I just started the hobby and a friend of mine had a Red Cat tornado s30 brand new that I got from him. I would say that it's a good starter car. it does seem pretty "cheap" i suppose as it tends to boucec rad out of control over a lil bit of terrain : / On the street though the thing is fast and thats with the stock motor. My friends who are really into the hobbie have some traxxas revos and a jatto. My lil red cat holds it's own right with the Traxxas and an HPI Savage that i would say is right with the Traxxas cars. The Jatto rips everything if you can drive it. The lil redcat does tend to break some parts easily when you crash but all in all i would say if you just wanna see what the hobbie can be like i wasn't upset with this product ( the Red Cat Tornado S30 ) but will most likley move on to a HPI or Traxxas. The lil Tornado would scream with a small engine upgrade. Mine came with an HS 18 and i would think with the HS21 or HS28 it would be out of controll. TIRES ARE TO LIL AND BURN UP QUICK. THROW SOME OF THE TRUCK TIRES ON IT WITH AN ENGINE UPGRADE AND YOU WOULD BE OK.
Originally Posted by
Neu_Racer
I'm a Traxxas dealer running an online "shop" but before I got my real wholesale accounts I was (and still am) a Redcat dealer. I have bought, sold, and driven almost every car they have created and I won't sit here and lie to you. Some of their 1/10 scale vehicles have issues from the factory but it's generally an easy fix. The only 1/10 scale vehicle to come with foams from the factory is the Volcano monster truck. Their 1/8 brushless vehicles are pretty impressive though but could use some beefier suspension pieces. The brushless systems in them are easily as fast and powerful as a Novak HV. The 1/5 scale vehicles are very beefy but the 23cc motor is underpowered.
Basically if you can afford something more name brand I would probably go with it. Crawlers are an exception. They come with dual motors and 4 wheel steering that has 4 profiles adjusted from the radio. If you run a dual stick remote and control the motors independently it would be a force on the trail. Only problem is their bodies are funny shaped and all are too small.
There is decent aftermarket support for the 1/10 nitro vehicles in forms of aluminum upgrades and such. OEM support is actually very plentiful and parts are almost always in stock but most are online order only and must be shipped from Arizona. 1/10 wheel sizes are standard 12mm hex and 1/8 vehicles are 17mm hex so not sure what the other guy was talking about. Just put a set of Slash wheels on a Vortex EPX Pro (brushless SC Truck of theirs) and it not only looked better but fit easily.
Hope this helps.