RC Car Kits - Building Your Own Radio controlled cars or trucks are the only cars that may be enjoyed by individuals of all ages. In most countries, people are not permitted to drive until they are 17 and in some countries, women of any age are not permitted to drive, but everybody can drive an RC car and race them and what is more, lots of people can even build their own. RC cars appeal to people of all ages and although it was a hobby dominated by men and boys until ten years ago, there are now many women and girls getting involved in RC cars and racing them too. There are three important combinations of RC cars to consider: Ready-to-Run (RTR) RC Cars and Kits: RTR cars are actually the entry point for those wanting to take up RC cars. RTR cars are already assembled. Kits on the other hand need assembly, although you get all the parts in the kit. These cars or trucks can be replicas of real vehicles or be fantasy cars. RTR are invariably powered by batteries, which puts a number of restrictions on them in the way of power, speed and distance to run. An annoying feature is that the power gradually wanes and sometimes you have to bring back your car yourself. They are quite cheap though and easy to maintain. A beginner will learn much from assembling a kit RC car or truck and they can be modified or improved on in many ways. On Road or Off Road: on road RC cars are built for speed. These are the racing vehicles and can achieve impressive speeds. They can use any of the power sources, but most of them use nitro. Off road RC vehicles will be less fast but with lots of torque, they will be able to handle rough ground and steep inclines. These are endurance vehicles that require their drivers to use different skills to racing drivers. Electric, nitro or petrol: your choice of fuel will determine much about your vehicle. Electric cars are normally RTR and nitro are usually racers, but petrol -powered cars are on the increase, although petrol powered cars are normally larger in scale. The massive 1:5 scale cars and trucks are invariably run with petrol powered engines scale models of the engines that run full-sized cars. Electric cars are quite quiet, but the other two sorts are noisy, which provides realism in a race. Once you have made your three choices, I hope that you have opted for selfassembly. If you have, the tools that you will require are fairly simple: screwdrivers, spanners, hobby knife, tin cutters, graphite powder, oil and soap (to force tight-fitting parts to go on). My advice would be to start by taking an RC car magazine for a couple of months before purchasing the kit in order to get acquainted with the terminology and some of the techniques. You ought to also join a club and go to a couple of race meetings. Other enthusiasts will be glad to answer any queries you might have.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on lots of subjects, but is currently involved with the petrol remote control car. If you have an interest in model or toy RC vehicles, please go over to our website now at 1/5 Scale RC Cars