Buying first Nitro Car

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Charlie Durand - 09 Dec 2003 21:30 GMT

Hey gang,

After a few years, well more like 6 or 7 years now that I think about it,
away from the RC car hobby I've decided to get back into it.

Anyhow, all the gear I have is pretty much outdated junk. Understandably..
the good old RC10 has evolved a lot since I last ran it.

I always hated the battery ordeal. I have at least 20 battery packs. I
wanted to just run run run and not worry about it.

So now I want to get a nitro car. I want to get one of the RTR packages.
The TC3, RS4, or Tec 4. I'm looking at the Traxxas 4 Tec. The main feature
that caught my interest is the electric starter built-in. It looks like you
connect a battery to it externally and it spins the engine to life. Sure
sounds good on paper.

Anyone have any feedback on this car? Another thing I didn't like was
putting the damn things together or painting. I'm not creative. I just
like driving the damn things.

Then a followup question would be the differences between shaft drive and
belt drive. All my previous cars where rear wheel drive so I never had to
deal with belt drive.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

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Miles - 10 Dec 2003 04:59 GMT

You might also look at the Savage 25 RTR. Better made than the traxxas
IMHO.

> Hey gang,
>
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
> Thanks in advance for any replies.

Reply to this Message

Charlie Durand - 10 Dec 2003 05:59 GMT

That appears to be a big truck. I'm looking for a road car, at least at
first. The trucks look like fun but I'm thinking I'll stick to the parking
lots and streets first.

> You might also look at the Savage 25 RTR. Better made than the traxxas
> IMHO.
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any replies.

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Tommy C - 16 Dec 2003 01:25 GMT

If you'll just be bashing, either one of the 3 will do you just fine. The
new 2.5 in the 4-tec is the fastest of them by far, but the 2.5 is also the
most "finiky" to tune. The 4-tec is also pretty well built, but it's
strictly for bashing.

The TC3 is a nice car, especially the shaft drive if you'll be running in
parking lots. The small rocks play havoc on belts. A down side is, the car
is kind of "fragile". It doesn't take a beating very well. The good thing
is, if you decide to get into competition, the car is fairly easy to upgrade
to racing specs.

The RS4-3 is very easy to work on, has plenty of upgrade parts, and HPI
parts are just about everywhere.

My suggestion would be check out the local shop to see which car they have
the best parts support for and go from there.

> Hey gang,
>
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
> Thanks in advance for any replies.

Reply to this Message

Charlie Durand - 17 Dec 2003 18:43 GMT

Thanks for the reply,

I went to the local shop.. which in my case is San Antonion Hobby Shop in
Mountain View, California.

http://www.sahobby.com

After reading the messages here in this group and talking to Ed at the shop
I purchased the HPI RS4-3 Evo. He said it was between the TC3 and the RS4
Evo. The Evo was only $20 more and it came with the 2-speed tranny and a
slightly bigger motor.

I'm going to break it in this afternoon after work.

Thanks for the advice!

> If you'll just be bashing, either one of the 3 will do you just fine. The
> new 2.5 in the 4-tec is the fastest of them by far, but the 2.5 is also the
[quoted text clipped - 42 lines]
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any replies.

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Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Land Models / December 2003

Buying first Nitro Car