Returning to Racing

[The Colonel]

Hi,

I am looking for some general advice, I am thinking seriously about starting to race after a good 25 year break. Clearly things have moved on dramatically since the early 90's based on all the internet research I have done. I have to admit my head is spinning with it all.

So.......

What I would really like is for someone to make me a list of everything I would need to get back into racing from complete scratch. For example, back in the day I ran three sets of 1700 batteries, what would I need now? What motor would be best, it was a stock 27T I ran as was the rules at the time. How much can expect to pay for it all?

Any advice would be greatfully appreciated, thanks.

[Wooders28]

Welcome back!

I'm maybe not the best to compile a list, I'm fairly new back too after a similar time away (wife, mortgage, kids!)and still changing over to modern equipment (2.4 radio and metal geared servos etc)

Deciding if you want to go 2wd or 4wd is a start (or both!).

Battery wise, lipos are kings now, no Nicad to be seen, and with 6000+ mah available, you don't need to worry about tuning gear ratios so the battery lasts the race.

[cutting42]

Welcome back to racing, here is a list, apart from the first two they are not in any order:

1/ Find a local club

2/ Visit and find out what cars run there I recommend starting with 2WD

3/ Buy a car one that others run to help with setup and spares, new or second hand.

4/ Lipo Batteries - around 4500mah min 50c recommend 70c+ make does not matter very much. You will probably either need a shorty battery or saddles depending on the car. I recommend shorties as they are more flexible and some cars only fit shorties. You can race a battery and then charge it up between races so you could manage with one but I recommend getting two.

5/ Charger, most are the "four button" type and can be very cheap £30 or so. Initially any will do. You will need a Lipo sack - a bag to charge batteries in at most race meetings.

6/ Speedo and Motor, again make does not matter but ESC should be around 120A and motor depends on the class, track and your ability. Most fast drivers will run a 7.5 or 6.5 in a 2WD now but all you need is 8.5 while getting up to speed, if want to start more gently a 13.5 brushless would be close to your old 27 turn but more torque.

7/ Transmitter and Receiver these are critical IMO as they are your interface with the car and there are three serious popular makes, Futaba, Sanwa and Spectrum. KO Propo is also out there but not as popular and quite expensive. Big choice here is sticks or wheel. You will probably be a sticks person if you are old school but there is a much bigger choice in wheel radios not to mention cheaper ones. All are now 2.4Ghz so no crystals.

8/ Servo, you need a reasonably fast metal geared servo but don't need high torque I would tend to a recognised make here, Corally, Savox, Spectrum or similar. Very cheap servos are slow and can strip their gears and make driving horrible.

In terms of cost, the cheapest way is to watch the for sale section on here and jump on one of the many selling up threads that pop up. You might get the whole setup for a significant saving.

If you buy new you can get cheap electrics from the likes of Hobby King but far better is to support one of the UK RC racing shops all of which have excellent websites, personal support and will give you great advice.

[Wooders28]

As I've said, I'm just getting back into it too.

I've done some research and here's me so far, if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.

I've litterally just upgraded to 2.4 as my 27 packed up, and went for a 'Tamco tac330' which as far as I could tell, is a rebadged,more expensive 'Core cr151'?

Is this set up any good? At £50 ,it seemed to tick the boxes the more expensive ones did, and with a 20 memory, meant I could potentially get 19 more recievers and 'bind' them all,then be able to run all my cars off the one handset.....almost.
I tried a new fangled 2.4 wheel controller thing, crashed alot, flung it in the loft.

Brushless motor wise, am I right in saying it's a ' .5' turn motor to look for , as they are 540 type and the full turns are a kind of a 380 in a 540 can, I almost went for one as they are a bit cheaper.
KV = number of rpm per volt.

ESC wise, you may need a programme card or laptop to programme, they've gone a bit 'fast and furious' these days and even have effectively launch control and ABS! (Although far cry from the MSC 3 steps!)
I went for a castle 'mamba max pro' mainly because it seemed to be capable and scored it cheap off ebay!

A lipo's 'C' rating, is the discharge load rate, so , if the motor will only pull '50c' then anything above that is potentially not needed (although I've gone for a 135c as it was a fiver dearer).

[mattr]

You'll need to readjust your understanding of speed.

I stopped in about 86 or 87. Started again in 2011 I think.

My super duper rocket ship modified 4wd from 1987 would have been left for dead on the start line by the fairly bog standard ready to run 2wd I bought in 2011.

The cars I run now make that 2wd look extremely pedestrian...... and I'm still not a very quick driver. But I like buying speed. And then breaking it.

[SiTrace]

Having raced in the early 90's and coming back into the hobby after 20 years the biggest difference is the batteries. Lipos are amazing!. I used to struggle to get 5 mins out of a 4wd with a decent motor on nicads. Now you could probably double that time if not even more!

[cutting42]

Originally Posted by Wooders28

I've litterally just upgraded to 2.4 as my 27 packed up, and went for a 'Tamco tac330' which as far as I could tell, is a rebadged,more expensive 'Core cr151'?

Is this set up any good?

Seems fine but no experience with that make, main things are range, glitching and consistent responses.

Originally Posted by Wooders28

Brushless motor wise, am I right in saying it's a ' .5' turn motor to look for , as they are 540 type and the full turns are a kind of a 380 in a 540 can, I almost went for one as they are a bit cheaper.
KV = number of rpm per volt.

You can get 540 brushless motors as x.5 and x.0, I ran a 7.0 for ages in my 2WD. Most are x.5 but big thing to look for is sensored or sensorless. Sensored is best as it gives finer control. Confirm KV = rpm per volt but it is only a rough gauge of a motor, torque and feel is harder to measure.

Originally Posted by Wooders28

ESC wise, you may need a programme card or laptop to programme, they've gone a bit 'fast and furious' these days and even have effectively launch control and ABS! (Although far cry from the MSC 3 steps!)
I went for a castle 'mamba max pro' mainly because it seemed to be capable and scored it cheap off ebay!

Agree a program card is probably needed. Castle are popular in the bashing scene but I have not used one for racing. It is sensored so should be fine.

Originally Posted by Wooders28

A lipo's 'C' rating, is the discharge load rate, so , if the motor will only pull '50c' then anything above that is potentially not needed (although I've gone for a 135c as it was a fiver dearer).

You are correct the motor determines how much current is drawn, you just need to make sure the ESC and Battery can deliver it. A 4500mah battery rated at 50c can deliver 225 amps but it will probably have a peak rating and a continuous rating, the peak might be double that. Most ESC have continuous and peak ratings as well and will have a max motor capacity either stated as kv or wind number.

Also, note that battery manufacturers are sometimes generous with their power ratings. I have raced 25c batteries that spank another brand 100c on punch.

[fidspeed]

Originally Posted by cutting42

Welcome back to racing, here is a list, apart from the first two they are not in any order:

1/ Find a local club

2/ Visit and find out what cars run there I recommend starting with 2WD

3/ Buy a car one that others run to help with setup and spares, new or second hand.

4/ Lipo Batteries - around 4500mah min 50c recommend 70c+ make does not matter very much. You will probably either need a shorty battery or saddles depending on the car. I recommend shorties as they are more flexible and some cars only fit shorties. You can race a battery and then charge it up between races so you could manage with one but I recommend getting two.

5/ Charger, most are the "four button" type and can be very cheap £30 or so. Initially any will do. You will need a Lipo sack - a bag to charge batteries in at most race meetings.

6/ Speedo and Motor, again make does not matter but ESC should be around 120A and motor depends on the class, track and your ability. Most fast drivers will run a 7.5 or 6.5 in a 2WD now but all you need is 8.5 while getting up to speed, if want to start more gently a 13.5 brushless would be close to your old 27 turn but more torque.

7/ Transmitter and Receiver these are critical IMO as they are your interface with the car and there are three serious popular makes, Futaba, Sanwa and Spectrum. KO Propo is also out there but not as popular and quite expensive. Big choice here is sticks or wheel. You will probably be a sticks person if you are old school but there is a much bigger choice in wheel radios not to mention cheaper ones. All are now 2.4Ghz so no crystals.

8/ Servo, you need a reasonably fast metal geared servo but don't need high torque I would tend to a recognised make here, Corally, Savox, Spectrum or similar. Very cheap servos are slow and can strip their gears and make driving horrible.

In terms of cost, the cheapest way is to watch the for sale section on here and jump on one of the many selling up threads that pop up. You might get the whole setup for a significant saving.

If you buy new you can get cheap electrics from the likes of Hobby King but far better is to support one of the UK RC racing shops all of which have excellent websites, personal support and will give you great advice.

what a a sensible reply all newbie/returnees to RC should read this and digest before running off to spend heard earned pennies

i especially approve of th second to last quote buying secondhand from local racers .If their local and know you are going to race their old gear they will be less likely to off load poor gear knowing you will hassle them every time it fails !! also if it good gear you become an apprentice and you have a experienced guru to give you advice

regards dave

[The Colonel]

Thank you to everyone and the advice you have provided.

I am full of question so here goes:

What would a good radio set be for an initial setup, say £100

Likewise for a motor/ESP, I am thinking 8.5t as advised above.

Lipos I am ok with I think, but what would a good recommended charger be? Is a dual needed if I run with two batteries?

Thanks

[cutting42]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Thank you to everyone and the advice you have provided.

I am full of question so here goes:

What would a good radio set be for an initial setup, say £100

Likewise for a motor/ESP, I am thinking 8.5t as advised above.

Lipos I am ok with I think, but what would a good recommended charger be? Is a dual needed if I run with two batteries?

Thanks

First question back at you, sticks or wheel? The problem with sticks is there is not much between very cheap and very expensive. Also I am not a stick user so have no experience. You have lots of choice on wheel radios, for your budget I would personally get a Futaba PL3 or Sanwa MX-V or Spectrum DX4C.

If you want a recommendation on ESC/Motor everyone will push they stuff they use. I use Corally Cerix Pro speedos and Corally Dynospeed Mod X 3.0 motors but I am a Team Corally supported driver so I would say that . Seriously, pretty much any major make will do you just fine. Look for dealer support, and what the local racers run to see what is reliable and also what your budget is.

I started with a simple Core UAC 50 charger, mains powered and around £50 or so. There are many chargers that are around the £40 mark that will all do the job just fine, the Corally Race 60 is one . You don't need a dual charger unless there are two of you racing at the same time or running multiple classes. You can charge up two batteries before your race day, run practice , swap batteries and while you run the first heat, recharge the first battery and so on throughout the meeting.

[The Colonel]

Thanks again for all your good advice.

I am a stick man, so will probably go for the equivalent of your recommendations in stick form.

Transponders is one other thing, I notice they are used now for lap tracking etc. Do clubs have a specific version or does any one work ok? I assume they all have unique codes?

Do motors/ESC/Lipo's have any correlation with each other, I.e. Will any combination work or do they need to be matched?