starter R/C car

My son wants a gas powered r/c car and I don’t know anything about them but I know some here do. I want to get him one but I don’t want to get too deep because you never know if kids will stick with something. He wants gas and I think electric would be better, I have a hobby charger. Would this car be any good http://www.ebay.com/itm/Shockwave-Nitro-Gas-4wd-Off-Road-RC-Buggy-RTR-Truck-LOWEST-PRICE-ON-EBAY-/160694437384?pt=Radio_Control_Vehicles&hash=item256a228608 Any other ideas for a starter car in the $100-$140 range?

Dont get the gas edition, the gas for these cars is very expensive.

I suggest electric and stay away from ebay “budget” cars. They are generally poorly made and as stated, fuel is expensive.

Check out Traxxas, Losi in a local hobby shop. more $ up front, but they wont be broken w/in first wreck.

Had one of these, it was fun. They also make it as a truck and a hybrid car/truck. Fast, durable, parts are readily available.

traxxas.com/products/models/electric/7307rallyvxl

Maybe you could turn some custom wheels for it 8)

Get him electric, less hassle than nitro, brushless is awesome, would sugest the mini e revo from traxxas

also there are some good forums for RC, check them out

I was always impressed with the Mini-Z cars, and they have offroad versions too.

Bloody fast little cars, and much more well-made than other brands of the same size.

Yeah I’d get him an electric brushless car.I bought my
son the losi mini eight as his first rc car.very durable and
has a brushless set up already.Comes ready to run.Very fast
especially with a lipo set up.Parts are readily available at your local
hobby shop.Stick with the major companies.And if he does’nt
get into it you can also have fun with it. :slight_smile:

BLF member alfreddajero knows ALOT about this subject. Send him a pm and ask him for some suggestions.

I can’t recommend anything in your price range. But if you can stretch the budget, this kicks a serious amount of ass: RC Cars, RC Trucks, RC Airplanes, Model Trains, and Slot Cars at Tower Hobbies

Seriously. You can get one of these for less than $300 with a discount code

What’s great about it for a beginner is that they can start off with just the included 6 cell NiMH pack, and training mode, while they learn how to drive. What’s great about it later on is that you can pull out all the stops and be smoking any Nitro that’s likely to come your sons way. It handles great with it’s low center of gravity too, and is hard to break.

I used to own the 1/10th scale brushless edition once upon a time (along with a brushless E-maxx and a HPI Savage Flux), and although I tend to like Monster trucks better for reasons I wont go into here, nothing handled better than the E-revo.

rc cars was my first hobby and im still on and off with it. been with this hobby for over 15 years,i still have about 10 cars/trucks and i highly recommend electric. back then gas was the ish…because it was always more powerful and faster. nowadays, electric blows gas out of the water with the new brushless setups.
easier to maintain , less cleaning, no smell, dont have to buy gas, batteries run longer, less noisy , ….

id suggest a traxxas vehichle. most are ready to run and they have alot of upgrades and replacement parts. check out their site and their forum .

+1 for:

- Traxxas

- electric

and

- brushless

It is also a good excuse for buying (a better) hobby charger. ;)

Brushless and LiPo is faster than nitro cars these days.

I love the sounds and smell of nitro but they are unreliable and temperamental.

Check out the cars at Hobby King, mine cost me $70 and a few small upgrades later it has gone from stock 40kmph to 120kmph with a motor and ESC upgrade. But I wouldn’t recommend upgrades for a beginner.

Also parts for them are cheap, my wheels are 88 cents a pair, shock towers and upper and lower arms etc are under a dollar as well, spur gears are 49 cents or so…

I wouldn’t really recommend buying a expensive brand, then you have to buy all the expensive parts to replace and its even more expensive to upgrade.

Here is the page for the brushless off road ones.

I would go to your local hobby store, find out what they stock, both cars and parts wise, and what they recommend.

What you want is to not have to wait days for spare parts to come in the mail, breakages will happen.

I agree gas is not the best place to start, go electric, once he can drive that without smashing it up, then think about gas if he’s still interested.

If you’re going to do it, do it right…

1:5... Wow. Cool!

..but $1k.. No thanks. :(

Thanks for the help guys.