944S2NUT

I have decided I want to take this up as a hobby. Is tamiya the best way to go for RC gas powered cars?? Anything better out there? Your input is greatly appreciated.

While you guys are at it post pics of your RC cars.

Perry 951

2 words, Tower Hobbies.

Mighty Shilling

1 word. EXPENSIVE

I bought my HPI Pro 3 electric chassis about 2 years ago. so far, into this hobby, I've spent over $1,000.00. the thing (when it works) hauls *** for an electric, but it's down more than it runs. it's not worth it. Also, HPI makes damn good racing chassis for gas powered cars.

If ya want an electric that hauls *** with a BMW M3 GTR body, and a torn up 996 TT body, with either a steering servo or a receiver gone bad, look my way. Seriously, this thing is hooked up. it can easily top 60 MPH. and since it's electric, it has no need to gain RPMs...it just goes.

I'll part with it for $500.00...half what I paid for it.
here's the site for the chassis:
www.hpiracing.com

ilikemy944

Tamiya makes great stuff, but its not the 'best.'
HPI is nice nice stuff but expensive.
If you want a little less expensive look at the Traxxas Nitro 4-tec.
Should do around 60mph. Comes with a Mclaren body, but any 1/10th scale P-car body will fit.

Dash01

I too have a Hpi Pro3. I have mine geared low and my motor isn't all that great, but it still does about 30.

I have the 996 GT3 body with BBS type rims. For the frnt they fit perfect but in the back it would be better with a set of the 3mm offsets, but that is jsut for the Pro3.

Techno Duck

944S2NUT, i have been into this hobby pretty seriously for a few years, if you have any specific questions id be happy to help you out. You can just go and buy any car and just purchase a Porsche body seperatley. You just need to keep in mind the width of your car. The most popular cars are either 200mm or 190mm. To my knowledge the only Porsche bodies really available are the new style 911's.

You need to consider a few things before you purchase.

Do you want a pre-built RTR (ready to run), or do you want to build a kit.
Do you plan on ever racing locally or are you just running in a parking lot.
Are you prepared to learn tuning a nitro engine, or do you just want plug and play. Do you know this is a very addictive hobby that can be very expensive?

Your choice of car depends alot on what you plan on doing. If you plan on racing (even bashing) and really getting serious, i would look into the Associated Nitro TC3. Though its an older car which came out in '99-'00, its still one of the most competetive and popular nitro (the electric version is just as popular, if not more) 1/10 scale touring cars. I would only advise a Tamiya if you plan on getting into the F1 electric racing scene, as they some of the best cars in that class. The Nitro TC3 comes in both a kit and RTR form. Another nitro car to look into is the Yokomo GT4 which to my knowledge is only available in RTR form. The GT4 though a great car, if you break parts you will very likley have to mail order all of them. Take a trip down to your LHS (if you have one) too see what they stock and whats popular there, that way if you break a $5.00 part, you dont need to wait a week for delivery through mail order.

If you plan on bashing or just running in the street and parking lot, the HPI RS4 RTR 3 is a great choice. I bought one just to see what a nitro was like. Though I think nitros are cool, i am still mainly a electric racer. I would only advise buying the RS4 if you plan on bashing, as they are not that great of a racing platform unless you plan on spending ALOT of money on it. The new RS4 RTR 3 Evo looks real promising with the new engine it comes with, its advertised to hit speeds of about ~44 mph. The RS4 platform also comes in kit form, known as the RS4 SS. The Traxxas Nitro 4-Tec is also a good bashing car, though they are not the best racing platform (you can get a better setup for the money). The downside to the 4-Tec is that the engine that it comes with, the TRX 2.5 is a PAIN IN THE BUTT to tune! Alot of people say its not hard, alot of people say its hard. It really depends, but from my experience its a real pain. Also even though Traxxas claims that the 4-tec can hit 60mph (same with the Yokomo GT-4, they claim that also) it is very unlikley that car will hit 60mph right out of the box. The 4-tec does more like 50mph, same as the Yokomo GT-4. In order to hit 60mph, you really need to gear the car differently. Its more like 'capable' of hitting ___mph.

Also know that when you buy a RTR car, you will also need to buy stuff like Nitro fuel, a fuel bottle, glow plug ignitor and batteries for the transmitter and reciever on the car. If you purchase a kit, you will need to buy alot more (but the kit is usually cheaper). You will need everything above, including a transmitter with reciever, engine, steering and throttle servos and likley a body.

Here are some very useful sites to look at, mainly company pages so you can look at the cars.

HPI Racing
Traxxas
Team Associated
Yokomo
Tower Hobbies

If you purchase anything from Tower, let me know because i have a few coupon codes that can save you from $10-100 depending on how much you spend.

These are my three R/C's. The first here is my Traxxas E-Maxx. Its an electric 4wd monster truck.

Next up is my HPI RS4 3 nitro touring car.

And last is my racer, its a Associated TC3 Team Touring Car. Running a brushless motor and ESC in it...easily keeps up with almost any nitro touring car on the track. All 4 tires slip on hard acceleration. I didnt race this season so i have the car set up for parking lot drifting which is real fun with a couple of my friends from work. Just it burns the hell out of tires.

shortyboy

mugen mtx-3 ....mine hits about 60mph..ive spent about $2000 and i only got $500 back when i sold everything

944S2NUT

Wow!! Very impressive cars Techno Duck and thanks for the info and the great websites. To bad you didnt live closer to me. I will for surely keep you in mind when questions arise. Thanks to everyone else aswell. I am going to watch these guys race their cars at this local track and see how everything works.

944S2NUT

Holly crap! I thinkI am going to stick with electric for the first little bit. Been reading up on this stuff and I am way to much of a rookie to jump into nitro cars right now.

944Fest (aka Dan P)

Anyone remember the Kyosho Vanning? Back in the early days of gas cars, these beasts were the shiznet:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=49213

I remember buying a set of tires for over $200 'cause the yen was out of whack with the $$. I dumped a lot of cash in that 1:8 screamer. I'm sure technology has come a long way since, have they figured out how to put reverse on a gas car yet? It hangs on my garage wall now because parts are very expensive IF they can be found.

Wormhole

I may have something that interests you. I’ve been out of the sport for a few years, but at the time I had one of the hottest off road cars available. The Schumacher CAT team car (basically the same car they used to race in the word championship) and the Schumacher CAT AWD. Both have a lot of work and investment in them. They won me a closet full of trophies. I’ve been thinking about putting them up on e-bay to help offset a nitro, since I don’t use them anymore. Let me know if your interested, I have a bunch of other stuff to go with it, Novak 410-m1c, some 12-14 turn motors, basic to extreme chargers, wheels, etc….

ELLSSUU

There aren't any good hobby stores around here for this stuff. Can anyone give me several good links for finding a kit for my son and I to build a reasonable car to run around the street? I want something durable and able to run on concrete/asphalt with light off road duty (grass, yard work) etc.

Don't want to spend a ton initially as this will be his and I's play toy to make the neighborhood kids jealous. Several of them got the regular battery remote controlled cars for Christmas. I want something that'll run circles around those things.

How about used?

Bones944

I raced extensively in the late 80's and early 90's in NORRCA and ROAR events. I raced 10th scale electrics on paved ovals, 1/4 scale gas on paved ovals, 10th scale gas and electric on dirt off road, 10thscale electric on dirt ovals, and finished with 1/8th scale gas. It is addicting. I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $10K-15K (the 1/4 scale gas car was $2500 alone) over about 5 years. I still have parts and pieces and several working cars laying around in my garage. I think I still have a 1/8th scale gas Pirate, 3 or 4 associated gas trucks, 2 or 3 electric to gas conversion kits before Associated made gas trucks, a Dominator 4wd electric dirt oval car, and 2 or 3 electric trucks and buggies, several receivers and radios, servos, speed controllers etc. I sold all my ROAR pan cars many years ago. Although all of my stuff is several years old, it's still hi-performance stuff and I would part with any of it CHEAP.

pikey7

First thing. If you're not going to take it 100% seriously to start with, then buy used.
Have a check in your local hobby shops which sell the stuff for local club race meetings, and go down there a few times. Talk to the guys, and you may even find a decent car for sale.
Invest in a few basic tools, and when you buy the car, rip it apart, and rebuild it to your liking. It will teach you a lot about how to fix it too when things go wrong!

Don't go too OTT with the accesories and go-faster goodies immediately. When you've run it for a while and feel a bit confident, go back to the local race meet, and check on their regulations for classes. Practice run at the meets a few times until you improve, and then decide the way you want to go upwards. Things like the motors and batteries can get very pricey when you start to look at the really good stuff! Ask me how I know!!!........
Leave a bit of cash back for spares too. Even just practicing on the street, you will break things, an you'll be surprised how the little things add up (but then you own a Porsche.... I don't need to tell you that!)
I've probably got about $6000 invested in three cars at the moment, 1/10 scale electic street car, which doubles as a rally car (Schumacher), 1/10 off-road car (Scumacher again) and a 1/8 nitro street car (Serpent). They are a lot of fun, no question, but be prepared to get addicted, and spend a serious amount of cash if you go racing! When I was serious about racing, I only raced 1/10 off-road, and probably put in about $20000 over 7-8 years.

When I get back home after x-mas, I'll try to put some pics up!

BTW, the schumacher site is www.racing-cars.com . They also supply spares online, and i've found can get you things pretty quick! As for the bodies, HPI and Protoform are the best. No question.

triscadek

LSU:
Let me put my son on here..... for starting out in R/C you might be a little better off with a Traxxas electric Stampede. That's what i first started out with when i was about 9, and 7 yrs later i finally sold because FINALLY after all the jumping and crashing into walls, falling off bridges into creeks...etc, it finally started to 'loosen up' so i sold it and bought another one about 8 months ago, im thinking of selling it to buy an on road car. They're farely *inexpensive* and you can definately run circles around the neighborhood kids and make them jealous.

And with all of the 'go-faster add-ons' I was running mine at the local races and pretty well holding my place in the crowd with all of the older guys (40-50) that have dumped well over $2,000 in theirs. I got my stampede off of this guy on e-bay for $140 shipped, and they were brand new still in the box, never opened RTR, with about $200-250 in hop-ups: Novak Super Rooster($100-120), hot racing battery($65) & a 10 turn motor ((machine wound)) ($50)you can't even keep the front wheels on the ground from half throttle... just to give you and i dea. They can be adjusted to where you can have loads of power and still keep it under control.

Kid is now done.

Much of that is always on ebay. The Stampede was better for a kid to start with being able to be driven on many more surfaces than a decent road and will take grass, dirt holes etc. Build his ability and knowledge on a cheaper vehicle then sell it and move into the sedans. We sold his first one for almost enough to buy the new one.

Here's the forums for the traxxas vehicles: http://monster.traxxas.com/index.php?

And for the specific stampede forum: http://monster.traxxas.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=39