You want to enjoy a new hobby, you saw these speedy remote control racers running over the rubble or between the dunes at your beach and you want one of these for yourself or your kids. However, how do you decide which RC car is right for you?

There are 7 questions you should answer to narrow your search.

1. Who is it for?

The simplest comes first, of course. Is it a toy for your child or is it fancy technology for you? The differences between them are in durability, power/speed, size, remote control range, complexity, and of course, price. As a clear differentiation, the toy versions are typically powered by standard household AA batteries and come in 1:32 to 1:16 scale, while the adult version comes in up to 1:5 in size powered by a lot of power. stronger power source.

2. What is the power source?

There are three options to choose between a Gasoline Remote Control Car, a Nitro Remote Control Car or an Electric Remote Control Car.

These three power sources create differences in cost, power accessibility, maintenance, and power output.

Your remote control petrol car runs on a mixture of regular unleaded petrol and 2-stroke oil which will generate considerably more power. You can buy your fuel at the gas station next door and thus keep your fuel cost low. Adding to that point is its low fuel consumption and low maintenance requirements. Gasoline powered RC cars are typically larger than their electric and nitro counterparts and often come in a 1:5 scale. On downsizing it often has a higher initial cost for these types of cars.

The Nitro RC Car runs on nitromethane, a fuel that is expensive and only available in specialized stores. Fuel often leaves a residue on your RC racer’s chassis and therefore requires high maintenance. You will also see higher fuel consumption than with the gasoline machine. So why buy these Nitro remote control cars? Because the material is powerful. These are usually the fastest racers on the block, their size normally being in the 1:16 to 1:8 range, rarely bigger. This makes the race a lot of fun. They are also often priced lower than their gas-powered counterparts.

Lastly, the electric remote control car is powered by a powerful rechargeable Li-Po battery pack. These cars are usually the next step from a children’s toy to an adult hobby. They are usually cheaper than the gas version, but are usually not as powerful or aggressive. While they have strong acceleration right off the bat, they often struggle to compete with the other two engines in the long run. Due to their clean energy source, they require less maintenance and can be operated indoors. They are usually the smaller version and can also come in the full-size versions of the gas and nitro racers, but with much less power.

3. Ready for the race or the kit?

Do you just want to race or is the excitement of building your own machine part of your excitement? Most RC cars come as “Ready to Race” versions where you don’t have to do much more than take them out of the box.

However, there are many models where you can assemble the car yourself and thus influence the appearance and performance of this car. You can go from a simple assembly as your everyday model kit to purchasing individual components of your car separately to improve its power and performance during operations.

4. Where do you want to run your remote control car?

The next question, respectively, the next set of questions is, what do you want to do with your remote control car? Is it a racer, is it indoor or outdoor (indoors of course, just the electric version), do you want to be on or off road? Do you want to drive it or is it more of a collector’s item that you want to display? Are you looking for a fantasy model or a real live replica?

5. What type/model of car should it be?

If you got past the questions above, you already have a pretty good idea of ​​what you want. Still, the choice of models is very wide and the first 4 questions somewhat limit your choice at this point and vice versa. However, once you’re at this point, you’ll want to select from Buggies, Truggies, Trucks/monster trucks, Crawlers, and their real-life replicas of Ferraris, Fords, Minis, etc.

6. What price are you willing to pay for a good Remote Control Car?

Establishing what it was supposed to be, we came to a very critical question, a question that we might as well ask at the beginning of our search. What is the value of the fun, what is our budget for a nice, good remote control car? This factor has already been discussed to some extent in the other points and we know that a children’s toy car is much cheaper than the adult version. The bigger the model, the more it usually costs and among the motorizations, the electric one is usually the cheapest. Also the speed can determine the price. So in the end, we’ll have to see what is the best combination we can get for the budget we allocate to this hobby of ours. Always keeping in mind that there are follow-up costs to consider for spare parts, fuel, maintenance, etc. The price of our toy versions with 5m range and 5km/h speed will be maybe $10, high end gasoline remote control car might cost us $3.4 or $500 or even more. As with everything, there is often no upper limit to what you can buy.

7. Where do you want to buy your RC racer?

Last but not least, where do I want to buy, today you have the options of going to your “Have it all Toy Store”, your specialist RC car dealer or the Internet. As with all products, these options vary in service, product knowledge, price, selection of available products, and after sales support.

Advice can certainly be given. Don’t buy a used RC because if you are a beginner.

Now, do you have a clearer idea about your new toy?