RogerDaShrubber

iTrader: (6)

And i bet everyone loves that M Chassis class because the racing is tight and does not cost much to have a whole heap of fun.

Finding a club that is near by is the best advice anyone can give a newbie. It is at the club level that you are going to learn all aspects of the sport, meet new people, have fun and hone your skills. I so look forward to club race day, its the best day of the fortnight.

Robotech

First...NI!

That out of the way, Roger is spot on here. Getting to know what they race in your neck of the woods is important. Would stink to get a nitro car and find out that there really is no nitro racing in your area.

Find something that fits your budget, has good parts availability at your local hobby shop, can be raced at your local track in an established class, and most of all...have fun.

Onetrade

iTrader: (14)

Nitro is tough, I recommend starting with electric, unless your local track only does nitro. and def start off with an RTR if you are going the Nitro route.

With Nitro I have NEVER came out to a track, put my car on the starter box, hit it and it started.. Always an issue, so much goes into starting the car and then when you go around the track you need to adjust it to your liking but every time I wanted to adjust it the car would turn off and then I couldn't get it started AHHHHH Had to sell my 1/8 on road and go to electric.

With electric as long as your batts are charged you just hit ON and then worry about car setup.

The right of passage to Nitro is Electric.

For electric if you want to get going with a nice setup for cheap start right here on the forums!

used Futaba 3PMx with receiver - $100
used Savox 1251 servo - $50
Used roller tc3, xray t2 007, 08 around $150
Wheels with tires - $20
new Lipo from hobby king $30
new Venom Charger - $90
New body, paint, scissors... $40
used Motor and ESC - $100

You can have a nice electric setup to start with for under $600

But, hey, what do I know.....

RogerDaShrubber

iTrader: (6)

I have to agree, the first car i bought was a Hobao gpx4 pro RTR as recommended by my LHS as a good starter package, and they should know, Jeff at Trackside RC is a multi times 1/5th scale national champ as well as state and national champ in a bunch of other classes.

My local club is mostly nitro, but i found this car to be way too fast for my abilities, so i changed to 17.5T electric and have been slowly gearing up as my skills improve, it won't be too long now till i can handle the pace of the nitro car. From what i have learned, its better to turn consistent slow laps working up to a faster setup than having the fast setup and not being able to control the power and spending all your time being marshaled.

ozzy-crawl

iTrader: (14)

just remember you can use electric as a stepping stone, but you can always up grade the electric to be faster than the nitro

Robotech

This is what 99% of people getting into nitro don't understand. There is a HUGE learning curve when it comes to tunning a nitro engine. Now, ALL my nitro engines are pull starts and they ALL will fire on under 10 pulls from cold and 2 pulls if I've already warmed them up. A PROPERLY tuned nitro engine is easy to start...getting is properly tuned is NOT easy.

(BTW, your symptoms sound like the product of a too lean top speed needle...it would run, overheat causing it to shut down, then could not restart until it cooled off. It's very common. Obviously I could be wrong since I'm just going by what you posted but that's what it SOUNDS like.)

I did not suggest going electric first because I don't know the OPs background. He could have ran 1/8th scale nitro off-road for 15 years for all I know and tunning an engine is a no brainer for him.

But Onetrade and Roger both make good points, usually folks go with electric first and nitro later once they learn the basics of on-road with a less troublesome electric car.

mr fit

i've raced both nitro and electric. by far nitro is way more expensive. the maintenance for a nitro tc is way more in cost and wrenching. i don't want to discourage anyone from nitro, but you gotta have deep pockets.