Which R/C car should I buy?
Discussion
I want to buy myself an R/C car for Christmas. The wife has indicated that she won't give me a hard time about it so long as I keep the spend sensible. 
I recently bought my son a Tamiya Rising Storm 4WD electric. It's a laugh, but to be honest I find it a little boring - too much grip / not enough power, so it just corners on grass like its on rails. So sharing his / buying a second is not really what I want.
Besides, I quite fancy a nitro - have done for years. The wife thinks it will be too noisy and will annoy the neighbours and that I won't use it much as a result, but we'll put that to one side for a moment.
I've been having a good look round www.modelsport.co.uk at the RTR models they have, and looking at the videos, and the HPI Savage 25 RTR looks pretty cool, although at £309 + extras (ie. delivery & essential accessories), it is probably exceeding my promise to keep the price sensible. Still, the video of it and also the Savage 21 pulling serious air on skateboard ramps ( see www.modelsport.co.uk/video/savage_skatepark_01.mov) really tempt me, especially since we have some public skateboard ramps just down the road from us.
The other one that looks fun is the HPI Nitro Rush Evo RTR. At £159 + extras it's more sensible on price, and being 2WD promises to be lots of lairy fun and possibly cheaper to run (less to break) too.
Does anyone have any comments / suggestions / advice?
Cheers
Jon
Edited as the GS doesn't seem to like the kind of URLs I was trying to create.
>> Edited by JonRB on Monday 5th December 15:23
I recently bought my son a Tamiya Rising Storm 4WD electric. It's a laugh, but to be honest I find it a little boring - too much grip / not enough power, so it just corners on grass like its on rails. So sharing his / buying a second is not really what I want.
Besides, I quite fancy a nitro - have done for years. The wife thinks it will be too noisy and will annoy the neighbours and that I won't use it much as a result, but we'll put that to one side for a moment.
I've been having a good look round www.modelsport.co.uk at the RTR models they have, and looking at the videos, and the HPI Savage 25 RTR looks pretty cool, although at £309 + extras (ie. delivery & essential accessories), it is probably exceeding my promise to keep the price sensible. Still, the video of it and also the Savage 21 pulling serious air on skateboard ramps ( see www.modelsport.co.uk/video/savage_skatepark_01.mov) really tempt me, especially since we have some public skateboard ramps just down the road from us.
The other one that looks fun is the HPI Nitro Rush Evo RTR. At £159 + extras it's more sensible on price, and being 2WD promises to be lots of lairy fun and possibly cheaper to run (less to break) too.
Does anyone have any comments / suggestions / advice?
Cheers
Jon
Edited as the GS doesn't seem to like the kind of URLs I was trying to create.
>> Edited by JonRB on Monday 5th December 15:23
Hi Jon,
I have owned a number of nitro powered cars over the years, including a Savage 25. The trucks themselves are great fun and are incredibly tough but they are noisy. The downward pointing exhaust goes quiet of grass as I guess the shape and texture of a lawn absorbs the sound, but on tarmac it just bounces right off and the neighbours will prolly get upset...! Only downsides I can think of on the truck are as follows... :
- No failsafe supplied (add your own for £15)
- Braking system is woeful. Buy the upgraded twin-disc conversion as a matter of course (again, about £15). My original brake and mounting hex lasted under 10 minutes.
- Spur gears, diffs and drive cups are a consumable if you run it hard - always have spares handy. Not expensive fortunately.
As for something fun to much about with it depends on what type of ground you are running on really...
I have owned a number of nitro powered cars over the years, including a Savage 25. The trucks themselves are great fun and are incredibly tough but they are noisy. The downward pointing exhaust goes quiet of grass as I guess the shape and texture of a lawn absorbs the sound, but on tarmac it just bounces right off and the neighbours will prolly get upset...! Only downsides I can think of on the truck are as follows... :
- No failsafe supplied (add your own for £15)
- Braking system is woeful. Buy the upgraded twin-disc conversion as a matter of course (again, about £15). My original brake and mounting hex lasted under 10 minutes.
- Spur gears, diffs and drive cups are a consumable if you run it hard - always have spares handy. Not expensive fortunately.
As for something fun to much about with it depends on what type of ground you are running on really...
roop said:Grass mainly, mainly our back garden or the public playing fields.
As for something fun to muck about with it depends on what type of ground you are running on really...
Sounds to me that the Savage 25 might be more of a serious undertaking than I am able to accomodate at present.
Not had any HPI ones but had a couple of GV ones. First was a DTM CLK which was great right to the point where it met a kerb head-on at about 50mph - that was the last time that ran...
Then I had a monster truck which was great until I ran out of time to rebuild it, buy new servos, etc.
THB the nitro ones are by far the best but they really are not toys. You will have to bank on spending as much, if not more, time prepping, repairing and tinkering with them than you do running them.
Also bank on them costing you money in spares and repairs as roop said, so get friendly with the local model shop...
Then I had a monster truck which was great until I ran out of time to rebuild it, buy new servos, etc.
THB the nitro ones are by far the best but they really are not toys. You will have to bank on spending as much, if not more, time prepping, repairing and tinkering with them than you do running them.
Also bank on them costing you money in spares and repairs as roop said, so get friendly with the local model shop...
rude-boy said:Hmmm. This is looking less and less attractive.
THB the nitro ones are by far the best but they really are not toys. You will have to bank on spending as much, if not more, time prepping, repairing and tinkering with them than you do running them.
I really only want casual / fun use - I wasn't really planning on "getting into" R/C cars (if you see what I mean) and tinkering / repairing doesn't really appeal to me.
Ho hum. Knock that one on the head and borrow my son's Rising Storm occasionally, I reckon.
TBH Jon, the Rising Storm is a cracking buggy. I have a Gravel Hound (exactly same buggy but with a different shaped shell). I have hopped it up with a few aftermarket parts and it's one of the most competent and forgiving buggies I have ever driven. Superb for the price.
Have you ever considered an electric truck...? Something like a Tamiya Blackfoot Extreme would go well, especially with a slightly warmer motor and it has a nice detailed resin shell too.
If you want buggy but now 4WD, then the Desert Gator type things are pretty good. If you see something you like, tell me and I'll try give you the good bad and ugly...!
Cheers,
Roop
Have you ever considered an electric truck...? Something like a Tamiya Blackfoot Extreme would go well, especially with a slightly warmer motor and it has a nice detailed resin shell too.
If you want buggy but now 4WD, then the Desert Gator type things are pretty good. If you see something you like, tell me and I'll try give you the good bad and ugly...!
Cheers,
Roop
roop said:Well, that's good to know considering I made the purchasing decision on it with little or no knowledge of these things. I chose a 4WD electric buggy, RTR, that looked well-built and reasonably priced from a website without ever seeing one 'in the plastic'. Guess I was lucky (or else showed an uncanny eye for a good 'un
TBH Jon, the Rising Storm is a cracking buggy. I have a Gravel Hound (exactly same buggy but with a different shaped shell). I have hopped it up with a few aftermarket parts and it's one of the most competent and forgiving buggies I have ever driven. Superb for the price.
) TBH, if the Rising Storm had more power than grip then it would be a whole lot more fun. Maybe I should just buy some extra wheels and put smooth grooved tyres on it. That would presumably make it a bit more lairy on grass?
Had an older HPI diablo a couple of years ago and they're extremely well built and reliable.
Now they come with "proper" driveshafts (not belts which i would seriously avoid at all costs) and a decent engine in the RTR kits.
I would go for a kit you make yourself though - its half the fun and they're relatively simple to put together
Now they come with "proper" driveshafts (not belts which i would seriously avoid at all costs) and a decent engine in the RTR kits.
I would go for a kit you make yourself though - its half the fun and they're relatively simple to put together
Just to resurrect this :
I lusted after a decent Tamiya buggy in the mid 80s when I was at school - my mates all had Falcons / Hornets / Boomerangs / Foxes etc...
Now they are going dirt cheap on ebay!
I fancy something for a bit of fun! Don't want to spend too much time working on it, but wouldn't mind building up from a kit.
So, which of the old school buggys would be best? I seem to remember the Hotshot being the one everybody wanted (4x4?), although the Boomerang was also 4x4. Grasshopper/Hornet/Falcon RWD and looked down on a bit, mate's Fox was very quick...
Tempted to look for a Boomerang / Hotshot.
What are other recommendations? Worth looking at newer ones that are modelled on cars (Impreza etc.)? Won't be off roading too much but wherever I run it won't be too flat, not sure how something like this would cope.
Definitely want to keep it under a 100 all in. Plenty of decent cars sans controller on ebay for 50 quid ish...
Edit: or was it the Bigwig that everybody wanted
>> Edited by NiceCupOfTea on Friday 9th December 12:22
I lusted after a decent Tamiya buggy in the mid 80s when I was at school - my mates all had Falcons / Hornets / Boomerangs / Foxes etc...
Now they are going dirt cheap on ebay!
I fancy something for a bit of fun! Don't want to spend too much time working on it, but wouldn't mind building up from a kit.
So, which of the old school buggys would be best? I seem to remember the Hotshot being the one everybody wanted (4x4?), although the Boomerang was also 4x4. Grasshopper/Hornet/Falcon RWD and looked down on a bit, mate's Fox was very quick...
Tempted to look for a Boomerang / Hotshot.
What are other recommendations? Worth looking at newer ones that are modelled on cars (Impreza etc.)? Won't be off roading too much but wherever I run it won't be too flat, not sure how something like this would cope.
Definitely want to keep it under a 100 all in. Plenty of decent cars sans controller on ebay for 50 quid ish...
Edit: or was it the Bigwig that everybody wanted
>> Edited by NiceCupOfTea on Friday 9th December 12:22
Gassing Station | Scale Models | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff