Any RC Car junkies out there?

Tcann32 · October 9, 2018

I didn’t get to spend as much time on the course as I would’ve liked this summer but picked up an old hobby again with RC cars.

When I was young, my dad and I discovered the nitro gas powered cars and trucks and had a lot of fun, but lost interest and stopped using them. I decided this summer (after about 15 years) that I was gonna get them going again. The engines are carbureted, so it’s gas and air, and couldn’t be that tough to get em going again. After about $30 and a couple afternoons of work, 2/3 were running again.

What I didn’t realize was that the electric ones had come so far.. 15-20 years ago they topped out at 20 mph and you got to use them for 10 min and charge the battery for 2 hours, so the allure of gas powered was strong. Now that brushless has come so far, these things are nuts!

I promptly purchased a new brushless truck and it’s a blast. 70+ mph, waterproof electronics, and the run time is about 30 min, and charging only takes an hour!

The current line up (all Traxxas) is: Nitro 4-tec, T-maxx, Nitro Stampede (out of commission), and E-Revo 2.0. Probably several more to come.

If there’s anyone else out there, what are you guys running??

CHuntsman · October 9, 2018

I didn’t get to spend as much time on the course as I would’ve liked this summer but picked up an old hobby again with RC cars.

When I was young, my dad and I discovered the nitro gas powered cars and trucks and had a lot of fun, but lost interest and stopped using them. I decided this summer (after about 15 years) that I was gonna get them going again. The engines are carbureted, so it’s gas and air, and couldn’t be that tough to get em going again. After about $30 and a couple afternoons of work, 2/3 were running again.

What I didn’t realize was that the electric ones had come so far.. 15-20 years ago they topped out at 20 mph and you got to use them for 10 min and charge the battery for 2 hours, so the allure of gas powered was strong. Now that brushless has come so far, these things are nuts!

I promptly purchased a new brushless truck and it’s a blast. 70+ mph, waterproof electronics, and the run time is about 30 min, and charging only takes an hour!

The current line up (all Traxxas) is: Nitro 4-tec, T-maxx, Nitro Stampede (out of commission), and E-Revo 2.0. Probably several more to come.

If there’s anyone else out there, what are you guys running??

I remember browsing the radio shack ads back in the 90's looking for RC car's as a kid. Back then, I thought they were the jam. Then I went to my first Hobbytown USA here in GA around 2002. That's where I purchased my first nitro truck, Traxxas Rustler. After an hour or so of breaking it in, that thing was a blast. Lasted for quite awhile too. That led to more purchases. Next I got an Team Associated TC4 nitro street car with a 2-speed ESC. When that thing hit second gear, the sound was awesome. Bought the HPI drift version and put in a Picco engine in it. Holy cow would that thing scoot. Then moved onto a Losi buggy. A buddy made a track in his front yard. We had about 5-6 guys running at the same time, great fun. After many broken dog bones, A-Arms, suspension arms, etc, I decided it was time to get out of the game. There was a time where the only parts store that carried the part I needed was in Auburn, AL. I drove from North GA to Auburn Alabama for a damn plastic RC part. A few years went by and they just collected dust. I sold them all on craigslist. Then I got the itch again, this time I went brush-less. I believe it was the brush-less Traxxas Rustler. The thing had wheelie bars on it. It would reach 55+ MPH in a snap of the finger. So much fun. I haven't owned any since having kids. They are an absolute blast and money pit!! Thousands and thousand of dollars spent on RC Cars/Parts/Batteries/Gas.

Pstar1978 · October 9, 2018

I was an avid RC enthusiast since 99. I currently have a fleet of 12 cars. But due to time restraints and other interests like golf and fishing plus spending time with the family, I don't have the time for the hobby. Here are some pics of my fleet.

Tcann32 · October 9, 2018

I didn’t get to spend as much time on the course as I would’ve liked this summer but picked up an old hobby again with RC cars.

When I was young, my dad and I discovered the nitro gas powered cars and trucks and had a lot of fun, but lost interest and stopped using them. I decided this summer (after about 15 years) that I was gonna get them going again. The engines are carbureted, so it’s gas and air, and couldn’t be that tough to get em going again. After about $30 and a couple afternoons of work, 2/3 were running again.

What I didn’t realize was that the electric ones had come so far.. 15-20 years ago they topped out at 20 mph and you got to use them for 10 min and charge the battery for 2 hours, so the allure of gas powered was strong. Now that brushless has come so far, these things are nuts!

I promptly purchased a new brushless truck and it’s a blast. 70+ mph, waterproof electronics, and the run time is about 30 min, and charging only takes an hour!

The current line up (all Traxxas) is: Nitro 4-tec, T-maxx, Nitro Stampede (out of commission), and E-Revo 2.0. Probably several more to come.

If there’s anyone else out there, what are you guys running??

I remember browsing the radio shack ads back in the 90's looking for RC car's as a kid. Back then, I thought they were the jam. Then I went to my first Hobbytown USA here in GA around 2002. That's where I purchased my first nitro truck, Traxxas Rustler. After an hour or so of breaking it in, that thing was a blast. Lasted for quite awhile too. That led to more purchases. Next I got an Team Associated TC4 nitro street car with a 2-speed ESC. When that thing hit second gear, the sound was awesome. Bought the HPI drift version and put in a Picco engine in it. Holy cow would that thing scoot. Then moved onto a Losi buggy. A buddy made a track in his front yard. We had about 5-6 guys running at the same time, great fun. After many broken dog bones, A-Arms, suspension arms, etc, I decided it was time to get out of the game. There was a time where the only parts store that carried the part I needed was in Auburn, AL. I drove from North GA to Auburn Alabama for a damn plastic RC part. A few years went by and they just collected dust. I sold them all on craigslist. Then I got the itch again, this time I went brush-less. I believe it was the brush-less Traxxas Rustler. The thing had wheelie bars on it. It would reach 55+ MPH in a snap of the finger. So much fun. I haven't owned any since having kids. They are an absolute blast and money pit!! Thousands and thousand of dollars spent on RC Cars/Parts/Batteries/Gas.

It’d be fun to find a few people to drive them with.. when I first got into the nitro cars I was a very avid BMX racer and we used to bring them to the track and run them after practice was done.

The brushless speed / instant power is no joke.. the one I got a couple months ago does a literal backflip and keeps driving from a stand still. It also has a self righting feature and if you flip it, you push a button on the controller and it flips itself back over. They’re much more durable in terms of drive train and motors than nitro ones too.. if you roll it over it keeps running vs flooding. My only issue so far has been that the tires rip from all the torque.. lol

Tcann32 · October 9, 2018

I was an avid RC enthusiast since 99. I currently have a fleet of 12 cars. But due to time restraints and other interests like golf and fishing plus spending time with the family, I don't have the time for the hobby. Here are some pics of my fleet.

Dang, that’s a solid selection.. I had a lot of trouble deciding what I wanted, in terms of a new one. So many different styles and they all look fun.

Is the top one the Colossus? That’s a hefty truck! Lol

I was torn between the X-maxx 8s and e Revo 2.0 and went with the latter. The X maxx would be a blast, but it’s a big investment with the size of the Lipo’s, and the chargers are more too.. I already have a nitro street car too, but the XO-1 goes 100+ mph and that just seems like something fun to have.. lol

Pstar1978 · October 10, 2018

Thanks. The top truck is a Savage XL with Proline tires. It also has a 3 speed transmission.

dan360 · October 10, 2018

Wow, flashbacks. I grew up with an Associated RC10 and raced Losi Junior Ts and JRX Pros.

Had a Kyosho Sideways sprint car that I ran on a mini clay oval for a bit. That thing was super fun.

Ended up running a RC10T2 and RC10GT for about 7 years. Then fell into the Traxxas T-Maxx craze and spent probably real F-150 money racing those. In 2008 I had a house fire and most everything was lost, stayed out of the hobby for awhile but a couple years ago bought a Traxxas Slash and got back into local racing.

....lately have been pondering 1/5 scale.....

Pstar1978 · October 10, 2018

1/5th scale is nice but it's expensive to get into. Anywhere from 800 to 2000 if you buy a brand name. Parts aren't cheap either.

Tcann32 · October 11, 2018

Wow, flashbacks. I grew up with an Associated RC10 and raced Losi Junior Ts and JRX Pros.

Had a Kyosho Sideways sprint car that I ran on a mini clay oval for a bit. That thing was super fun.

Ended up running a RC10T2 and RC10GT for about 7 years. Then fell into the Traxxas T-Maxx craze and spent probably real F-150 money racing those. In 2008 I had a house fire and most everything was lost, stayed out of the hobby for awhile but a couple years ago bought a Traxxas Slash and got back into local racing.

....lately have been pondering 1/5 scale.....

That’s a bummer on the house fire man..

I’ve been considering a stadium truck to do some local races as well. No real aspirations involved, but it’d be something fun to do to kill the time.

I’ve been considering another one and getting a 5th scale too. The Revo 2.0 is 1/8th does everything I want, and then some, but a 1/5th looks fun too, and being from MN, it’d be better at running through a few inches of snow. The $$ for 1/5 scale is hefty though, basically double that of the 1/8th scale, and after researching, it seems like 8s is the only way to have it not be under powered, and that sucks, since I couldn’t use any of the lipos or the charger I have now.

I’ve been thinking of getting a rolling model and piecing one together. Doesn’t save any money, but it’s fun to do, and the one time blow to the wallet isn’t so heavy. Lol

1/5th scale is nice but it's expensive to get into. Anywhere from 800 to 2000 if you buy a brand name. Parts aren't cheap either.

Amen.. $900 for the truck and another $400 for two batteries and a charger, and then the obvious $300 for another pair of lipos lol

LouieLouie · October 16, 2018

I bought a Slash 4x2 a while back. The 4x4 had just come out so the 4x2s were on sale. Plus I thought it would be more fun to slip and slide with only 2 rear wheel drive. I never really got into racing it, but just bash it around the neighborhood. There is a hobby store a few blocks away from my place that has an indoor dirt track. I really want to bring it over there but I haven't had the time. I don't have a transponder or anything like that either so I don't know if it would be all that fun unless I rent/buy one so you could see what kind of lap times you are running. Also, I think there are some serious hobbyists over there and it might be difficult to find a time to get on the track.

I also have a RC crawler. It was a Losi mini crawler originally but I moded a lot of it so it's kind of a franken car now. Again, not a whole lot of time to run them anymore.

howaboutme · October 17, 2018

Nice thread. Love RC from way back as a kid with my Tamiya Hotshot. Fast forward 30 years and I'm back as much as I can in between other priorities.

I have a few cars and some NIB but here's some:

RC10 Re-Re

Black HS Re-Re:

My winter project is to upgrade the suspension and turn this into brushless.

TT-02:

Will eventually turn this into brushless w/ upgrades. All stock now:

And now the ultimate RC addiction and challenge:

The problem w/ the above is that now I have to split my money between all of these money pit hobbies... :)

Enjoy!

Mych · October 22, 2018

This is mine from when I built it and did a writeup a few years ago: https://fpvlab.com/f...t-pics-amp-vids

Since then I've taken off the FPV camera and put it back on my quad. I designed it to mount on the battery strap and the wiring is still there so I could add it back on in about 5 minutes. I'm making some long overdue repairs/upgrades and hoping to spend a lot of time with it in the next couple weeks.

Tcann32 · October 22, 2018

This is mine from when I built it and did a writeup a few years ago: https://fpvlab.com/f...t-pics-amp-vids

Since then I've taken off the FPV camera and put it back on my quad. I designed it to mount on the battery strap and the wiring is still there so I could add it back on in about 5 minutes. I'm making some long overdue repairs/upgrades and hoping to spend a lot of time with it in the next couple weeks.

Wow, that’s a cool overhaul!

I’ve been considering doing a custom build over the winter, starting with an X maxx chassis and going from there, but haven’t really decided what I’d like the overall product to end up being.

Love the idea of the camera on it. I’ve been trying to think up ways to get a camera on mine, but most of them involve driving in a manner that wouldn’t rip it off. The internal cam is a great idea!

Mych · October 23, 2018

This is mine from when I built it and did a writeup a few years ago: https://fpvlab.com/f...t-pics-amp-vids

Since then I've taken off the FPV camera and put it back on my quad. I designed it to mount on the battery strap and the wiring is still there so I could add it back on in about 5 minutes. I'm making some long overdue repairs/upgrades and hoping to spend a lot of time with it in the next couple weeks.

Wow, that’s a cool overhaul!

I’ve been considering doing a custom build over the winter, starting with an X maxx chassis and going from there, but haven’t really decided what I’d like the overall product to end up being.

Love the idea of the camera on it. I’ve been trying to think up ways to get a camera on mine, but most of them involve driving in a manner that wouldn’t rip it off. The internal cam is a great idea!

For a while I had taken the GPS and Autopilot (APM/ArduPilot) off my quadcopter and had that on there too. I was able to get it to run an autonomous route up and down my street, but I couldn't get it to go much further because it would try to return home when it lost signal from the transmitter.

It was a lot of fun to build. For me, coming up with the idea, designing, finding parts, building, customizing the wiring, etc is really the best part. As soon as it's all together and working, the first thing I want to do is tear it all apart and do something different with it. I never had as much fun driving it as I did building it, so right now I'm getting into shape for bashing and going to try to have some real fun driving it.

I have another FPV idea/project that I'll probably try next year. I'd like to build a FPV rock crawler. The VXL Slash was way too fast of a platform for FPV. I'd like to have a fully articulating gimbal mounted on a crawler and try to manage the terrain as if I was really driving. The speed shouldn't be an issue since it's slow, and I have two huge rocky landscape areas in the park by my house, so I could get plenty of time running it FPV without having to leave my back yard.