JKG

looking to start racing 1/8 e buggy. looking at a rtr car. opinions on these kyosho and serpent or others

bill_delong

If you're going to be serious about club racing, then you will be better off building a kit.

Main problem with the RTR's is that you end up buying twice and will spend more money in the end than if you simply bought a race grade kit in the first place. If money is tight then consider buying a used "Rx Ready" or used "roller" from a local racer at your club. RC Tech is another great resource as well as FB manufacturer pages. Visit your local track and pick one of the brands that is on the podium. Talk to each respective driver and see who's willing to share you their setup sheet. Pick the brand that is most popular as well as offers local parts support either from the on site hobby shop or from local team drivers who carry plenty of spares.

Also note that RTR's don't include all the upgrades and hop ups that you normally get in a kit. It's far more cost effective to buy a kit and install exactly what you need than to buy a RTR and spend more money replacing items than you actually spent on the RTR in the first place... shrug.

When you build a kit, you learn how it goes together which will make it easier to perform maintenance and make repairs.

I currently race the HB Racing E819RS and I love it! In the past I have raced other brands such as AE, XRay, TEKNO and TLR, but HB Racing suits my driving style the best right now, but honestly, any of these brands I listed would be excellent to run if any of them are popular at the track in your area!

Good Luck!

JKG

anyone??

1QwkSport2.5r

Bill gave you some good sound advice. Personally, I don’t care for or recommend the cheap off brand trucks - especially for racing. I would follow Bill’s advice.

I am strictly a basher, but awhile back I wanted to get a Truggy. I’d never had one and wanted to see what “all the rage” was about. I put a want ad up on RCTech that I was looking for a used Truggy. A spectacular fellow offered a very low time TLR 8T 3.0 to me and was willing to meet my budget limitation. So if you do a little research to learn to know what you need (and be realistic), you will find a plethora of people willing to help. Getting into racing isn’t cheap. If you have a tight budget, you might need to rethink your goals.

JKG

not neccesarily a tight budget just dont want to sink a ton into it and then not really dig it. although i doubt that.

1QwkSport2.5r

You gotta pay to play. Don’t think a cheap knock-off truck is going to win races. They’re cheap for a reason.

JKG

i underdstand that just dont want to sink $1000 into one.

1QwkSport2.5r

For a guy getting into bashing, you can come in under $1k easily enough. Racing is a different animal altogether. Bashing is getting something “that works”; racing is getting something that is tailored to you. You pick the power plant and electronics. As Bill said, using a RTR for racing means you’re going to be doing a bunch of upgrades just to survive the race, let alone win it. I’ve seen guys buy an 8T RTR buggy or truggy and replace the parts to upgrade it to race kit specs, but it ended up costing an additional few hundred dollars plus. On a nitro truck, a competition engine alone will run you at minimum $300.

Off-road Racing - IMHO - get the right gear to start with. If you want to race indoor, you could get on a little cheaper with a spec class racer. My buddy ran a stock brushed Slash in a spec class indoor on carpet. It was alright. Some guys hate Traxxas, but rollers are cheap enough and sometimes have the necessary durability upgrades already done to them. Add your Powerplant and radio gear and off you go.

We aren’t trying to discourage; quite the opposite actually. .

Get out a calculator and do some research. Follow Bill’s advice and see what it’ll cost you to go with a race kit. Then look at the threads on RCTech about upgrading a RTR to race spec and see which side costs more dollars.

JKG

thanks guys for all the advice. going to get out to some tracks and check them out before buying

bill_delong

+1 to the Spec Slash class, it will cost you about $500 to be competitive after you upgrade the radio, battery and servo plus charger and power supply.

After you blow through parts, motors and myriad of design flaws with the RTR, then you can decide if racing is for you or not, keep in mind that 4WD eBuggy is FAR more durable than the Slash, but plan to spend $1500 - $2K for a proper setup.... still a lot cheaper than golf if you want to compare numbers, ha!