I am low on cash but like big performance, so i was wondering about your thoughts on nitro rc. Is it worth the extra cash to buy the car? is it worth buying nitro fuel at 10 bucks a quart? Is it worth having to rebuild engines every 6 gallons or so? i wanna get into nitro, so i wanna hear your stories, good and bad. i really like nitro performance and i don't mind maintenence and clean up, but is the price worth it? I want to see if nitro is worth a try, otherwise i'll go with electric. I don't want a flame war or a nitro vs. electric thread, only to see if your guys stories w/ nitro are good.

ps what kind of fuel consumption are you guys getting with a small block .15 or .18 and how about a .26 or .25

thanks!

Nitro is still my favorite, even though i have a mamba max brushless system in my electric cars. The noise and performance is why i like it.

if you have the money to be buying fuel,upgrdes,replacment parts then yea i think its worth it if you get the right vehicle (dont even wanna go there yet) with my 3.3 (.20) i get about 10-15 min. of run time on a tank depends if im going wide open or putt puttin around,so for me i prefer nitro cause i hate waiting for batterys to charge,if your low on cash and dont get alot i would say electric.

I dunno seems to me when it comes down to the price to performance ratio nitros are cheaper. I may be wrong, but if you want to run the same kind of speed as a nitro yeah you can do with an electric it will just cost you a lot. And if you want to run it as long as you can run a nitro it will cost you a lot more in batteries.

At the end of the day, they both cost the same. electric is more expensive up front, and nitro is more expensive over the long haul.

overall i love nitro. i havent had alot of problems with nitro, they break as usual over time and need maintenance like electrics. you'll like it if you get into them. rebuilding the engines are easy to. i have three nitros and one 18th scale electric.

The thing i found most helped me get into nitro was getting an roto start and/ or a starter box and getting an engine that holds it tune well and isnt to sensitive. I rarely had to tune my lst or buggy, but my xtm xcellorator on the other hand was never able to hold a tune.

Nitros cost more i reckon, But on average will have more performance. As already said, electric cost more up front but cheaper in the long run, and less hassle, nitros = funner + bit more expensive.

Go nitro, but read up on it first, dont go and try and tune your engine like i did when i had no idea what a high speed needle was

Most new to RC get electric first since most starter kits offer RTR boxes cheaper as elctric cars/trucks. Then, once they been it for awhile, they move on to Nitro. Dont get me wrong, electric can be more expensive than any Nitro out there, it just depends on how seriously you get into it and how much you are willing to spend.

In general, nitro costs more, but DONT ever buy the quart fuels. Always buy fuel by the gallon because if you do the calculations, you pay twice as much for the quart fuel. (One quart costs half as much as a gallon of the equivalent fuel, but a quat is only a quarter of what a whole gallon is).

Aside from have to buy fuel (which can cost $35 per gallon!), nitro is harder to work on (general maintenace, learning to tune, plug choices and exhuast choices, shimming the head, etc.), but the eventual rebuild can be a challenge to many when the time comes.

I persobnally never went electric; I started off with nitro and am still quite fanatical about nitro. I personally love the constant tinkering and actually enjoy taking apart the engines and rebuilding them. Nitro is also unique to electric in the healty noise they make and the smell of the exhaust they emit. To me, electric will not match that (unless they make a motor that can turn 100000RPM for insane speeds!).

i think nitro is way worth the extra money. ive got over $1300 in my truck and i dont regret spending a single penny. just hearing my little engine start makes it all worth while to me. but thats just me. haha.

Nitro RC has offered me the highest highs (TORQUE!, WOT high speed runs, THE sound of a pefectly tuned nitro engine) and the lowest lows (raw hands from pullstarts, difficult tuning and starting engines, crashes w/ WOT high speed runs).[]

If money is a real concern, I would stay electric.

Going fast with electric will cost more than nitro. Just add up a good charger, a bunch of good battery packs, a high-end speed control and a good motor. Thats quite some cash right there. Nothing good is cheap.

Comparing nitro and electric is somewhat like comparing apples to oranges. Yes they are both fruits, but they are different fruits altogether.......

This is what YOU like better, not how the rest of us feel.

I just jumped into 1/5 scale and all the guys were either former nitro or electric guys. They all say that they will never go back once you go gas, and that since they bought their first gas they has sold all their nitro's. YES the initial shock of buying a 1200 truck is a kick in the nutz BUT i hear they run far better then nitro's, no tuning problems with temperature change, 45 minute run times instead of 8-10 minutes, no more 10 dollar + bottles of nitro fuel, just a gallon of gas and a quart of 2 cycle oil and your ready to go for hours and hours of fun!. Plus their BIG, tough, and JUST as fast as most nitros. No more glow plug or glow ignitors or roto start, just one or two pulls and BAm they start right up. I just bought a FG monster truck, so once it gets here i can see for myself but the overall word is that their better then nitro but most people don't want to buy a 1200+ truck ya know and thats what scares people away. I'm sure i won't sell all my nitros because thier just different but then again maybe i will, we shall see?! I'm excited to see how well they perform!

I overall really like nitro, sometimes thier a pain in the butt but their alot of fun, then again electrics are the same. I'll soon have the best of all three worlds to choose from!

Nitro more expensive in the long run? I considered going back to electric, but I notice that esc's and motors (brushless included) can and do burn up, probably as often as a well maintained nitro engine. Battery packs go bad also. Fuel is not cheap, glow plugs can be a pain. I prefer nitro, but either one will be a lot of fun. Go to a local track, hang out and watch a few races, and see which one gets your heart beating quicker. Then buy one.

just out of curiosity, how much would you expect to pay for some electric engines can you list some, from bad to good and the prices in AU please.

cheers

oh 60ish for a decent stock engine.

I like running Nitro Trucks... I like them most out of all my R/Cs.

My first RC: An electric MRC truck.... After seeing a bunch of guys at the local hobby shop racing the nitro stadium trucks, I decided to save up to get one... Three months later, I bought a Duratrax Nitro Evader.... For a year and a half straight, I ran that car everyday. I loved the smell and sound of nitro, and especially the attention it gives you. I honestly never really tuned up that engine the whole time I ran it, maybe once or twice briefly a year, but other than that, had no troubles. It was then that I decided I wanted to get into bashing, and simply put, my nitro evader just couldn't put up with it... I had considered buying a savage or t-maxx, but then when the electric stampede came in, I decided to get that (the price just simply couldn't be beat {for me}). My evader has sat for over a year, and every time I take it out and drive it once in a while, I just simply don't enjoy it as much as I used to... But in the long run, I have had a good experience w/nitro, but an even better experience w/ electric. Go ahead and buy a nitro, if you find out you don't like it, sell it and buy an electric... Its all personal opinion on which is better. Some people will swear to electric, some to nitro, its all what you like best. Just go for it and no matter what, have a good time. <-- Thats what its all about.

If nitro was outlawed and my choices were 'electric or nothing', I'd choose 'nothing'.

Then I'd save up for gas powered R/C.

If you compare a stock RTR electric with a stock RTR Nitro the electric is cheaper. But if you look at a brushless and Lipo, the original outlay for the electric will be higher. In the long run the electric will save you money and maintenance time.

Here is my history.

Started out with inexpensive Traxxas RTR's in the 90's. These were the old jobs with the mechanical speed controls. They were fun to bash but got tired of swapping battery after battery and only getting 7 minute run times. Upgraded to ESC's but got marginal improvement in runtimes. At the time also bought an EMaxx....way fun...but same short runtimes.

Bought my first nitro a TMaxx. Loads of fun....but LOUD...tough to run in the neighborhood and runtimes were closer to 10 minutes. Bought a special built pushrod TMaxx. That had a lower growl and would go 15 minutes on a tank. Felt guilty running it in the neighborhood so I used to run to the park everytime.

I heard about brushless...wanted to do it...but the costs were prohibitive.

Spent some time indoors racing 1/18th scale and Mini-Z's. It was refreshing to drive 20 minutes between charges.

A few years ago saw Mamba enter the world of brushless and reasonalble prices. Bought an M18 and WOW. It would run 30-40 minutes on a brushless setup. Bought a RadioShack Propulse and slapped a brushless system on it. Cost all of $190 for the truck, brushless system and Lipo. YeeHAAA! Crazy bashing and jumping and don't have to worry about annoying the neighbors.

I'm now upgrading my EMaxx to brushless. Will be installing a Feigao brushless system at a cost of about $180 dollars and buying a couple 5000mAh 3S Lipos. The Lipos will be the biggest expense, about $120 a piece but I figure I should be able to get 25-35 minute run times out of them....and 300 to 500 runs. Should end up being cheaper to run, over the life of the batteries than a Nitro.

if you go electrice you gotta buy team losi's micro-t. that thing is fast for only 1/36 scale. i've heard up to 15mph! awsome!

I originally started out with nitro. Now, I'm about to sell my only nitro and will solely run electric for the immediate future. I switched because I found electric to be less maintenance and less time consuming for my own situation (married with 2 kids/full time job/a little time here and there for bash sesssions/no racing). It's much easier for me to throw a couple batteries on the charger the night before the day I run my vehicles than having to deal with all the nitro gear and tuning issues.

As for cost, and this can vary depending on vehicle choice, I think electric might be slightly more expensive to start up with, but in the long run, cheaper.

Lastly, I personally think there is less to go wrong with electric. I have a few brushed electric vehicles and one equipped with a Mamba Max. I can't see any reason for myself to go nitro again any time soon because brushless fits my needs so well. I love the plug and play convenience.

Still, there is nothing like the sound of a nitro screaming by you at a high rate of speed! Maybe again some day...

I would probably start with a beginner version. You can buy a lot of decent rc nitro for $150-$200 all over the net and on ebay. I started running a smartech 2 speed buggy, and crashed it 5-6 times and it's still hanging strong even though like half the parts are already broken .

I would have to say go nitro, electrics are just as expensive and you get more power for the money. Now yes you can get a electric that has more power then a nitro, but you will be spending a butt load and when money is an issue you dont have that ability to buy those motor's esc's and battery combo along with a good charger to charge those batteries.

Everyone says well nitro's involve so much tuning. Yeah some engine's are finicky but not all are. I have a .18cvr and I can go for weeks without tuning that thing. And I'm expecting to get at least 10+ gallons out of this engine, once you get a hang of the tunning thing then you wont have a problem. I have a XXX-T that I drive sometimes and yeah that thing is pretty quick, goes pretty good but it should for that amount of money I put into it. Yeah I will say that I still like electrics as I have been wanting to put a brushless motor in that xxx-t to see what it can do. But right now for the performance that I want out of it I cant really justify spending that much money for the ESC motor combo along with the batteries and a charger to make sure those costly lipo's dont blow up and burn down the house.


They both have there up and downs but for me nitro is the way to go. For the fact, I love the smell, the sound the power, my .18cvr cost $109.99 and for a motor, esc and battery combo for an electric to match that power will cost way more then that. Thats why I would choose nitro, but thats just my opinion.

ok there kung fu master
jk