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.

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…

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…