Novice Questions

[Darvocet]

I am interested in getting into rc cars. I have no intentions of racing, so I don't need the best. I want a fairly quick onroad electric car, but it doesn't need to be insanely fast. I just want something to do in my free time basically. How much money am I looking to spend and what are some good options to look at? Thanks in advance.

[XXXER]

You should see if you can find the RC CAR ACTION Sept. issue. Your Local Hobby Shop probably has one, they have a 6 car, ready to run shootout in there, it was a great article.

The best ones were, the RTR TC3, the OFNA OB-4, and the Traxxas 4-Tec. You will be looking anywhere from 300-350. You can probably find it less some places. The best advice, is to go to your hobby shop, and ask their opinions, and see what they carry as well. Do not let them try to "Over sell" you a high-end kit, that costs mega bucks, because you do not need it. The ones that I listed are some of the best. See what brand of parts they carry as well, to help in your decision making, see if they can order parts in for you, that you do not have. Also, see if they will match prices, from, someone like Tower Hobbies. This usually involves talking to the owner, they may not be able to match it that low, but, they will most likely cut you some deal, plus, if you have any sort of trouble, they will be much more happy to help you.

If you have any more questions, just ask!

-Steve

[nitrodriver]

as long as you dont live on a road full or rocks i think you should get a pan car. you can make it insanely fast, but with a stock motor (like a green machine 3) they go about 35mph. i recommend the rc10L3 touring. the sport version goes for around $110
motor- a green machine 3 pro (stock) would be good, $30
ESC-i use a novak dual fusion, good for bashing,$70
batteries- you dont need high MAH for pan cars because theyre so light. i use 1400's and get good run time. (the touring version must have saddle pack type batteries), $15-20 per pack. 3 or 4 packs would work.
charger- durarax intellipeak, $55
radio- i use a cheap hi-tec am radio, i think it costs about $50
thats about everthing you need. total cost= would be around $400

[timberwolf177]

There are some really good opinons up there.. But as my papa used to say 'keep it stupid, keep it simple'... Traxxas offers there spirt truck RTR... for 109.99 I believe. It has suspension all the way around, cool lookin sport truck, based off of a pan car and a touring car mix. It built tough, so you can pound it hard and it keeps going. They make another about that for 139.99 RTR... Ummmmmm, the Street Sport I believe. So cost are down, you get the speed controller, radio, car, motor etc.. All thats left is the battery and charger. And since your not racing, these are perfect.

[gubbs3]

I would not recommend the Traxxas Spirit. If you wanted to do a shootout for that class you would have to shop at Radio Shack.

[InspGadgt]

If your just playing around and have no intentions of racing I'll steer you toward a Tamiya TL01 touring car. Tamiya built this car more to play with than to race. It is pretty durable, simple to build, and all the gears (even pinion and spur) are internal so you won't have a problem stripping gears due to little rocks getting inside them. Also it's a shaft drive car so you won't have problems with rocks getting in the belts like other 4wd cars. And Tamiya has that chassis optioned with some really beautiful bodies. Word of advice though...don't use the manual speed controller that comes with the kit. Get yourself an electronic speed controller. The cars XXXER mentions above are also very good cars and much better potential racers then the TL01 but they all have either belt drives or exposed gears to catch rocks. Now while Pan Cars are my personal favorite I do not recomend them for just playing around. They tend to only handle well under good track conditions and are a bit more difficult to controll then a 4wd touring car.