Meet My Two Toy RC Cars
04-09-2016, 07:05 AM
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Meet My Two Toy RC Cars
These are stock photos:
About my two toy cars.
My latest one is a BMW cop car from amazon.com. I have had this car for three days. The car was $33.50 with shipping.
The good or coolness:
decent steering control
can climb concrete gutters at an angle onto driveway from street
bright headlights
taillights come on in reverse
spring front suspension, steering servo and linkage much nicer than on my Celica racer
uses 4 AA batteries and 1 9 volt (can run for an hour or two on a single charge of nymphs)
nice M3 scale body and has a decent finish with painted-on graphics instead of cheap stick-on decals
The bad or cheapness:
lacks a differential and gears are noisy in forward (car runs quieter in reverse)
lacks variable speed/steering control
no siren sound
light bar does not flash
no rubber bumper protection, front molded hard plastic front spoiler and rear bumper chips when car bangs into curb
when first turning on the car to use it, there is a slight warm-up period as the car will go for a few seconds and then stall for a moment, this stopping and stalling goes on a few times repeatedly until the car decides to to run normal again and will then run normal until the batteries go dead, I don't know if microwave ovens in my hood are interfering with the car or what, the car quits sometimes and only the taillights come on when I try to reverse the car
car is slow, no racer (but is torquey for climbing hills)
the mods:
painted front bumper "Prowl Car" logos removed as they were getting chipped from running into walls and concrete gutters, I used Ronson cigarette lighter fluid, cotton swabs, micro-fiber cloths, rubbing alcohol and Novus plastic polish to get these logos off the bumper cleanly, the body is molded in white so no body paint was damaged since there is no body paint in the first place
My yellow older car is a 2005 Toyota racer from amazon.com that I have had since December 2012.
the good or cool:
nice painted scale body
fast, flies like a bat out of hell
working headlights
spring front and rear suspension
uses 4 economical rechargeable AA batteries and one 9 volt for the radio transmitter
what sucks:
no rubber bumper protection, front molded hard plastic spoiler and rear bumper chips when car bangs into curb
very low ground clearance, easily hangs up on carpets or even a pebble sometimes
no variable speed control
tires are wearing down and I don't know where to find replacements to fit stock wheels
crappy stick-on racing stripes that I finally peeled off and cleaned the body up with Novus polish
a lot of slop in the front wheels at the axles and hubs
the mods/shoddy repairs:
not long ago, the plastic steering servo pinion split between two of the teeth and this gear slipped on the motor shaft so the car would not steer, so, I took a little lock washer and pressed it over the pinion to tighten it back up on the motor shaft: the car steers again albeit crappy: right turns are normal radius while left turns are too tight causing the car to spin out unless I tap on the radio stick repeatedly so the car turns wider: for steering this car uses a rotary motor, a pinion and a half-moon shape rack with an adjustable spring to center the front wheels: this steering system is mickey-mouse and definitely not a hobby grade servo: still sometimes the car steering hangs up on a left turn and the car will not auto-center after releasing the steering stick and the car may veer out of control at random
I am thinking of retiring this yellow Toyota racer and making her a fine static model.
I don't think there is any practical way to install hobby-grade RC running gear in eitgher of these China-made cheepies they they still offer some fun on a budget.
With their lack of precision controls, they are still fine for racing around cones on the street in a figure 8 pattern or in the slalom as long as the cones are not spaced too closely together. I use Styrofoam cups with a small stone inside for racing or agility course cones.
About my two toy cars.
My latest one is a BMW cop car from amazon.com. I have had this car for three days. The car was $33.50 with shipping.
The good or coolness:
decent steering control
can climb concrete gutters at an angle onto driveway from street
bright headlights
taillights come on in reverse
spring front suspension, steering servo and linkage much nicer than on my Celica racer
uses 4 AA batteries and 1 9 volt (can run for an hour or two on a single charge of nymphs)
nice M3 scale body and has a decent finish with painted-on graphics instead of cheap stick-on decals
The bad or cheapness:
lacks a differential and gears are noisy in forward (car runs quieter in reverse)
lacks variable speed/steering control
no siren sound
light bar does not flash
no rubber bumper protection, front molded hard plastic front spoiler and rear bumper chips when car bangs into curb
when first turning on the car to use it, there is a slight warm-up period as the car will go for a few seconds and then stall for a moment, this stopping and stalling goes on a few times repeatedly until the car decides to to run normal again and will then run normal until the batteries go dead, I don't know if microwave ovens in my hood are interfering with the car or what, the car quits sometimes and only the taillights come on when I try to reverse the car
car is slow, no racer (but is torquey for climbing hills)
the mods:
painted front bumper "Prowl Car" logos removed as they were getting chipped from running into walls and concrete gutters, I used Ronson cigarette lighter fluid, cotton swabs, micro-fiber cloths, rubbing alcohol and Novus plastic polish to get these logos off the bumper cleanly, the body is molded in white so no body paint was damaged since there is no body paint in the first place
My yellow older car is a 2005 Toyota racer from amazon.com that I have had since December 2012.
the good or cool:
nice painted scale body
fast, flies like a bat out of hell
working headlights
spring front and rear suspension
uses 4 economical rechargeable AA batteries and one 9 volt for the radio transmitter
what sucks:
no rubber bumper protection, front molded hard plastic spoiler and rear bumper chips when car bangs into curb
very low ground clearance, easily hangs up on carpets or even a pebble sometimes
no variable speed control
tires are wearing down and I don't know where to find replacements to fit stock wheels
crappy stick-on racing stripes that I finally peeled off and cleaned the body up with Novus polish
a lot of slop in the front wheels at the axles and hubs
the mods/shoddy repairs:
not long ago, the plastic steering servo pinion split between two of the teeth and this gear slipped on the motor shaft so the car would not steer, so, I took a little lock washer and pressed it over the pinion to tighten it back up on the motor shaft: the car steers again albeit crappy: right turns are normal radius while left turns are too tight causing the car to spin out unless I tap on the radio stick repeatedly so the car turns wider: for steering this car uses a rotary motor, a pinion and a half-moon shape rack with an adjustable spring to center the front wheels: this steering system is mickey-mouse and definitely not a hobby grade servo: still sometimes the car steering hangs up on a left turn and the car will not auto-center after releasing the steering stick and the car may veer out of control at random
I am thinking of retiring this yellow Toyota racer and making her a fine static model.
I don't think there is any practical way to install hobby-grade RC running gear in eitgher of these China-made cheepies they they still offer some fun on a budget.
With their lack of precision controls, they are still fine for racing around cones on the street in a figure 8 pattern or in the slalom as long as the cones are not spaced too closely together. I use Styrofoam cups with a small stone inside for racing or agility course cones.
