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.