This hobby is fun, but man becareful caus eyou can blow a huge amount of money on stuff, heh. I've got half a dozen different cars, from an old RC10, RC10T, and RC10L (I think, the oval car), HPI's very first touring car (with a 2 speed tranny, man that thing flies), a few others, I don't recall, been about 10 years since I first got into it, they are all in the addic and the back of my closet these days. And my last one is a Traxxas E-Maxx, man that thing was fun, but the damn ESC they give you is crap, keeps burning out
I thought I'd necropost this rather than start a new one.
Having as much free time as I have, and already spent hours making use of "free hobbies" (read: playing games and making paper models, so on and so forth), I felt I should get back ino R/Cing. The kit I'm buying is the Tamiya 58335 Ford Escort Cosworth (With an upgrade kit). Which is nice and sexy, but I don't want to wreck the body, so anyone know of a good site that is in the UK (or doesn't cost $60 to ship to the UK) that would stock the body not only so I have one spare, but so I can buy one to practise painting (as I'm buying an airbrush).
I have quite a few RC's. I'm into the custom side of it - experimenting with new ideas and designs. My most recent project was to take a 1/8 HPI Savage and convert it to electric using a high power brushless system. No mess to clean up, no pissing the neighbours off, no crowd of kids watching it because its loud, and its MASSIVELY more powerful than with a nitro engine in
I also currently run an RC10GT, also converted to brushless, this is capable of 70mph+ with its current setup. And it'll get there as fast as traction allows, ever seen a 3KG truck backflip when you hit the throttle, at 40mph? Its overpowered, but I built it for that. I actually won the base car as a box of bits in a game of pool and thought "hmm this has got potential". This is my serious abuse car - its got a few custom bits, and a lot of aftermarket bits (mostly from RPM, and gearbox bits from RRP), its not just fast it'll handle just about any jump or bad landing you can set a ramp up for. Loves BMX track's as well.
Not yet no. I have to get in touch with my parents so they send me the cash they owe me (that or get very close to going into my overdraft again).
Well currently I have done very basic mods to my R/C which was about as much as a new body. I really wanted a Ford F-150 Stadium Truck, but it isn't in the UK anywhere and the webby I saw it on would cost me $100 on top to get it shipped here. Which would make it close to a high spec kit so I couldn't see the point.
I've seen a home made 2stroke Staidum Truck. A guy I know built it and damn was it fast and strong. Loud as hell though as he had to cut the exhaust.
Was that a typo there mate, £50 seems closer the mark How the heck did you manage to spend £700 on it?
P5YcHoM4N, the Escort kit probably uses with a TL-01 or TT-01 chassis. If its a TL-01 chassis, I'd advise getting another car and just buying the shell you want. Its an ancient design and isn't that good. If its a TT-01 chassis then you'll be okay, the TT-01 is a bit newer and a lot better designed.
Now all I need to do is learn how to paint
Might just go super simple and recreate my paintjob from my "team" which is so easy a baby can make it. And only needs three colours of paint (well 4 really, but one can be overlooked)
My brother and I had a pretty basic electric RC buggy when we were little, used to take it up to the local park and run it around in the baseball diamond.
I think I was 14 when my father bought me an advanced trainer airplane. Had a 6.5cc (0.40 cu in), 1 HP 2-stroke on it, and was in the standard high-wing Cessna configuration. The first thing I did upon taking off the first time was a barrel roll and my father just said, "well that didn't take long."
It's been sitting on my wall for about 4 years now. In that time I've partially disassembled the engine out of pure curiosity and put it back together again. I haven't tried starting it yet after doing so. The last time I tried to fly it was at the park up the street from me where a cop stopped by and told me I couldn't fly it there. I think I was 15.
If you managed to spend £700 on that you were totally and utterly ripped off. Can get top of the range chassis for £275 brand new, a very good controller for £150, a decent speedo for £100, super stock motor for £30 which will just destroy that what looks like standard 540 motor. Shell and paint will set you back £20. Proper racing rubber £20 and a set of matched 4300 mah NiMH cells for £40, these will totally thrash the cells pictured - £635 will get you ready to go with top end equipment in the touring car market.
My equipment is fairly top end bar my two chassis which are now outdated and the retail value new I'd quote is probably £800 tops and mine is a raceable car. You'll not see any of them cars at a respectable event.
It amazes me how much money people spend on them toys. I feel sorry for them when they turn up to the clubs I race at and find out they need to go buy a race car to race.
Plus if their were to get damaged and break, you'll have a toxic hazzard on your hands which you'd need to call 999 to get a clean up crew to remove it (this is truth the stuff in those tubes is toxic). Though I guess if you was outside you could pretend it never happened and spray everything down with a hose before you touch it. Indoors you'd be in trouble
Thanks, I'll give it a mull over, see if they have what I'm after.
[edit: oh well, would appear not. I always seem to want the unobtainable.]
TT-01 chassis ain't bad. I've seen a couple of them used for club racing with some success after a few mods.
Cold caths are toxic? Hmm maybe I shouldn't have accidently sat on one a few months ago. Only the inner element broke, not the outside casing, as that was more flexible.
Apex Models like Fordman says are good. I tend to use www.modelsport.co.uk for odds and sods as well. www.starluckrc.com do good power systems, and if you want some cheap bits from HK (of which you can buy a lot of for the TT-01), take a look at www.rcmart.com. Don't go crazy with pointless shiny bits though if you ever decide to upgrade the car a bit. The TT-01 doesn't have bearings in the kit btw just plastic or bronze bushings, you'd save yourself a lot of trouble by purchasing a bearing kit before hand and using that as you build the car. Otherwise its a lot of work to replace them when the bushings wear out.
If you have a local hobby shop they can order any kit or part for you from the distributor. Always good to support them as opposed to ordering off the web, if you can.
P5YcHoM4N I know this sounds really old fashioned, but you see that handset thing, pick it up, and dial a number, and speak to another person on the end of the line, its a Genius Idea
Seriously m8, they won't show old stuff online, as these are mainly a competition supplier, but they might know where to source one in the uk.
If the outside doesn't crack you're fine, as that's what they are their for, as the inside breaks rather easy.
I'm buying an upgrade kit with the TT01 so that should have them in one would assume:
So that suits me fine. And only £40 :o bargin. Pointless shiney bits are on the back of my list of things to buy. A new motor and ESC is rather high up on it though. But only once I get used to the stock stuff no point getting a fully kitted out R/C that can do a bazzilion miles an hour and not be able to drive the thing.
As for a local hobby store, that is a great idea, only I don't know where one is here, so it'd have to wait until I went back home, which I'd probably have to do anyway, as the webby I'm getting the kit off only ships to your billing address.
I suck at talking to people, I have a minor speech problem (can't say "r" and hiss when I say "s") and I'm really paranoid about it, which is why I use the intarweb when ever I can.
I suppose I'd be better off getting into this hobby at home, just because the model shop their sells pretty much anything (he'll order it if you need it, at a cost), and really helpful, but being at uni and all, and still not knowing my way around Manchester/Salford, I couldn't find my shadow unless I had a map.
Just a thought, my local shop in Barnstaple has a seriously large amount of Tamiya gathering dust in the back room. If you like I can see if they have the TT-01 Escort kit your after. They do trade online a tiny bit as The Battlezone, Barnstaple. Only a quick phonecall. Or I can dig their number out for you if you'd prefer.
The upgrade kit sounds good - oil shocks and bearings are the first proper upgrades for any Tamiya. Won't make you go fast but it'll stop the car bouncing everywhere. After that an alloy center driveshaft would be a good idea before you drop a new motor in.
Talking of which, a good combo for you would be a Team Orion V2 19T spec motor, with a Hitec EZX-R esc in my opinion. The motor will get the car to 30mph and a bit more no problem and is the lowest maintaince brushed type you can buy, and the ESC is dead simple to program and operate, with a 17T motor limit, and is more responsive than other cheap ones I've used. Both of all both of these together will run you under £70 and are good enough to be used for a bit of club racing in the 19T class, if you have a local track.
Btw having a minor speech thing isn't anything to be paranoid about, I have a similar thing thing - I say W and it comes out R, and vice versa sometimes, but no-one really cares or gives you weird looks for it.
Sorry I'm rambling on a bit, sun night is always boring for me.
I forgot to mention, I did crash my airplane once.
It was my second flight and it was VERY windy. The field I was in wasn't very big, slightly larger than a football field, and the area I was trying to land in was the size of a football field, with a fence surrounding it. I was also way too scared to try a steep dive to get me closer to the ground, so I kept coming in really shallow and having to abort as I approached the fence. Another thing was that I wasn't sure at what throttle the engine would cut out, and once it's cut, that's it, no more power (I eventually found out that with the throttle trim set to max, it wouldn't cut out).
So, finally I get down pretty low and try to put it down. However in my haste to get it slowed down I chopped the throttle. The engine stopped and the goal posts and fence were rapidly approaching. I somehow manage to thread it between the goal posts (I think, may have actually gone around but I wasn't sure from the angle) and pulled back all the way on the elevators to get over the fence. It got it about 15 feet in the air when it stalled hard. I of course knew this was going to happen but I was desperate to get over the fence and figured a stall was way better than a dead on crash at at least 15 mph.
When I got to it, the only damage was a crack in the horizontal stabilizer where a rod from the verticle stabilizer runs through it and a broken prop.
The kit itself I can find, just I know I'd trash the body, so I'm more after the body as a spare/show (normally I'd just buy two kits and have a spare, but after ordering a G25 I don't really have the funds).
The lack of bouncing would give you more speed in the sense that you can drive it an not die. And I've been pricing up upgrading the running gear, which I'd do on a piece at a time when I have funds, or when a stock item breaks.
Sounds like a nice motor, but my last upgrade was from a £30 RTR Turbo King from Argos, which had a top speed of "gentle jog", so going from that to are car where a new body would cost close to that, I'll have to stick with stock for a bit, plus I'd be running low on funds. As far as I know, there aren't any local tracks around me, the closest is the local "airstrip" which is an old field a farmer lets people with R/C planes and what have you use, and Central Park which has a boating "lake" for R/C boats (which no one uses just because of what is in it). Nothing for anything with wheels though.
I'll have to add that motor and esc to my upgrade list though.
I know it shouldn't be, but it is, one of those things. If I know the person and talk to them in person for a few minutes (Read: Know they can understand me) it doesn't bother me.
nitro force it's called... did some "weird things" to the engine and the conrod went thru the engine block 
