Nitro cars are generally faster in a straight line as they typically have two speed transmissions. Nitro cars do not handle as well as electrics and on standard sized tracks, they run slower lap times.

I also am not a fan of nitro cars as I find them annoying. It seems that a number of noobs purchase nitro cars due to the initial cool factor but when that sensation no longer exists, you end up with a nuisance of a car that requires a ton of time to clean and maintain.

 

If you're not racing and you just want it to be fast, I'd suggest a Mamba Max 7700 setup and a 2 cell lipo. It's a good "bang for your buck" setup that'll put you around 50mph.

If you want insane speed, get a 3cell lipo and find a traxxas vxl-3 setup and go 75mph+, but I don't really recommend it if you want to keep your car pretty/intact.

 

Thanks. So I take it that the body doesn't matter.

 

The body does matter but not so much for bashing.

 

i have a mamba max 5700kv esc and motor , i highly reccomend it , you can do computer tuning with it and get to speeds of 70+ with the correct batt's and gearing

 

I think you could get the same top speeds, if not higher, for cheaper with the Traxxas Velineon brushless system.

It's less tune-able, but if you're just bashing, who cares.

 

I have had both electric and nitro powered RC cars in the past. The biggest con about electric for me was relatively short duration of driving time. You needed multiple battery packs, had to have them charged up in advance etc. With nitro engines, you could just gas up and keep going. The noise really does piss people off though, and they're messy and require a lot of maintenance and tuning.

 

And don't handle as well.

 

I am by no means an expert. In fact, I'm in the same boat as you. It seems like the first thing to do would be to decide between gas and electric. I have pretty much decided on electric because it is easier to maintain. I'd rater drive my car than tune it every time I get it out.

After that decision, you should decide between on and off road. The guys at the hobby shop near me put it this way: you can drive an off road car anywhwere you want, but you can olny drive an on road can on pavement. I have decided on off road.

Next, it seems that you must decide what kind of off road car to get. There are monster trucks, buggies, and truggies (which sort of split the difference). At this point, I'm not sure what I want. I am attracted to the speed and looks of a buggy, but I also find the durability and go anywhere aspects of a monster truck attractive. Maybe a truggy is best for me. I don't know. I'm still researching that.

I hope that this helps.

 

Lee72, Lipo removes what you hate about electric. They last a long time, you can run a race night with only one pack. If you charge up 2 packs before you go, you can run all night with minimal interruption.

vtec ftw, In general the terminology "truggies" refers to nitro stadium trucks, in electric terms, they're just "stadium trucks" or "trucks" because nobody races electric monster trucks, which leads me to my next point...

if you plan on racing, don't bother with monster trucks. If you're only bashing, I would totally get an Emaxx, and put a dual-motor brushless system in it, they're huge and awesome, but they're not for racing. If you're racing, best idea would be to go with an associated T4 or a Losi xxxt-cr. The trucks are more forgiving for novice drivers than the buggies. For bashing, I'd get something with bigger tires than a buggy so that you can go anywhere. A buggy in the grass is going to suck.

I'm not an expert. I got started back in November and I did a ton of research before I started. Racing was the main thing that I wanted to do, so most of what I know is geared towards that.