7 questions to answer before choosing your remote control car
If you want to enjoy a new hobby, you saw these remote control sprinter runners running over the rubble or between the dunes of your beach and you want one of these for yourself or your children. However, how do you decide which is the right RC car for you?
There are 7 questions you should answer to narrow your search.
1. Who is it for?
Simplest things first, of course. Is it a toy for your child or is it a sophisticated piece of technology for you? The differences between them are in durability, power / speed, size, remote control range, complexity, and of course, price. As a clear differentiation, the toy versions generally run on your household’s standard AA batteries and come in a scale of 1:32 to 1:16, while the adult version comes in a size up to 1: 5 powered by a stronger power source.
2. What is the source of energy?
There are three options to choose from between a gasoline remote control car, a Nitro remote control car, or an electric remote control car.
These three energy sources create differences in cost, energy accessibility, maintenance, and energy production.
Your gasoline remote control car runs on a mixture of regular unleaded gasoline and 2-stroke oil that will generate considerably more power. You can buy your fuel at the gas station next door and therefore keep your fuel cost low. Added to this is its low fuel consumption and low maintenance requirements. Gasoline powered RC cars are typically larger than their nitro and electric counterparts and are typically 1: 5 scale. By downsizing, you often have a higher upfront cost for these types of cars.
The Nitro RC Car runs on nitromethane, a fuel that is expensive and only available in specialized stores. Fuel often leaves a residue on the chassis of your remote control racer and therefore requires high maintenance. In addition, you will see a higher fuel consumption than with the gasoline machine. So why buy these Nitro remote control cars? Because the material is powerful. These are usually the fastest runners on the block, their size typically in the 1:16 to 1: 8 range, rarely larger. This makes running a lot of fun. In addition, they tend to be priced lower than their gasoline counterparts.
Lastly, the electric remote control car is powered by a powerful Li-Po rechargeable battery. These cars are normally the next step from a child’s toy to an adult’s hobby. They are usually cheaper than the fuel-powered version, but are usually not as powerful and aggressive. While they have strong acceleration from the start, they tend to have trouble competing with the other two engines in the long run. Due to their clean energy source, they require minimal maintenance and can be operated indoors. They are usually the smallest version and can also come in the oversized versions of the gasoline and nitro racers, but with much less power.
3. Ready to race or equip?
Do you just want to run or is part of your excitement coming from the thrill of building your own machine? Most RC cars come as “Ready to Race” versions where you don’t have to do much more than right out of the box.
However, there are many models in which you can assemble the car yourself and thus influence the look and performance of this car. You can go from a simple assembly like your everyday model kit to purchasing individual components of your car separately to improve its power and performance during operations.
4. Where do you want to run your remote control car?
The next question, respectively, the next set of questions is, what do you want to do with your remote control car? Is it a racer, is it indoors or outdoors (indoors of course just the electric version), do you want to be on or off the road? Do you want to drive it or is it more of a collector’s item that you want to display? Are you looking for a fantasy model or a real live replica?
5. What type / model of car should it be?
If you’ve cleared the questions above, you already have a pretty good idea of what you want. Still, the choice of models is very wide and the first 4 questions somewhat limit your choice from this point and vice versa. However, once you’re at this point, you’ll want to select from Buggies, Truggies, Trucks / monster trucks, Crawlers, and their real-life replicas of Ferraris, Fords, Minis, etc.
6. What price are you willing to pay for a good remote control car?
We established what because it was supposed to be, we came to a very critical question, a question that we might also ask at the beginning of our search. How much is the fun worth? What is our budget for a nice nice remote control car? This factor has already been discussed to some extent in the other points and we know that a toy car for children is certainly much cheaper than the adult version. The bigger the model, the more it usually costs and among the motors, the electric one is usually the cheapest. Also speed can determine price. So in the end, we will have to see, what is the best combination that we can get for the budget that we have allocated to this hobby of ours. Always keeping in mind that there are follow-up costs to consider for spare parts, fuel, maintenance, etc. The price of our toy versions with 5 m reaching a speed of 5 km / h will be perhaps 10 $, the high-end gasoline remote control car can cost us 3.4 or 500 $ or even more. As with everything, there is often no upper limit to what you can buy.
7. Where do you want to buy your RC racer?
Last but not least, where do I want to buy? Today you have the options of going to your “Toy Store to have it all”, your specialized RC car dealer or the Internet. As with all products, these options vary in service, product knowledge, price, selection of available products, and after-sales service.
Advice can certainly be given. Don’t buy a used RC because you are a beginner.
Now, do you have a clearer idea of your new toy?
