Advice for a beginner please

[firman]

Thinking of buying an r/c for a new hobby as I have always fancied a good one and as hobbies go it takes up less room and resources than another car/motorbike. Just looking for some advice on where to start, really fancy a nitro car don't mind if it needs some tinkering as I would like to master it.

So my questions are,
Where is best to buy? Sub £150 to start with I reckon.
What scale should I be looking at?
Am I mental to go nitro for a first timer?

Cheers guys

Jamie

[firman]

Nothing?

[wacattack]

The first question I would ask is why nitro? Lipo powered cars are faster and relatively hassle free, nitro can be an absolute nightmare to maintain.

What do you want to get out of the hobby? Do you want to race or just have a quick blast at a nearby field?

[firman]

Just fancied nitro as I understand them to be tuneable, plus I enjoy tinkering with things. The reason I hadn't looked at lipo is that I thought the battery life was fairly short on them.
As for what I want to get from the hobby, well as it stands it will just be blasting round the field to amuse myself for now.

I am happy to be corrected on anything I have said, that is why I asked for advice in the first place.

[clockworks]

I don't see the point of nitro in smaller (up to 1/10th scale) cars. Electric is quieter, quicker, cleaner and cheaper to run. Nitro/petrol comes into it's own for the bigger stuff, but you'll be spending a lot more than £150.

I race 1/10th 2WD buggies. Each heat lasts 5 minutes, and uses less than a third of the charge in a 5000mAH battery. For general bashing, a battery will last 15 to 20 minutes. Can't see a nitro car running for longer without refuelling.

Modern electrics are tuneable. Fit a hotter motor (less "turns"), a better ESC (speed controller) with variable timing and boost/turbo settings, or a better battery. It's relatively easy to get a 1/10th electric setup that puts out a couple of horsepower.

[Redv8]

I run two nitro cars... Like the original author I like to tinker with engines as well as run the cars

My first was a cheap and cheerful acme cyclone

Next up was a second hand HPI Savage (£100 all in inc radio gear) Which I pretty much rebuilt over time and extended to an XL (but you take pot luck buying used, I was lucky that most of the mechanicals especially the engine was sound)

Both are pretty easy to look after and maintain once you get the gist (plenty of YouTube vids to tell you how to tune etc)

Whatever you get enjoy...