Home And Family

Remote control cars come in various styles, sizes, and designs for operation on paved, dirt, or gravel roads, sidewalks, carpets, and off road, rough terrain. When you’ve decided you’re ready for a new RC toy figure out where you want to play with that toy. That knowledge starts you toward selecting which type toy is best for you.

Among your choices are cars modeled after “road legal” real-life cars you see every day. Some are family models like the sport utility vehicle, station wagons, mini-vans, and the full size sedans. Others are young couple or single people cars including sports cars, Mini Coopers, Ferraris, BMWs, Porches, Camaros, Mustangs, and Mercedes. You also have a choice of military cars, police cars, and other service vehicles.

If you want off-road adventure you have plenty of options too. From low-end buggies to the ultimate in high performance vehicles, they all await your selection. Next you’ll look at size. RC minis are small, and designed more for indoor use than the larger models. For instance, a 1:18 scale radio control car is 18-times smaller than the full-size car it’s modeled after. That’s small.

On the other end of the ruler the full-sized car is only six times bigger than a 1:6 scale remote control car. You need lots of space to operate something that big. Okay. You know what terrain suits your pleasure, and you narrowed the style of the best radio control car for your playtime desires. What kind of power do you want to propel your vehicle with?

Manufacturers provide two types of power plants for RC toys, the electric motor, and the NITRO engine. NITRO powered cars are internal combustion. They burn a special fuel that you fill the tank up with each time you get ready to run. Electric cars run on batteries.

Electric cars are cleaner operating, and have higher torque to the drive wheels, but preparation time for operating the electrics is longer due to battery charging. NITRO RCs are ready to run as soon as you fill the tank, and are much faster than the electric models. Some of the NITROs reach 80 – 90 miles-an-hour. NITRO cars are loud, spew exhaust fumes, and require more frequent maintenance than electrics.

Of course you want your operator skill level to match the model you’re running. Those faster NITRO models require experienced, and practiced, skills if you don’t want to crash, and destroy, the car. Before you make that final decision look at prices.

Electric remote control cars typically cost less than the NITRO models. Minis are often cheapest, but not always, of the toys available. Prices range from around $10 all the way into the thousands for those high performance radio control models I mentioned above.

Remote control car selection involves many options, but find that model that best matches your playtime personality, or that of the person you’re gifting, and you’ll enjoy unmatched RC thrill and adventure to last many years.