Kids buggy / recommendations ??

[andys]

Hi.

I'm after a kids buggy for my 5 year old daughter, something we can take to the park and have some fun with (electric only !).
I was thinking about a mini-t, but was wondering if anyone had any recommendations / experience with any of the many cars out there. Ideally I want something that runs for ages, or can have a cheap battery easily swapped (can you get silly high capacity batteries for these smaller cars like the 4000+ batteries we run in the 10th buggies?). Run time is much more important than speed and I didn't want anything that takes AA batteries.

Anyone recommend anything ?

[rcracer]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=020

[racingdwarf]

I started the kids on a couple of tamiya 2wds last year errr...I think they were mad fighters.They could take the Impacts!!!!well, not scared of a bit of water and you don't have to spend hours getting them just right. Now they have got the hang of it.....a bit I have bought a couple of old losi xxcr's and they seam indistructable, I think any of the RC10's are hard as nails two.

You should be fine with a couple of stick packs from your local model shop think they are 1600s 1700s last for 10min + with a 540 motor, with a 5 year old you will want as little speed as poss

[RSharpy]

The new Mardave SE would be a good buy.

www.mardave.com

[Chris Green]

With micro's, the highest capacity cells I am aware of are 1500's. With a stock motor though, you could be looking at 15mins+ run time.

Not sure which car to go for, my Dad races a mini-t, and its quite fragile. Perhaps an FTX blaze might be a good option. for a five year old, it may be worth converting the cells to 5 cell to slow them down a bit.

HTH,

Chris.

[Chrislong]

Don't mean to be a party pooper, but in my opinion an RC car for a 5 year old needs to be as basic as can be.... id go for something from Argos, made by Nikko... something which will run an alkaline batteries and be unrebuildable. But make sure it is something which resembles a car, not a tank or a thing which flips over and keeps on going...

In theory this should be strong, reliable, slow and easy to use. If the interest continues (I hope it does) then come to a club, and start to think about ready-to-run competition buggies as an introduction at 8-10years old?

This is exactly what my parents did for me... and as the RC car was so cheap and slow, I was able to go and play on my own around the garden etc... make parking spaces out of shoes and chase the pets around.

Chris

[andys]

Heyup Chris.

I know your right, but all the ones i've seen (bought & taken back to the shops...) are rubbish. Tamyia used to do some 'Quickdrive' cars which were good, but they used AA's and were really a bit too quick. I'll keep looking....

[Lindsay]

Buy what you can afford, My recommendation is to buy a car that you can get spares for. Do not buy pre-built Argos type items.
My son started with a Tamiya Falcon 2 wd. 20 years later we are still Racing.
Good Luck with your choice, may see you at Race meeting in 5 years time.

Lindsay

[RSharpy]

I had my first car bought me for christmas when I was 3, a tamiya hornit with a 360 silver can motor. My brother was 6 and got a tamiya frog with a 540 motor.

Can see my dads thinking on that one, but a few years later at our local club it wasn't long before I was lapping him. HaHa!

Tamiya Hornet all the way!

[RobHatcliffe]

I was in the same position as you last Christmas AndyS. My son was 5 then (now 6), and wanted a buggy to be like his big brother who races a B4 at Bury Metro & NW regionals.

I gave it lots of thought, and eventually bought a Tamiya Super Fighter G for about £65.00. It comes with ESC and silver can motor. I dropped in some of my old radio gear and bought 2 packs of 1700 nicads for about £10.00 each. The kit was excellent, as you would expect from Tamiya and the car has proved to be tons of fun and very tough!!

He's thrashed it round the garden, in the park, on a gravel car park, and has even driven at Bury Metro after the racing has finished. His control has come on brilliantly - but the main thing is he absolutely loves it!!

[purpletimbo]

I would say run with a1/14 tamiya QD, plenty cheap boxed ones kicking about, I have a wealth of spares, gear bags servo savers etc, all available still, and with some 2500 nimh AAs the runtime is amazing, plus if you drop the gear selector on the gearbox, you can make them quite controllable speed wise, and limit the top end of the throttle.
For about £30 you could have a real nice looking one small enough for the graden but will cope with grass
You can even go MT
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tamiya-1-14-Ra...QQcmdZViewItem
I've got one of these and with a good 9.6v nimh its quick and stable.
Plus there are Kyosho FA 1/14 if you prefer not to go Tamiya, these Sammo bombers steer as well as anything I own

[xx4-nutter]

thats the best one ive seen so far.. good idea is that