New to nitro RC: looking for first car advice

[erikthered]

Hi all,
I'm new to nitro RC and looking for some new car advice. I am looking for a 1/8 scale nitro 4x4 buggy for my children, preferably an RTR version so as to keep down the initial costs. The Losi 8IGHT RTR buggy has piqued my interest as an entry level car for my two kids. Any opinions on this car?

I am also looking at a Kyosho....specifically the Inferno MP9 TKi4 due to the readyset configuration, however; this car does not seem to be available anywhere for a reasonable pricepoint. I came across a brand new Inferno MP9 TKi3 on the big auction site; would this car be acceptable as an entry level "backyard basher" and for non-competitive racing etc.? Are upgrade parts still available if at some point I'd like to delve into hop ups?

Are there other 1/8 nitro 4x4 buggy makes/models out there in the readyset configuration that I should be looking at? I'd like to keep the pricepoint around $500 or so or less.

Thanks much for any/all advice.

 

[johnnydmd]

The Kyosho Neo is around 500.

 

[erikthered]

The Kyosho Neo is around 500.

Thanks for the suggestion. I had come across the Neo RTR but it is listed as discontinued on the Kyosho site? Where might the Neo fall in terms of "competitiveness" out of the box relative to an MP9?

Does anyone have opinions on the Serpent Cobra buggy rtr? It comes with a Novarossi engine.
Thanks all.

 

[Tunedfrog]

Welcome in. Is your mind set on nitro? Electric has really came a long way over the years and faster and some what cheaper to maintain, will unless you bash hard..
Nitro requires a ton of maintenance and you will always have to tune the engine. It changes constantly. I've seen a lot of folks flat give it up because they were frustrated with nitro. I honestly would go with electric until they learn a bit about them. If you are set with a nitro, I would look into a Kyosho Mad Crusher monster truck. I have one and it is a ton of fun.

 

[erikthered]

Welcome in. Is your mind set on nitro? Electric has really came a long way over the years and faster and some what cheaper to maintain, will unless you bash hard..
Nitro requires a ton of maintenance and you will always have to tune the engine. It changes constantly. I've seen a lot of folks flat give it up because they were frustrated with nitro. I honestly would go with electric until they learn a bit about them. If you are set with a nitro, I would look into a Kyosho Mad Crusher monster truck. I have one and it is a ton of fun.

Thank you kindly for the welcome and advice!
I guess my main infatuation with nitro is the sound/smell of it all. I love the rip-roaring sound from a nicely tuned nitro engine. That said, I haven't really looked at electric...perhaps I'll dig around a bit.
Much appreciated.

 

[cbaker65]

Thank you kindly for the welcome and advice!
I guess my main infatuation with nitro is the sound/smell of it all. I love the rip-roaring sound from a nicely tuned nitro engine. That said, I haven't really looked at electric...perhaps I'll dig around a bit.
Much appreciated.

There will always be a brand that shuts down a product line ,but ,always lean toward a name brand like Losi ,AE ,Kyosho or even
Traxxas ,do your research on models that you can find parts for when needed ,an brands that dont just fade out!...

 

[Tunedfrog]

Thank you kindly for the welcome and advice!
I guess my main infatuation with nitro is the sound/smell of it all. I love the rip-roaring sound from a nicely tuned nitro engine. That said, I haven't really looked at electric...perhaps I'll dig around a bit.
Much appreciated.

My pleasure. I love them both equally but I just seen where you mentioned it was for your kids is all. Regardless they will love them.

 

[erikthered]

My pleasure. I love them both equally but I just seen where you mentioned it was for your kids is all. Regardless they will love them.

Right on. Not gonna lie...I have my eye on the MP9 TKi3 for myself as well. (my wife has expressed some interest too, so...) I have a feeling this will be a joint venture

 

[Tunedfrog]

It's a huge plus when the wife is interested, mine is right along with me when we are out crawling or bashing. She prefers slower rigs but that's ok, that way I can keep the higher budget to myself....

 

[jclifford]

I got back into nitro about 3 months ago. Purchased a Traxxas pro slayer 4x4, nothing but a joy. Only maintenance has been to tighten the headbolts after the first month. Parts are readily available at the local hobby store with no wait and no shipping charge. Their EZ start system has been nothing but great. I love Traxxas, and I am not anyway working for them. I don’t like the price fixing, but they protect their dealers and really do not gouge the retail consumer.

 

[the13bats]

I've never in 45 plus years of RC liked electric over nitro/gas,
I'm a 1:1 gearhead and its just in my blood,
I've also never had issues tuning nitro engines then again at the risk of sounding pompous i can sync 4 dual throat down draft webers on a 454, of course my 69 lacks seat warmers or lighted vanity mirrors,

I do own a few electrics, old school not modern, and i do have fun with them but for me its just not the same,

For me electrics only serve to "fill in" when for some reason I'm not gonna run nitro,

The MP9 TKi3 is sweet, if you dig it go for it,

 

[jclifford]

electrics 35 years ago were garbage, 20 minute fast charge for a ten minute run, IF your nicads were new. brushed motors that were half speed of what is around today. Today's electrics are excellent, I charge the battery Sunday and chase the dog around for 4-5 days before I recharge. Very convenient, but it is not nitro. The smell, the noise....

 

[the13bats]

"Garbage"...thats a bit harsh, ouch,
Bitd, Its what we had, what we raced, can't say i ever chased a dog with my RC car but the guy i bought my gas chimera from did,

So please anyone who thinks old school electrics is trash PM for my address you can give it to me, ill give it a loving home.

Wow, and gabba gabba hey, 4 to 5 days running off one sunday charge, you do have my interest, please tell me what motor, speed controller, battery and charger allows that and at about what cost,

I might just have to build that 2nd rc10gt as a electric conversion "modern".

 

[jclifford]

My Grasshopper, Fox, and Big Foot were not remotely close to current brushless vehicles. I will concede "garbage" might be a little harsh, but my kids ran them and all seemed to do was to charge them.
I am running a stock Team Associated Rival MT10, with a ZEEE 3S 5200 mah, 50C battery. 10-20 minutes a day. My 2 year old Golden Retriever is exhausted after the run.

 

[olds97_lss]

I ran nitro for 20 years and got into brushless/lipo 3 or 4 years ago. I have to say... once you sort out the heat issues, brushless is far less fussy and reliable. The torque is ridiculous.

I still have 2 nitro trucks that I run a few times a year. But I mostly run my electric trucks now.

Traxxas nitro while lacking in power, there's tons of aftermarket and parts support for them. They also make it pretty simple/easy to get going with nitro with the ez-start system and whatnot. But if your looking for a 1/8th scale, then traxxas isn't where you want to look, that's for sure.

Nitro seems to be taking a far back seat the past 5+ years. Losi used to have many nitro vehicles (xxx-nt, LST, couple buggies, truggies), as did associated and HPI. If you go look at Losi's site now, they have 2 nitro vehicles, the 8ight buggy and 8ight-T truggy. The same with associated, RC8B3.2 and RC8T3.1. HPI was making a bit of a come back for a while, but not sure anymore.

Hobao has some as well in the RTR range. Tekno has a truggy/buggy kit as well, should be well made, just pricey. Same with mugen seiki.

I'm sure there are others, just harder to find something for a basher these days.

 

[erikthered]

Thanks all for the good info.

 

[the13bats]

I'm not trying to go nitro vs electric its a dead end like in my 1:1 car world, i like old school big blocks but new school like LS, lighter, more hp etc,
But not what i like or want, so a person needs to make themselves happy not follow what the last guy said was cool.

Same with RC, and i was more just getting a laugh over old electrics being called garbage, i didnt get a single PM offering to send me their old garbage.

In all due respects tamiya not all but most was toy grade to me, if you love tamiya thats fine, i built more of their stuff than i can count, owned very little, bitd at the track rc10 was it, only the kids playing around ran tamiya,
My 959 porsche was very nice but still had a toy feel to it for me so i sold it.

I would hope a 5200mah battery would last longer than 1200 to 1500 that most ran in their tamiya buggys bitd, so apples to oranges like my gas buggys will run for hours at a time.

Back then people were converting to nitro now the other way around,
In most cases i dont blame anyone for gravitating to modern electric but for this old school gear head electric just doesn't give me the tingle nitro/gas does,

When i get to that point with my 2nd old school rc10gt build I'm going to look into costs of modern electric, but i believe that will kill it right there for me.

 

[jclifford]

First, I sold most of my "garbage" on eBay, very surprising how much the junk brought.

remember a gallon of gas is around $2 whereas a gallon of nitro is closer to $40, Broke out the old Trex 700 nitro, but at better than an ounce a minute it might be collecting dust again. It is easy to see why gas is coming back.

the difference between a 5200 mah Lipo and a 1500 nicad is vast. at around $30 for the iipo as I remember the nicad cos about the same, (although 1980 dollars vs 2020 dollars are different, conceivably the lipos are cheaper)

I converted my RC 10 to brushless and lipos, I am running it on a 2200 mah lipo that is at least 10 years old. I am not sure how long it runs because I get bored before the battery runs out in one session. (again, chasing the dog around)

bought an Exotech onroad Chinese car on eBay for $160. shipped, (with body and servo, excellent deal, someone was trying to get rid of it). added the cheapest motor esc combo I could find on eBay a Rocket. car runs like a charm, not sure of the speed, probably close to 40-50 mph. the 1980's tamiya's and RC-10 never did that, along with my Porsche 959 (which is for sale on eBay)

the electrics have a great "niche". guys are not interested in building. the RTR's are the future, talked to the guy at the local hobby store, he does a ton of repairs. For the most part it will be something like a servo needs to be replaced, if you told people they had to build the car they would laugh at you.

convert your rc10gt to brushless and lipos and you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[the13bats]

No fast rc10s in the 80s...if you say so.
And like i said i consider most tamiya toy grade,
I knew a fellow at the track he tried so hard wanting to be different and not run rc10 he modded a fox,
It was basically an rc10, but he had gearbox issues and gave up on it,

I'm really not concerned about the costs of running my nitro stuff, or my large scale gas stuff, its just my hobby, if i have fun its worth it,

It wasn't my career i was in the music,club,band biz but for fun i have worked in the RC biz, even R&D
i have been out of that many years but i find the idea that RTR being the future and owners needing help to change a servo a real shame,

I would chuckle to myself a bit on 1:1 car forums when a guy pounded his chest over changing his own oil, but a brake job, no way, i guess those guys kids are the ones that have to pay for a servo swap,
So sure they will gravitate to plug it in charge it, run repeat, as i yawn, whats the point of an RC car if you can't tear it down and rebuild it, yourself?

I'm doing several RC projects right now and as i said i might try modern electrics in one rc10gt build, will it surprise me? No, will it be fun? Likely, as fun for me as nitro? Not a chance.

 

[jclifford]

put a 540 motor in the rc10, gear it up, run a 3S lipo (or more) and see for yourself how it compares to the 80's stuff.

for the most part we are in total agreement...

I agree that the cost of nitro is worth it...(the sound, the smell, the feeling of success when everything works right!). many more cannot justify the $$$. My local hobby shop guy says "nitro is dead". (his view is from a sales point because I know he still is a nitro guy.)