Michael Barch

Just returning after a 10-year break from the hobby. I used to have a lot of nice stuff, XRAY T4, really good setup stations, chargers, etc. I'm returning after a long stint and I'm really out of the loop. I actually kind of forget everything I need, was wondering if someone could tell me what the must-have items are again and what brands/cars are relevant these days. I used to race 1/10 scale.

Thanks,

Mike

tommy911t

iTrader: (50)

Personal transponder. Other than that, continue with XRay and listen to racers at your local track as far as tires, sauce and motors

bertrandsv87

iTrader: (2)

It really depends on whether you'll be racing in the spec handout class or not... If so, then you will not need to purchase a motor or an esc(if it's spec), or a chassis for that matter, until you're told what is legal at your local track... It sounds like the tcs rc racing model is taking over...lol....

LzREngineering

You have a 10 year old xray t4??

So what do you still have, or did you sell all your kit?

I just started racing again after a 12 year break. I still had my old xray t1 fk05 chassis, radio etc but had to get new lipo batteries & charger, new personal transponder and a new motor and ESC to comply with the rules so I can race in the 'stock' 17.5 blinky class. Oh and a new body shell

Chassis is still very competitive!

JeffC

iTrader: (5)

I came back one year ago after a 12 year break, so I understand where you're at.

The best thing you can do is go to the track and look for any familiar old faces. Talk to people.

The new CRC carpet has super high traction. If that's what you'll be racing on, look for a newer car with an aluminum chassis. Cars are generally trying to lower the COG as much as possible, minimize flex and promote chassis roll without contacting the track surface.

There have been lots of incremental improvements to cars. XRay, Associated and Yokomo all make good cars that should feel familiar enough. Serpent and Awesomatix have some pretty wildly innovative designs that look to work well. I would say XRay and Associated are the most popular locally.

The iCharger is very popular, but expensive. I use an older LRP Pulsar Touch that I'm very happy with. Turbo35's can be updated for LiPo if you still have one.

I'm not sure if you used LiPo batteries or NiMh. Everything today is Lipo. Touring cars use 2S stick packs. You really only need 1 or 2 batteries to start with. Look for high capacity, high C rating, low IR. Runtime is a non-issue, but you want high capacity so the voltage stays up longer.

Brushless motors are a breeze. You pay a lot more up front, but they're essentially zero maintenance and have a long lifespan. Overheating is the only real concern.

In the last year or two motors have taken a pretty big step in performance. Especially 17.5 and 21.5. Look at newer short stack motors, and again, talk to folks at your track to find what's working there.

Some tracks are going to spec motors to eliminate the motor of the month game... again, go talk to them to find out.

Generally speaking, stock is 17.5 or 21.5 depending on the track. 13.5 is sort of super stock and mod is anything faster.

ESCs offer some pretty cool functionality. Most "stock" classes require blinky mode, which is a zero boost/timing mode. Otherwise you can program the ESC to increase motor timing as RPM increases. The Hobbywing Justock is a great ESC for stock / blinky classes and only costs $50. You can decide later if you want/need more. Oh, and Novak closed up shop... crazy, eh?

Radios haven't changed much, other than they're all 2.4ghz. No more crystals, channel clips/boards, or glitching because someone turned their transmitter on in the pits. The antennas are gone too.

Tools haven't changed. Hudy is good stuff but expensive.

There are a couple new Touring Car type classes that are generally popular, VTA and USGT. Each has its own spec tire rule and require bodies that resemble real world cars. VTA is the slower class with 25.5 motors. USGT uses 21.5 and is pretty fast and highly competitive. Neither of these are ROAR classes, but have still become pretty much ubiquitous at tracks.

I hope that helps a little bit. I'm on my phone so I apologize if the formatting is janky or words were strangely auto-corrected.

Michael Barch

Thanks for the replies. No I don't have my old car anymore, LzREngineering. I ended up selling my entire collection and while my parents said I have some random boxes in their storage, most of the stuff has been parted out. JeffC - that helped a ton, thanks again.

I don't remember what batteries I used but figured they probably advanced a lot in 10 years and I would need new stuff in that regard anyway. Sadly when I quit I was 18 years old, headed off to college and sold all my stuff I've acquired over the years. I had nice Hudy setup station, car, motors, all really good parts including my radio, etc...but now I'm 29 and am in a position to drop some money on this hobby again and get back into it. I moved far away from Michigan to BC Canada, but turns out this city I live in has a big RC scene, indoor track, and a good hobby shop that sells Xray and focuses a lot on racing.

I'm going to stop by this weekend and see what people are running.

Mr. McGoo

iTrader: (23)

Michael, I am right there with you. I took a 7 year break and just now getting back into it. Haven't even raced yet. Just finished my build on my XRAY.

A few things I have ran across:

- There are more electronic options than there were back in the day. (ESC's, Motors, Batteries) - Chat with the locals, but I have heard that Motiv, R1, and Team Scream are the go to motors. I am going with Motiv for batteries and motor as I know Paulie and want to support him, and know hes going to have great stuff.

- ESC's - going to try and use my old Tekin RS. if that won't work, there are umpteen options for me.

- Cars - go with what your locals race and your hobby shop supports in parts. This will be your best bet in getting back into it. Xray is king in my neck of the woods, so was an easy transition for me

- Chargers - Look into a dual charger. The i-chargers are very popular (but also pricey). The venom dual and Hitec Black X2 made my short list. I ended up finding a phenomenal deal on a used charger, so I went a different direction. I also chose AC/DC so I don't have to lug around a power supply.

- Transmitter - Sanwa/Airtronics is the major player. I ended up getting a M12s-rs from A-main and used a 10% coupon for a great deal. You can find others cheaper, but that was too good of a deal to pass up

Take a look at used stuff to save a few bucks.

Good luck sir.

DirkW

iTrader: (1)

I came back after an almost 10-year hiatus in... 2013 I think it was. Oh boy, how things had changed! But it wasn't really difficult to figure out, and I quickly realized how much I liked the changes. 2.4 GHz radios... brushless motors... lipos... to me it felt like RC-heaven... kinda, sorta. So even though I still had quite a bit of stuff from the ~ 2000-2004 period left, I figured that didn't have much use for most (any?) of it anymore, so I began from zero again (ok, maybe from 0.2 - still a long way to 100!). Don't be unhappy about it - you can't change it, so just use it as an opportunity. There's so much amazing stuff available in our hobby today - I felt more than happy to go shopping for all the shiny new stuff (ok, my wallet didn't appreciate it quite as much, but we have a love-hate-relationship anyway )

DMD

iTrader: (1)

Mr Magoo,

Great info. I'm a bit confused if using a power supply is beneficial if I plan to race. I've heard that using a power supply can charge a battery at a higher voltage which equates to more power? I'm also returning after a 10 year + hiatus. Thanks.

{tpc}

iTrader: (26)

Welcome back! I run off-road, but still. Personal transponder is a must. Be prepared to spend the $$. Things seem a bit more expensive than they used to be, but the technology seems to hold up over time longer.

CamLS

iTrader: (3)

What city in BC are you located in? You may be close to a city that hosts one of the big WCICS races (Welcome - WCICS - Western Canadian Indoor Championship Series 2017/2018), which are held in Victoria, Kelowna, and Kamloops (Alberta and Saskatchewan also host races). If you haven't already, check out the Canadian forum on RCtech for tons of info on the racing scene across BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan which is where all of the WCICS series races are held.

Everyone else has covered what you will need to get back into the hobby. I agree that you need to go to your local track, if you have one, and see what brand others are racing, as well as what your local hobby store supplies. Gripworks RC out of BC is also a good source of R/C parts if a local hobby store isn't available to you, or doesn't have what you need. VBC, Xray, Serpent, Associated, Yokomo all make good cars, so you really can't go wrong with any of them, and they are all designed fairly alike.

Good luck and hope to see you out at some WCICS races!

SLOWINSLOWOUT

iTrader: (20)

Hi Michael,

Lots of good racing in the Okanagan. The Penticton crew races saturday afternoon/evening down in OK falls, and the Kelowna crew races Sundays in West Bank. We (Kelowna) have our next race scheduled for the 12th of November, come up to check it out! Our big classes are USGT, TC and 12th scale. And I second what Cam said, get it touch with Alex at GripworksRC.com, he can hook you up with everything you need to get back into it, with great service and prices!

Cheers,

Mr. McGoo

iTrader: (23)

DMD - the charger will dictate the rate at how much you can charge a battery at. 7+ years ago, almost all chargers were DC and you had to have a power supply to run them. There are still plenty out there like that, but I like the idea of not having to carry around another piece of equipment. So I picked up an AC/DC charger where I won’t need a power supply.

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

Many AC/DC chargers only support their highest charge rates when running off an external power supply.

DirkW

iTrader: (1)

Correct. Most AC/DC chargers only have limited internal power supplies because of cost/space/cooling restrictions.