Petrol RC Cars
Archive for the ‘Off Road RC Cars’ CategoryThere are many ways that you can enjoy off road petrol RC cars, from racing it round a track to doing jumps with it. What is even more fun is doing both at the same time! Speeding round a track with jumps and tight corners. This is an absolute must for anyone who owns a petrol RC car, so in this post I am going to guide you in building an excellent track that should satisfy your needs for weeks, perhaps years to come. The first thing that you need to do is find a suitable place to build a track. It will need to be fairly large and almost devoid of trees or large bushes. A few trees can make the track, well, interesting, if you happen to be a skilled driver (or aren’t to concerned about your car!). Also make sure that no one will mind you building the track in the place tat you’re planning. Ideally this means building it on either property you own, or where ever you can gain permission (A friend’s place is a good first point of call). Building a track isn’t an expensive task, all you need is a spade, wheelbarrow and access water to make the jumps. The main thing that you will require is that most valuable of things, time. To make a track that you will be happy with, and to ensure that you will not be confronted by too many unexpected problems and/or surprises, you should draw up a plan. I would suggest that you build a looped track, i.e. a track where you can have laps, not a simple get from A to B as fast as possible kind of track. You can make it any shape that you want, depending on the area available and whatever takes your fancy at the time. After deciding the shape, think about where you wish to place the jumps, trying to use any natural bumps or tree roots in your area if possible, and mark them in on your drawing. Don’t put too many jumps in your track as they are fairly time co-consuming to construct, and will also slow down the top speed you can reach on your track. Also decide on the size of the jumps. It is important to make them big enough to get some air, but not to big that they will cause damage to your petrol RC cars. Once you are satisfied with the plan, you can start actually building your track. Clear the area first of any leaves or anything else that may get in the way. Next mark out the route as per your plan so you can see if your planned track is practical. To do this effectively, you can either peg it out or use spray paint to really give you a good idea of your track layout. If it is not quite how you imagined it, revise your plan until you’ve got a track you are happy with. At this point you should examine the ground surface of the track. Any especially bumpy or boggy areas should either have a jump placed over them or smoothed by either taking away or adding dirt. You are now ready to build the actual jumps. Building jumps correctly is important as you do not want them to break or collapse when you drive your petrol RC car over them. I am going to instruct you in how to build a tabletop style jump. There are two ways that I suggest you use to build this type of jump. The first is that you use a couple of logs as the center of your jump. This will lessen the amount of dirt you need and time spent on the jump. The second way is for if you can’t find any logs, in which case you can just build the jump without them, entirely from dirt. If you do have logs, put them in the place where you want the jump, at both ends, perhaps a metre or two apart (between this dirt will be piled up to produce the “tabletop”) and perpendicular (at right angles) to the direction the cars will be travelling. Now you need some dirt. Take this first of all from the perimeter of your track to make a drainage system to help your track survive come rain, hail or storm. Once you have made the drainage system such that it encloses the track, take dirt from anywhere that you please, so long as it is not from where the cars will (eventually) be racing. Pile the dirt on-top of your jump until it is about 30cm (one foot) off the ground along its entire length. The incline of the jump will dictate the height and distance achieved, and a bit of experimentation will be needed here to get this incline to cause the car to make he jump. It will have to have a slight lip at the end of the incline to make it easier to get air. Once that is done, you will need to water your jump. This helps keep the jump intact as mud will pack down the dirt into a more solid structure. Don’t put to much water on though as this could potentially erode the jump. Wait until it has dried before using. Congratulations, you have just made your first jump. Repeat the process until you have made the desired number of jumps. You should now have a track for your petrol RC cars that will last for a long time (providing you do basic maintenance every now and again) and that will keep you entertained for hours. If you ever want anything new, you can just modify bits of it , add in new jumps or change the terrain a tad. The possibilities are endless. When buying petrol RC cars there is a choice that you have to make. This is an important choice, a choice that will is dictated by what you want from your car. The choice is to buy an on road, racing petrol RC car, or an off road, go anywhere model. This is not a decision to take lightly. The on-road models are undoubtedly faster, and if you can envisage yourself racing about at high speeds in a car park or dedicated track (if you’re lucky enough to have one nearby) then these would be the ones to go for. They offer quick steering and performance akin to that of a proper race car. For the majority of the hobbyists however, it is the the off road option that has the greatest appeal.  -The ShengQi Off Road Monster Truck Off road RC cars are literally that; cars that you use off the road. This generally means that they will have decent suspension systems, will be built tough to withstand the odd inevitable crash and hard-wearing tyres. Though they may not match an on road car for shear speed, they are by no means slow. The monster truck pictured can get to 60 mph! It is perhaps the fact that they can get to this speed while going over all manner of hills and bumps that makes them such fun, as well as the reason that they are built tough. Getting the an off road car opens up a whole world of new opportunities for you. The best place to take an off-road car is to a park or field, preferably with a few hills and plenty of bumps. The bumps are important as they mean that you can speed over them to get some air. This is the fun part, testing the limits of the machine and marveling at the spectacle. What’s more is the landing of said jumps. With a bit of luck you might get your car to tip or flip (something yo definitely wouldn’t want to experience in an actual car) resulting in a spectacular crash. If the build quality of the car is high enough no harm done. Put the car back upright and repeat! All in all off road RC cars are the all-round option which I would strongly recommend to you. You can use them anywhere, they’re loads of fun, and you can safely do what almost everybody wants to: crash them at high speed. I particular recommend the ShengQi 1/5th Scale Monster Truck. As previously mentioned it can push 60mph and is extremely durable. It is available to buy here. |
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