Radio controlled cars, remote controlled cars or RC cars and trucks are devices, with which to have fun. However, some RC hobbyists take their fun very seriously indeed. They want their RC car or truck to be the most realistic or the fastest by modifying the basic kit and by fine-tuning the engine. This is not a new trend at all. Hobbyists have been building and racing model cars since the 1940’s. However, these early cars were constrained by technology.
In the early days of the hobby, the models had to be made by hand by hobbyists and radio control was ineffective and too dear for home use. Those early models were controlled remotely by wire. Consequently remote controlled model cars could only run the distance of the wire, which meant in effect that the car went round and round the handler. It was not until the 1960’s that radio control became available and this meant real races around a proper race track. The true hobby-cum-sport of model racing was born.
Once the hobby or sport had been opened up by genuine radio control, it became more exciting and it attracted more hobbyists and with them came improvement and commercial interest. This means that the technology involved in radio controlled cars and trucks has come on in leaps and bounds. One aspect worth saying here is that a big differentiation between model cars used to be whether they were remote controlled or radio controlled. Unfortunately, they are both shortened to RC and so the terms are often used arbitrarily these days.
The most popular RC cars for beginners are the electrically driven model cars and trucks. Electric RC cars have to depend on rechargeable batteries for power. This is their main drawback, but being electrically driven also means that the car is cleaner and more responsive to control. Electrically driven cars tend to be lighter and therefore faster. They are cleaner because there is no exhaust. They are easier to maintain, but also less easy to modify. They accelerate extremely quickly
The next step for many RC hobbyists is the Nitro car. Nitro cars are powered by miniature engines which run on a mixture of nitromethane and lubricating oil. These cars are very fast with a fast acceleration. They can reach and maintain higher speeds than electric cars, whose batteries are constantly running down meaning less power for speed.
Nitro cars and trucks are noisy and smelly. They produce the loud whine that people link with model racing, but they also produce exhaust which means that they cannot be used indoors.
More and more model cars are now using petroleum powered RC cars. These replicas tend to be the larger ones. These RC cars and trucks have engines that are more familiar to the non-specialist, but they have all the characteristics of an average car. They produce fumes, noise and are slower to accelerate that the other types. However, petrol driven engines will last longer than nitro engines. Because these models are larger, they can take more fuel on board and so go longer distances.
All three of the above varieties can then be on-road or off-road. On-road cars will be made for racing only and the tyres will be racing tyres and the engines will be finely tuned to attain top speed quickly and maintain it for the length of the race. On the other hand, off-road RC cars are built for travelling up and down hill over all kinds of geological objects, so the engine has to have more torque and the tyres need to be able to sustain a good grip. These cars are usually slower.
The last distinguishing feature of the various RC cars is size or more precisely the scale. 1:8 was and still is quite popular. That scale means that for every eight inches of the actual car, the replica is one inch long. Other popular sizes are 1:10 and 1:12, but there is a new class of RC cars and trucks gaining popularity, the monster 1:5 cars and trucks, which are petrol driven.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with gas remote control cars. If you have an interest in model RC vehicles, please go over to our website now at 1/5 Scale RC Cars