tabrown

Alright, here we go! So back my freshmen year of highschool I had a health class, we had to do a project with partners, I was paired up with someone I had never met before! When I got there we worked on the project and started talking about how when we were younger we always wanted to get into hobby grade R/C. Well we started looking at websites and random R/C videos on youtube, before you could blink we wanted to get into the hobby. Around then that was when the slash was becoming big and still new, Short course was a huge up and coming thing! So we watched this video on these guys bashing the crap out of the slash! I went to school the next day and one of the guys that sat at the soccer table at lunch (all seniors) I started talking to one of them and another guy spoke up! We started talking a few days later I got the slash, it turns out his uncle worked at horizon hobby (about 15min from my home town). Him and his boys ran every weekend along with his nephew (my buddy), so it turned to my buddy from health, the buddy from lunch, his uncle and his boys all running on the main street in town late at night and such! Eventually over time we managed to put a 9t on the stock xl-5 without blowing it up, now starting my senior year I own two 2wd slashes (one stock then my first one), the slash 4x4, a stampede, a rustler, a desert truck, a freshely restored kyosho outrage, a losi desert truck, mini lst, an a tt01. I have grown to love the hobby, it kept me out of drugs and trouble. I had something to look forward to when I got home, Just tearing down that slash at 5 pm after dinner and not finishing until 6 am! Now I can do it under a few hours! Time sure does fly!

bernechad

First got a Blackfoot back in '86. Beat the crap out of that. Next year got a used Thundershot for my birthday. Spent all my money on a new 3 stage mechanical speed control for it. Raced that through most of high school. Picked up a hpi rs4 sport in grad school and raced that for few years. Then onto a savage few years back, followed by a nitro rs4, slash and then a baja 5. Now mostly race short course with the slash and a losi 10scte and some indoor road with a xray t3. Now saving up for a losi 5ive t to beat on. Good times.

imperviously

Well, my grandpa (mom side of family) was huge and widely known in brasil where he flew his Custom built (all by him by hand) RC airplanes. He would sell some, fly some, keep some.  My dad, was always into RC airplanes when he was really young, he was in his late teens and early twentys and met my grandpa at the RC flying place.  They began to be friends even though they had a age difference, my dad always had older friends.  Well my dad fell the grandpas daughter and the rest is history.  When i was little, i always went with my dad when he would fly his RC airplanes.  Me being the different one, was not that intrigued by airplanes and wanted to get into RC cars.  My dad bought my an LST2 for christmas one year.  After a while i realized i'm just not a nitro person.  After a while of torture in tweaking my LST2 (god i hate nitro still.. first RC car nitro, will never go back to it lol), few months after i bought a used electric TC3.  I wanted it for drifting, got into drifting for a bit.  i stopped all together for a while as so did my dad with his planes.  About a year or so of my TC3 accumulating dust,  not too long ago, i began to just have that want to drive it.  Well since that began i am now here with another RC that i bought, my SC10.  I love my 2 electric RCs now and can't wait to start racing with my sc10 as i have yet to actually race with it.  Unfortunately my grandpa passed during 2011.
RIP grandpa, started the RC in my family and i hope to keep it alive for when i have kids.

DieHarder

Anybody else?

TSNF

Lots of wonderful "What's Your R/C Story" stories here. Here's mine:

I don't know how old I was (I'm 51 now) but I was really young, say 7 or 8 and I remember my Dad futzing with some airplane (nitro) he called it a glow plug plane or something like that (he still has some of those engines somewhere...) Any who, that made me want a plane and I got a control line plane for Christmas (not the best time to try and fly a plane). You remember those Cox .049 engines? Well I got a few of those, got nicked a few times and never thought about it again.

EXT2Rob - my cousin Eddie use to race slot cars professionally as a teenager and I remember very well going to the "slot car track" and paying (well my Dad paid) and running slot cars. My cousin was in a different universe than my Brother and I but we did get some leftovers that he would give us. He was sponsored and all that so he could spare it. As you may remember these slot cars were works of art; handmade chassis, custom motors, brushes that were Zircon encrusted (I'm joking about the Zircon but he had the best kit...) what I loved were the chassis; God, they were little works of functioning art. That's it for the slot cars.

In 2003 or 2004 my younger Brother got an HPI Savage and I'd visit him every few months (he lived a couple hundred miles away) and he'd be out there with the Savage just having a blast. I think the fumes got me high or something because I really wanted one of those "nitro trucks". At that time I was doing very well in eBay (sorry for cussing) and I had some money in the slush fund (guys, if you don't have a slush fund, start one) and decided I would get a "nitro truck" the next time my Brother visited me. Well he came down in April or May and we went to my LHS (Fairfax Hobby Works in Fairfax, VA - great people and store) and one of the guys there hooked me up with the Traxxas T-Maxx 2.5R (I believe) and we took it home and broke it in that weekend. That thing was a beast (for a noob like me anyway) and had a lot of fun with the kids with it. I stripped the spur gear and it sat for a couple of years until this spring when I replaced it and cleaned her up. Got some new gas and plugs and I've been running her since then.

So, about three weeks ago I logged back into RCUniverse.com and wanted to tune up the T-Maxx and got all sorts of carried away reading about the electric cars/trucks/buggies/truggies...you get the idea. I had to have me one of them things! So I did some research and I decided to get the DuraTrax Evader Brushless, which I think is a great truggy (?) stadium truck (?) for the money. I maxed out on the LiPos and got a decent charger and I have been having fun with that bad boy ever since. I had to make a custom battery tray cover (I hurt arm patting myself on the back for that) for the 8000mAh LiPos I got and it's been pretty care free. My teenage Son just wrecked one of the front shocks so I bought some new ones (I'm buying some shock covers EXT2Rob, for sure) and I'll be running my two little beasties for the next week with my Brother, my Son and whoever else wants a go, when I leave for vacation tomorrow.

I really enjoy running these vehicles; there's something about them that keeps sucking you in (in a good way) and its fun. I don't know why it's so much fun but it is. I don't have a track near me but I know that must be a blast. Maybe I can make a little track on Dad's property when I go on vacation...hmmm. I got a 15 year old Son and he can do the work, my Brother and I can supervise - we have a plan! Visions of grandeur on Pop's Farm, I love it.

Maybe I'll get the T-Maxx tuned as well...

Keep those stories coming.

Have fun,
TSNF

TSNF

Terrific story imperviously, I really enjoyed that. There are so many posts I have read on RCUniverse.com in the different forums that have similar stories.

Kudos to your Grandpa and your Dad for getting you interested in R/C. I'm sure that when you have kids you will introduce them to it as well. What a nice family tradition you have going there.

Your Grandpa sounds like he was a wonderfully, talented man, no, a craftsman.

Thank you.

chasehq

Had a few wired 'remote' controlled cars when young. But swapped some slot car stuff for a school mates well used and abused turbo hopper.
Then got offered a Tamiya Boomerang and Porsche 959 both in pieces with bits missing for $50, got the Boomerang going first and eventually raced it at a local club in '88.

narwalrus

My Feedback: (4)

I just remembered.. the weirdest way I got into it...
I had this laying around

Randomly decided to play it...
Started to like RC's and researched a bit

tried to figure out what RC to get..
got this:

Got a TA03.. junk but it taught me about how to fix stuff. not fun.
Bought a EMaxx for $20 and used the parts from the TA03 to get it working. Traded the EMaxx for a RC18r brushless (never even got to drive it ) and a Mini-Z. Sold the TA03 roller for $60.
Bought a TT01 RTR for $150. Best car I've had... gone now
So, att that was a RC18r with no batteries, a TT01, a Losi Micro Rally and a Mini-Z.
Bought a DF03Ra off craigslist for $200 with a brushless system. Never got it working like I wanted it to.
But brushless sytem in the TT01.. fun and reliable drifter for a while.
Purchased F103 Lotus-Honda 99t.
Traded Losi and RC18r for a Losi MRC Ford F150.
Traded Mini-Z for M03 Roller.
Traded TT01 + GTB(BLESC) for DRX roller.
Received CC01 and Kyosho Turbo Ultima.. gifts.
Right now I have a CC01, MRC, DF03Ra, F103, DRX, Ultima, and a M03. Only the CC01 and MRC run
Totally would have done a bunch of that differently... someday I'll rise out of this pit of dysfunctional RC's!
Right now a bit stuck, with $80..

Heheh.

BKoz559

My Feedback: (3)

In the 80s my brother and I had a Tyco Baja Bandit truck and a white buggy (can't remember the name).  Then we had a pair of Fast Traxx vehicles and a pair of Nikko buggies later on.  That kept us happy for a while.

Eventually around 96 a friend started talking about getting a "good" RC car and his research introduced him to Traxxas.  In the spring of 97 he somehow managed to buy a Stampede.  It had a MSC with a "stinger" motor and was powered by a HUGE 2000mah NiCd.  My brother then coaxed my parents into getting him a Rustler for his birthday soon afterwards.  So, I was exposed to two Traxxas trucks which got me itchin' for my own car.

I wanted a Bandit at that point because my young teenage impressionable mind figured Traxxas was the hot ticket and it's what I should get.  I tried to scratch up some money to put towards one but it was taking lots of time.  Another friend coincidently said he had some weird car in his closet that his sister's boyfriend left behind and he didn't know what to do with it.  I paid a visit to check it out and learned that it was an Associated RC10 Graphite Edition roller.  He said I can have it so I took the car home and began looking through a Tower sales brochure to find suitable electronics.  I built it up with a Futaba AM radio / servo, LRP ESC and a Trinity motor and battery.  I loved that car and it taught me a lot about the hobby and how the mechanics of RC cars work.  I ran it for a good 5 years until 2003 when I finally bought a brand new car; an Associated RC10B4 Stealth Kit.

Since then I completely geeked out and learned as much as I can about the hobby and eventually dabbled with airplanes and helicopters.  I have bought and sold several different cars over the years.  I currently own about 8 different cars, an airplane and a couple of Airhogs micro RCs.  To this day I still own the RC10 Graphite and the RC10B4 is my weekend racer along side my SC10RS.

I recently picked up a part-time job at a new hobby shop in town as their "RC Expert."  I use the term loosely because apparently I'm one of two guys who is familiar with RC and I have the most experience, so by default I guess I'm an expert.  It puts extra cash in my pocket and I get a reasonable employee discount.

My stepson has an Evader and he's only mildly interested in RC but, my toddler daugher looses her mind whenever I run one of my cars.  She desperately wants to hold the transmitter and touch all the controls.  Maybe she'll be into RC when she's older.  Wouldn't that be something?

Admiral052

I was a gamer but that started getting boring. Seems quality was not something they keep in the industry and I was looking for something new. Since I was a kid, (I'm 37 now) I watched the RC plane guys fly their planes and always wanted to get into that.I also was having a son and wanted something wecan do together and he could learn mechanics, electronics, etc So I boughta trainer and jumped in. After that I got the RC addiction and bought two more planes (these are not foamies, they are balsa) So I began flying but I started noticing that I needed a large chunck of time to fly and that was something that is hard to come by. Having a new son and doing the family thing doesn't afford me time to RC like I want to. Also the weather in Chicago only lets you fly for a short time. So I started wanting to find another way to get my fix and allow me to tinker in the garage (once a plane is set up there is no tinkering) So I bought an Slash 4wd and began bashing in the area. This allowed me to spend an hour on RC if I have the time and is a great time. I also can drive year round. Now I have decided to branch out in scale off road trucks. Picked up an Axial SCX10 and I am making a defender out of it.

Thats my story and I am sticking with it.

One of the problems I have is being a air and surface guy, I get pushback from people. I do not understand this elitest attitude from people about the other side in RC. If it is this bad between car and plane people what happens with the train guys lol

imperviously

Thanks man, means alot.

DieHarder

Anyone else?

Microz

I started two years ago not knowing anything about RC...not even knowing it was a hobby. I was 13 years old, and bought a HPI Nitro Monster King. Now i didn't know anything about RC, didn't even know it was a hobby. I just thought it was something you could buy and run straight away for fun and no maintenance was needed...man was i wrong. I ordered it and figured out i would need things for the car. So what i did was go down to my LHS after finding out it is a hobby, and bought $75 worth of stuff to run this dang thing out of my own stupidity when i could of just bought something online for much, much less. What i was led into buying was a quart of nitro fuel, a glow plug igniter, glow plug igniter charger, a 2000mah 7.4v NIMH battery (which costed $30), and a fuel bottle. So i bring it all home, and my car arrives two days later. My dad and I take it out back and try to break it in and all that other good stuff. We finish break in, and have no idea how engines work, so tuning it was a little bit of a struggle. We never got it tuned, had it too lean, blew the engine, and returned it...i was extremely angry, but not discouraged by any means. What i did next is probably my best move ever. I got my money back and bought a Traxxas Bandit XL-5. When that came in...man did i have fun or what! Thats when the addiction hit. So i used that for a year or so and then got bored of bashing, bought a plane, and now im hooked onto RC planes! I should rebuild my Traxxas Bandit for when the wind doesn't cooperate, but then i get sidetracked by something else that is related to flying, so i haven't been able to rebuild it....if i ever do....

cumquat

since you're so adamant to know...

had a bunch of toy grades, dont really remember them all. mostly cheap ~$10 ones.

i first drove one of my uncle's rc's at 7. i dont know what the first one i drove was but it was fun. i drove several of them over the years until i was 14 and my mom bought me an evader ext with her tax returns. i had fun with that thing. a few months later, i was completely obsessed, thanks largely to us finally getting internet around the same time as me getting the evader. i started wanting a nitro. i had my eye on the cen mg10-mt3. things didnt go that way though. instead, i was at my grandparents house in Indiana and i was hanging out in the basement, which is where their rc's are kept (my grandpa had been flying for over 20 years, my uncle was 24 at this time) and i saw a buggy. i asked about it and a conversation later, i had bought it for $50 (even though they never got the money[&:]).

it was a duratrax axis, which i got with a blown engine and an old servo. after we got home, i talked to my other grandpa (they divorced when my mom was a kid) and he agreed to pay for the parts. we went to the hobby shop and ~$300 later i had the parts for a running buggy. after switching the clutch, exhaust and mounts to the new engine and installing it i took it outside to start it. i couldnt do it. it was a .21 with a pull start and i couldnt for the life of my get it to turn over. we took it back to the shop and asked for help, and he was happy to. he got it to turn over a few times, attempting to start, then it did. i dont quite remember what happened next but i ended up with a roto start and a cordless drill from harbor freight.

i ran that for a couple months before getting fed up with it and giving it back to my uncle, trading the engine for an rc10 and a kyosho ultima (the first grandpa said i could have it too). that rc10 was a blast but the kyosho never ran; it was missing a gear and i had no idea where to get it. i ran that rc10 for sometime. it was the 6-gear goldpan. after stripping the idlers a few times, i got fed up again and drilled 2 holes for the gearbox of the ext, which i had butchered with a propane torch. in hindsight, i know why i kept stripping the idlers. you see, the diff is a ball diff much like a pancar, with the balls in the spur. i didnt know anything about that and didnt run any. anyway, one day at the shop i asked about the cars in the back and i was told they belonged to he owners. i asked about buying one and he took my back to look at them. i saw another goldpan and asked how much. he said "make an offer" and i offered $20. i handed him the $20 and left with a second rc10.

i transferred the running gear from the first over and ran the new one for the rest of the summer and into the winter. i got more into custom rc and built a few brass chassis' for the rc10 parts. come spring, i found out my dad had gotten welfare (the lazy !@#$%^&*) and my sister and i were getting some money every month. thing is, he started getting it about a year before we found out so they gave us both a lump some for that first year. we each got $700 and change. i wasnt allowed to have the money in full (i was 15, can you blame her?) but i was allowed to spend it. i bought a traxxas nitro sport and a few other things (there was about $250 that she "borrowed" for my sis's graduation party. i never saw that money again...). despite my current opinion of the company, i actually enjoyed that truck. it was fast, it was loud and it was my most outwardly powerful rc to date (technically the buggy was more powerful, with a picco engine, but i managed to get this to wheelie, which was astounding to 15-year-old me). i did some custom stuff to that and it met it's fate with a botched custom chassis.

now it's the July of 2010, and i hadnt driven an rc in 8 months. some conversations arose and i got a loan from my grandpa (yes, he was paid back) and bought my first kit, the tamiya df02. i also ordered a futaba 2pl 2.4gig off of scratch and dent for $77 ( reg. 100 something). i ordered it on the 8th and received it the 10th. i paid extra to get it the 10th (it was Saturday) because my birthday is the 10th. a week i came to the conclusion that my 2 year old nimh packs (venom to boot) were no longer good, so i placed a second order for 2 duratrax onyx 3000mah 6 cells and a scratch and dent 220 charger. i ran that thing the rest of the summer and part of the winter.

my mom got her taxes and gave me a decent portion of it (she had taken my sister to a nice hotel for her past 2 birthdays and was doing it again while i didnt get much of anything for my birthdays, plus i was going to turn 18) so i bought 2 evader ext2's, a hobbywing ezrun brushless system, 2 gens ace 5000 4c s2 batteries and a thunder a6 charger (plus some non-rc items). in retrospect, kinda wish i had gotten something else, but you gotta live with your choices. ran the brushless evader all summer again. stuff happened and i wanted another df02, so i bought one back in feb. i put the ezrun in it (i did this with my first one temporarily and it was fun. i tried to make an evader-df02 hybrid and destroyed the df02 in the process) but the gearing and tires proved to be too much for the 4000kv motor (what, they were only mashers). i actually managed to burn the coil! in the snow! anyway, i ordered a replacement motor but accidently ordered a sensored motor so now it cogs like hell when you first pull the trigger. havent had the money to replace it yet. since it runs fine once it's moving, i have been running in an oval around the tree in the middle of our driveway (sounds weirder than it is). i plan to start saving up in October (broke this month and the fairs are next month) and combining that money with what i get for Christmas and my REAL early b-day present to get a monster truck.

there, you happy now?

DieHarder

lol, yeah. Good story.

DieHarder

I think this thread died.

cumquat

that's because there is one of these every year it seems.

Microz

Or maybe nobody else has a RC story and they were just born with it...[X(]

ElectricGuy007

Raced a Rustler back in 2003
Raced a Traxxas Emaxx and Kyosho Twin Force in the monster Truck Class for 2 whole seasons. 2004-2005.
Raced a Tamiya Dark Impact back in 2006.
Bought a B44 in 2007 ran it for 3 whole seasons 2007-2010, probably the best r/c racing years of my life,
did some oval racing in 2009 also.
In 2011-Currently deciding on what R/C's I wanna race where at.
I'll probably run stock Corr truck at Reo Raceway and Madisonville Hobbies.
I'll probably run 4wd Corr at Reo Raceway and Golfland. 2wd buggy for sure at Golfland next season,
because I want to brush up my skills.

I think that about covers my R/C Racing up to now. I feel i have been racing for a long time and have no desire to quit.

mugwart

My Feedback: (3)

hi there well for me i had the fever fr rc ever since i was 5 years old i always asked for one for x-mas but always got those darn things with the tether (not fun) so i lost interest for a long time till i ran into someone who needed some work to there real car and couldnt pay me he offered me odds and ends but what caught my eye was the stampede with some mods to it and all the extra parts and batterys i told him ill take that in trade and he looked at me said "heck ya" i had wicked fun with it till it was stolen but like a true hobbist i got back up from the dissappointment which took a number of years sadly to say and bought a redcat volcano sv and loved nitro since, my redcat i own a AE TC3, losi mini-t, mini mauler, another stampede, exceed crawler, losi nxt, losi micro desert truck, duratrax MT pro, evader st, slash 4x4 ultimate, and last but not least a revo.  i have owned an MGT 4.6SE just recently sold it to give my son 2 losi xxx-sct completely hopped up now im into rebuilding the used stuff and listening to them run again and bringing life back into a broken rc and donating them o the toys for tots just one day i would like to see the look in one of the kids eyes that they got a REAL rc car for x-mas well thats my story and i am 40 years old and still love bashing and breaking them

jk47

My Feedback: (2)

When I was 4 I recieved a full function big foot monster truck. Literaly for the next 4 years I thought it was the best thing ever. It had a rechargable battery and everything. Then when I was 8 I got a subscription to rc driver and asked for the origional evader St from duratrax. The next month Mom and Dad came through and It was the coolest birthday present ever.  By age ten i was changing shock oil swapping spur gears and adjusting my slipper. I thought tuning was awesome. Then I bought myself the brushed e-savage when I was twelve. I took a year break from rc and spent thousands of dollars on Airsoft stuff. Then Christmas came around and I asked for a micro t. This re established my love for Rc. Then my uncle bought a micro dt and dad got a micro highroller and we found micro rc zone and raced. Then I traded my e-savage for a slash 4x4 on RCU market. Later i decided i wanted somthing tougher faster and high performance. I bought a Zd racing truggy roller for $90 (impulse buy) Did some research and found out it had some durability issues, then traded that on the rcu market for a thunder tiger eb4 g3. I just recently got that sucker going (check out my thread on what to do with $400) and now i'm updating my old evader st. Its been a blast and I don't see my passion for tuning and tinkering ending soon.

phmaximus

I blame my dad,
I grew up in the mid 80s and at that time my dad was into static model building Rc cars and tanks.
My first Rc was a fasttrax don't know if u could rember but they gave a lot of hobby grade cars a run for there money. Awesome toy


After the fasttrax finally broke I went through heaps of various Kmart Rc cars and static models

Then came puberty.... It's still a blurry hazy mess I don't rember to well... Towards the end of that mess I was starting to settle down and focus on work. I got myself a GV2000 on road nitro touring car. then a short time later a Tamiya Wild Dagger then a heng long tank.
And that's where the acciction begain

10 years later... I'm still going, I've got a few more Rc's nowadays

JTANK78

i got my first real rc truck about 7 months ago, an sc 10 rs and started racing at my local track.... I started because i raced bmx/mtb down hill got to old and had to stop... im on to my second car.... an b4.1 and love racing at my local track i found out after talking with a friend of mine he was into the hobby years ago and sold all his guns to get into the hobby with me, now about 7 or so years later my friend and i are closer then ever and love racing together when ever we get the chance... thanks rc racing and thank you to all who help me and by bud at the track

ElectricGuy007

Well I decided to not get a 4wd Corr truck, alot of amature drivers run in that class. All the fast guys are in the 2wd classes.
I bought a factory team sc10 last weekend, and had a blast building that truck, brings me back to the B44 era...

Ttam Says Blarg

As a kid I always had cheep rc cars from Walmart. My brother bought me a really nice Kyosho when I was kid. At the time I didn't know how good of a rc car I had at the time. Then I didn't really get into the hobby until I was 16 or so. I was looking on ebay for a rc car and it was coming up with all the generic garbage. Me being me I found the first legit looking forum (rcu) and made my first post asking how good the generic garbage ebay car was. I believe it was Sheo that helped me out and pointed me in the right direction and ever since I've been hooked!