Nitro vs Electric
 

Yea, that's right, I posted that subject line.... ;-)

In all seriousness, this is not a tongue-in-cheek question:

If electric is the boss in the RC car world, why is it then, that"the hobby's" SuperBowl is IFMAR's 1/8 nitro buggy?

Even with on-road circuit, nitro is the main event.

Yet, 70% of everything I read/hear about "the hobby" has to do with electric cars. Shouldn't it be the opposite?

A few days ago I was on the phone with Losi, and when I mentioned my nitro model, thecustomer-service agent actually said to me, "You mean people are still driving nitro?" I felt like chewing his ass out, but instead laughedit off and said, "Obviously so, as your company's biggest marketing campaign revolves around Adam Drake, maybe you should ask him that question." He wised up after that.</p>

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

this is going to be fun :D

nitro for me. I also love 1:5 gas power, but If I have to choose 1 ...NITRO it is. :D

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Not sure howyou coulddetermine one being the "boss" over the other...maybe sales? But even that wouldn't cover the subjective aspect of enjoying one more than the other. Which makes me wonder has anyone ever tried to actually make a comprehensive list of pros &amp; cons to each in an effort to quantitate which one is superior? Might be an interesting list compared to the usual my opinion is better than your opinion drivel these threads turn into.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

The majority of the rc world are bashers, many of which have noise restrictions where they drive or are too lazy or not willing to keep a nitro running well. This is why electric is like 70% of what you here

If I had a choice of watching a nitro 1/8 buggy race or an electric 1/8 buggy race, I'd choose the nitro, more exciting and requires more skill from the competitors




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RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Here is my opinion on them and my kids and I have both electric and nitro.

Electric is definitely easier to deal with, less mess and tuning. Probably overall a little cheaper for the good stuff and definitely cheaper in the long run once you have plenty of batteries.

Nitro's only redeeming factors seem to be the "cool factor" (Nitro sound and smell is still cool IMO) and the ability to just fuel up and keep going.

Nitros are also cool because I think they take more skill and talent to drive them as fast as an electric. My kids race motocross so to me they are sort of like the difference between 2 stroke dirt bikes and 4 stroke dirt bikes. On the 4-stroke (or electric RC) if you don't get through the corner very good and lose your momentum you can still just hit the throttle and clear the jump but if you don't carry speed on that nitro car or 2 smoker dirt bike your probably going to come up short and probably take a dirt bath.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Ugh oh not again! lol I love running nitro but sometimes im just to lazy haha but If I had to choose one as of now it would probably be nitro.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Here we go again. :eek:

Do we really need to open this can of worms yet again, I'm not in the mood to be told I play with a soulless kids toy today.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Nor I to hear from some teenager newb yet again who only ever had an RTR Traxxas that nitro is "hard"... :eek:

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

If u race nitro, if u bash electric

On a race car I'd doesent matter how much the running costs are, but on a bash car it does.

It cost me under $0.20 to charge 1 battery....

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

How's this my local club, SDMCC, is a Offroad only club, but it mainly does 1/8 IC racing, apparently there is not enough interest in EP racing so they don't hold offical races. Just practice days

I think it has a lot to do with tradition and trends. One day when there is more intrest electric will be as big.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

The 'superbowl' is a US only competition, so hardly an appropriate analogy. In any case, in this particular, it may be more accurate than ever, since in America, the #1 competition may indeed be IC 1/8th buggy, the rest of the world gives the highest honor to 1/8th IC ON-Road.

If you finish on the podium of the 1/8th IC on-road world championships, you are amongst the top 30 or so RC drivers ever to have lived. It is also the oldest racing series.

You say Adam Drake to Lamberto Collari, he'll probably say; 'Adam who?' (in Italian of course)...anyway, I digress...

Electric is better than nitro. I'm sorry, but it is. I like both, I own both. In every QUANTIFIABLE way, electric is better. The only thing that makes that irrelevant, is of course personal opinion. Personal opinion is also the same thing that can mean a Pinto is a more desirable car than a lamborghini, so we all know what personal opinion is worth... ;) So what are the metrics...performance? Runtime? Cost? Convenience?

Regardless of your opinion on the matter, the fact is that nitro is dying (edit: I'd like to change the preceding word to 'receding' not dying). Even your beloved ic 1/8th buggy class is slowly going electric everywhere. Believe it or not, most people want performance, they don't care about the sound, smell, etc. Take me for example, as long as nitro was faster and gave better runtime, I would not have switched. Now electric offers me better runtime (I don't need to stop at all, whereas a fuel can will eventually run out), less interrupted running (stop every 20 minutes instead of 6-8), cleaner running (I often don't have to clean my electric cars at all, whereas the nitros are black all over), higher performance and more important than all, quieter running.

One thing I will say is that at the lower end of the market (budget cars), you get a lot more for your money buying nitro.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Oh please foxy.. :eek:

Electric is not "better", and nitro is not "dying".. Utter nonsense.

This is a bloody stupid topic, and I only bother with it when people type this kind of BS. People can and will run what they want. Yes, electric is currently more popular at the bottom (i.e. newb) layer of the RC pyramid, but that does not mean nitro is dying - by a long stretch. I am active on multiple forums, and I see plenty of newbs showing up wanting a nitro as their first RC, with zero interest in electric, and I see plenty of electric people wanting to cross over and try nitro.

I really doubt too that 1/8 onroad is bigger than 1/8 buggy. Maybe to a select few around the world - but it is a select few.. 1/8 onroad migt be more "advanced", the title plenty difficult to attain, etc.. But offroad is just more popular. Collari might not know who Adam Drake is, but some newb in a LHS in Kansas will know Drake's name before Collari's.. That's just a dumb comparison. Or maybe not.. 1/8 onroad is what it is because it's a very serious motorsport - in mini.. Motorsport being the operative word.

Electric will simply never have the appeal in any kind of racing that high end fuel-burning racing does - from 1:1 to 1:10. Electric racing for spectators is totally geek-only... For bashing, OK, electric is a bit more convenient - I really am enjoying being able to run my new electric truck right outside my front door in the city. But nitro is still more visceral - and worth the wait til spring I might add.. Electric is for farting around in the winter in the neighborhood..

I think one of the main reasons electric is currently so popular is the 1/10 SC fad - those being some of the most retarded RC's on four wheels.

In my opinion of course.... :)

(But seriously, watch a 2wd SC race after a nitro buggy heat.. I'd seriously rather poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick than watch such mindnumbing farcical nonsense..)

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

I feel that they can both be set up to be equal. I'm sure any RC hobbyist can tell you that electric is more efficient than nitro, and cleaner and easier, but that's what some people like about nitro...the tinkering with a small motor. If I had the money, I would have one of each. Both are an equally amazing piece of mechanical art. As far as performance is concerned, it all depends on how deep your pockets are and your models limitations. They can both be made fast.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Nitro does NOT require "tinkering" if you have half a clue.

It does have a learning curve, the matering of which makes the HOBBY more rewarding. Yes you do have to master something, to learn how an actual machine works, and develop a feel for it. Once you surmount the learning curve though there is very little tuning you have to do. "Tinkering" is a stupid word - it sounds like you constantly have to fiddle with this and that, as if you never are at a point where you can just run your stuff. Which again is far from the truth if you have half a clue and aren't running some stupid Traxxas RTR engine..

Electric is also simply not as plug and play as people say. Lots of ESC programming, soldering(far worse than tuning any nitro engine..), toasted lipos, broken drivetrain parts from the excessive power(experienced this yesterday..), etc..

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

With brushless technology these new electrics can out perform similiar nitro's but I seriously doubt nitro will die. People enjoy the sounds and power behind a nitro. I have used both and still prefer the nitro even if it requires more maintenance and care. I think electric is the lazy mans rc. Slap a battery on a charger, velcro it in and go. You want more speed, go 4s instead of 2s, you want more speed with a nitro you work with gearing ratios and percentages, detonation etc. Just seems like electric takes so much away from the hobby.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Ta-da...

I didn't give any opinion, just straight facts.

Nitro vs Electric is this:

Electric is faster, quieter, cleaner.

Nitro is slower, noisier, dirtier.

the only reason to buy nitro is because you either can't afford the electrics required to get the performance you want, or you simply prefer nitro. There is no PRACTICAL reason someone would say 'nitro is better because this this and this', you can only say 'nitro is better because I like it more'.

As for the people saying that it takes more effort to get power out of a nitro than an electric...lemme guess, never run electric? ;)

Nitro will not die completely, but in my time in the hobby I've seen it rise and now fall.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

you guys are on glue if you think Nitro will die LOL.....


And In buggy nitro is still faster, 4S lipo in a buggy has nothing on a strong nitro.....

Nitro is also more reliable........... yep thats right,....watch any rc races and you see more failures with the flashlights then you see with the nitro's.......... I own a track and a hobby store, I sell all systems.....brushless fails all the time in 1/8th...so many DNF's over the season due to failure..either a smoked speed control or a smoked motor or battery.......

Brushless is already fading back in 1/8th...nitro tunrouts are always much bigger then electric...why ? because electyric aren't nearly as exciting as nitro...in North America we like engines, not motors !

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

You most definitely did NOT give straight facts..

"Nitro is dying." BS... (and not only not true, but just a lame, baseless, frankly thoughtless and last but not least flat-out false statement - nothing more..)

"Electric is better than nitro". So that morsel of objectivity is a fact, and not an opinion?...(yours) :eek:

Nonsense..

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

You're right, I edited my original post, 'dying' is indeed the wrong word, I'd like to swap that for 'receding'.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

no it is not....the turnouts this year are coming back strong...many more nitro racers out there then electric.......and that trend will never change...nitro is just far more interesting to people,.....

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

If you can't even be bothered to read people's posts and also can't contain your inner rage, please refrain from posting. When will you learn to have an adult conversation?

Also, I changed 'dying' to 'receding', leaving the original word there for continuity...

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Here's my quick shot at an argument as to how nitro could be seen to be "better" than electric.

RC is a hobby, not a toy. It entails a learning curve, know-how, experience, a sense and understanding of how things work. Once you master this, participation in the hobby is more rewarding. You've achieved and mastered something, and now have an intuitive feel for it. Which is pretty cool.. (I'm still learning - which is actually a cool thing.. So it's not just a toy I'll get bored with in a few months..) It's like the feeling of earning something yourself, instead of having it handed to you. It's like foreplay leading up to the real thing, instead of, well, that bathroom scene looking out the window at the pool in Fast Times at Ridgemont High..

The alternative - electric - as viewed by the masses of RTR Traxxas customers, is just a plug and play instant gratification fun-activity for ADD teenagers too distracted to concentrate on how to tune an engine.

Nitro is like a motorsport in mini. Fuel-burning engines are exhilerating in a way electric cars are not - and never will be.

A high-performance internal combustion engine doesn't make noise - it makes a kind of music. Sound is integral to the overall experience - to NFL and other sports games, to action movies, and to RC.

So there..

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

You're the one posting provocative statements with words like "dying", "X is better than Y", etc.. - knowingly provoking people, dressing up your arbitrary opinions as fact. Far from it..

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Coming back from what? The caning they have taken at the hands of brushless evolution, yeh, maybe...but still, there are a lot LESS nitro folks around now than there were two years ago, less still than there were 4 years ago, and less still than 6 years ago. I call that a trend.

Believe it or not, what happens at tracks is not representative of the hobby in general.

Go to traxxas and count the electric models, now count the nitro models. You telling me traxxas are stupid and should be focusing on nitro race cars? They know the market better than anybody. Now, if you'd done the same comparison 5 years ago, you think there would be more nitro or electric cars? I can tell you it was about even. HPI the same.

We must try not to apply our niche or corner of the world to the entire hobby.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

I have one nitro and a few electric which include brushed and brushless. I like them both but I do like the convenience of electric. But I also like the the sound of nitro.

My main hobby is RC planes but my club has also gotten into running buggies and trucks for off road. We have a track so we bash and do some racing and the electric are just easier for me.

In my airplane hobby the same arguement about electric vs. nitro is the same. Ads for airplanes greatly lean towards the electrics. Although I have a couple of electric planes I really prefer nitro. For planes the flight times for electric planes is to the point where the nitros are if you compare a tank of fuel to a battery pack. But it takes an hour to charge a battery where it takes a couple of minutes to fill a tank. I know a guy could have more than one battery but al I carry is 2 so all I get is two flights and I get at least ten from a gallon of fuel.

One last note: Airplane nitro engines are alot easier to tune and they usually stayed tuned. There is a lot less time you have to mess with a plane engine than a buggy engine.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Traxxas is obviously a big player in the RC world - but the bottom of it. Take Traxxas out of the equation (as most non-newbs do anyway) and everything looks very different.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

There is no provocation in my words at all, just stating it as I see it, without emotion.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Sure, but traxxas is a great barometer of the market. They don't make models because they love it, they don't make models for racing, they make whatever people are buying. See why its relevant?

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

My signature merely articulates my fed-up-ness with pseudo-objective postings by you and others on this utterly stupid topic. I used to try to be more diplomatic, but posts like yours are so full of it I decided to .... well, throw diplomacy to the wind.

I mean, that's what you're doing when you say "nitro is dying" and "electric is better than nitro".. And a select few of you are saying c.rap like that all the time..

I actually like brushless now more than I thought I would. It is indeed very convenient(being able to walk through the local park or neighborhood, where I never could with nitro), running a high-performance RC truck.. But there's more to life than convenience.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

nitro sales now are just as good as ever......I am selling more engines then I ever have......and so are the factories ......... nitro is not dyeing by any means LOL.....

However electric is bringing more people into the hobby...which then exposes them to the more interesting nitro in the long run

Traxass Nitro sucked...thank god they are moving away from nitro, their engines and nitro products gave nitro a bad name !

and how do you know what traxass sells ? do you own a hobby store and deal with the distributors ? I certainly do !

for novices getting into the hobby electric is better IMO,which is good for Traxass as their products are meant for novices...

in the end your biased against nitro... makes me wish we could meet at a track, as I guarantee one day at the track with me and your electrics wouldn't seem nearly as impressive as you think they are...

At the end of the day nitro is not going anywhere..if anything the electric class will become the feeder class for the nitro..........electric is great for getting guys into the hobby, nitro is great for keeping them in the hobby.......

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Traxxas is an awful barometer of the market. Shiny overpriced RTR lower-quality products for newbs, which need lots of upgrades to made halfway durable. Some eventually figure that out and move on to better things, but I'll bet there are an awful lot of beat-up Rustlers laying in peoples' cellars, never touched after the first breakage. Anyone with half a clue in RC stays clear of Traxxas(excepting a few willing to invest the time and money to make them tough.. No offense to them. But by and large Traxxas is a brand for newbs..)

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

I edited my post regarding your sig, as you are being more reasonable now and I didn't want to seem provocative, thanks for taking ithat comment in the spirit it was meant anyway. :)

I agree that for some there is more to life than convenience and performance. To those people I say 'do you want something you can run anywhere anytime, but sounds like a UFO? Or do you want a nitro with wicked sound and smell that you have to take out of the city to run?', it's a simple question that is usually the decider for most. Others, like you and me, can afford to run both.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

Nitro sales are up because the hobby is growing rapidly again (largely thanks to the brushless revolution)

Traxxas nitro may have sucked, that isn't the point. Traxxas aren't there to do anything but make money. They sell what 'sells'. If nitro was on the rise, traxxas would be developing more nitro vehicles. Funny you continue to think that because you are on the commercial end of things you know better than others, again it might surprise you to find that the opposite is the case. :)

Electric is not for novices at all, nitro is. You seen a novice electric car? Brushed motor and nimh battery, mmmm, the cars most likely to put someone off the hobby forever. :)

Sigh..... I'm NOT biased against nitro, I just believe that electric technology has surpassed it in many ways.

Nitro isn't going anywhere...in how long? 10 years? 100 years?

As someone who makes and sells nitro engines I would suggest you are not completely objective.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

supertib:
[/quote]
At the end of the day nitro is not going anywhere..if anything the electric class will become the feeder class for the nitro..........electric is great for getting guys into the hobby, nitro is great for keeping them in the hobby.......
[/quote]


I have never more wholeheartedly (if at all) agreed with a sentence to come from supertib than his last one right there. I'm even shocked myself..

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

As controversial as this thread is getting, I can see it closed in a day or two. "Nitro vs electric" threads are almost as bad as political ones. They revolve almost purely on opinions.

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

So did you need lots of help with your nitros when you first started? Just curious?

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

we have a healthy attendance of electrics.....most of the new guys come to the track armed with electrics............ but whats interesting , and something I suspected would happen, is that the electric gus are becoming interested in nitro........and whats even better is that the guys who start with electric usually do much better with nitro , as they already have the basics under their belt......We have seen many guys start with electric , then end up purchasing nitro's..........There is no question about it, nitro cars attract attention and capture people's imaginations much more then electric does........... At our track nobody cares when he electrics are racing, no spectators, nothing...Yet when the nitro's fire up everyone watches.....Nitro is just more interesting for most people in general..... If all there was running was electrics the hobby would die off, electrics just don't wow people the same way a nitro does........... Once people see a few standing backflips the novelty wears off...


I sell both nitro and electric ! I make money on both..........

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

I don't disagree with anything above. I know more people who have gone from nitro to electric myself, but only since the popularization of brushless.

I assure you my 6S truggy wows people a lot more than any of my nitros (although my best nitro hardly compares to your best). I can speak from personal experience. Nitro is still popular here in greece, due to the length of time in the market, electric brushless is outrageously expensive here, and in general wages are low anyway, so not many people are ordering from elsewhere. Therefore, more nitros at the bash spot usually, but that is slowly changing. Anyway, and as I'm sure I've told you before, when I put the 6S truggy down and gun it, not just the bystanders all turn and stare open mouthed, all the nitro hobbyists do as well. It is not just a small difference to the average nitro, it is a TOTALLY different animal. It's not the speed that's impressive, it's the torque which is up almost 100% compared to a nitro. I'll be rolling along at 50mph, and still lift the front wheels and turn them into pizza cutters as I hurtle toward my top speed of around 70mph. My tires audibly screeching on the dusty tarmac as I torture them mercilessly with the overwhelming torque. Standing backflips, triple flips off a modest ramp, THAT's what makes everyone turn and look at a brushless.

Now the gasser, that makes a noise that makes people stop and put ear defenders on...erm, I mean stop and stare :)

RE: Nitro vs Electric
 

6S as a basher is wild....but too hot and heavy for racing