I sort-of wish I hadn’t found this thread, it’s going to get expensive for me, I think. Long story, followed by some n00b questions follow…
My son asked for a remote control car for Christmas, a tiny (25cm) Audi R8 he’d seen in the Argos catalogue for £10. I knew it would be pants, but given that it was the one he really wanted, and for £10, we bought it anyway. He was absolutely delighted with it – days later saying it was his favourite Christmas present ever – and he loved racing it round the house and discovered he could throw it into reverse when it was turning on the kitchen tiles and do handbrake turn -style skids.
Of course, the gearbox wore out within about three hours (the AA batteries outlived the gearbox!) and he was heartbroken. Fortunately Argos was open on boxing day and exchanged it without any question. The replacement car doesn’t seem to be as fast, but less torque means the gearbox has survived, so far, at the expensive of skiddy drifty turns not being nearly as possible.
He’s loved playing with it and racing it around, and learned to control it quickly. I had mates with Tamiya cars when I was about 12, and always wanted one but never owned one myself. I’m now toying with the idea of buying something bigger for us both to play with – we live near a big park so although our garden is tiny, there’s a huge area to race around.
My question is, basically, where should I start? Having read through this thread, I’m happy to build from a kit but I’m wary of something that’s too all-in-one and doesn’t have a separate ESC. That said, we’re unlikely to be taking it up to full speed for quite some time, and there are going to be quite a few crashes so something durable / rebuildable / serviceable would be best. I know very little about the specs of radio gear – is there much difference between AM and 2.4Ghz (presumably digital) range and reliability?
I’m quite tempted by the ECX AMP monster truck kit,
https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ecx-amp-mt-1-10-2wd-monster-truck-kit/rc-car-products/399005, £135 feels like an OK price to get started, but are there better options for the money and / or is this the RC equivalent of buying a mountain bike for £300 from Decathlon, i.e. I’ll be able to play with it but I’ll discover its limitations very quickly and it won’t be worth anything once I’ve used it for a while?
Edit: could someone also explain in basic terms what the difference between brushed and brushless motors is? And where you put the bearings in a “bearing upgrade”? (Do some of these kits really ship with the wheels running only on bushings? Or is it a suspension / gear box bearing upgrade?)
