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!

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

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.

Ok, so there I was, all set to go buy a Traxxas E-Revo. I had even picked out the batteries I was going to get and what colour shell I wanted. I was tidying up the computer/hobby room ready for the new car, and I came across a DVD I got with an old r/c car magazine, showing all sorts of radio control stuff – including about half an hour on racing touring cars.

It looked like fun! The only thing that had been bugging me about the E-Revo was that it would probably only ever get used when I was on the beach in Bournemouth, whilst my wife was off enjoying the sand and sea and whatever else it is that women find fascinating about beaches. It’d be fun, but I just kept thinking that it would be even more fun if I could race against someone else or something.

Now, watching this DVD, I was starting to see that there might be another option. I already knew there was one r/c car club in my area, but it met in a school sports hall, and I was hoping to find somewhere with a proper track that I could go and practice on – I didn’t want to turn up at my first meeting and not have a clue how to drive, and just get in everyone’s way.

However, a bit of Googling later, and I came across the a club less than half an hour’s drive away, with an outdoor track that was available all year round. I can go along whenever I like and practice – fantastic!

I did some more research, quite a bit more in fact, and slowly began to get an understanding of what was involved in racing touring cars. There’s a lot to take in, so I’ll be keeping this site updated with what I learn and how I get on.