When people think of remote control cars they usually think of small electric cars which are given as a present to a son or daughter and fly around the living room, around the household obstacles and scare the family cat. Over the years, there has been an increase in the popularity of these RC cars due to the increase in technology, lowing of costs and the fantastic designs which companies come up with. What people do not realise is that remote control cars vary greatly from the family RC Cars as mentioned previous, nitro cars which run on nitro fuel and petrol remote control cars which run on unleaded petrol.
With the general family remote control car, you are usually required to either insert batteries into the car and the radio control handset, or charge a rechargeable battery inside the car but still put normal batteries in the controller. This has the advantage over the other models in that they can be recharged over and over again and does not cost anymore, apart from paying for the electric which is next to nothing. These cars range from cars which costs a few £'s to cars which are more specialised which can cost around £80. The only other cost is buying new batteries when they stop charging as they do not last forever, but even that costs is not much at all for a pack of 4.
Next on the family tree of remote control cars are nitro cars, which are designed for people who have had a few years experience of rc cars and either are looking for the next car up, or into competition racing or something in-between. Nitro rc cars require running in, just like a normal road car in that the parts are new and the fuel and lubricants needs to run through the car, which can be a time consuming and at times a frustrating process. This is due to the car possibly stalling, stuttering or just not moving at all which requires problem solving but once the car is up and running, can be extremely fast and outrun a top of the range electric car on acceleration. When it comes to full on racing, they are usually neck and neck but can be tweaked like normal cars to give even more speed.
They run on nitro fuel which is purchased from model shops, and a bottle gives around 3-4 full fuel tanks worth so around a hours racing. It only takes a minute to refuel, but on a downside the cars need constant maintenance and servicing to keep them in good condition, again like normal road cars.
The last on the family tree are petrol remote control cars which most people never really think of, as they are for huge fans and defiantly a big boys toy. At a length of around a meter, these cars are big. Running on actual unleaded petrol, they are actually cheaper to run than nitro cars but do still need attention to maintenance and servicing. Not the kind of remote control car you will find in the high street stores, but mainly from specialised retails.
