Advice on Buggy what you all drive now

[Tobamory]

Hi all, I used to be a member of ABC ( Aire Valley Buggy Club ) in the late 80s but as life goes I got married kids, and sold my heavily modded Hotshot.

Ive been watching youtube and saw all the cars whizzing about, and noticed a lot of them looked the same ( well nearly ).

I thought about when I raced it was mainly

Grasshoppers
Hornets
Hotshots
RC10s
and as I left the Schumacher CAT had just come out.

Ive been browsing modelsports and im going to start buying them to build and stroke, polish hehe. But I want to start racing again.

What are you all racing now, whats the high ends guys driving, and what's midend.
is it a given I should go brushles ( whatever that is )
Are electronic speed controllers still the best thing ?
if im running a 7.2 whats a good battery.
And Motor wise I used to use the demon HT motor but do your races stipulate a standard 540 or can you do modified also, if so what are the good ones.

Sorry for all the questions but its been a while and I looked today and saw Battery's ranging from 20 to 150 LOL

I quite like the look of that Schumacher K1 or the Rc10 ( never had an RC10 always jealous of them back in the day )

Any advice welcome and thanks for reading

Rob

[nivek]

The best thing for you would be to visit a local club Batley / or York both have there own web sites. See how things have changed . I also started again last year, after 20 + year break.. And iam sure you will see a few old faces......

[cutting42]

+1 to visit a club but as a fairly new bod myself here is my take.

Loads of great 10th buggies available in 2 and 4wd. Popular cars where I race seem to be:

2WD
Kyosho RB6
AE B4 variants ( for astro and carpet you probably need a mid conversion like Vega or Centro)
Durango DEX210
Losi 22
Schumacher SV2 Cougar

4WD
AE B44.1/2
Durango DEX410
Schumacher K1 CAT
Couple of Tamiya 502 but very pricey

Batteries are all Lipo for racing now, I use Orion and my son uses IP both great. Huge capacity compared to NIMH with 20+ min run time easily achievable. Three main shapes, stick - a bit like the old NIMH size and shape but more rectangular. Saddle packs - like a stick pack cut in half and usually fitted one each side of the buggy for weight balance. Shorty - the newest size, a full capacity in a 2/3rds length stick pack mostly used in 2WD I belive

Motors are mostly brushless now. Means no more servicing, no more tweaking, no more brushes, no more commutator lathes. Fit, forget and drive really fast. Still use number of turns to label the power, very roughly about half the number on a old school brushed so a new 10.5T motor is similar to an old 23 turn and a new 5.5 closer to an old 11 turn brushed. They are also measured in KV which is number of RPM per volt ie how fast it will spin.

Radios are now mostly 2.4Ghz with no crystals, no conflicts just switch on and go!

HTH

[Tobamory]

Cutting many thanks for that, I'm excited. 20 mins for a run Wooster, the old days was about 7 or 8

So what's the deal with the motors then do they plug directly into a specialised speed controller ?

And with regar to the turns, I rem I used to swap my cog from 17 to 13 etc dep on if I wanted acceleration or the 17 for big wind ups.

What would be best the lower or the highers or do people just buy both and swap em.

Really appreciate that feedback though am I ok to PM you or email etc, got lots of questions.

Rob

[12-nitroman]

inbox me for information,i could give you advice etc on what would be good for you etc.

thanks

[Lee1972]

You can change pinion size to give greater acceleration and less top end however I run a Speed Passion GT2 speed controller and it comes with a programming box so that you give boost and advance the motor timing and a host of other settings.

I have two Team Associated cars a B4 and a B4.1 but as I race mainly on carpet I tend to stick with my XFactory X6 squared which is an older mid motored conversion kit for the B4 but can be bought as a full kit, my son runs a Team Xtreme Vega Gen2 conversion for the B4.1.

The X6 is a competitive car and with its fat chassis can accomodate stick packs across the width or down the length like on the Associated B4 / B4.1 or newer B4.2 and with a bit of modding can take saddle packs.

[cutting42]

Sure you can PM me.

ESC (speed controllers) come in stock or mod versions with or without the ability to turn the the motors speed/power up through electronic timing. This is usually done with a programming card or a laptop. Stock is more for touring cars and onroad stuff. You need to look what power the esc is and what is the lowest turn motor it can power. For example a 60A esc has a limit of about 8.5T so if you want to use a 6.5 or lower you will need a meatier esc. 120a seems to be a popular level but the better ones do get more expensive.

Gearing is a compromise between top speed, acceleration and heat generation in the motor and esc. The faster motors spin faster as well so can use a low gear for acceleration but cos they spin so fast the top speed is OK as well. On my 44.1 I use a 20 pinion and stock spur with an 8.5t motor, a 6.5 could probably use a 17t pinion. Brushless motors also have great torque as well so gearing is less critical. Get a few pinions and you will need to change for the track as well.

If the gearing is too long (for high speed) you can strain the motor and esc and they can overheat (this is bad). All the cars I have seen have charts for calculating the ratio for certain spur/pinion combinations.

[RogerM]

Where in the country are you? I strongly recommend that you go to your local clubs and talk to the fast guys there, you will get all the help you need to find your feet in what must seem like an alien world!
I am happy to help where ever I can of course.

As for equipment back in the 80s & 90s I ran Kyosho due to unrivalled quality, back up & out of the box performance. These days i run Kyosho for exactly the same reasons!

There are pros & cons yo all the cars but there are no 'bad' cars out there at thr minute so best go with whst you can get help & support with.

[Tobamory]

Thanks guys that's helping me.

Im based in Pudsey, did many years at the ABC club indoor and outdoor, but seeing now you get 20mins im waiting till payday then im buying something.

Maybe not a k1 but im going to start building them and then come see you all.

if any of you are closeish to me and wouldn't mind making me a coffee and letting me see how it all comes together now, or even come to mine, then that would be nice.

My purchase list will be as follows ( bare in mind some will be for my shelves in my playroom )

Frog
Grasshopper
Hornet
Hotshot ( undecided if I should go super )

Racing cars will be

cat K1
kyosho ( ultima or Inferno ) <<< Undecided yet whats the diff ?
Associated Rc10 44.2 and 4.2

HolyGrails

Rc10 Gold
Tamiya 502
Original Hotshot

thanks again Guys

Rob

[RogerM]

Inferno is the 1/8th nitro car
Ultima (current model is the RB6) is 1/10th 2wd electric
Lazer (current model is the ZX5-FS2sp) is 1/10th 4wd electric.

[buggy#0]

If you're looking at the rb6 then also consider the Schuey Cougar SV2 or Durango DEX210. They are both around £195, I run the Schumacher and cannot fault it. It has been through some 50mph tumbles down the straight and just carried on, it even hit the wall at full speed and only popped a balljoint. Best car I ever drove

[fidspeed]

as mentioned here already visit your local club see what your local guys are driving and what gear they are using

as you have appeciated already stuff has moved on a long way lots of new things to take in

dont overlook second hand gear to get you up and running competitiveness will come back in time

spares back up is important the local club will usually have a local modelshop thats a favourite to visit

major thing is dont take it to seriously have fun

regards dave

[Tobamory]

Agreed, I was only setting out to make 10 models and have them as show pieces in my house.

I initially was going to buy lego , but when your paying 100 quid for a ship, I suddenly had this idea. and was pleasantly surprised that the cost of the lower end cars is under that of the lego.

I really want to build them from scratch to see how they piece together, I remember back in the day, every week I used to strip the hotshot down to the gears and re-grease everything, clean the engine and use locktight on the problem nuts.

Do guys at your club still race hornets and frogs etc ? or has the 380 scene gone now. Or do they indeed race them but with these brushless jobbies in ?

thanks again

Rob