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How I got in to Radio Remote Control Cars and Trucks
By Robert R

It started back in the mid ‘80’s, I had just returned from a year of training in the Auto Mechanic field in Phoenix. Recently, I had started my new job as an auto technician apprentice.  Still hanging out with high school buddies, I can’t remember who, but someone ended in a hobby shop and bought one of the current Tamiya electric remote control cars at the time, Hornet or something, can’t remember, but guess what?  That sparked interest in all of us!  Anyway we all ended up getting one, one friend had the Grasshopper, another had the Frog, and I ended up getting the new Tamiya Fox.  At that time I think most or all of the RC Hobbies were build it yourself, and my Fox was no different. I bought the Tamiya Fox remote control car kit and an Acoms Radio system and couldn’t wait to get home and start building. It took me a couple of weekends of work and I had it completed. My friends and I would take them out and race them on empty parking lots and fields, it was a lot of fun. My fun ended for the time being when I accidentally overcharged my battery, yes I only had one and never got around to buying another one.  So I put my Fox on the shelf for the next 25 years or so.  Life just kind of took over, got married, had kids, job, etc. etc.

One day recently I was surfing the internet browsing videos on YouTube and stumbled on a video for Mini V-8, from that day it re-sparked the interest in RC Cars, I would love to build a remote control car or truck with one of those mini v-8’s I think it would be cool. Try YouTube and search for mini v8 you’ll find quite a few videos on the subject.  A few days later, I was in the garage cleaning up and saw my Fox up on the shelf just sitting there not being used so I decided I was going to buy a battery.  The next time I got some free time I made it over to the Local Hobby Shop and bought one. I also found out that NiCad batteries are much cheaper now than they were back then. I went back home and charged my new battery with an old NiCad battery charger I had obtained quite a few years back that I saved for when I got my RC Car going again. There’s a local RC Race Track nearby that I was planning on visiting to run the Fox.  When we had some spare time, I took my son and daughter with me to the track.  When we got there, we found that the gates were locked, and were unable to run on the track. So we decided to take turns running it around the park. First I ran it for a while, then I let my son and daughter each take a turn before the battery started going low. After they were done I wanted to run it a bit more and I was getting daring by now so I decided I was going to try and make a sharp turn at full speed.  Guess what happened?  Yes, Head on into the curb, I didn’t notice at first but I kept going for a bid, but it just didn’t seem right so I brought it back in. When I picked it up I found a couple of broken pieces. Left front lower control arm, and both rear lower control arms were cracked.  Unfortunately, that spoiled the fun for the rest of the day so we went back home.

So I got online to start looking for parts for my Fox, it took some time but I finally found a part kit that included the left front lower control arm on EBay, so I went ahead and bid on it knowing that I would soon find the rear lower control arms. Within a few days I found that I won the auction on the part, it came in a few days later. Still looking online for the rear arms I found out that most parts for the Fox had been discontinued by Tamiya. So I kept searching and searching on EBay and other sites, unfortunately, I was unable to find the needed parts.  I ended up selling it on EBay then a couple weeks later I was browsing EBay and there they were, the parts I needed, oh well.

Now I was hooked again, but this time I wanted to get into Nitro RC cars.  So I started looking on the internet for them, eventually I ended getting on EBay and bid on a Traxxas Nitro Rustler.  A few days later I found that I was the winner of the Stadium Truck.  It came in a few days later ad I was like a kid in a toy store!  First thing I did was go down to the Hobby Shop and purchase some Nitro Fuel.  On My next day off I took the Nitro Rustler out and tried it out, it was fun. That thing is pretty fast, I even had a chance to put my Garmin GPS unit on it and pull a few full speed runs.  With my limited tuning skills it topped out at 43 mph.  Not too bad.  But I had the need for speed. So I started looking around the Internet for other vehicles, looking at reviews and stuff.  I ended up eyeballing the Traxxas Jato 3.3.  65 mph was real tempting so I ended up getting one.  That thing is definitely fast!  It’s hard to keep an eye on it when going full speed!  Traction is hard to get on the Jato also.  New, aggressive tread rear tires are definitely recommended.  Next RC truck I ended up getting is the Traxxas Revo 2.5, this is definitely a fun truck, haven’t had it too long, I’ve taken it out a few times mainly on hard pavement.  I recently upgraded the engine to a TRX 3.3, I still haven’t run it with the new engine yet but I’m going to break it in real soon.  Thanks for reading my article and thanks for visiting our website.  Bookmark us and check back often.  Please leave comments about our site.  Your input is greatly appreciated and will help us to make this a great website.

Would you like to learn how to tune Nitro Engines Like the best Click Here!

Thank you

Robert R.
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