What RC for my Nephew

[RZ1]

My nephew wants to get into RC, so wanting some advice.

I have been having a look and have shortlisted either the Ansmann Mad Rat or the Ansmann Macnum.
With either of these we will be looking at getting them in kit form and him building them up to learn a bit more about them.

What is the general feeling on these, are they any good for a 11 year old kid?
How easy are spares to get hold of?
How easy are they to upgrade in the future and make them quicker?
Is it possible to get car shells for these as opposed to a non descript shell? (thinking something like hummer shell etc)
Has to be an off roader as he is likely to use it in either the garden or the park, and maybe occasionally in a tarmac car park.

His budget is only £50 and i am going to buy him the extra bits, tx/rx, esc, battery and charger as a present. (If anyone has any of these bits they want to sell drop me a pm please.)

Any preference on which to go for?

Cheers

[colmo]

For general bashing and just getting to grips with RC, the Macnum, or indeed any 2wd truck.

They're always fun, quick, and more forgiving than a buggy, they can also run better on short grass and other rough surfaces.

The easiest source of parts is...another kit! Also, a number of online RC shops have parts.

[OneKiwi]

I have the madrat, great car but I think if hes going to be bashing the truck might be better.
I have a brushed ansmann esc new if you need one
TX/RX you can get a ok china ones from ebay 2,4ghz for around £30 but a used am might be fine for a first timer, they work fine
Spares I haven't had trouble getting there are quite a few websites in th UK that supply

[minke]

Yes, go for the macnum for general park bashing. Personally, I don't recommend a cheapo 2.4ghz radio at any level due to the poor reliabilty. If you are on a budget I'd recommend a 27mhz system, even a cheap one will suffice.

[RZ1]

Thanks for all the replies chaps, looks like i will go fo for the Macnum then, going to be ordering from Modelsports in morning.

I have got a spare Traxxas TX and a small RX from a 1/16 car, hoping i will be able to use those, if not will have to buy a new RX.

OneKiwi, i am interested in the ESC, let me know how much you want.

Any advice on what battery and charger to get, i am thinking of getting him a couple of batteries to start with, probably around 3000 Mah, oh and they will be Nimh, not oging the Lipo route for him yet. What sort of runtime wil a 7.2v 300mah give?

[minke]

I'd say 10-15 minutes depending how trigger happy he is

[RZ1]

Originally Posted by minke

I'd say 10-15 minutes depending how trigger happy he is

11 so he will be full throttle all the time for the first few runs!

Might be worth investing in a handful of 3000mah batteries then

[RZ1]

What is the ground clearance like on both the Mad Rat and the Macnum

[minke]

The chassis on my rat sits at 23mm. As for the macnum not got one yet, but watch this space for a frankenstein's monster of a macnum mod.

[nicefrog]

In my experience of having both the buggy is a lot stronger than the the truck. They are actually the same car but the wider wheelbase and heavier wheels just puts that bit more stress on everything and it does break much more easily than the buggy.

But! the buggy doesn't really have enough ground clearance to run in a park or any place that isn't either dirt or very short grass. In those places for general driving around the truck is better. On a track there's not much difference in speed, the buggy being like half a second faster and a little easier to fly over jumps since it has a big wing