RC Powered Cars

Tips and Advice For Beginners

ELECTRIC STARTER FOR GAS POWERED RC CARS

The electric starter is an optional accessory that is  perfect for beginners. The ELECTRIC-STARTER is a tool that works like magic and is highly recommended for beginners who want to buy a gas powered rc car.  Since most gas powered rc cars on the market are pull-start and it can be very frustrating  for an  inexperienced user to start the engine on a rc gas car. The Electric-Starter will eliminate  the frustration caused by pulling the string over and over and not getting the gas powered rc car to start.

Not only do the professionals recommend the electric starter for  beginners they in fact use it themselves to start their own rc gas cars.

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been looking for an RC Powered Car for my 10 year old son. Wow who knew there were so many choices/decisions to be made?

Electric vs. Gas
This Brand vs. That Brand
This Model vs. That Model
What size battery to buy
New or Used

I went to a local Hobby shop but felt like the guy just wanted to sell me something. So I’ve been doing a lot of research online and have learned a lot from the forums. The people have been very helpful there and I feel like I’m getting an unbiased opinion.

The overwhelming majority of people from the RC Forum recommended RC Electric Cars over RC Gas Cars for a beginner. They said RC Electric Cars are quite a bit easier to run and far easier to maintain.

With respect to the question about which model would be good for a beginner the Traxxas Stampede or the Traxxas Rustler were recommended over and over.

As for the size of battery to buy, I was told that a 6 cell battery would be best for a beginner. The 6 cell battery will keep the speed down making it easier to control. Once he figures out how the car will respond then he can move up to a 7 or 8 cell battery that will increase the speed significantly.

When I asked the question of whether to buy new or used I heard quite a few horror stories about buying broken cars that ended up costing them more in end to fix. Most of the experts suggested buying a new car with a warranty from the manufacturer. However, if I was still considering buying a used car I should only do so through a reputable hobby shop that would stand behind the quality.

Any comments from fellow RC Powered Car enthusiast would be welcomed and appreciated.

My son recently attended a birthday party at a hobby shop where all the kids raced RC Powered Cars.

Ever since that day he has been bugging me to buy him an RC Powered Car. I told him you have plenty of remote control cars, but he kept saying “It’s just not the same”.

So I did some research and found there are two major classes of RC Powered Cars.

First there is the amateur or toy class which are your typical battery-operated RC Powered toys (which is what my son already owns).

Then there is the hobby class, which is where the RC Powered Cars have more range, more power, more speed and of course costs more (which is what my son covets).

So we visited the RC Hobby Shop where my son attended the party to check out the cars. We watched some boys about his age race the Hobby Class RC Powered Cars on the race tracks.

After watching the boys race the Hobby version of the RC Powered Cars I have to say I do see the attraction. The cars are a lot bigger, move much quicker and sound really cool.

It turns out there are two types of Hobby RC Powered Cars. One is RC Gas Cars also know as nitro and the other is RC Electric Cars.

The store owner said that for a 10 year old boy and being his first Hobby RC Powered Car he might be better off starting with the Electric Powered Car. However, my son has his heart set on the Gas Powered Car. He says the electric ones aren’t as cool and that they don’t make that awesome motor sound.

With these cars ranging from the mid $100s to $400 and above, I think we need to do some more research before jumping into the Hobby market. I found a great book that has some really good information in it called The RC Car Guide.

I would also love comments and suggestions from other RC Car enthusiasts.