My local RC club, DMS Racing, has recently started regular heats for micro racers. Since I have been well and truly bitten by the RC racing bug, I caved in and got myself something to race. In this post I’ll be having a quick look at the Carisma GT14 1/14 scale touring car, and I’ll also be posting about the Team Associated SC18 short course truck later.

First, a bit of video. When I got my Gt14, there wasn’t much info about it, so I figured I might as well do one of those “unboxing” videos that seem to be quite popular these days…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Having spent a bit more time with it, I must say I’m really looking forward to racing this for the first time. I’m very impressed with the attention to detail of this car, especially considering it could so easily be mistaken for a toy. The shell alone is a work of art – I’ll try my best not to scratch it up too badly on its first outing, but no promises! Obviously a realistic shell isn’t super important on a car that’s going to get raced and see some hard times, but it looks like they’ve already thought of that – the wing is held in place by four body clips, and I was very surprised (and glad!) to discover that the wing mirrors can be easily removed. I had thought that the first thing to go would be the mirrors, because although they’re a lovely scale touch, they do look extremely vulnerable. However, undo a screw, and each mirror comes right off. Speaking of the shell, each shell is available as an option (see the list of Carisma GT14 bodyshells here), and there’s also a clear Mazda 6 shell for custom paint jobs.

Moving on to the chassis, it’s quite impressive how they’ve shrunk a regular 1/10 touring car down to 1/14 size. Everything you’d expect to see is right there – adjustable shocks, proper diffs, a servo saver, adjustable geometry, slipper  - there’s even mountings for anti roll bars. There are a number of upgrades available (and there’s also a “pro” spec chassis-only version, the GT14 Pro V-One) so some of the components are basic – the shocks are adjusted using clip-on rings, unlike the threaded body “Pro” shocks; it doesn’t have the aluminium adjustable turnbuckles, settling for threaded rods; the chassis isn’t carbon fibre; the tyres are scale treaded instead of slicks or foam; and the diffs are geared instead of ball. However, for a nice, easy, out-of-the-box racer, you’ve got everything you need to keep you occupied for a while.

Carisma GT14

The motor is a bog standard 370-size brushed unit, however even this has a couple of nice touches. First off, there’s a clip-on heatsink (which I’ll be swapping onto my SC18 next time I race it!), and secondly, replacement brushes are one of the option parts! I imagine a lot of racers will be wanting to swap a brushless system in, but it’s good to know that if you stick with the standard motor you’ll be able to maintain it. I wouldn’t be surprised if some clubs ran a controlled class of this car, to keep costs down and make it easier for people on a limited budget to get involved.

Even the radio is quite decent. I’ve opted for a 2.4GHz model – I really can’t be doing with crystals and frequency clashes and so on, so for the extra £20 or so, it’s worth going for.  In fact, it’s really the only one that makes sense – apparently the 27MHz models have a combined ESC and receiver, so if you ever did want to go to 2.4GHz you’d need to replace both the ESC and the receiver, which would cost you more than the extra for the 2.4GHz model in the first place. Just a 2.4GHz receiver would be at least £35, so it makes no sense at all to go for an FM model. Anyway, the radio gear is not bad at all – the transmitter takes four AA batteries (supplied!) unlike the SC18’s demand for eight, and as well as the usal throttle and steering trim, you’ve got end point adjustment AND a dual rate knob. Not bad for a kit radio. The only downside is that even though it’s a 2.4GHz system, the receiver’s aerial is just as long as any FM aerial – at least 30cm or so. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to mind being coiled up inside the shell, so I’ll be racing it like that.

Anyway, that’s my first impressions – I’ll post an update once I’ve given it a run around the track!

Little and large...

I’m thoroughly enjoying my Traxxas E-Revo. It’s stupid amounts of fun. The only slight problem is that it’s too big for me to run at home – the garden just isn’t big enough for a 1/8 scale RC monster truck. Especially not one that’s been upgraded to brushless – I pull the trigger and straight away, it’s in the geraniums.

Thankfully (for my wife’s herbacious borders) Traxxas recently released a 1/16 scale E-Revo, the E-Revo VXL, which is exactly half the size of the original. Not only that, but it has a water-resistant brushless motor and ESC. So, does half the size mean half the fun?

Er… no. If anything, it’s even more fun than the big brother! If I had to pick one drawback to the larger E-Revo (note that I said drawback, not flaw!) it’s the sheer size of it – you need a lot of space to run it. It’s also not the easiest thing to carry over long distances, like from a car park to a beach. Of course, the 1/16 E-Revo VXL doesn’t have those problems – it’s half as long, half as wide, half as tall. And of course it’s so much lighter to carry – the car, transmitter and spare batteries can be slipped into a small drawstring bag and slung over your shoulder.

So, apart from the obvious reduction in size, what else is different? Not much, actually. Traxxas have pretty much simply taken the big E-Revo, and made a smaller version. It’s got the same suspension layout, same drivetrain, same wheels and tyres… The only difference is the electronics package. The ESC in the E-Revo VXL is a water-resistant model (the brushless 1/8 E-Revo doesn’t have that), and of course there’s a 1/16-size brushless motor. The receiver and transmitter are the same as the big E-Revo, but I swapped the receiver out for a 2.4Ghz jobbie that mates with my Spektrum DX3S.

So, what’s it like to use? The first outing for mine was in the heavy snow we experienced in December. Since the electronics are water resistant, I took it out and gave it a good run in the snow and on the icy roads, and it didn’t miss a beat! Gentle throttle control was the order of the day, unsurprisngly. Due to the small size it could get grounded on packed snow quite easily, and it couldn’t plough through deep snow like the big one could, but it was still a blast. Back home, I took the shell off, disconnected the batteries, rinsed it under a hot tap to get rid of the worst of the snow that had built up under the shell, and left it to dry. It had a few more outings in the snow before it all thawed…

More recently, it’s also had a run on Highcliffe beach (near Bournemouth). This is where I normally run the big E-Revo, so I know where there are some fun places to go. Although the 1/16 car is too small to really go on the shingle beach (it’d just get hung up on the pebbles), it’s quite at home on the gravel paths and grassy bits. So far I’ve run it on single battery packs (LiPo and NiMH), which are pretty fast – Traxxas quote 30mph – so I haven’t felt the need to swap the pinion and run it on dual packs yet.

However, it does need a more delicate hand – I’ve found it much easier to flip than the big one. It’s also more fragile – so far I’ve managed to break two hub carriers by doing unintended cartwheels! Fortunately, just like the big models, there are plenty of spares and hop-up parts available. I’ve fitted some red aluminium replacements from The Toyz (on eBay) which are much better. You do need to resist the temptation to fit every anodized part you can find – some parts, like the A-arms, need the flex that the pastic parts allow. I’ve also fitted the STRC aluminium front and rear skid plates – these don’t need to be plastic, and they do look quite nice… The next improvement I plan on making is some better shock absorbers;I could replace the oil and springs in the stock ones, but I might as well get some metal-bodied ones and keep the originals for spares.

So to sum up – the 1/16 Traxxas E-Revo is a top choice for a small, fun basher – plenty of spares and upgrades options, too!

Opinion: Get it!!

The Traxxas E-Revo is a pretty flexible truck when it comes to power sources. Out of the box, it can use 7.2v or 8.4v NiMh packs, but I’m fast becoming a LiPo convert, so I wanted to use LiPo with my E-Revo. Here’s how I did it.

First things first – out of the box, the normal E-Revo isn’t really suitable for LiPo batteries. The thing with LiPo batteries is that you musn’t let them discharge too much, unlike NiMh batteries which you can just keep using until they run down. If a LiPo battery drops below a certain voltage, it’s had it. Anyway, usually if you’re using LiPo you need an ESC which has “low voltage protection” built into it – this means the ESC will monitor the batteries, and when they start to get low it will shut down before they can be damaged. The E-Revo’s standard ESC, the Traxxas EVX-2, doesn’t have this feature, but fortunately, you can add it on yourself.

All you need is a “Novak Smart Stop LiPo Cut-off Module”, some Traxxas battery connectors and a bit of soldering, and you’re done. What you need to do is create a cable to connect the Smart Stop between one of the batteries and the ESC. I simply copied the photo that can be found in this thread over on the Traxxas forums. Then plug the ESC’s receiver cable into the Smart Stop, and the Smart Stop’s cable into the receiver instead, and you’re done.

You can now connect LiPo batteries quite happily, and when they start getting low, the car will “judder” as the Smart Stop interrupts the power. There’s also a bright blue LED that will start flashing.

Now all you need to do is pick up some cheap LiPos off the net and you’re away!

As blogged earlier, I’ve recently decided to give radio-controlled touring cars a try. I’m starting out with the Xray T2R Pro 1/10 Touring Car. I’m classing this as “a beginner’s experience” as I’ve never built one of these before – I’ve built a rock crawler recently, and a Tamiya kit many years ago, but this is in an altogether different league.

In the first of a short series of posts talking about how I built the kit, I’ll go over the stuff you need to buy to be able to build the kit.

Things to buy before starting

Ok, so before starting out, make sure you’ve got everything you need – the manual tells you what isn’t provided. If you’ve built kits before you might already have some or all of this, but then you probably won’t be reading this!

I ordered this graphite grease and this bearing oil. The really neat bit about that bearing lube is that it has a needlepoint dispenser, which means it’ll be a lot less messy when you’re using it – I definitely reccomend it.

In terms of tools, I’d avoid buying them from your model shop. Even the mailorder ones charge silly prices for tools – instead, check out Maplin. They’ve got some neat multi-purpose toolkits that are ideal – try this 33-Piece Precision Screwdriver Set for £21, or this Interchangeable Utility Set for £7. There’s loads of other sets to check out too, and of course if you’ve got a store nearby it’s worth going in to see if they’ve got anything else. I got a great little handle-and-bits set for about £9, but I can’t find it on the website. Anyway, these sort of sets are a much more sensible purchase.

In terms of optional upgrades, I found that the plastic servo mounts that come in the kit put the servo arm waaay too close to the top deck, so I’ve had to get the optional aluminium servo mount. I can understand Xray putting cheaper parts in this kit – so composite instead of carbon fibre etc, but the plastic mounts are a completely different design to the alu ones – very odd. Also, if you’re going for LiPo, the optional battery strap makes life a lot easier – no messing about with battery tape! It’s not cheap, though – would it kill them to do a cheaper version?

Finally, before starting, make sure you’ve got a reasonable amount of space to work in, and it’s somewhere that won’t be disturbed if you have to leave everything out overnight. I built my car one bag at a time, over the course of about a week. Make sure it’s well lit, and that the floor is clear – when you drop the screws or washers on the floor, it’ll be much easier to find them!

Ok, so that’s the preparation out of the way – come back soon for more notes on the actual build!

Spektrum DX3S transmitter

After unpacking, charging up the batteries and checking everything worked, the first thing I wanted to do with my new E-Revo was replace the radio gear. Don’t get me wrong – the transmitter and receiver that come with the model are fine, and I’ve not read any complaints about them, but since I bought a Spektrum DX3S for my touring car, I’d much rather use that.

The main benefit of using the DX3S is that it’s a 2.4GHz system – so it should have a greater range, and no risk of interference from other transmitters. There are other benefits too – it only needs 4 batteries, not 8, and since has a 10-model memory, I can set it up to work with the E-Revo and the T2R Pro straight away using the two receivers it came with, and by picking up another receiver I can  control the AX10 with it as well. I might even use it for the boat – one transmitter for all my non-flying models…

Anyway, the point of this post is to describe how I got everything set up to use the DX3S with the Traxxas E-Revo, so let’s crack on.

I’m choosing to use the SPM SR300 receiver in the E-Revo. You could use the SR3300T receiver which also comes with the DX3S, but as that is the one with the telemetry options I’ve put it in the Xray. The Spektrum receivers are nice and small, so should fit quite nicely.

1 - Open up the receiver box and note which wires are throttle and steering

The first thing we need to do is check everything works happily with the new receiver, so open up the receiver box and make a note of which wires go into which socket – two are for the steering servos (labelled CH1) and one is for the ESC (CH2). Fortunatly, the DX3S is a three-channel transmitter with matching receivers, so the presence of two steering servos isn’t a problem.

Next, you’ll need to trim off the tabs on the plugs so that they’ll fit into the Spektrum receiver. Use a sharp knife of a pair of snips, and be careful not to break the plugs. Once you’ve trimmed the plugs, fit one of the steering servo wires into the Aux port on the servo. On the DX3S transmitter, enable the Aux channel. Plug the batteries into the ESC and turn it on – now test that the steering works. If it does, you’ve successfully set up the second servo on the Aux channel.

2 - Check it all works

Next, unplug the batteries, plug the throttle plug and the other steering servo into the throttle and steering ports on the receiver, and unplug the Aux servo. Turn on the transmitter, plug the batteries in to the ESC and turn on the ESC – blip the throttle trigger on the DX3S and the wheels should spin, turn the wheel and the steering should work (this proves that both steering channels are working, and you’re not just using the one). Next, disconnect the batteries, plug the Aux servo back in and you’ve got everything working. If anything hasn’t worked, check it’s all plugged in the right way around and in the right ports. If at any point you can’t turn on the ESC, chances are you’ve got a steering servo plugged in to the throttle port.

3 - Remove Traxxas receiver and replace with Spektrum receiver

Next, you’ll need to remove the old receiver – first, loosen the screw you can get to on the cable-holding box alongside the receiver box. This is a neat little device that keeps the receiver box waterproof – the cable are fed through some foam inside it, which keeps moisture out. You’ll only need to undo the one screw, and then you can pull the aerial lead out from the receiver box. The 2.4GHz aerials are very short, so don’t bother trying to feed the new one through – it should be fine just tucked inside the receiver box. With the old aerial lead free, you can gently (but firmly) lever up the Traxxas receiver. Use a bit of servo tape on the new one to stick it in place, carefully replace the blue waterproofing ring around the edge of the box, and screw the top back into place.

That’s it – job done!

Looks like a fair bit of traffic hitting my site from people Googling “T2R Pro”, but getting the main page instead of the posts being referenced. So here’s links to the relevant posts – there’s more to come now I’ve built it and got some pointers, so check back soon!

Getting into r/c touring cars
General musings about how to go about starting in 1/10 touring car racing

Which radio control touring car for a beginner? Pt 1
Should you buy a ready-to-run car, or build a kit?

Which radio control touring car for a beginner? Pt 2
Choosing the chassis, motor and speed controller

Which radio control touring car for a beginner? Pt 3
Batteries, charger and radio decisions

Traxxas E-Revo

Over the last year or so I’ve been getting back into radio controlled stuff , and have been building up a collection of helicopters and cars that I never could have managed when I was a kid.

As you might be able to tell from other posts on this blog, I already have an Axial AX10 Scorpion rock crawler, and an Xray T2R Pro 1/10 touring car. But… I wanted another one. Why? Put simply, I want one for bashing. The T2R is only usable on a racetrack, and although the AX10 is great fun on rocks, it’s a bit too slow for any other scenario. For general messing around in the garden or elsewhere, I wanted something with a bit more grunt, so I started looking around.

What to choose?

There were a number of factors I took into consideration when deciding what to buy. Bashing will likely result in damage, so I wanted something with good spares availability and optional parts – so something from a big manufacturer like Traxxas, Losi or HPI was an obvious choice. So was four-wheel drive and decent ground clearance – meaning some sort of monster truck chassis instead of a buggy or truggy. In the end, I narrowed it down to things like the Traxxas E-Maxx, Traxxas E-Revo and HPI E-Savage. The E-Maxx is currently £269 from Modelsport (not including batteries).

HPI E-Savage

However, a bit of research suggested that owners considered the E-Maxx to be weaker and more prone to breakages than the E-Revo, and currently the E-Revo is only £299. So, the E-Maxx is out – no point saving £30 if I’m just going to end up spending it on replacement parts, I figure. The E-Savage is a tempting choice, at the same price as the E-Revo, and this is even including two battery packs and a charger that can charge them both at once. However, more forum surfing suggested that the E-Savage wasn’t quite as good as the E-Revo – here’s an example. So the E-Savage offers better value-for-money with it’s included charger and batteries – it really is a proper “ready to run” package – but again, the E-Revo seems to come out on top in forum discussions for general strength, reliability and, well, fun. Plus, I dunno, I think the E-Revo looks better…

There was one last option I considered – a Traxxas Summit. The Summit is basically a cross between the E-Revo and a rock crawler, with some pretty cool capabilities- it’s got remote locking/unlocking differentials, and a remote selectable high/low ratio gearbox. This means that it’ll run around at speed just fine (not as fast as a proper E-Revo but not exactly slow), but then when you fancy tackling some obstacles, you can lock the diffs, select the low ratio and off you go. A normal monster truck without locked diffs wouldn’t be very good at climbing – the diffs would just send all the power to whichever wheel(s) didn’t have any grip and you’d go nowhere. So, all the fun of a crawler and most of the speed of an E-Revo. Where’s the catch? Well, two things put me off. First, all that remote-locking and remote selecting of ratios. I can’t help but feel it’s going to be a bit fragile in that respect, and I don’t want to be replacing servo linkages and whatnot when a crawling expedition results in a roll down a hillside. Secondly, the price – currently it’s coming in at £449 – that’s 50% more than the E-Revo. Sure, it’s effectively 50% more capable, but still…

So, E-Revo it is, then!

Now it’s arrived, the first thing I’ll be doing is swapping out the receiver for the spare one from my Spektrum DX3S – the Traxxas radio gear is 27MHz, not 2.4GHz, and it’s easier to have the one transmitter and not have to worry about loads of batteries. I’ll be putting up some info on the swap out when I’ve done it.

Some photos of the E-Revo:

…and some video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ok, so far we’ve looked at the chassis, motor and speed control side of things. The next two big choices to make when building your own car are batteries & charger and radio gear.

Batteries

It’s exciting times at the moment in terms of r/c batteries. When I had my first car over ten years ago, the only choice was NiCad packs. They took ages to charge and didn’t last long. Now, though, we have better chargers, and a choice of NiMH or LiPo batteries. Which do you choose? Well, as you’ve probably guessed, they both have their pros and cons.

NiMH batteries are cheaper than LiPo, and because they’ve been around longer there is a wider choice. You can also build your own packs quite easily, to fit a specific space, for example (a stick pack for a touring car, or a two-part “saddle” pack for a rock crawler). There’s also a large range of chargers available. Drawbacks are that NiMH packs are quite heavy, and compared to LiPo can give you shorter run times (but if you’re racing that’s less of an issue as you only need about five minutes anyway).

LiPo batteries are more expensive – £70 would not be an unusual price for a pack which would be maybe £40 as NiMH. However, LiPo will probably last longer and give a more consistent power delivery, compared to a car running NiMHs which will slow down before a LiPo would (and the LiPo car would be faster). Plus, if you’re going to go brushless, you’re only going to get the full benfits with LiPo. Drawbacks, apart from the cost, are a smaller choice of batteries and chargers, and a slightly confusing terminology which is used to describe the make up of each pack. The biggest drawback to some people, though, is that LiPo batteries can explode if damaged or handled incorrectly. The same can be said of all batteries, of course, but with LiPo it’s a bit easier to mishandle them. Even discharging them too much can be dangerous, and that’s why you need to either have a LiPo-compatible ESC, or a special LiPo cutoff circuit, to warn you when they’re getting too low. This does put some people off, but if you treat them carefully and sensibly you should be fine. LiPo batteries also need special chargers – so if you’ve got an old charger it probably won’t be LiPo compatible, so you’ll have to allow for the cost of a new charger too. LiPos also benefit from being “balanced”, which is yet another thing to think about…!

So – NiMHs are cheaper and easier to handle and charge, but LiPos last longer and are more powerful (for want of a better word).

Personally, I’ve chosen to use the two NiMH packs I already have from my rock crawler, and I’ve bought an additional LiPo pack to try out. If I get the YTraxxas E-revo I’ve got my eye on, then I’ll also get LiPos for that, and with suitable connectors I can use them on my touring car as well.

Charger

If you’ve got batteries, you’re going to need to charge them. The first thing to bear in mind when thinking about a charger is that if you’re going to go racing, then you’re going to need a charger that can run off a 12v supply. This is because, when you’re in the middle of a field, a mains power supply can be hard to come by! Instead, you can use a 12v leisure battery to power your battery charger and any other electrical equipment you might want to use, such as tyre warmers or a soldering iron etc. I specifically mention a leisure battery, and not a car battery, because leisure batteries are designed to be used as power supplies – car batteries (although they look similar) are only designed to start engines. In a pinch you could probably recharge one or maybe two batteries off your car’s battery, but more than that and you probably won’t be able to start your engine.

So, you need a battery charger that can run off a 12v supply, and since you’ll also need a leisure battery (at least 75Ah) and a leisure battery charger, you don’t really have to worry about getting a charger with mains input as well – they tend to cost more, and be larger (unless you get an external power supply “brick” which turns 240v AC into 12v DC).

Ok, so now you know about leisure batteries for running your charger – what else do you need to think about? Well, the main thing is what batteries will you be charging. If you’re never going to use LiPos, then it doesn’t really matter what charger you get. However, I reckon that sooner or later, everyone will end up using LiPos as the performance benefit is too big to ignore. So, if you’re buying everything fromscratch, you might as well spend the extra and get a LiPo-capable charger right now. The Core UDC-20 is a popular choice, and it’s what I’ve gone for. It charges (and balances) LiPo as well s NiCad, and I’ve also bought the optional 12v mains power supply so I can use it at home. The only thing it doesn’t do is charge LiPos for storage, although the more I read about this, the less it seems to matter, and I’m not going to go into it because I don’t think it’s relevant.

Radio gear

So, that last major component of your car is the radio gear- transmiter and receiver. Up until a few years ago, all radio transmitters and receivers operated a couple of megahertz bands – 27Mhz and 40Mhz. You would have different sets of crystals to control which exact radio frequency you were using, but if someone else was using the same frequency – and this was often the case – then you would interfere with each other’s vehicles. This woulkd be a big problem at race meetings, as you could easily ruin a race if you accidentally switched on your transmitter and it had the same frequency as someone racing! Now, though, there is some more of this new-fangled technology, and it’s making things simpler. We now have the option of 2.4Ghz digital transmitters and receivers, which are paired (so only your receiver will listen to your transmitter) and can check to make sure they’re using a clear frequency. This way you don’t have to buy and carry multiple sets of crystals – your transmitter and receiver switch channels until they find an empty one, and anyway, only your transmitter will operate your car so there are no worries at all.

There aren’t as wide a choice of 2.4Ghz systems around as yet, but this will chage. I’ve chosen a Spektrum DX3S system, which has a few neat extras such as telemetry and a second receiver included. It’s one of the wheel-type transmitters, which might take some getting used to – my rock crawler currently has the older stick-type transmitter, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.

Ok, so that’s all the major bits out of the way – next up, I’ll go over actually building the car!

So in part 1 I talked about whether to buy a RTR kit, or build a car from scratch. I’ve decided that I’d rather build one from scratch, and this next post details the various choices I made, and why. I’m not saying these are the only choices, or even that they’re the best choices – but they made sense to me!

Before we go on, please remember that I am not an expert! I have never raced radio control cars, and (at the time of writing) I haven’t even started to build my kit yet – I’m writing this as my thoughts and experiences might be helpful to anyone else going through the same process. Part of this process may well involve me finding out the hard way that I was wrong about something – but that’s all part of the fun, as far as I am concerned.

Anyway, with that disclaimer out of the way, let’s crack on.

What do you buy?

There are a number of kits you can buy, never mind the various components like motors, speed controllers, radio gear, batteries etc. Where do you start?

Well, take a tip from me – it’ll save you a lot of hassle! I spent days reading forums, magazines and websites. I decided on a car. Then I went to the club I was interested in joining, and found loads of people driving a completely different car! So my tip is to go see your prospective club first, and ask the people there what they reckon is worth getting. They’ll know the cars that perform well on their track, and if you’ve got similar kit to other drivers, they can help you out more easily when you have questions. Once you’ve got an idea of what’s popular, then you can go do your research to narrow down your final choice.

The car / chassis

I did some reading and figured the main brands to look at were Schumacher, Team Associated, Hot Bodies / HPI and Tamiya. Initially I discounted Tamiya because I thought they weren’t “serious” cars – however it seems that they are quite popular and seem to do well in races.

In my case, I first decided on the Schumacher MI3.5. I knew about Shumacher already, from when I built my first Tamiya kit some 12 years ago and was looking around to see what else was available. They’re a British company, and you can buy the parts directly from them – you don’t have to go via a shop or reseller, which could be useful. The MI3.5 is around £200, and what I read about it sounded good.

Xray T2R Pro

Then I went down to the club (West London) and found that a lot of people preferred a brand I hadn’t even considered – Xray. Back home, I did more reading and found that their “pro” level car, the T2′009, also has a version for £200 – the T2R Pro. Again, more reading, and it seems that this is the car to get – good availability of parts, it’s very similar to the Pro car (just without all the carbon bits and few aluminium parts) so excellent upgrade prospects, and apparently very robust. So, Xray T2R Pro it is, then. After even more reading and watching videos and stuff, it seems that the popular cars are mainly the Xray and the Tamiya models, and it looks like Tamiya parts for their serious cars are not easy to obtain in the UK, so this has confirmed that Xray are the way to go.

Motor / speed controller

Again, the place to start here is with the club you intend to race with. Check to see what motors they allow in their various classes. Since I’m a complete newbie, I want to start in their basic “stock” class, which means either a 27t brushed motor, or 17.5t brushless, according to their website.

Hang on – brushed / brushless – what’s that all about, then?

Basically, there are two types of motor these days – traditional brushed motors, and new-fangled bruchless ones. Brushed motors have been around for ages, and get their name from the fact that current is passed to the commutator via “brushes”. The advantage of brushed motors is that they are cheap; the disadvantage is that, if you’re going to be serious about racing, you’re going to need to strip them down and “skim” the commutator and replace the brushes, as they will wear down with use. This sounds like a lot of hassle to me. Brushless motors, on the other hand, are pretty much the opposite of brushed motors in the way that they work – the magnets spin in the brushless motor, whereas in a brushed motor the magnets are fixed to the shell – and as the name implies, there are no brushes. There’s no maintenance required on a brushless motor, so that’s a big advantage, and they’re also more effecient. The disadvantage is that they’re usually more expensive, although prices are coming down. Brushed motors are described in terms of how many “turns” they are, with more turns equalling more torque but less speed. For racing, as you improve you’llbe lookign to move to motors with a lower turn count. 27T (27 turns) is the “stock” starting point, getting down to 3.5T for real pros. Brushless motors are described usually as a brushed equivalent, e.g. a 17.5T brushless may be equivalent to a 27T brushed.

The other thing to bear in mind, though, is which ESC (electronic speed control) you’re going to use.

The ESC is how you control how fast the motor spins, and in which direction (forwards or reverse). The battery and receiver plug into the ESC, and the ESC connects to the motor. However, you need to be sure you’ve got a suitable ESC for your motor (e.g. a brushless motor needs a brushless ESC) and that’s where you can be clever. The cheapest option will be to get a brushed motor and suitable ESC, but if you start out with a brushed motor and get an ESC that can handle both brushed and brushless motors, then you can simply swap out your motor later on when you’re ready. This was my first plan. Then, a bit more reading threw up another possibility – starting out completely brushless…

Losi Xcelorin Brushless Combo

Originally I thought I’d start brushed as I am under no illusions that I’ll be any good to begin with (if ever) and didn’t see the point in going brushless straight off. However, I came across some brushless systems which give you a lot of control over them – for example, this motor and ESC combo from Losi. First off, this brushless motor is a 17.5T brushless motor, which is allowed by the West London club in their 27T brushed class – which is where I want to start, as it’s pretty much the beginner’s class. Secondly, I can program the ESC to limit the amount of power to the motor, meaning that instead of starting out with something faster than I can handle, I can start to get used to controlling the car without worrying that I’m accidentally going to smack it into a wall by squeezing the trigger too hard! Sure, it’s about twice as much as I had planned to spend originally, but since I would probably be wanting to upgrade at some point anyway, I’m just spending that addditional money now instead, and not having the hassle of having to maintain a brushed motor.

So, that’s how I decided which chassis to go for (Xray T2R Pro), and which motor & ESC (Losi Xcelorin brushless combo). In the next part, I’ll explain how I chose the rest of the parts.As mentioned before, the decisions I made won’t suit everyone, and I’m sure many people would disagree with them, but that’s part of the fun of a new hobby – learning what’s what! I’m always open to suggestions, so feel free to leave a comment…

That was the question that was on my mind recently. In an earlier post, I described how I’d liked the look of 1/10 scale r/c touring car racing, so having been to a meeting to see what happens, the next step was to go ahead and buy stuff. Since the whole point of my blog is to write up my experiences and learning curve in the hope it might help someone else, here’s how I went about it. In this first post, I’ll talk about RTR (ready-to-run) packages, and the kits you build yourself.

Ready-to-run or build a kit?

There are two choices when it comes to buying a radio-controlled touring car – RTR (ready-to-run) or kit. RTR cars are exactly that – they’re ready to run, straight from the box; some might not come with batteries, it varies. Everything else is included, though – car, motor, speed controller, chassis, shell (painted), wheels, transmitter and receiver.

What are the benefits of RTR?

RTR car

The most obvious benefit of a ready-to-run car is that it’s all included – you don’t need to provide anything other than a battery. If you’re not keen on building a kit from scratch, it’s ideal – you’ll still need to replace or upgrade parts as you spend more time driving, but it’s the quickest way to get racing and is minimal fuss. If you don’t know your ESC from your 27t, it doesn’t matter – you can learn all that stuff later, and just get on with driving and having fun. Some clubs even have RTR races, where all the entrants are RTR cars, so they’re all on a similar level.

They’re also relatively inexpensive – most RTR kits seem to be around the £200 mark, such as this Hot Bodies Cyclone S RTR I looked at.

What are the drawbacks of RTR?

RC kit

To my mind, the problem with a RTR set was that in order to keep the initial cost at an attractive level, the components are going to be quite basic. That Cyclone S RTR kit mentioned above includes everything, and when you consider that the radio gear (transmitter & receiver) are worth around £40, the battery and charger are around £20, the shell is a tenner and the motor, ESC and servo together are probably £25, that’s pretty much half the cost of the car. That means the chassis, drivetrain and suspension are going to have to be pretty cheap. This is all fine if you’re only going to be racing in a RTR class, but I suspect that sooner or later – probably sooner – I’m going to want to upgrade the motor and ESC at the very least. Also, if you plan on racing at a club, then you’re going to need at least two more sets of crystals for the radio – that’s at least another £20, whereas I’d rather go with a 2.4Ghz radio system and not have to worry about crystals at all. So, if I’m going to be replacing the motor, ESC and radio, I might as well not bother buying a RTR kit.

To sum up, then, RTR is great if you have a limited budget to get started with, don’t want to build your car from scratch before you can drive it, and if you are going to race in a club with a RTR class. It would certainly be a great way to learn all about the hobby. However, if you’ve got R/C experience, or think that building the car sounds like fun and would rather build something to your requirements, then RTR is not for you.

What are the benfits of building a kit?

Building a kit gives you everything that RTR doesn’t – including a headache as you try to work out what you should buy!However, the main benefits (again, this is my opinion, your mileage may vary) is that you can choose exactly the components you want from the beginning, and since you’ve got to build it, you’ll get valuable experience. It’s also a great way to find out what additional stuff you’ll need, such as tools etc – a race day can be quite long, and if you’ve got to replace wheels or suspension, you don’t want to find out you don’t have any hex drivers ten minutes before your race!

What are the drawbacks of building a kit?

Building a kit will cost you considerably more. All together, I’ve spent £700 on getting started – £200 was the chassis, £170 was the radio gear, another £100 on battery and charger and £130 on the motor and ESC. The remaining £100 was shell, paint, servo, wheels, tyres and other miscellaneous bits and pieces. You’ll also need to do a lot of research into what’s worth buying, and of course you’ll need time and patience to put it all together. I don’t expect to be ready to test for about a month.

To sum up then, building a kit is ideal if you like getting stuck in and doing all the hard work yourself; it’s not for you if you have a limited starting budget or just want to get racing as quickly as possible. Note that I keep mentioning the “starting budget” – you will still need money if you go racing, for replacement bits (tyres will wear out at the very least) and upgrades.

Since I’ve opted for the build-your-own kit approach, in part 2 of this post I will go over the various components I decided to buy, and why. I’m not saying my choices are the only ones, but you should get a feel for what you should be looking at and thinking about.