This is a rule we use in life. You have to learn to crawl (or scoot), then walk, then run. I’ve treated my (re)entry into R/C racing the same way.

Alternate Crawl – Tamiya Mini

There is an alternative way to enter on-road R/C racing than Vintage Trans-Am (which I’ll talk about below) which is slower, but still a ton of fun. It is the Tamiya Mini class. Continue reading →

Looking for an electronic speed controller (ESC) for your R/C car than can handle both 1-cell (1S) and 2-cell (2S) lithium polymer (lipo) batteries has proven to be a difficult landscape to navigate. Some of this has to do with what the market will bear. Typically if you’re running a 1/12 scale car, you’re only running 1S batteries. If you’re running a 1/10 scale car, it’s 2S.

The 1S need for me comes from the fact that here in Minnesota, the local track runs a variant of Vintage Trans-Am (VTA) that uses a 17.5 turn motor and single cell battery. It was a carry-over from 1/12 scale cars that ran on 4-cell NiCad or NiMH batteries. The idea was to keep the VTA cars relatively slow, and to keep the cost down.

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I got this thing from Hobby King for just $20!

I’m sure there’s some nay-sayers out there who will talk about “glitching” and yadda-yadda, but I’ve had less problems with this radio than my entry-level Spektrum DX2E which is 3x the cost.

It has a bunch of poorly documented features, but they’re features none-the-less (the instruction manual is simply terrible).

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Here it is, a list of how to get into on-road R/C racing in two different classes (your choice) on the cheap. I’ll update this list and go into detail about the the components I find important. Mostly I wanted to make a list of everything I’ve purchased to keep things honest.

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My son Jules has really taken to R/C driving – and crashing. My formerly pristine Subaru WRX body has officially been put through the ringer:

So I asked Jules what sort of body he would like – hoping that I could save the Subie body from further destruction. But he has a hard time getting past the fact that lexan bodies are clear and can be painted in any color scheme, so he’s often influenced by the presentation color rather than the shape. Unable to get him to commit to something, I made an educated guess.

Mighty Mini

When we race at the Twin City On-Road Club in Cottage Grove during the winter, he usually winds up running in the Tamiya Mini B-main if there’s not enough people for a novice class. We even discussed getting him a Tamiya Mini at one point.

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