picone

So things have changed. Electric is back?

Want 1/8th buggy. Nitro or electric? The Losi 2.0 seems like a great buy in RTR. What about HPI Trophy or Kyosho Inferno? Those come RTR in electric. Losi has cool controller.

Advice plz. Two trusted friends recommended opposite - Nitro vs. Electric. I'll admit, my last nitro i thought was a bit of a hassle, but that was a while back.

jikkuria

I'm a nitro guy to the core. The electrics can be brutally fast, and very reliable, but for me nothing beats the fun of nitro. You have the sound, smell, and excitement with nitro. Sure tuning can be a bit frustrating at times, but it makes the success that much more reliable. As for the choices, i'd go losi.

picone

I also think local track dictacte one thing to be cooler than another. Revelation is the closest, and the next closest is in Orange County and indoor. No nitro allowed. Ive got this great field across the street and it needs a monster truck, but i always thought the tracks were the most fun. Pegasus is also close but the 1/8 scale wasnt much fun there as i remember. I suppose this is why you need a bunch of different cars...

JohnP2

+1

If you are looking to race, then definitely the Losi 8ight 2.0, but if you are just looking to have "fun" and bash it, then the HPI Trophy 3.5 is something to consider, in my opinion.

narwalrus

My Feedback: (4)

I'm in orange county.. assuming you mean OCRC. In my opinion, unless you are close enough or rich enough, build a good basher. Electric or nitro is by preference and location. You will have way more fun with an 8th scale nitro monster truck basher than a track-only buggy or equivalent. (And I don't even use nitro :P)

The_Shark

OFNA LX2e is a great choice, tough as nails and key elements that make it a competitive rig. 4s RTR is $350 which comes with a 90A esc and a good enough 2.4Ghz radio with endpoint, dual rate, reverse and trim.

or a kit for $199.

if you put the LX2 next to the Kyosho Inferno, they are remarkably similar, and trust me, the quality is there.

then you will need a charger, hobbypartz sells one good enough to start with for $30, it will charge anything up to 5 amps and balance, and a couple hard case lipo's

The_Shark

electric today is just as powerful or even more so than nitro, with nitro there are fuel costs, with electric there is initial cost and lipo replacement.

I prefer off-road vehicles to be nitro, with a strong engine you cannot beat the mid-high throttle response, the smell, the sound and the sight of a cloud of blue smoke trailing the car. its always nice to re-fuel and go, with electric you must pay attention to voltage, balance and re-charge.

brushless has incredible low end grunt and often crazy top-end, they are usually heavier, don't have dual rate brakes and can go "thermal" (overheating and shutting down) if pushed too hard.

it depends on what you want the car to do, both fill their own niche.

narwalrus

My Feedback: (4)

Use NiMh... easier than nitro if you care - just getter a faster motor.

The_Shark

I would say Lipo is far easier to use than NIMH, no memory, you can charge at any time, no excessive heat, high charge rates, high discharge rates, no need to cycle, no break in required.

NiMh cons- heavier, heats up when used or charged, cool down period before and after charging, require periodical cycling, if self discharges flat damage occurs and renders battery useless, longer charge period, voltage drops dramatically during use, over discharge or charge may cause battery venting or explosion.

Lipo cons- requires extra care as too fast of charging or discharging, or charging damaged cells can cause fire, must balance periodically, must not let battery go flat, doing so will ruin the battery, must use alarm or have battery cutoff built into esc to prevent over-discharge.

Foxy

For racing there's nothing to choose between nitro and electric, both are doing good laptimes, it comes down to preference. For bashing, my pick is electric, 6S 1/8th cars bring a power and speed never before seen in the hobby, and are visceral and brutal in the way they deliver that power.

Set a car up for racing on 4S, then when you want to bash throw 6s batts in it and tear up the crust of the earth

I'm not a fan of the Losi myself, I keep hearing about how fast they wear out. The Inferno MP9 (don't even think about the VE) is a decent car, but WAAAAAY overpriced. The HPI Trophy series are bad cars.

Since all cars are fast around the track when setup and driven well, your considerations must take into account other stuff, build materials, quality, design, fit and finish.

Do yourself a favour and look into the Mugen MBX6Teco, an electric racing truggy. I don't think there's probably a better all round vehicle on the market at the moment. Mugen and Xray are way out front in quality. Put a Tekin RX8 2050kv truggy motor combo in it and rule everything.

picone

Ofna looks like a great buy. May a good second car with the losi setup.

The_Shark

I honestly think its better to build a OFNA kit than a Losi RTR, but that's just me.

actually what i do is nose around until i find a really nice used r/c, but its always some form of gamble.

picone

Check some of my older posts on my "classifieds" puchase. Cha! Was thinking the ofna for an electric mochine when i get tired of nitro.

silvermansteve

My Feedback: (2)

most rc'ers these days who use electric, use lipos. it would be a very unusual suggestion, i think, to tell someone starting with electric to get nimh over lipo batteries. also, nobody can tell you whether to get nitro or brushless, as you probably have gathered by now from the posts: they're both good. but some nitro users DO seem to drift toward electric.... just from what i read here anyway. i have both and use both. you surely can't run nitro everywhere you can run electric. that in itself might be the deciding factor for someone.

Chucksolo69

I have 2 nitro, Losi Ten T and a Traxxas Slayer Pro. I also have 2 electrics, Losi XXX-SCB and AE SC10 RS, both are brushless. Guess which ones get run most? The Nitros of course. I have given various RC cars/trucks to family and friends over the years, the electrics mostly to kids. For some reason, Nitro is just more enjoyable to me. I don't care about the clean up as I am meticulous about a clean RC vehicle, just as I am with my full size car. Nitro is just more "real" to me. Do I enjoy my electric vehicles? Yes I do, but I always run them AFTER I run out of nitro fuel. These days you have to be a real dolt not to be able to run and tune a nitro vehicle. On my Ten T and Slayer, I have leaned the high speed needle once since I have had the trucks, over  a year now, and they run fantastic. I don't race and I have a lot of places I can run/bash my nitro vehicles so that is not a concern for me.