RC Cars

[mikesride]

In my quest to better connect with my 11 year old step son... many of you have
commented on another thread about our relationship....most of the comments
positive and helpful!!! I have been trying to find some common ground and
something we can share together. He has tried fishing with me but it is to slow of
a sport for him and he bores quickly, I have no desire to play TV video games and
think 43 is to young for a broken hip due to skateboarding!!! (he's pretty good
on that board....)

I have come up with this plan now....We went to the hobby store and picked up
a nitro powered RC together. Kept him involved in the process of asking the
sales guy lots of questions and together we can to the decision to buy the below
posted beauty. He actually was leaning towards a less expensive model as he
was concerned about what his mom would say about the price of these things.
So we had the discussion about quality VS price, and the value of buying
something you can upgrade and buy replacement parts for excreta. Was really
nice to get past all the BS "posing" and have a real thought out conversation
with the kid.

So, all you overgrown kids out there...I see we will be upgrading this baby to the
all aluminum front suspension very quickly....We have already had it in for repair,
that was also fun to do together. Show what you've got RC wise (road, dirt,
water or air...I don't care) feel free to critique our purchase and share what
upgrades you think we should be doing and what you've done to yours. This has
the 3.3 engine and it really flies!! Nothing like the junky little Tyco big box junk he
has had in the past...

[onewhippedpuppy]

Awesome, nitro should be fun. My oldest has the same truck but the brushed electric, as well as a Traxxas Ken Block Fiesta brushless rally car. Traxxas makes good stuff.

[Instrument 41]

Did the RC cars with one of my boys. We had both electric and gas. The gas cars will teach them more about an internal combustion process, which is good. But found that the electric was much easier to maintain. And the brushless electric motors are crazy fast. But what's important that you guys are communicating and having a good time/. Good for you and your son.

[BeeMaster]

Brushed slash and 2.5R jato 60+ mph the 3.3 is a lot for the amount of tire on the slash I would guess. Get some 3m tape with the little strings in it for your body.
Watch your lower a arm bolts once they bend a lot they will throw your stealing off
When they rotate. As for aluminum big $$$$$ never tried it. Keep a extra glow plug or 2 around for hard starts. A extra air filter is good to. Have fun nitro can be a blast.

[onewhippedpuppy]

If you really want some fun go find a skate park or bmx track. They are awesome with R/C cars.

[fastfredracing]

Timely thread. I have been doing a bunch of remodeling at home, and found my old cars in a closet with the trains and stuff. I was thinking about making a post yesterday about this. I may have to charge the batteries, get some fresh fuel, and go have some fun. The little car is 4wd, and goes something like 60 mph. You have to have a nice open parking lot to really let it loose. These things are a blast !

[porsche4life]

Pictures are lame... Lets see some videos!!!




I bought a Rustler VXL brushless about a month ago. And since I don't have a son like Matt, I have to admit that its all for me. With liPo batteries this damn thing is very quick! I've already had to replace the stock tires, because I burned all the rubber off of them in a hurry!

[mikesride]

Upgraded to aluminum shock caps and camber blocks today!! All the broken bits are replaced. Spare glow plug and spare A-Arms and hardware! Those anodized aluminum bits look pretty cool in there!!!!

[mikesride]

Oh.... and he's claimed my old tackle box to store the spare parts and controller....I'm cool with that!

[R K T]

Since I've always been focused on Porsche's...... My Porsche R/C cars!

Gas Powered...

[Jeff Higgins]

Kudos to you, Mikesride. Speaking from experience, this is a fantastic way to spend time with your son and to begin a lifetime of shared interests. I did the same with my youngest son, at about the same age. We raced indoor carpet in the winter and outdoor parking lot in the summer (all on-road) for six or seven years and had a ball. The competition, car maintenance, along with frustrations and victories associated with both really got us talking to one another and communicating on a deeper level than we ever had. For my oldest son, we accomplished this through the outdoors - hunting, fishing, backpacking, etc. My younger son never really took to any of that, and I struggled for a way to make the same connection. R/C cars were it.

Here are our outdoor race cars, a pair of Associated Nitro TC3's. He ran an O.S. .12, ROAR legal motor. I adapted mine to an O.S. .26 four cycle, the sound of which was just awesome against all of the two strokes.





Once he reached driving age, the mold was well and truly cast. His next "toy car" project was a '68 912 roller (blown motor) he bought when he was 15. We spent the next couple of years fixing it up. Then, in his senior year in high school, we finished it up by converting it to a 911 with a 2.4 MFI motor I had laying around. Now, with him 22 years old, we are as close as ever. I attribute our relationship in a large part to those first couple of R/C cars that got us spending quality time together.

Oh, here is his latest "toy car":

[aschen]

Ive had a life long love of rc things. One time I had figured that I had spent over 20k on Rc things since my 13 th birthday. Brush less and lipo is the easiest way to get serious speed these days but I love the sound and smell of nitro. I am an engineer in my adult life 100% because of my love of rc cars as a child. I bought my son a traxas revo for his first birthday!

[mikester]

I've been doing RC cars since I was like 8. Well, that's over 30 years...

First job was working at a Hobby shop building and selling them when I war 13 to pay for my habit.

I've spent many years doing Cars, Airplanes and a few helicopters. I have a garage full of airplanes and an office full of cars. My boys both have one (5 and 8) and they play with mine all the time. Even my dog likes to chase them.

Right now I'm waiting on that rerelease of the RC10 from Associated but in the mean time I've been rebuilding two RC10s I have via parts from ebay. I have an original graphite pan 1st generation and a B3 that I keep mashing up. Once I get the rereleased original though I'm hoping to have 3 1st Gen RC10s running - one for each of us and I'll put the B3 in the wife's hands probably.

I just picked up an RC18 Apex Mini this weekend which is flipping sweet.

I'm addicted...

If I were to list:

RC10 Graphite
RC10B3
SC10 Brushless (flipping fast!)
ECX Ruckus (8 year old's)
ECX Circuit (5 year old's)
ECX Smash
Losi 1/24th SC truck
Losi 1/24th Rock Crawler
ECX Torment
ECX Boost
RC18 Apex Mini

I should line them up for a picture but I'm lazy.

I totally dig that TC3 with the OS 4-stroke. I bet that is sweet!

[HHI944]

no RC Cars........yet......I've got my eye on a few options though.

Do have a Flyzone Tidewater in the Hangar though and I'm building a pontoon based airboat powered by an OS46FX and 10x7.5 prop.....I expect it to be ridiculously fast.....just have to actually finalize things....I keep building portions and then throwing them away and starting over.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Like Sid said, having boys is a great excuse to buy r/c stuff. The Slash and Fiesta belong to my 9 year old son (in theory anyhow), and my 3 year old is obsessed with r/c helicopters. We buy the cheap ones because he's not very good at flying them, but the boy just lives for those helis. Christmas is coming up, good excuse to buy me, I mean them, some new toys. It's really my parents' fault, they always bought me Tyco crap and would never get me an RC10......

[LSA]

My exo with paddles on it, lots of fun on the beach. Partially disassembled, been putting off replacing the esc after I plugged the battery wires into the battery reversed doh!