What beginners RTR kit.
 

Evening All,

Long time reader, first time poster.

Now, I bet some of you are rolling your eyes at the thread title, but in my defence I have:

Read the FAQ
Read the Learners Lab
Used the Search function
Generally Poked Around and Googled the life out of it.

I can't find a similar thread.

Also,

Asked advice from my local Model Shop
Am about to visit my local club this weekend.

This could even be in the wrong part of the forum.......

Anyway. Played about with a Tamiya Grasshopper a long time ago bit for all intents and purposes, a beginner. I would like to get into it, my local model shop has highly recommended my local club. I would like to join a club for the social side and a bit of light competition.

I would like a car. My local club only runs electric and they are indoors now over the winter. It looks as if a 1/10 buggy is "up my street".

I have a budget of £300 max. That's all in, including all the necessary batteries and chargers.

Being a beginner, I reckon the criteria I need are:

Robust
Ready supply of reasonably prices spares (I will smash it up)
Enough adjustment and upgradeability (sic) for me to tinker should the need/will arise.
Not too hard to control.
£300 all in.

My web moochings have lead me to the Ansmann range,particularly the Mad Monkey.

As a new club entrant who would like to finish a couple up from last occasionally, am I looking at the right cars?

Any other advice?

I don't mind a bit of modelling so a kit is not out of the question as long as I can keep to budget (ish).

Thanks in advance.

Hiya and Welcome.

I am somewhat new to this as well but from my experiences so far and advice etc from club members I would recommend getting a second hand buggy.

BUT.... before that, do you want 2 wheel drive - cheaper, more popular and some say more fun to drive - or 4 wheel drive, more expensive but easier to drive and some (like me) prefer the techy aspect of 4WD.

Once you have decided, look at a used top end buggy from here. You should be able to get a really nice used rolling chassis for £100 to £150 quid and often with a spares pack, tyres and misc stuff. I got a Schumacher SX2 with spares, 2 body shells and 2 full sets of wheels and tyres for £100 which would allow you to get a 2.4gig TX/RX for £40, decent brushless ESC/Motor combo for £100 leaving £60 for a couple of sets of Lipo's.

There are quite a few B44.1 chassis for sale with the new B44.2 just released so plenty of great buggies available. The B44.1 would work well as would the Durango DEX410v3, Schumacher SX/SX2/SX3, Kyosho ZX5 FS2.

HTH

Second hand can be a minefield if you are new and don't really know what you are buying. sure you can get some great second user kit bargains, but not everything can be as good as it seems, people are often selling their mistakes. I suggest going into one of your local clubs and see what they run and speak to a few people. They most certainly will run 2wd buggies, so that's a really good cheap starting point. Whilst you can get cheap rtr 4wd cars, they will quickly become money pits, and you might be best off with a higher quality 4wd kit, if that's what you want to run. You will need to double your budget for 4wd, being realistic.

I'd recommend two options for rtr 2wd:

http://www.rccarshop.co.uk/index.php...-red-5385.html

Team Durango DEX210 rtr. comes with a great starter package of sensored motor/esc. will run great out of the box. You just need to add on a charger and battery(s) to get running. That will run a bit more than £300, more like £350-370 if you select 1/2 decent starter gear that will last you. This will upgrade with addons and hopups and you can convert to mid motor when you wish.

The other option is the team associated B4.1 RTR:

http://www.rccarshop.co.uk/index.php...brushless.html

Quite a bit cheaper for the kit, still needs charger and battery, but you will get this well under your budget. I think the steering servo needs replacing for a faster one as the first upgrade, and the ESC/Motor combo is sensorless, so not the best, but fine for starters. spares are cheap, every meeting will have someone with a B4, so someone always has some spares should you need anything. it can be upgraded as you need to full world championship winning spec, and mid motor options.

Both of those will give you great starter cars with the potential to grow as you learn and practice. I wouldn't look at any others options, it's just not worth it, as you will be throwing good money after bad on something that won't run as well as those.

Do check out any of the featured advertisers on here, they do come recommended.

Good luck and welcome to oople!

Newbie
 

Hi mate hope you get up n running soon n enjoy it . I was the same as you mate I bought two second hand cars off here n few bits new , just need to no what your looking for . In the for sale page there is a guy selling a cat sx with everything to race worth a look at ask for pics . And I think you would get it bit cheaper than the asking price hope it helps .

In your shoes I'd be tempted with the B4.1 RTR, it's robust and spares and support at the track is much better than a lot of other cars - nearly everyone has had one at one stage or another!

It should also leave you with enough change to get a balance charger, a lipo battery and the right tyres for your local track (all the cars not just the B4.1 come with tyres more suited to American tracks than uk ones, so you need to budget for them. Talk to your local club to see what they recommend)

Loads of good info here.

What club are you thinking of attending?

New Durango 210 and Losi 22 RTRs look a good deal. Around your budget, sensored electrics as standard, and the option to convert between mid and rear motor with only a few parts changes.

B4.1 is the definitive 2wd buggy but it has a sensorless motor/esc as standard which you will probably end up replacing quite soon, and mid-motor conversions work out expensive.

The Ansmann/Team C kits seem good for the money, again the RTR comes with a sensorless motor/ESC. Parts support not quite as good as the other cars, Ansmann seem to be getting out of the racing scene after a couple of years trying to get in, and although Team C cars do have a proper UK distributor, it's not a distributor whose products are widely stocked.

Kits are great and I would always recommend building the car if possible but hard to put together within your budget - RTRs are always cheaper than buying the same parts separately, which seems illogical but is just the way the pricing works out!

Oh, and visit your local club before buying if you haven't already. No point having a car that is not well supported.

Southport. Funnily enough I also live in Crosby !

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome and a wealth of great advice.

You don't want to go to Southport, full of weirdos! :)

Get down tomorrow and ask about, most popular cars are Dwongos, loosin22's or Beaten4.1's

Come find me and I will introduce you to the people who run each.

Aidan

Thank you for taking the time to show me round, explain the different cars and kit and introducing me to some of the other members.

I was very impressed with the track and the high turnout. I am going to go for a 4.1 with some better tyres. I hope to see you all again soon.