You're probably one of the many that have come to find out more about their recently discovered hobby – RC Cars! It's one of the ways of becoming a car-head without really spending big bucks on big car parts that one would spend on when tricking out cars! You could be a small-time mechanic for a short time with a small car when it comes to the RC kind!
First of all, you're going to need to buy your very own RC Car; you can't become the mini mechanic that you want to become without anything to work on, can you? Then, you'll need to research the different kinds of RC Cars there are on the market. Especially since hundreds, even thousands, claim they are the best with the cutting edge!
Choosing Your Model Kit
Most of the model kits you'll find online cater to more off-road cars, buggies, and trucks. Though if you search hard enough in your local stores, even the online ones, you might be able to find the ones you could use for indoor drifting or the even more unique – RC Boats! If you get that, though, then you'll be on the other side of the spectrum, and it might be harder for you to find like-minded drivers.
An excellent place to start searching for a model kit that fits your style – off-road or on-road, and appearance-wise, would be any online store! A good kit you can go for are revell kits. These kits are beginner-friendly and can be very fun even for those with experience in RC toys.
What's The Scale Of Your RC Car?
The scale of an RC car refers to the size of the RC car in relation to the size of an actual car. Meaning, if the RC Car has a scale of 1/16th, the RC Car is 1/16th of the height, length, and width of the actual car it was based on. The smaller the number gets, the bigger the RC gets! You can get RC that goes for the 1/10th scale or even the 1/5th scale. Keep in mind that the bigger the RC Car gets, the more expensive things become!
Do You Want A Nitro RC Car?
If you're new to the hobby, you probably just recently found out that RC cars use a combustion engine – which is more powerful and a whole lot louder than the ones that just use a plain old battery. A combustion engine for RC cars would be akin to the ones you would find on lawn mowers and motorcycles.
The fuel that those engines use is a unique mix of methanol, nitromethane, and oil. Getting the perfect mixture of those three will have to vary when it comes to the engine your RC car uses. Now since these engines are like what you'd see with lawn mowers and motorbikes, you probably already have an idea as to how loud these things can get – as a result, they've been “banned” from use in suburban areas!
Do You Want An Electric RC Car?
This brings us to the other alternative of power that an RC Car can use – batteries. Although a nitro RC car also uses batteries for the tech inside the car, they don't run solely on that, unlike the electric RC cars. These can run either on nickel-metal hydride or the more popular, now sought-out, LiPo(lithium polymer) batteries, which could be more expensive but lighter and have more energy stored.
There are many intricacies when it comes to deciding what battery you should buy for your RC car. Like which ratings(like the S rating or the C rating) would be the perfect fit for your car. The simplest choice you could go with is going for a kit that already comes with a battery. If you want to get a spare battery, look for one with the same voltage and S and C ratings!
Securing Spare Parts
The hobby-grade RC cars you'll most likely buy can go pretty fast – like really fast! If these plastic cars go by that quickly, the potential damages they accumulate will hurt them a lot. Though there are designs out there that help distribute all of that crash energy, what more could a few pieces of plastic achieve? Especially since these cars could weigh well over 10lbs, hurling themselves over 30 miles per hour!
So you're going to want to buy some spare parts that are easily accessible and are pretty resilient. Not to mention how you could be getting upgrades on top of these spare parts. You're going to want to budget for these things!
Takeaway
Here's how we suggest you slowly ease yourself into the hobby properly. You'll want to start with an electric RC car since those are the safest and are considerably cheaper than nitro cars. It's the safer bet for you to fall in love with the hobby along with getting to know your way around the mini car. If you've worked the guts to go faster and a lot harder, then we suggest leveling up to the nitro cars!
