. I like tinkering.

[CPT_BEEMO]

On 5/13/2020 at 8:06 AM, thepoorgamer said:

It is relatively easy to upgrade. The brushless moter can be upgraded, however you are stuck with the same esc. You can get metal driveshafts for it witch make the blackout xbe pro more durable, as the stock plastic ones break easily. 

So essentially you would have to upgrade the motor to something the ESC could handle within its limits yeah?

[thepoorgamer]

Yeah you wold.