really this is like fighting over what food tastes the best, I don't give a crap what you all think whats nicer, its what nicer too me

Wow! Did this thread explode....nice going John 

I read all the posts and seems to me there are 4 recurring themes that are applied to the debate-
1- sound
2-smell
3-what's better for racing
4-what gets peolpe's attention

While I realize these are all part of rc these 4 points don't even begin to cover the full gamut of our beloved hobby, and dare I say have nothing to do with the debate of nitro vs electric.

There is no argument there everyone knows its pizza


BTW joking I know everyone has their own tastes

haha I love pizza! I was referring to people who think that either nitro is better than electric or electric is better than nitro in general for everybody. We all got into this hobby for many different reasons and all have our own requirements whether it be noise, price, wanting a real engine or whatever. Whats best is all depends on your situation and not some person on the interwebs

I feel like pizza now....
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That's strange, you don't look like pizza.

That was so cheesy.........

JMO, but whatever someone else decides to run is fine with me...it's a hobby...why should I give a crap about what somebody else wants to run? (there have been many "Great Debates" in all of our local clubs about this...)
I have room in my life for both "Nitro" and Electric power...got some of each...airplanes and ground pounders...but I tend to gravitate to the fuel burners...

The Electrics are great! BUT they just ain't got no "Soul" ya know?! Each Nitro engine / pipe combination has it's own Voice...it's own personality, if you will, (idiocynchrosies? sp? ) and the bark, or wail, or growl, whichever, is just not present with an electric powered anything...
FWIW flying an electric powered large airplane is cool and all, but the lack of noise feed-back takes some getting used to...same w/ cars too I suppose...when there are other vehicles around, it's more difficult to follow exactly where yours is. (especially if your plane gets lost in the fog...no noise to help locate it! so you fly by instinct )

I've been a Slot Racer too...not the plastic toys, but the scratch built "Pro Level" stuff on 8 lane routed wood tracks...and they are all (of course ) electric...
When I got back into the R/C hobby about 15 years ago, after a 10 year hiatus, it was w/ electric power...(mainly because of my slot car experience )
Most of the guys in the clubs looked at me funny because electric powered R/C aircraft, at that time (late 90's ) were so far below anything fuel burning....but it was the challenge to fly with heavy Ni-Cd's and brushed motors that made it even more interesting.

The brushless motors and Li-Po batteries have made the R/C world a very different place...but it's all good, aye?!

in 1/10th scale or lower, no question electric destroys nitro in all aspects: Price, maintenance, performance, longevity, cleanliness, acceptability to electric only tracks.

for 1/8th scale, its a toss up, even the best electric setups have been known to explode, less run times, generally heavier than nitro and still overall don't have the same performance, But electrics don't flame out like nitro, the real fun is 10 min mains with electric vs nitro, too good, however, stupid track rules will force you to pit at least once as in a fake pit.

You are what you eat.....
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Guys? why are we doing this?? everyone has thier own opinion, this arguement is NOT going to end...

I totally agree. Especially since I've started messing with brushless, which I have liked more than I would have expected.

But it is TOTALLY annoying - and provocative - when people make these stupid comments about nitro supposedly "dying" or being "obsolete" (or even just difficult..) - or electric being somehow objectively "better"...

One, this is an insult to people who prefer something else - in this case nitro, but unfortunately have to share the same forum with electric-only people who seem to have a chip on their shoulder about nitro, presumably - no, most likely - because they could never figure nitro out. And two, it's just patently false, so for those of us who are bothered by blatant lies and misinformation, well, it's hard to not say something to try to restore some semblance of balance, objectivity, and truth* to the topic..

I would have never come into this thread blabbing my preferences, and in the process making fun of electric stuff. I only ever do that in response to the elo-fangirl nonsense.

Whatever the case, I wholeheartedly agree. It's a hobby - everybody should do what they want and have fun with it. If you prefer electric, just say "I prefer electric", not "Electric rules and nitro is dying.." Would go a long way to avoiding a lot of the nonsense...

* Yes, it does indeed make things more balanced, objective, and truthful to come into a thread and point out all the things I and others have pointed out on the pro-nitro side, sure - at times a bit harshly, when the electric people start in with their offensive comments.

I'm really starting to get tired of you insulting me and then accusing us of insulting you, which hasn't happened even once in this entire thread, but it's going to now.
Erm, what have you pointed out on the pro-nitro side. You seem to see a lot of things in this thread that aren't there.

And you to not see things that are..

Just quoting that above for posterity. I rest my case..



ps Somewhat tempted to respond to your bloated sense - and claim(ha..) - of intellectual (not to mention RC.. ) superiority, but I'll let it pass. Your emotional and hysterical tirade, along with your childish insistence that more electric power equates not only to objective toy-car superiority, but intellectual superiority..(!!? Seriously?.. Ha!..) makes you look bad enough..

wow! all this over nitro and electric. i thought you was arguing over something life or death important.. both have their place. i have both. nitro and electric. and i like both. just run what you like and live with it.

whats getting outdated is brushed electric.    brushless price is coming down. therefore makinf it more prasctical to buy brushless right off

Herrsavage, I deleted my recent post and your response and offer my apologies, I won't let my temper get the better of me again in this topic.

He's on moderated status as well... Like always.

nice first post....
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Times are changing, no doubt about it.

Nitro vs electric.... Humm reminds me of fuel injected vs carby.... Would u believe people still argue that.
People use to argue about steam vs internail combusting. No kidding trains are a great example.
Look at the world around us, if a engine can be replaced with a motor it has or will be, too many examples to list
The transport sector is allready using IC motors with generators, no more direct drive for heavy machinery.
Hybrid cars are becoming very popular, lawn mowers and weed wackers are now brushless, trains are becoming fully electric, electric full scale dragsters are just taking off,...

Let's face it, in general IC engine are been phased out.

If the world around us is going electric, wouldent it make sence to assume and predict that our beloved hobby might end up the same?

I think for nitro to keep alive over the next 20 years it needs to pick up its game. But how? Those motors are at the limit
Where brushless technology will most likely improve even more. We might see more devolepment on the hydrogen full cells...
Then we can argue water vs lipo... Who knows

Nothing is being "phased out".

People still go bow-hunting for godsake.

And there are no 1:1 race series worth mentioning - and won't be for years..

A lot of the perceived momentun for electric is in the advertising - the vast majority of which comes from companies like Traxxas, and is targeted at newbs. Who with more than a year or so experience in RC seriously cares about Traxxas?

Electric definitely has advantages, but the number of pages Traxxas devotes to advertising to newbs in magazines should seriously not even enter the discussion. Because in the end, it's like anything else - who gives a c.rap what anybody else does or thinks? As long as there is nitro fuel to buy, I will run nitro. And it's looking like I will run electric too. But Traxxas' (or anybody else's) advertising strategy, or what more newbs prefer based on that advertising, means zip nada nothing to me when it comes to my RC preferences.

Here is a fun game

Who can think of the crazy thing from the past that we're run off a steam or IC engine?



I'm gonna say Water pump

what kills electric is weight...weight, weight and more weight............... on a race track weight is everything.............the heavier the car is, the less nimble it is...a lighter weight nitro carves the corners much better then a bloated electric...........my 28 powered truggy would eat your 6S powered truggy alive if we raced on the track...why ? because your going to be 2lbs heavier and your going to have nowhere near the handling I will have...........every single corner you will drift wide and I will carve like a razor..........

Weight does not make a vehicle handle better...weight makes a vehicle stay straight better, and it also makes changing directions much more difficult.......which is the opposite of what you want on a offroad track................

You still fail to see the point about Traxxas. Traxxas isn't like other hobby companies, it's the MacDonalds of RC, it's only interested in making things as cheaply as possible and selling them for as much as they can get away with. They will always release products that are 'current'. If nitro was to have a resurgence, so would Traxxas nitro lineup, if electric continues to dominate, they will offer still more electric stuff, and even less nitro stuff.

Now take a company like Mugen or Xray, they are in the game because they love it, sure, they want to make money, but they have a heritage they need to stick to in order to maintain reputation. Traxxas doesn't care about its repuation, only its bottom line. As such traxxas is a good barometer for the market. If nitro was still as popular as electric, why would the premier box-shifting company reduce their nitro portfolio tojust a few models, and expand their electric lineup to never before seen levels.

Please, stop trying to deny the obvious and disagree with it because you haven't understood. Nobody's saying Traxxas models are particularly influential, what they are is REPRESENTATIVE.

Again you continue to draw analogies to support your argument which support the OTHER argument (you really aren't very good at this debating business, I'm sorry to say, that is not meant as an insult, take it as constructive criticism). Yes, people still use bows. Are bows more efficient or effective at killing than guns? No. That's why more people hunt with guns than bows. Hunting with a bow, as driving a nitro car, is fun, and totally down to personal preference, however, which is superior between a bow and a gun is patently bloody obvious. No?

Nobody wants you to convert to electric, I just want you to acknowledge, as your OWN analogy, that you are hunting with a bow, and I with a gun. k?

I am unable to reconcile this statement. My Xray XT8 on 4S is only 100g heavier than my friend's ST-RR on nitro with a full tank and nimh receiver pack. Also, i8tweety, someone whose race experience I bow to, says that you are wrong and that in his experience 4S electric is not just a little faster round a track, but significantly. To be honest, I knew this, but would never have argued with you directly, as my off road race experience is very little, now I wonder if 1) the electrics you race with are driven by numpties, 2) if they are using nimh batteries (lol), and 3) if you actually have much experience with electric yourself?

Address Bob's post, top of page 4. He is a man who knows what he;s talking about when it comes to racing.

Nitro will stay for several reasons, but mainly, what about the 1 hour finals? only on Nitro it can be fun, and on 1/8 electric Buggy, the cars are heavy and take more punishment, how many new drivers are keeping up with the cost of being competitive? This is about racing, racing mainly dominate the hobby and the world championships in either 1/8, on or off road drives the market, and that is why bashing are becoming more popular now, not everybody wants to get in serious racing, so electric or Nitro you can just pick what you like the most , so it will keep both very active, electric and Nitro, I have both and they are equally good as one has what the other lacks, always both ways.