lets talk about RC cars

[markswagen]

l'm thinking it might be time to see if my soon to be 10 year old son is interested.
l don't want to break the bank, and l don't want something that'll fall apart at the first corner.
sand and rock use, for sure not something that'll do 100mph.

what do you guys have, what do you recommend.
what to stay away from.
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markswagen {mobile mechanic} san diego area all early VW's cared for.

619 201 0310

ISO vw tool 3159

[photogdave]

I have a 2010 Tamiya Sand Scorcher. It's a re-release of the classic late 70s model.
Pros: Looks awesome! Fun to drive! Real scale model down to the suspension! Interesting to build, while learning old-school model techniques!
Cons: Kind of fragile. Hard to find a good battery. Performance not as good as current RCs, and it's not as easy to drive.
Might be a bit much for a 10-year-old but you could get something like a Grasshopper or Hornet re-re and they are much simpler.
PS: I had this model at Syncro Solstice in 2012. You may have seen me driving it around the camp.

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89 Syncro GL Westfalia 2.1 WBX/WBXaustSS

My Westy Movies:
photogdave On Vimeo
photogdave On YouTube

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[markswagen]

nope, l remember you there, but l don't remember you driving that around.
you rode with Bill Langham, in his green syncro, l remember him breaking a front CV joint pulling that syncro westy out of the devils hole or what ever it was called, by the time we caught up, he had got the axle off, so he could drive back to camp.
since he did that, the 3 times l've been back, l've always made sure to have front outer and regular CV joints in lucy, just in case.
what's the voltage on the batteries.

l quit faceache, but when l was in milwaukee groups, l saw people using other different batteries in RC cars etc.
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markswagen {mobile mechanic} san diego area all early VW's cared for.

619 201 0310

ISO vw tool 3159

[oprn]

Cool Bug!

I bought my son a couple department store RC cars. Don't do that! Junk! Go to a real RC store and get a good used mid range car. Parts are common and available. Often times guys upgrade to fancy stuff, put the older well sorted out one on consignment and they can have excellent starting point value.

That is what I should have done. The Boy lost interest in broken junk that there was no parts for.
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Our cars get old, we get old but driving an old VW never gets old!

[photogdave]

[DesertSasquatchXploration]

I've been off and on with RC cars for 30 years. Hands down TRAXXAS is the best to start with. They are really tough if you do bust them they are ez to fix and parts are cheap every RC shop sells them and carries parts Plus they are USA based in Texas.

The new rage is Lipo battery's and brushless motors its way overkill and unnecessary for a beginner. Old school brushed motors and NiMh battery packs are tough can be recharged a zillion times wont catch fire and price is very affordable.

These are all great come with battery, charger and remote control
Ready to run 35MPH is plenty fast!

https://traxxas.com/products/models/electric/24054-8-bandit

https://traxxas.com/products/models/electric/58034-8-slash?t=overview

https://traxxas.com/products/models/electric/37054-8-rustler

[obus]

i started following this person on instagram and now i want some
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4LWlpAMHCY/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4A-7yVru0X/
_________________
July 1959 Mango Standard Bus aka Obus L346 L347 https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=256592&highlight=
June 1973 Pumpkin Orange Thing aka Othing L30H
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=711775&highlight=
1960 Paprika Red Karmann Ghia Convertible aka Schatze L452 built 5/20/60
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...highlight=
66 21 window bus built 8/31/65 https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=777273

[YDBD]

The best bet is probably a Traxxis Slash, 2WD brushed system, fantastic truck, easy to fix, bash and race and the price is right.

A couple 4000 mah lipos would be sufficient for about 30 to 45 minutes of driving, I still have my Zippy lipos, but you can a variety of them from A-Main Hobbies.

Slash race at my home track:

Collection of RC's:

Cox buggy with a Tamiya Grasshopper chassis:

HPI Baja 5b:

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'56 pan Dune Buggy since '69
don't live in the past...but when I did:
'67 bug
'64 baja
'60 dune buggy
'73 Personenkraftwagen Type 182 "Thing"

[FPGT72]

[s.e.charles]

jonesing for one of these:

https://youtu.be/ddOTS-QiNhU?si=G8ABufLLLp7XvJiy


with the intention of removing the electronics to make a static model.

[oprn]

I am not a big fan of Hobby King. Some of their stuff is Ok but most is junk. It's all cheap though...

A Buddy bought a 4 channel radio from them with 3 receivers for $99. Good price but he gave them to me to see if I could get them to work, he couldn't. Two out of the 3 receivers were dead. The third one would bind and looked like it was working so I put it in my sail boat to try out. There was no way I was going to risk an aircraft to test it.

The first 2 times I sailed it all was well but on the third trip out it left the boat in mid pond and I could not get it to work again.

So $99 was pretty expensive for 2 uses in my view.

I also bought a Hobby King motor for one of my planes. After I bought it there were warnings on all the model forums "Don't buy the model XXX Hobby King motor, it is way under powered and over heats badly!"

Sure enough when I went to use it on the advertised voltage it was gutless and got hot quick no mater what propeller I used. Looking at the motor I realized it had very fine windings so I went to a higher voltage battery and it runs jut fine, lots of power and runs cool! Still using it several years later.

The problem was that it was mislabeled on the HK website.
_________________
Our cars get old, we get old but driving an old VW never gets old!

[FPGT72]

[FPGT72]

[s.e.charles]

would there be a market for removed Rochobby components?

never had radio control so have no idea what it involves (not of interest) i just need a 1:12 scale VW


the man (Victor Ma - i think) has a world class collection of VW stuff.

see above video link.

[FPGT72]

I don't have many current photos of my stuff, when the .gov decided that my foam P51 is the same thing as an 747 it took a bit of wind out of my sails. I have not "really" flown in several years, but I do still have all my gear.

Back in the 90's I was very active in the RC car race scene, yellow, red, black Nicad cells. It was really a great time, but as family started it fell to the side line. I still have everything from my race days as well. Original gold tub RC10's to things like a Trinity revolver 1/12 scale, some things you just don't see anymore.

I had always flown as well, gas back into the 80's but it too fell aside with kid. I started flying again when he was around 7 thinking he might like it to, that hook did not set, likely a good thing not to waste money on, but I kept on flying during the golden age of the park flyer. I bought about every model back then that Horizon came out. I was at the hobby store when the truck unloaded their first orders on the new corsair, and ME109. Those planes are still flying on the original electronics. It was only after FMS started to kick their ass did Horizon start to cheap out and charge more. Death of Parkzone came not long after.

Back on the HK stuff, quite a few of the planes I have fly on their stuff, several of the converted "gas" planes fly with their electrics and I have never had an issue with them.

In the OLD photo below you can see the upside down Tri Pacer, that is a gas plane that at the time was converted to electric. Not sure where the big P39 is, but that is another 42" plane that was once gas that was an old stick built. I think everything else in the photo is foam, it is just more easy.

The great thing about this hobby is you can go as deep or shallow as you want to go, just do some research the afore talked about RCGroups is THE place for info on anything RC.