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Radio controlled cars or trucks are the only cars that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. In most countries, people are not permitted to drive until they are 17 and in some countries, women of any age are not permitted to drive, but everyone can drive an RC car and race them and what is more, lots of individuals can even build their own.

RC cars appeal to people of all ages and although it was a sport dominated by men and boys until ten years ago, there are now numerous women and girls getting involved in RC cars and racing them as well.

There are three basic combinations of RC cars to take into account:

Ready-to-Run (RTR) RC Cars and Kits: RTR cars are really the entry point for those wishing to take up RC cars. RTR cars are already assembled. Kits on the other hand require assembly, although you get all the components in the kit.

These cars or trucks can be models of real vehicles or be fantasy models. RTR are invariably powered by batteries, which puts several restrictions on them in the way of power, speed and distance to run. An annoying feature is that the power gradually wanes and occasionally you have to bring back your car yourself.

They are quite cheap though and easy to maintain. A novice will learn a lot from assembling a kit RC car or truck and they can be modified or improved on in numerous fashions.

On Road or Off Road: on road RC cars are built for speed. These are the racing vehicles and can achieve remarkable speeds. They can use any of the power sources, but most of them use nitro.

Off road RC vehicles will be less fast but with plenty of torque, they will be able to handle rough ground and steep inclines. These are endurance vehicles that need their drivers to use different skills to racing drivers.

Electric, nitro or petrol: your choice of fuel will determine a lot about your car. Electric cars are normally RTR and nitro are normally racers, but petrol -powered cars are on the rise, although petrol powered cars are usually larger in scale. The enormous 1:5 scale cars and trucks are invariably run with petrol powered engines – scale copies of the engines that run full-sized cars.

Electric cars are fairly quiet, but the other two kinds are noisy, which provides realism to a race. Once you have made your three choices, I hope that you have opted for self-assembly. If you have, the tools that you will require are quite basic: screwdrivers, spanners, Stanley knife, tin snips, graphite powder, oil and soap (to get tight-fitting parts to go on).

My advice would be to begin by taking an RC car magazine for a couple of months before purchasing the kit in order to become acquainted with the jargon and some of the techniques. You ought to also join a club and go to a few race meetings. Other enthusiasts will be glad to resolve any questions you might have.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with remote controlled trucks. If you have an interest in model or toy rc vehicles, please go over to our website now at 1/5 Scale RC Cars

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