Beginners Guide

[matc]

I used to race 1:10 electric indoors and on tarmac at a reasonably competitive level about 12 years ago and I fancy getting back into it again; but browsing the web it seems things have moved on a monumental level!! Not sure what genre to get back involved in, the clubs locally to me are mainly indoors so I guess I should look at a touring car. The chassis's were interchangeable between touring/buggy when I was racing, but I've been told this is a definate no-no now? What sort of money would I be looking at now to get up and running? Are brushless/lipo's the way forward?

[The_Jackal]

Best thing to do is visit the club you will join and see what they race.
There is no point in being told on here to buy a brand new brushless Xray 2009 Touring car only find out that they only race Mardaves or 1/12 Pan racers.
At a guess though, acompetitive setup to buy from scratch (including all batteries, charger etc) will probably set you back £400 - £500. But as you probably already know these things have a habit of turning out more expensive as you get addicted.
Of course you will still get people on here tell you to go out and buy a Tamiya TT-01, but unless you are racing against standard TT-01s you will be at a distinct disadvantage from the outset.

[motormania]

Like me, I had been out of the scene for around 12 years, thanks to marraige and babies

I recently got all my old gear together and sold it on eBay and made around £600 It was at that point that after dusting off all the kit I had that I went and bought a mag to see what was happening in the world of RC cars.

I saw a picture of the Xray T2 008 and fell in love again. After finding a club and visiting, I knew that 1:10 touring was the way to get back into it. If like me you now have a clean sheet of paper then Brushless and Lipo is the only option.

I have a Novak 13.5 Brushless and Speedo - purchased direct from US as it was cheaper than the UK, even after shipping. The Lipo will need a special charger designed for LiPo - don't believe all the hype about them exploding. Use them correctly and you'll never have a problem.

The other purchased which I would say you must have is the 2.4GHz radio system. Forget 27MHz or 40MHz, 2.4GHz is the way forward. No hassle with crystals, no interferance.

The one thing that I did find out, having been away for so long is that the amount you can adjust these days. the seup book for the Xray is huge! Having said that, I've only changed the springs and removed the rear anti-roll bar. All the rest is out of the box standard and I'm havng a blast.

The great thing with the Lipo and brushless is the ease of maintenance, in fact I have not touched it since running it.

Shop around, use the US, Hong Kong and eBay for some great bargains to get your setup ready. I know that some will shout at me saying you should support local model shops - but you would be crazy not to shop around, even if that means you have something shipped from the other side of the world. In fact I've had some goods arrive from Hong Kong quicker than suppliers here in the UK!!

One thing is for certain, the bug will bite again - it has with me

[matc]

Thanks for the responses, just had a look at the X-Ray t2 008!! What have you gone for rubber or foam? Also whats the benefit of the 5-call chassis over the 6-cell? I must admit I was thinking of the Shumacher Mi3.5 as I always used to face their stuff, but i'm going to have a closer look at that x-ray now. Do most model clubs run a class for brushless/lipo cars now? I see they still sell standard and modified 540 motors.

I had a quick 'tot' up last night and it looks like iw will be spending north of £800 to get started before buying any specialist tools etc. I was shocked to see tyre warmers available!!

I guess I need to get along to a local meet; just a bit unsure of turning up on my own, and getting whooped by the local experts!!

[motormania]

Don't buy anything until you've been to a race meeting or two.

Every club will run slightly different rules and you should therefore gauge your purchase on that. I must have spent in the region of £1000 in the past 6 months, so your estimate is probably not far wrong.

You'll need a chassis that has capacity for 6 cells if running LiPo, in fact you can get Saddle pack LiPo's so your choice of chassis is limitless. Of course they still sell brushed and cells as there are still loads of people out there who've had that kit for a long time.

It's like the Video/DVD thing, there will be a period of time when both are still available, but I would think within 5 years no more cells or brushed motors will be in the market for racers.

[TedMaul]

When I started looking at RC again, racechat was a very good source of info (http://www.rcracechat.com/vb/index.php) and if you are in to buggies then www.oople.com is the place to be!

[Bungleaio]

Ditto what others have said. oople.com has quite a busy 2nd hand section too, I've picked up a couple of bargains there and I've sold a couple of cars too.

[matc]

Thanks for the links and info. What do you all race? and where? Having a search on the net it's surprising how many places are quite close to me, although they all seem to be tarmac/indoor so I guess it's going to have to be touring cars, although I have always preffered buggy's.

[PeetBee]

You definitley need to get along to a club to see what they run before buying anything, my club (Caldicot) may be indoor, but run just 1/10th and 1/18th buggies with suitable obstacles to make it as off road as possible! Cardiff run tourers as well.

I'd echo the 2.4ghz, brushless and lipo choices too as I've come back after 12 years off too. It's just soooo much easier.

I run:
Associated B44 - Novak GTB & Speed Passion 6.5
Associated B4 - Novak GTB & Novak 7.5R
Associated T3 - Novak GTB & Novak 7.5R
Tamiya TA05 - Speed Passion Feiago & 9.5 - Gecko Foams as club control tyre.
FTX Blaze - Mtroniks Viper & Duratrax motor

I run lipos in all of them quite happily too.

Edited by PeetBee on Wednesday 12th November 14:17

[motormania]

matc said:

Thanks for the links and info. What do you all race? and where? Having a search on the net it's surprising how many places are quite close to me, although they all seem to be tarmac/indoor so I guess it's going to have to be touring cars, although I have always preffered buggy's.

I run a Xray T2 008 - 6 Cell rubber chassis
Novak brushless Speedo and Motor (13.5)
Futaba 2.4GHz transmitter with digital metal geared steering servo
TrakPower TP3200 LiPo (just the one is needed)
LiPo is charged with a BC6 plus LiPo balance harness

The club I run at (Kettering) run with STCC stock rubber on carpet so at least everyone is on the same tyre which makes for close racing.

However, I'm in the process of setting up a new club in Bedfordshire, just trying to secure a hall right now.

[Bungleaio]

matc said:

Thanks for the links and info. What do you all race? and where?

Xray T2 008 6 cell rubber chassis with novak GTB, moving from 13.5 to 10.5 brushless next season, orion lipo's @ Bedowrth - http://www.bedworthrc.com/

Mardave v12 with novak xrs speedo @ Hinckley during the winter http://www.hinckleyrccc.co.uk

I have also been racing buggies over the summer at hinckley and coventry http://www.cmcc-online.com I started with a Losi xxx cr which to be honest was rubbish, it fell apart a lot. So I switched to an associated B44 but I couldn't get it to handle how I liked so I am now building a Team Extereme Predator X11 08, this is powered buy another gtb and 6.5 motor. I will be racing this at worksop in the schumacher indoor masters until the summer season starts again.

I've only been racing sgain since march, mainly due to motormania's thread http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... but it's good to be back racing again, fingers crossed I can get some BRCA legal saddle lipo's for next year so I can compete in the off road regionals.

Getting back into the hobby is a great idea, get some pics up of the car when you get it.

[audidug]

I was away for 15 years and echo the above Lipo's and brushless all the way

In the garage i have

Yokomo BD grainger on rubbers novak gtb 10.5

Kyosho zx-5 sp 5.5 novak gtb

Associated B4 6.5 novak gtb

Protrak charger and demon 5000 mah lipo's

Simon

[wacattack]

But beware, if you plan to do any of the BRCA sanctioned events, Lipos have not been agreed yet so you may not be able to use them

[audidug]

Lipos are all legal in touring cars and will be in off road next year

[wacattack]

audidug said:

Lipos are all legal in touring cars and will be in off road next year

There is no official confirmation of them being legal in offroad. That is still being debated so if you are wanting to take part in the offroad series, hold fire until we know where we are

[PeetBee]

wacattack said:

audidug said:

Lipos are all legal in touring cars and will be in off road next year

There is no official confirmation of them being legal in offroad. That is still being debated so if you are wanting to take part in the offroad series, hold fire until we know where we are

They will be legal, what's not decided yet is which ones. There's a list coming out shortly and initially it's going to be based on the Touring Car list (ie no saddles)