RC Cars

RC stands for Remote Control. Today, you can purchase remote control planes, boats, ships, cars, trucks, motorbikes, monster trucks, helicopters, gliders and a huge range of other items. RC Cars are a great way to have a heap of fun, but it can become a very, very expensive hobby if you get really serious into it. These cars either run on electricity, or they run on a fluid known as ethanol. This is designed to be extremely powerful, and is fairly expensive in comparison to normal petrol. Electric RC Cars are charged up from the main power supply, and hold their charge in a battery. These are much quieter, but can only be run until the battery runs out. Also, they don’t idle like a non electric car would. This means that when you hit the throttle, it takes off without warning.

Most of these cars are controlled through a wireless controller. These are made on different frequencies, and will last for different distances. It’s important to know what distance the controller will control the car for, because once it goes out of range you have no control of what the car may do. The controllers are similar for planes, cars and boats, and can often be interchanged if you have quite a few of these little toys. In saying this, they are often built differently, so make sure that you choose a controller which seems comfortable to use, and one that isn’t going to take forever to learn how to drive the car.

When buying RC Cars, it’s a good idea to start off with something small and not very powerful, until you are used to the way that they handle. An electric car is often a great way to start, because they are less powerful and less complex to fix if something goes wrong. You can buy low down, low clearance cars which are designed for racing, or you can buy mini monster trucks, which you are able to drive almost anywhere. Some will be 4x4 whilst others may only be two wheel drives. Be aware that even the two wheel drive cars will go most places, including solid sand!

The most common experience that I have known of is friends purchasing these cars, breaking something on the first few runs and then leaving them to collect dust for years to come. I find that most people who love RC Cars have a good ability to fix things, and identify what is wrong to replace the parts. It’s a total waste of money if you leave it sitting there, so make sure it gets used, regardless of whether its a RC Boats, RC Planes or RC Monstertrucks!