What's the point of having one if you don't play with it all day? I know I would (I know it's a collectors item blah blah blah lol)

 

Mindcore - since you seem to be the expert here, how would you rate something like this kit for those who just want to have some mini-fast & furious fun (and are budget conscious). Is there something better you could recommend (while staying inexpensive)? I have no experience with this stuff and have none of the parts yet. If you don't want to go into it here, PM me although I think the people reading this might be interested.
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...p?&I=LXRS83&P=7

 

Damn. . .that's nice. But I'm confused. Where can you find one of these and how do they operate?

I thought I was the HOT shit with my little Tyco Canned Heat!

 

You can find cars like these at hobby shops or online. Tower Hobbies is a good place to shop. They generally have competetive prices and I've heard they have good service though I've never used them. They come in electric and nitro, touring cars, monster trucks, buggies, various things... They can go pretty damn fast. I believe the records for one is around 112 mph, though that was with a dragster running off 24 cells. It seems everyone here wants an S2000. I wonder why.... Anyway, the most common size for touring cars is 1/10 scale. There are a few larger ones, a smaller one, and some really small ones, though they're larger than those little Radio Shack ones. I don't know if you can consider those touring cars though. Touring cars are 4wd withe either shaft or belt drive. These can be modfied like a real car, but parts are sorta expensive. You can get RTR (ready to run) kits in either nitro or electric. These include a radio and the car is built already. You will need batteries or fuel to get running. Downsides are, if the car breaks, you won't have prior experience with how it's put together, so you may have trouble. Also, the included radio equipment with these cars is often not as good quality as radio equipment you buy yourself. They are always cheaper in the end though.

 

Tep, That is similar to the one I have..
Comes with the motor with the kit..
although mine is a 4WD version..its a little more complicated, with more things to break..

So you will need to get a remote and a battery pack, and you're all set.

The radios come with the servos, and you don't need much for just a road car. Figure about 80 bucks for the radio.

Battery packs are about 40 bucks, then you need a charger 30 bucks?

Going with an electric car is by far the cheapest and easiest way to get into RC cars.

Its much cleaner, and you don't have to worry about noise.

The only real downside with electrics are the charge times..you drive for 15 minutes, then have to wait 20 minutes to charge..

Otherwise fill the tank and go.

Also keep in mind that there is a lot of work involved in buildng the car..You have to assemble the differentials, shocks, etc.. but I quite enjoy building them, and can bang one off in 2-3 hours..I;d leave yourself the better part of the day to build it.

I can give you a lot of important tips on building it, when the time comes..Things that will maximize your enjoyment of the car.

also as with any quality rc car, there are tons of hop ups, and you just might find yourself addicted to it..New shocks, full barrings, new motors, which can top out at well over 55 MPH!!

But this is only if you truely want to get in to it heavy.

One last thing I will mention, Cars with an RTR designation are what they call ready to run.. The come assembled, with radio installed..just charge the battery and go..

I don't see one on Tower however, but found this one as a Nitro powered option
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...0001p?&I=LXWW27**&P=7
Though as I say, first time in, go with electric..Nitros are finicky to say the least.

If I missed something, or you have any other questions, just ask!

Mike

 

I accidentally hit submit so I'll continue here. Another thing to consider is if you want a nitro or electric. Fuel is rather expensive at $15 to $20 a gallon. Nitro cars usually go faster out of the box. A lot of people don't recommend them as they require more maintenance and are sometimes finicky to get started and tune. They are powered by two stroke engines of .12-15 c.i. of displacement for 1/10 touring cars. Electrics are cheaper than their nitro counterparts, can be hopped up to run fast too, are a lot quieter, have more torque, at least compared to smaller engines, but require a battery pack and charger, which can be quite expensive. You also have to take care of your battery packs. With nitros, you just refuel and go. With electrics, you buy several battery packs and charge the others while running. There are several chassis available. The more expensive ones are oriented toward racing, but they're pointless to get if you just want to drive up and down your street. I would highly recommend you look for a shift driven model as rocks get in belts and tear them, taking you out of commision. These cars only have 1/4 or so inch of ground clearance so that's something to worry about. The car TepEvan linked to is unique in that it's two wheel drive. It doesn't state if it' front or rear but I would hope its rear wheel drive. With electrics, another thing that sets them apart from nitros is the "speed control." These are to get linearity in the throttle and not just have it as an on-off switch for the motor. The electric ones pulsate on and off several times per second to very the amount of voltage the motor gets. Mechanical speed controllers use resistors to burn off extra power and usually only have three "steps." They are really becoming a thing of the past now, I think. Hmmm, what else? The electronics of these are conprised of a receiver and servo motors that rotate. Linkages are used to transmit this movement to do 3 main things: Steer the car, open the throttle on nitro cars, and shift gears on a few new cars that are out (all monster trucks though). In an electric car, the electric speed controller will take the place of the throttle servo unless you have a mechanical speed control, which is servo operated.

 

Galveston, if we combined our posts, we'd have the perfect reply

You have any cars?

 

Hmm, Mindcore covered anything really important to you if you just want to fool around with these. There should be plenty of RTR electrics on Tower. They just won't come with a S2000 body. You can always buy one for $20 bucks or so though. I'd keep it for show and use the included body to run it as they get rather banged up in that case. My car had a leaky header so it's all grimy now and too dirty to keep inside.

 

Great information GalvestonVTEC and Mindcore :-) Thank you both!!

I'm not that concerned with it having an s2000 body, I know if it's 1/10th I can always purchase the HPI or Kyosho s2k body kit for $20.

So keeping in mind that I'm a beginner (but I don't mind building it-I think I would enjoy this?) and that I'd like to start off in a "beginner price range" ;-) what would be a good car to start with (for playing in the street) that I would be able to upgrade (when/if necessary) and drop the s2k body kit onto.
From what it sounds like, you guys are suggesting an electric first (even though the thought of gas/nitro is exciting!)

From what I remember of my younger days, the Grasshopper was the car to get back then and then to "mod" it, but I'm sure times have changed since the '80s.

Maybe some suggested starter kit links from you guys would be helpful? :-) The $110 Tamiya kit is around the right price range, since I can see (from the combo option on towerhobbies.com) that I would need to put another $100 into it for a radio, battery & charger.

Here are the 3 s2k I found on Tower Hobbies for everyone to see.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...p?&I=LXRS83&P=7 http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...&I=LXWW27**&P=7 http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...&I=LXWW25**&P=7

Thanks for the continued help!

p.s. I did a search on ebay for Kyosho rtr and they do have some of the electric s2k's on there. The more I look at it the more I have an urge to build rather than get pre-assembled out of the box. Thoughts on this as well?

 

If you want a car that can be upgraded to be race worthy, I think I'd go with either a Team Associated TC3 or Team Losi XXX-S. These companies build only race oriented cars. I looked at the TC3 at one time and they offer a Racer, Team, and Factory Team kit. The Team and Factory Team have upgrades, but cost more. There is also a RTR, which is the same as the Racer, equipment- wise. These two cars are always contenders at the national championships. But it's more about driver skill, just like with real cars. A Tamiya TRF414 was an upset winner at an International Championship a few months back, so don't rule out kits from other companies. Losi and Associated are American companies though, so getting parts for them may be easier. People always say to see what your local hobby shop carries as they will stock replacement parts for the cars they sell.
As far as RTRs go... companies have upped the ante with RTRs. A lot of them now come with bearings in place of bushings and ESCs (electronic speed controllers). The radios are of decent quality, but often lack features you'd want if you were going racing. A lot of people rip apart their RTR and rebuild it. At the very least, you should loc-tite any screws that thread into metal. Vibration will loosen them and they will fall out. I went with a kit for my first car, for what it's worth. I think I'd look at the TC3 and XXX-S if I were you. There are other good cars, but they aren't sold in anything less than race spec I don't think, and they would be overkill for playing around with.