R/C car - advice wanted

[clonmult]

Hugely pleasant surprise from my 9 year old son at weekend - for christmas he's wanting a surprise. His mum (I'm divorced from her) has said that he's wanting a radio controlled car .... my eyes lit up at the prospect.

Reckon on a budget up to a couple of hundred for the whole kit - car, batteries, controller. Preferably 4wd (lots of grassy areas around both of our houses, 2wd may struggle), and with a fairly sturdy chassis (no doubt it'll be driven into things a fair bit).

Any suggestions as to what to go for?

I had a look around our local Modelzone shop and it was quite entertaining, some good looking cars there, but those at around £200 all seemed to be 2wd and not obviously that sturdy.

[SplatSpeed]

tamiya kit

build it with him

[clonmult]

Ta - would love building it with him ..... just been browsing modelsport.co.uk, they've got a truly bewildering list of cars.

Currently favouring the Tamiya Rising Storm, 4wd, all in price of just under £200. Looks very similar to a basic 4wd that we've got, but that one is way too slow, the Tamiya probably goes considerably faster

[Hedders]

Are you thinking about Nitro or Electric?

Offroad truck/buggy type thing is a safe bet either way.

The Revo's are good, but not sure you can get one for £200.

[clonmult]

Probably electric; I only have him over at weekends and I don't trust him (or his mum) with refuelling. Heck, his mum can barely fill the petrol tank of her car ......

[sherman]

Here are a few reasonably priced models
http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/radio-control/rc-c...

As long as you are going for a buggy type car 2wd will be more than capable of handling a bit of grass. The tyres that they use are really rather nobbly and grippy.

Edited by sherman on Tuesday 2nd November 15:47

[Hedders]

Electric is a much better bet these days anyway. ( I now have a bunch of Nitro trucks that never see the light of day.

Try and get something with a brushless motor and a couple of different cogs so you can let him learn to drive it at not quite balls out speeds.

[wacattack]

This is what you need, for the money you wont find anything better....

http://www.modelsport.co.uk/?CallFunction=ShowSpec...

[BigBob]

Or look at one of these

http://www.answer-rc.com/product.php?id=Caster%20R...

BB

[percymon]

My 8yr old is as clueless as ever when it comes to his Christmas list - he's had some cheap RC cars in the past £20-30 Argos type ones, and he's been disappointed by their performance. Of course you get what you pay for so this year i hought i'd investigate the Tamiya type options.

Trouble is i'm just as clueless on the various RC types and makes as he is for this christmas list !!

I suppose i have a budget limit of £150-£165, so i assume i'm going to be limited to normal (non brushless) motors and a 27/40MHz controller. Given my sons age would he be better with a hand control set with a wheel and trigger rather than twin stalks?

Any recommendations ?? Tamiya LunchBox seems popular choice, but is a buggy rather than off road type car better in the long run ? (small/medium sized garden, mainly to grass, but we also beneift from a lot of empty tamrac at weekends courtesy of the primary school opposite !)

What is involved in buying a kit rather than ready built - am i looking at a airfix model type paint n build or snap / screw together components ??

Many thanks

Edited by percymon on Friday 5th November 12:22

[ally_f]

The HSP kits on ebay are pretty good value (XSTR 1:10) can be had for £90-£100 brand new, then you could even stick in a 15 Turn motor for less than a tenner. Unless you're looking to do jumps or really rough terrain / long grass that's more than up to the job; it's more of a hobby buggy than a 'toy' Tamiya, with adjustable suspension etc. There's a brushless kit for them too should you get bored!

I reckon a 1:8 nitro buggy is always going to be more fun just because of the noise/smell/tinkering to get it set up right, but perhaps is a bit much hassle for a 9 year old.

[percymon]

ally_f said:

The HSP kits on ebay are pretty good value (XSTR 1:10) can be had for £90-£100 brand new, then you could even stick in a 15 Turn motor for less than a tenner. Unless you're looking to do jumps or really rough terrain / long grass that's more than up to the job; it's more of a hobby buggy than a 'toy' Tamiya, with adjustable suspension etc. There's a brushless kit for them too should you get bored!

I reckon a 1:8 nitro buggy is always going to be more fun just because of the noise/smell/tinkering to get it set up right, but perhaps is a bit much hassle for a 9 year old.

Thanks for the suggestions - certainly seem to be a lot cheaper than Tamiya and other makes. Perhaps you get what you pay for but HSP seem to be good value with loads of spares available.

1:8 is one big toy - bit too serious for an 8 yr old, maybe too much for me to handle, and i'd need to build another garage for it !

[PeetBee]

How about this?
Brushless and 2.4g radio gear
http://www.modelsport.co.uk/?CallFunction=ShowSpec...

or for the truck version
http://www.modelsport.co.uk/?CallFunction=ShowSpec...

Both perfectly raceable in the future

[clonmult]

PeetBee said:

How about this?
Brushless and 2.4g radio gear
http://www.modelsport.co.uk/?CallFunction=ShowSpec...

or for the truck version
http://www.modelsport.co.uk/?CallFunction=ShowSpec...

Both perfectly raceable in the future

They do look good, but surely there's a problem with the "Fully assembled and ready to run" when you have to buy a battery and charger - adds on a fair few quid on the top, and its obviously not ready to run?

One techie question - whats the difference between motors - brush and brushless? Obviously brushless is better from the comments, but what sort of advantage does it give?

[Simond S]

brushless is newer technology. The major benefit is that it is very low maintenance. Al they require is a clean of the bearings (one at each end) and re oiling with sewing machine oil, ZX1 or similar.

Within brushless you have two types. Sensored or unsensored.

Unsensored is not as smooth but has better waterproofing and is fine if running in a buggy where it is power on, power off.

Sensored is much better on road as the power delivery is more progressive and you do not suffer from cogging. Modern speed controllers also have the facility to run both types of motors.

[percymon]

Called into my local model shop today, and in fairness the free advice was well worth the 15 minutes is spent in there. Ok, the guy was a Tamiya convert, but theres a lot to be said for spare parts availability and having somewhere 10 minutes walk from the house for spare parts could be useful.

Had a look at the Lunchbox, the new Rising Fighter 2WD (entry level) buggy and a Rising Storm. Their prices weren't overly out against the internet either for most of the kit. Until i found a great deal on a Rising Storm RTR kit (everything bar 8 AAA batteries) for only £10 more than the model shop wanted for the kit only. Also looked as Ansmann (model shop not that keen on them, maybe not such great profit margin) but like for like with Tamiya seem a bit cheaper.

I spent a bit of time looking at HSP XSTR on ebay, and reading an Australian forum - certainly seem to be fast, specially in brushless form, pieces of kit. Only criticism seems to be the standard battery as everyone seems to be determined to fit 11V Lipos to max their cars.

On one hand i'm tempted to go with the safe option of Tamiya, which a readily available parts/upgrade path within a walk of the house, and on the other the HSP XSTR with supposedly higher spec and decent build for similar money.


So is it a Rising Storm Kit + controller, battery, charger etc or a RTR HSP XSTR ??

[Emsman]

I van only vouch for tamiya as that's all I've had, but for spares and the like, you can't fault them.
Part of the appeal for me was getting one for the sake of nostalgia- I always wanted a lunchbox way back when, and the arrival of jnr seemed the perfect excusecto start reliving my childhood!

[ferlin]

ansmann macnum is good value and spare parts are cheap too.

[PeetBee]

clonmult said:

They do look good, but surely there's a problem with the "Fully assembled and ready to run" when you have to buy a battery and charger - adds on a fair few quid on the top, and its obviously not ready to run?

One techie question - whats the difference between motors - brush and brushless? Obviously brushless is better from the comments, but what sort of advantage does it give?

Hmm, missed that. I guess they are struggling to keep the price low as brushless costs more than brushed.
One thing to check is that the chargers supplied are often mains slow chargers, you'll soon get fed up having to wait a few hours! The batteries are often low capacity which also leads to shorter run times between charges compounding the problem!
Check before you buy!

The main advantage is that brushless need next to no maintenance whereas brushed need brushes replacing and ultimately commutator skims to keep them in full working order (plus the need to clean the carbon out of them). Ultimately you can only skim a motor 3 or 4 times.
Brushless just keep going and are more efficient as a result.

If it was my choice I would go for the Tamiya over the HSP. But I wouldn't rule out the Ansmann 2wd cars or maybe the new 'Blizzard' 4wd (avoid the older 'Master Smacker' cars)

Edited by PeetBee on Monday 8th November 13:02

[percymon]

Think we have now ruled out the truck types, he wants more a racer than a trundler, and the buggies look more stable with lower centre of gravity.

Rising Storm looking favourite !