New to r/c Racing Any tips?

[Anderson58]

Just wandering if theres any tips as im just starting off?

[Stu]

Yeah, go to your local club and talk to the guys there.

Internet forums are nice, but you'll get the best advice face-to-face.

[eyeayen]

Welcome to the forum.

Work out what you want to do ? Race ? Bash it in the park ?

If you want to race, get to your local club/s, see what they're running ? See if it's what you want to do ?

Go to your local shop, see how much it's going to cost.

get back on here, search the forum for people saying good and bad stuff about what you are planning to buy. Go from there.

Good luck !

[jukeboxman]

Dont go spending vast amounts on equipment that supposedly makes you faster - get gear that's reliable and practice being a consistent driver and race finisher before lashing out on the bling and hype of the model race car world. Try and get more than one person's 'good advice' and don't make rash decisions.

The only expensive stuff I would consider buying from the outset would be tools.

The most important thing is to enjoy the experience and the camaraderie, learn from it all, winning is merely a bonus.

[Mad-Wolfie]

find out what your local clubs race before you pick a class.. no good picking Nitro off-road if the nearest clubs to where you live are all racing electric touring cars

big, powerful fast motors do not make you a better driver.. learn to drive the car by going slowly & then progress from there. when you can get a car round a track without crashing, flipping over or slamming into the barriers then consider upgrading to a faster motor & keep climbing the ladder until you know your limits & how the speed increase changes affect the way the car behaves.

always buy a kit instead of an RTR (by all means buy an RTR, but consider a kit at some point).. if you know how to build a car you automatically learn how to repair a car when something breaks or needs adjustment & understand what all the parts are doing.

try driving round a couple of cones in an oval to get a feel for the car, sounds boring but you will begin to know by instinct when the car reacts & the trick is to learn how to get round them faster without going wide.. then consider doing figure 8's or using a 3rd cone to make a slalom & watch how the car behaves & how confident you can get, in time you will see how your reactions sharpen. even some of the top drivers do this from time to time to polish their skills or simply to see how a car is reacting to set-up changes.

[Swerving]

Hi,Relative newbie here, Wolfie's advice is very sound, Go to your local club, chat to the guys etc.

If you buy an RTR car check out what you get in the set up, try to get one with a 2.4 ghz system. the older stuff can be a real pain and you will no doubt end up buying a 2.4 system anyway so best get one to start with.

Cheapest is not always best, if budget is an issue, having asked the guys at the club, check out ebay for a pre loved kit. I decided Touring Cars were far to fast, expensive, and difficult to start with.

At my club we run Buggies with road tyres on tarmac, round the same track as the Touring cars and it's great! 3 months in I have 3 buggies, my original kit, which is too fragile for a newbie ( I have spent the price of the kit again on spares).

A second Buggy that I bought as an RTR just to race because I had used up the worlds stock of parts for my original buggy! This is the one I run mainly, tough, reliable if noisy!

My third buggy is under developement, bought on ebay for less than the first 2 but much tougher, faster, and I will progress to racing this one soon.

You WILL break it, be prepared for that, spares are not expensive, but factor in the cost of p&p, and time waiting for stuff to arrive.

Of and try and get your spares from JE Spares, service is excellent!

Most of all, enjoy it, coming last in races, is something that you get used to but eventually you will get better or another newbie comes along!

[ch!3f]

do your research 1st before buying anything!

if you dont know or not sure about something stick a question on here someone will answer it for you.same goes for prices too people will try to rip you off because your new to the hobby some cheeky offers via pm because they have seen this for example.

like some of the other guys have said go to your local club bash place n speak to people to see what they run.

for a 1st car you dont want to go over the top spending wise haggle with people on there prices set your self a budget what you are willing to spend and aim so you have spares and tools to not everything on your car then have to spend extra on bits and bobs you didnt plan on.

[Chrislong]

Remember to have fun, and don't take it too seriously. Some people forget!