Need advice on a £500 budget

[Baxidur]

Hello



My soon to be 7 year old son has decided on an rc car for his birthday, I decided to double up my birthday with his to get a decent budget and I'm looking for advice on an rc car that meets the following criteria -


Self build so that I can teach him the basics of gears, differentials electrics etc.

4x4 with decent clearance, driveway is 1 inch stone chips and have some land with grass forest etc (but my son wants something fast so a crawler is out)

Something that will last the years with the occasional reair or upgrade

And lastly if it is a good base to convert to a rally or street car in a year or two to give it some longevity that would be great


Ps that £500 budget would need to include everything - remote, servo, batteries etc


If you got this far thanks for reading and any advice

 

[DavidB1126]

Well since it would be needing everything to all the electronics, anything "race" kit grade and other lower end kits like Tamiya are out. Since most build up kits are now race grade.

2 that I would recommend would be

Traxxas Slash BL2s Kit (includes everything minus batteries, charger, tools, paint, AA batteries for TX, ect)
Arrma Gorgon RTA (somewhat a kit, some stuff is put together, meaning Ready to Assemble, comes with everything minus a USB adapter for the charger)
(Links are to AMain in the US so might have to find a retailer near you)

Anything else out there is mostly RTR (Ready to Run) these days. Most don't include battery/charger but some do.

I wish more basher trucks and cars can be kits. Helps people get into the hobby for 1, and 2, learn about the car, like said in your post

With the 2 I listed above, the Slash would be most capable with to be turned into a rally or street car. The Gorgon is fairly new and might not have that much aftermarket upgrades currently. Although IMO, the Gorgon is a bit more durable out of the box setup than the Slash, but the Slash has some racing tech into it and has been out for almost 20 years now? Parts accessibility and aftermarket is huge for it.

Edit: Just noticed you said 4x4. Don't know of any 4x4 basher kits on top of my head unless its the MT410 from Tekno but you would need to supply everything.

 

[Cheetah928]

Hello



My soon to be 7 year old son has decided on an rc car for his birthday, I decided to double up my birthday with his to get a decent budget and I'm looking for advice on an rc car that meets the following criteria -


Self build so that I can teach him the basics of gears, differentials electrics etc.

4x4 with decent clearance, driveway is 1 inch stone chips and have some land with grass forest etc (but my son wants something fast so a crawler is out)

Something that will last the years with the occasional reair or upgrade

And lastly if it is a good base to convert to a rally or street car in a year or two to give it some longevity that would be great


Ps that £500 budget would need to include everything - remote, servo, batteries etc


If you got this far thanks for reading and any advice

I’d go with the Traxxas slash bl-2s kit. It’s much less than 500 (about 620 for us folks), so you’ll have money left for a battery and charger unless you already have a Traxxas 2s.

You can gradually upgrade it as he gets older. For now, it’s not too fast for him. Good clearance.

https://m.traxxas.com/products/models/electric/slash-bl2s-assembly-kit

That’s the car itself

https://m.traxxas.com/products/parts/2992

And that’s the battery/charger combo I’d recommend. It gets good run time, and as he grows, the charger can charge 3s and nimh. Whatever you do, do not get the 7600 lipo. I’ve had 2 of them expand which is a fire hazard and then it’s unusable.

I have a slash myself, that I’ve upgraded a lot over the years. Let me know if you need more help!!

 

[WickedFog]

Hello



My soon to be 7 year old son has decided on an rc car for his birthday, I decided to double up my birthday with his to get a decent budget and I'm looking for advice on an rc car that meets the following criteria -


Self build so that I can teach him the basics of gears, differentials electrics etc.

4x4 with decent clearance, driveway is 1 inch stone chips and have some land with grass forest etc (but my son wants something fast so a crawler is out)

Something that will last the years with the occasional reair or upgrade

And lastly if it is a good base to convert to a rally or street car in a year or two to give it some longevity that would be great


Ps that £500 budget would need to include everything - remote, servo, batteries etc


If you got this far thanks for reading and any advice

Sadly, the good kits have all but dried up, unless you go race grade. And that's not in your budget. The only thing I can think of is the 2wd Slash previously mentioned, but you want 4wd. You're going to find in that category, and your budget, about all that's left is something like a Tamiya Clodbuster or Midnight Pumpkin or similar.

If you could add to the budget, look at the Tekno MT410 2.0.

 

[largaines]

https://60years.associatedelectrics.com/rc10sc6-4-team-kit/
But I’m an associated electronics junkie lol, also on their site they have a clearance section for kits with box damage to save a little money for custom parts. They have rtr and kits to build. That’s my 2 cents lol

 

[RetroThutmose]

I wouldn't worry too much about a kit giving you teaching moments. The kids gonna break it and those moments will be there to tear it down, see what's broken and repair it. That being said arrma makes some of the most durable, beginner friendly, and pretty easy to work on trucks and buggies. I don't have any first hand experience but from the YouTube I assume arrma is a well supported brand in the UK (assuming that where you live).