RC cars

Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
Posts
2,586
Location
East Sussex
I’m not allowed any more….lol
I'm in the same boat - got 33 in the collection right now and need to thin the herd a bit to justify any more purchases.

Selling a vintage HPI touring car this week, and got a couple of others up for sale as well. Going to free up a bit of space and get a Tamiya BBX and an E-Buggy.

Going to try and stick to a 30 car limit going forward!
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
3,687
Location
Sussex
Second week just gone of racing in the TT-02 class. New tyres this week I think caused me all sorts of issues, ended up drifting more than driving it round corners. Then I was helped with the cars set-up, it was riding too high so got that a bit nearer and the cars behaviour changed again on the track and I had to learn it again. Last three laps of the final round and I started to feel a rhythm and broke the 21second lap barrier once (the best can consistently do less than 20 in the TT-02 class)
I want to spend a couple of hours down there just running the track, fingers crossed for fridays weather.. I'm also going to tune the ride height and weight distribution.

Enjoying it, tinkering with the car during the week and then racing again on a Wednesday with a really good group of people, I did start to feel like I was getting a flow around the track so might start to hold my own soon :)
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
24 Dec 2004
Posts
18,880
Location
Telford
I'm in the same boat - got 33 in the collection right now and need to thin the herd a bit to justify any more purchases.

Selling a vintage HPI touring car this week, and got a couple of others up for sale as well. Going to free up a bit of space and get a Tamiya BBX and an E-Buggy.

Going to try and stick to a 30 car limit going forward!

I have a couple I need to sell that I will probably never use but I have not managed to list them yet I’m not even sure I want to really…

I’m out of space I have a new shed waiting to be built when the weather gets a bit better but at the moment they are lurking all over the house and understandably the Wife says it’s a bit much…..lol

For me they are like therapy for my mental health. I enjoy tinkering with them probably more than actually running them. I love getting a new one and seeing how it compares to other ones and working out how I can improve them.

33 is a nice effort I think I’m on 14 ish now. :D
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
3,687
Location
Sussex
I'm fighting the urge to buy another and build it to be honest. I built the first one quickly to race the coming week which I really enjoyed doing it but now I'm thinking i'd like to do another but take my time :D
 
Associate
Joined
1 Sep 2013
Posts
1,406
Second week just gone of racing in the TT-02 class. New tyres this week I think caused me all sorts of issues, ended up drifting more than driving it round corners. Then I was helped with the cars set-up, it was riding too high so got that a bit nearer and the cars behaviour changed again on the track and I had to learn it again. Last three laps of the final round and I started to feel a rhythm and broke the 21second lap barrier once (the best can consistently do less than 20 in the TT-02 class)
I want to spend a couple of hours down there just running the track, fingers crossed for fridays weather.. I'm also going to tune the ride height and weight distribution.

Enjoying it, tinkering with the car during the week and then racing again on a Wednesday with a really good group of people, I did start to feel like I was getting a flow around the track so might start to hold my own soon :)

Different weight diff and shock oil and shock springs can make a massive difference aswell I use to race nitro off road 1/8 not sure on the setups of tto 2 tho you can sometimes find sponsored racers setup sheets online to give you a starting point

Where are you racing as not many tracks/clubs surviving these days last I heard

Must admit I do miss the racing but way to expensive now
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
Posts
2,586
Location
East Sussex
Different weight diff and shock oil and shock springs can make a massive difference aswell I use to race nitro off road 1/8 not sure on the setups of tto 2 tho you can sometimes find sponsored racers setup sheets online to give you a starting point

Where are you racing as not many tracks/clubs surviving these days last I heard

Must admit I do miss the racing but way to expensive now
I think 1/8th nitro off road has continued to increase in cost, especially tyres!

But I think 1/10th buggy and touring cars are actually falling in cost compared to when I used to race in the late 90s early 2000s. Electrics are so much cheaper now, on road classes run a lot of control tyres with a limited number of sets, and off road buggy has been going the same way (last couple of events I did limited you to 2 sets for the whole day)

Will be interesting to see where things go over the next few years, newer smaller Asian manufacturers are putting out some really solid kits and electrics for much lower prices that the traditional players in the competition space (at least in on-road) at the moment
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
3,687
Location
Sussex
Different weight diff and shock oil and shock springs can make a massive difference aswell I use to race nitro off road 1/8 not sure on the setups of tto 2 tho you can sometimes find sponsored racers setup sheets online to give you a starting point

Where are you racing as not many tracks/clubs surviving these days last I heard

Must admit I do miss the racing but way to expensive now

I'm being guided in the changes that i'm making to the car, they try to keep the bones of the car fairly stock, battery, esc, motor and main parts but something are swapped out as the original are just not up to racing. Stock shocks never made it on, bearings obviously, tyres. I have the springs that they recommend, but there are still things that I'm still catching up on, putty in the front diff is a thing apparently a thing and I discovered it this week, they don't remember all the changes they have made along the way :D

I'm racing at Eastbourne Electric Car club atm, there is also Adur and 1066 (Hastings) a little further away but EEC is spot on for me atm as they race on a Wednesday night. There does seem to be a good few cars within an hour and a few more I could get to in Kent so quite a few good clubs from what I can see.

TT-02 is a fairly cheep class tbh, the base car is 120 and everything else seems to cost a lot less than it used to. I will no doubt be hooked into another car but right now i'm in and racing, just need to keep it on the track now!
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
Posts
2,586
Location
East Sussex
I'm fighting the urge to buy another and build it to be honest. I built the first one quickly to race the coming week which I really enjoyed doing it but now I'm thinking i'd like to do another but take my time :D
You can get TT02 "kit in a bag" from a few places for about £70. I got a fresh one recently to build with M3 screws from the start.

Building them with hopups is nice from fresh as well! Or get one of the higher end TT02 kits like the S, R, SRX etc. Depends what's legal at Eastbourne - a few years ago they had people putting serious money into the TT02 class which kind of defeated the point, don't know if they've changed it since then
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
3,687
Location
Sussex
You can get TT02 "kit in a bag" from a few places for about £70. I got a fresh one recently to build with M3 screws from the start.

Building them with hopups is nice from fresh as well! Or get one of the higher end TT02 kits like the S, R, SRX etc. Depends what's legal at Eastbourne - a few years ago they had people putting serious money into the TT02 class which kind of defeated the point, don't know if they've changed it since then
From what I am told they had gone that way but they wanted to bring it back to roots and took the step of rolling there cars back to basic changes only with rules coming to back this up. Seems good to me. I've not heard of a kit in a bag before!
I can see me wanting something else later in the year but right now enjoying learning to drive again.
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
Posts
2,586
Location
East Sussex
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
Posts
2,586
Location
East Sussex
Can anyone recommend a base RTR set that has a really long upgrade path? Looking for something good for blasting around the garden that I can slowly upgrade over time.
What kind of vehicle are you thinking about, how big is your garden, and what kind of budget are you thinking about?

If you like buggy type cars then the Associated RB10 is a great car.

If you like trucks - it would be hard to go wrong with an Associated MT10.
 
Associate
Joined
16 May 2008
Posts
2,488
Location
Bristol
What kind of vehicle are you thinking about, how big is your garden, and what kind of budget are you thinking about?

If you like buggy type cars then the Associated RB10 is a great car.

If you like trucks - it would be hard to go wrong with an Associated MT10.
Those look good, the garden's probably not big enough to max these out but can always take it elsewhere.
Is this decent value? https://www.applianceelectronics.co...-v2--red-with-2s-battery-and-charger-as20518c
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
Posts
2,586
Location
East Sussex
Soldato
Joined
17 May 2013
Posts
2,885
Location
West Sussex, UK
I've just had surgery again so off work for a minimum of 2 weeks now. Need to find something to keep me busy. I normally buy a nice Lego set, but the prices are crazy these days - plus once built, they get disassembled and put back in the box again.

I thought perhaps a DIY RC car would be good fun, and can actually be used afterwards. Can anyone recommend a place to start looking? The majority are RTR which I don't want.
 
Associate
Joined
8 Nov 2006
Posts
1,386
If you want a kit to build you either go with something from Tamiya or it will have to be a higher end race kit which will be more expensive, like Xray, losi, associated, schumacher.

The tamiya stuff will be mostly plastic and quite cheap.

The brands like aarma, traxxas, etc are usually RTR as they are mid range "fun" vehicles at a mid range price.

Then the race cars will be very high quality, aluminium , carbon, but at a high price.
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Aug 2007
Posts
28,597
Location
Auckland
You could work on yourself. I don't mean that as a joke or a slight, cheap shot. There's a lot a person can learn about themselves when they have two weeks mostly on their own.

I realise this is not what you asked about so disregard as required.
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Nov 2005
Posts
45,280
I've just had surgery again so off work for a minimum of 2 weeks now. Need to find something to keep me busy. I normally buy a nice Lego set, but the prices are crazy these days - plus once built, they get disassembled and put back in the box again.

I thought perhaps a DIY RC car would be good fun, and can actually be used afterwards. Can anyone recommend a place to start looking? The majority are RTR which I don't want.

Amazon sell some stuff too and usually just as cheap as those sites.

even if things look cheap remember most kits won't come with a remote, batteries, charger and usually no servo either.

some won't even come with an Electric Speed Controller.

you are likely to get a completely unpainted body shell.

Cheap gets expensive when you add in the rest of the stuff you need to run it.
look at the bundle prices on that kit, they show what else you would need for it and how expensive it would be.

Do models come with the oil for the shocks these days?


The display model kits from Tamiya etc are really cheap, but the paint will seem expensive and you likely never use the same paints again...

or you could go full mental like this guy

If you got the skills I bet most of his build is cheap
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2014
Posts
2,586
Location
East Sussex
I've just had surgery again so off work for a minimum of 2 weeks now. Need to find something to keep me busy. I normally buy a nice Lego set, but the prices are crazy these days - plus once built, they get disassembled and put back in the box again.

I thought perhaps a DIY RC car would be good fun, and can actually be used afterwards. Can anyone recommend a place to start looking? The majority are RTR which I don't want.
Where do you have to run the car, this will help you determine if you want an on road car or an off road model and what size it will be. I normally default to getting off road cars - as a lot of on road cars have very low ground clearance so it can be hard to find a smooth enough surface to run them on.

These are great builds, the first is a tenth scale 2WD car, very strong, and it's based on an older competition chassis so it can take a lot of power and will handle well:

This is another 2WD buggy, it's a Tamiya but is a higher end model with really nice and strong plastics, lots of upgrades available as well if you wanted to spec it up a bit in the future: https://www.applianceelectronics.co.uk/viewproduct/20945/tamiya-astute-2022--td2-chassis-tam58697

Out of those 2 cars the Tamiya has the better manual and also has a very interesting front suspension design. Both would also be a reasonable base if you ever wanted to do a bit of club racing - theres plenty of good clubs in Sussex (I've raced both of those cars and they were great fun)

As stated above you'll need some electronics, and stuff like superglue, plus some basic tools, and some polycarbonate spray paint for the body.
 
Back
Top Bottom