Though the latest gadgets are in they have certainly not replaced the good old vintage RC cars. The nostalgia of wriggling around with a late 70s or early 80s radio controlled car is way too much to handle for some of the devoted enthusiasts who have been into this hobby for probably as long as the hobby has been around.

If you have a place in your heart for old vintage RC cars you will love these vintage RC car Ads

Want to see more?! check out http://www.vintagercweb.com

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What many newcomers don’t realize is that gas powered RC cars should actually be sub-divided into two categories: Nitro, and Gas. Here are some of the key differences I gathered from wikipedia. Hopefully this helps you make an informed decision!

Electric batteries, however, take some time to charge; peak chargers can accomplish this in about fifteen to forty-five minutes. Stock top speeds for Electric models are around 30 mph, but depend greatly on the model and motor.

Nitro:
Nitro powered RC cars can reach moderate speeds unmodified. Maximum power is generally achieved at medium to high speeds, and a slightly slower throttle response than electrically powered vehicles is to be expected. Electric motors effectively produce instantaneous torque, where nitro engines, like full-sized gasoline engines, take time for the engine to spool up and for the clutch to engage. Nitro (and gas) powered cars may be refueled and returned to action in a few seconds, as opposed to electrics needing to remove the body shell and battery fasteners to replace a discharged battery.

Because of higher stock performance and their ability to be driven for longer periods of time, mechanical wear in nitro vehicles is generally greater than in electric vehicles. In addition, the increased speed and weight of fuel-powered vehicles generally lead to higher speed collisions, causing greater damage to the collided vehicles, and a greater degree of safety concern needs to be taken into account. However, nitro vehicles are more durable due to stronger components to sustain the greater stresses of more power.

Gas:
Gas powered RC cars, also known as “fuelies” or “gassers”, run on premixed gasoline and oil. They cost much more (usually $800-$3000 rtr) than nitro and electric cars. They are also much bigger and therefore require much more space to run. They don’t usually have high top end speeds (compared to nitro and some electrics) but have lots of power and don’t take a lot of fuel to run, and run times average 45 minutes. Over time the cost of a gas powered car can be less than some nitro powered vehicles, because of the high cost of nitro fuel and buying new nitro motors to replace worn out ones. In addition, gas powered motors rarely if ever require tuning and have a very long lifespan.

So, you can see there are definitely some major differences to consider.

Trim the Foam

Soft compound tires require foam inserts to help them keep their shape. In some cases, the foam inserts make the tires too stiff for crawling and don’t allow the tire to conform to the rock’s surface. You want the tire to be flexible yet stiff enough support for the tire to prevent it from folding over. Some people cut their inserts in a star type pattern to make flexing a little easier. Making this modification is easy. Mark the foams with the desired pattern, and carefully cut the sections out using a sharp hobby knife. How much foam you remove will be based on the flexibility of your tires. Softer tires require more foam to be left for support.

A key to good traction is to have the tread of tire to be generally as flat as possible. A larger contact surface means more traction. An insert that is wider than the tire will distort the tread of the tire and potentially reduce the contact patch. You can eliminate this problem by cutting the foam insert so that it’s the same width as the tire.

Rims
A common practice in rock crawling is to narrow the rims. Doing this provides more clearance between the links and the tires when steering, and since the tire is pulled in, it will increase the tire’s “side bite” by bringing the tread down the side slightly. If cutting rims and gluing them back together isn’t your thing, you can pick up some rims that are already narrowed. are available from Axial, RC4WD and RPM. Axial also offers Maxx-size rims in a narrow form.

A flat tread works better on the rocks than a rounded tread. The more tire contact you have on the rocks, the better your truck will crawl.

Weight
The only thing you need to know is that generally you want more weight up front than in the rear of the truck. This helps the truck handle vertical climbs. Some guys like to add equal weight to both ends of the truck. Either way, you’ll want a lit- tle weight in all four tires. When considering the weight dis- tribution, also remember one of the best things you can do to improve your crawler is to lower the center of gravity. So, moving the battery from the top of the chassis over to the front axle or links accomplishes two things: it moves weight forward for a better balance and lowers the CG

PELLETS
A great way to add weight to your tires is to fill them with used in air powered pellet rifles. The pellets roll around and stay at the bottom of the tires at all times,and that keeps the truck’s center of gravity low and reduces rollovers. The pellets also replace the foam inserts. Filling the tires can be a bit tricky. Attach your tire to one side of the wheel and stick a small funnel into the open side of the tire and use it to direct the pellets into the tire. Fill the tire about halfway, and make sure that you have an equal amount in each tire. There is a downside to this setup; it doesn’t work well when side hilling when you drive your truck perpendicular to its incline.

STICK-ON WEIGHTS
You can also add weight to your tires by using stick-on lead weights on the rims. Start with 3 to 7 ounces of weight on each rim, and make sure you prep the surface of the rims by cleaning them with motor spray before you stick the weights to the rims.

When adding weight to your rims, you can add the same weight all around, or more weight up front than in the rear; 60/40 is the typical split.

Source
rc car action

Parts:
4 – self taping screws about 1/2 inch long.
2 – 1 ^1/2 x 1/2 inch PVC fitting (shown top left)
2 – 1 ^1/2 inch PVC fitting (shown top)
1 – 1/2 inch PVC pipe 2 inches long (shown top right)
2 – 2 inch galvanized floor flange (shown bottom)
1 – 1/2 to 3/4 inch piece of wood

Optional:
None adhesive cabinet liner to top off the stand (recommended for nonslip)
Pipe cutters. Makes cutting PVC pipe a breeze. (shown top far right)

Cut out a piece of wood sized to fit your model. Mine was 9 x 16 but your RC model could be much smaller. Screw the galvanized floor flange in the middle of your piece of wood. NOTE: if your wood is much smaller then you could try getting a 1 inch flange instead of a 2 inch one. Then screw in the 1 ^1/2 x 1/2 inch PVC fitting into the floor flange. Tap in the 1 ^1/2 inch PVC fitting and then slide in the 2 inch PVC pipe.

If you have the cabinet liner you can glue it to the wood using Elmer glue or spay adhesive. That’s pretty much it you now have a strudy car stand that cost you less than $15 dollars in parts. If you wanted you could paint it or fix it up a little more.

This is my 1/6 scale FG baja sitting on the stand. This car weighs in about 30 lbs.

I’ve had every type of car there is from electric RTR, to nitro kits, and I have never really sat down and chronicled my experience. This article will give you a glimpse into some of the tricks and gotchas I experienced when building my first large scale FG 4WD Modellsport Baja Buggy.

SPECIAL NOTE: If you are interested in getting a 2 speed metal gearbox for your FG Model do NOT order from this site. http://snipr.com/fgracing he sells inferior products and has horrible customer service.

To start off when you build a new kit you are always at the mercy of the manufactures instructions. Some manufactures are better than others when it comes to the easy of the build. In the case of the FG Modellsport the instructions were about average. Due to the fact that the car is manufactured in Germany there are some grammar and spelling errors in the instructions. Be that as it may the instructions are for the most part easy to understand even if you only look at the pictures.

Ok, that being said the first thing I always do before building a kit is look through the instruction a couple of times just to see if I see any funky things I might not be prepared for. Second, I layout and look at all the bags to see if there are any special tools i might need. In this case FG Modellsport does not include a single useful tool. In fact the only tool that is included is a Philips head screw driver/wrench that for the life of me I could not find a single use for.

So lets talk about the tools needed for this kit. For starters almost every screw on this kit is a torx head screw. So if you don’t have a set of torx screw drivers you better go get some. Here is a short list of important tools you might not have.

Required Tools
- Torx screw drivers
- Allen wrench
- Ruler with millimeters
- Tooth brush
- Liquid Tread lock ( blue and red )
- Spring stretching tool
- Drill
- A small hammer (rubber if possible)
- patients

During the build I ran across a few head scratching moments. The instructions would say “this would be much easier if you use the FG mounting tool”, but they didn’t include said tool and I had no way of getting this tool. So I had to figure out an easy way to do things. Here is one example I found while putting the front differential together. There are four gears that need to fit in a box the tricky part is trying to keep them all in the right position as you slide them in to that box. Of course FG says if you have there tool it’s easy but I didn’t so here is how you do it.

Slide the gear axle through the differential gear wheel first, then set it on the differential housing and remove the axle. This will allow the gears to be pushed down into the housing with ease. Then tilt it on its end and push in the drive axle.

Once I came to the engine everything seemed to go together pretty easy. There is one thing that I noted that could come in handy to those of you who are trying to install a clutch bell on any nitro or gas engine. When you try to tighten any clutch bell on any engine mount you will find that it turns as you screw it on. One trick I found was that by shoving the end of a toothbrush in the exhaust manifold just above the piston and slowly pinching it in there you can secure the piston from moving with out doing any damage to it. The soft plastic of the toothbrush will not harm the piston and you can crank away at the clutch bell.

The next rough patch was when it comes to installing the servo saver. This little piece is a pain in the butt. If you don’t the right tool here it could take you a while as well as could injure your fingers. This is where the spring stretcher comes in handy. Make sure that the servo saver axle turns smoothly in the bushing or you will quickly burn out your servo.

The last little annoyance I found was the brake guild rail hole was to small and I had to drill it out. Not a major deal just something i noticed.

For the most part it was smooth sailing as far as the build goes. I did have a couple of screws strip out in the soft aluminum so be careful, and I don’t really like the way the receiver box is designed. It is “sealed” sort of, but its in a place that is so hard to get to if you have to do any tweaking to it once it is installed.

UPDATE: It has come to my attention that there are 6 holes in the front axle housing that will allow dirt behind the bearing that hold the belt wheel. These can be easly filled by using small headless screws. I used #8-32 TPI headless screws. First I tapped the holes using a 8-32 hole tap. Then put my small screws in. It took about 20 mins to do and was very easy. A word of warning when using a hole tap. It is best to use tap it by hand but if you do use a drill go very slow! These taps are not that tough and they will break off in the hole if you try to force it.

Working on the car could be a little easier, but perhaps I’m just spoiled and use to working on cars like the Traxxas Revo which is so well thought out.

In summary I love the look of this car. It is such a work of art and was a real joy to build.

This is a the video of my FG 4wd Baja Competition. It took me 3 days to build but you can see it in just over a minute enjoy.

During the 80’s and 90’s electric RC cars were king. Rarely did you see a nitro RC car buzzing around bashing, and you almost never saw them race. Sure they were out there, but the popularity of the electric RC car far out weighed that of the nitro RC car. During the late 90’s nitro cars started showing up more and more. New model designs and the advent of the EZ-Start engine gave nitro a foot hold in the RC market place. Now a days it seems as if there are more nitro than electrics running around the track, but that could all change. With the recent adoption of the lithium based battery and brushless motor, more and more people are seeing the benefits of electric power. They are faster, lighter weight, and getting cheaper all the time. Not only that, they come in a variety of sizes, ranging from 1/16 to 1/8 scale.

Not everyone knows the difference between brushed and brushless motors so here’s a short explanation.

Brushed
The brushed electric motor is generally the only kind of motor found in toy-grade and beginner hobby-grade RCs. Kits and other hobby-grade RCs still commonly use brushed motors although brushless is becoming more readily available. Small contact brushes inside the motor cause the motor to spin. Brushed motors come in fixed and nonfixed versions. Electric motors with fixed brushes are nonadjustable and can’t be modified or tuned. Nonfixed brushed motors have replaceable brushes and the motor can be modified and tuned to a certain degree as well as being cleaned of dust and debris that accumulates during frequent use.

Brushless
Brushless is becoming increasingly more popular, but are still slightly high-priced compared to brushed motors. They are only just now becoming legal in some professional RC racing circuits. The appeal of brushless motors is the sheer power they can give to your electric RC. Brushless motors, as the name implies, do not have contact brushes, don’t require frequent cleaning, and because there are no brushes there is less friction and less heat — the number one killer in motor performance.

Brushless motors can also handle a lot higher voltage than brushed motors. With a high voltage supply brushless motors can help a beginner RC race at blistering speeds. RCs equipped with brushless motors currently hold the fastest speed records for RC — yes, faster than nitro.

The brushless motor is not the only thing that is causing a stir in the RC world. In fact, brushless motors have been around for quite a while. The real reason is the combination of the burshless motor with the lithium-based battery, or Lipo. Lipo batteries pack a powerful punch. Combine that punch with the brushless motor, and RC cars can hit speeds never before dreamed of out of the box.

Understanding LiPos
Lipo batteries are very different from previous generation batteries and understanding how they work, and especially how to charge them, is the key to getting the best performance.

Unlike Ni-Cd and Ni-MH cells that self-discharge when wired in parallel, LiPo cells can be hooked up, charged and discharged in parallel with no detrimental effect. Wiring two LiPo cells in parallel doubles the capacity (more run time), plus an important advantage of wiring in parallel is that each cell only sees half the total current.

C Rating
LiPo cells are also commonly given a C or current rating. This is the equivalent the the capacity of the battery pack in amps. This is also the maximum average recommended discharge current for the cell. For example, the Thunder Power 1900mAh packs have a 6C rating. To determine the maximum recommended discharge rate multiply the capacity times the C rating. 1900mAh x 6C = 11,400. So the maximum recommended discharge rate would be 11,400mA or 11.4 amps. Why do we care about this? Because the higher the C-rating the more punch the battery pack can give, which equals more speed.

So what does this all mean? Will the popularity of the bushless motor and Lipo battery be the death of the nitro based car. Probably not, like everything in life there are fans on both sides of the spectrum. Nitro folks love nitro for there reasons and electric people like electrics for there reasons, which is a good thing. Be that as it may there is no denying that as the coming years brushless motors will become more and more popular as prices get lower.

References
About.com
rchobbies.org ]]> http://www.rcgawker.com/2009/07/will-the-rise-of-the-brushless-rc-electric-car-kill-the-nitro-car/feed/ 1 http://www.rcgawker.com/2009/07/great-slow-motion-rc-road-car-crashes/ http://www.rcgawker.com/2009/07/great-slow-motion-rc-road-car-crashes/#comments Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:32:34 +0000 rcgawker http://www.rcgawker.com/?p=824 These RC car crashes are slowed down and they almost look real. Very cool so hope you enjoy them.