electric or nitro powered?

[oro27]

Which do you guys should go for, Electric powered RC's or Nitro Powered RC's?

[bullfrog]

well both are serously dope illy fresh but i like the plug n play of electric. :)

[Railman]

Oro, Both. It's a personal thing with most people. For some, once they do nitro they can't go back to electric. It's fairly common to start with electric, & then maybe try nitro after they've mastered electric. But like I said nitro isn't for everyone. A few do start out in nitro because they have a good mechanical backround or hve raced MX, go carts or something similar, but that's rare. I like both.

[bullfrog]

hey rail im no "rocket scientist" and i started out with nitro.

[jeepinator]

I agree bullfrog, you are "no rocket scientist" :p

That's for cutting my head off !

Railman, NICELY WORDED !
I am going to start a web page soon that will have answers to these questions, like maybe a FAQ. Your response will be my answer to the "nitro vs. electric" question. But I ain't gonna pay you for it ! :p
Maybe a little thing like, "Railman says" ...

[bullfrog]

lol he he he http://www.plauder-smilies.de/devil/diablotin.gif http://www.plauder-smilies.de/rough/behead.gif

[Traxxaskid]

electric now my first RC was a nitro and I hated the engine tuning and pull start slipping, etc...... electric is so much easier and you get to actually drive more,albiet not as fast but that doesn't really matter to me

[chucksolo]

I have both and enjoy hopping up electrics to try and perform with my nitro cars/trucks. I have found that while you can usually approach the same level of performance with electric on-road cars to thier nitro counterparts, off-road stuff is more challenging. I have yet to hopup an off road ST or MT that even came close to performing like a nitro one. Being an old motocross racer, I like the adrenalin pumping rooster tails and speed that nitro gives to off road, it just ain't there with electics. I've seen the E-Maxx run, and it comes close, but still.....no cigar.

[Railman]

Thanks Jeep! You are one funny guy!
Chuck solo, I am also an old MX'r and what you say about the adrenaline is so true. The sound of a good nitro engine still gives me chills, because of the power I used to feel on the MX bikes. It's a conditioned response.

[ronb]

Yes it's personal preference, but from what I've seen theres a major frustration factor built in to nitros. I race parking lot sedan racing. We have both electric and gas classes and I've never seen any electric drivers steaming like I do a nitro driver who either can't start the thing, or it keeps dying on him/her. And it see it all the time. Maybe it goes away for the most part with experienced drivers, or maybe it's worth dealing with for the adrenaline rush you get from that extra power.
Also, I was racing a nitro in practice last week and on any straight section he would leave me in the dust. But his handling was wild whereas my electric was smooth all the way around and my cornering blew him away. The best I could tell our total lap times were similar.

[oro27]

Thanks Railman, but I guess everyone should start with electric rz's. Master the basics then move to the next level which I reall love>>> Nitro powered RZ's. Good luck guys!!!

[Bishop]

I don't think it's a question of starting with one and then maybe going to the other.

It's allmost 2 totaly diffrent sports, a electric and nitro car will handle very very diffrently, it's hard to even start to compare them.

It's more of a case of how much mechanical skills you have, and wether you can grasp basic 2 stroke motor princables.
Nitro really is a petrol head sport, you either have the mechanical understanding, or you'll never truely enjoy the sport. (unless you have someone doing all your tuning and rebuilding for you)

You need twice the skills to get a nitro car to go fast compared to a electric car, there is a simplisity to electric cars that will allways draw people to them, and like wise the complex nature or nitros will allways draw a more hard working type of person to them.

Hang around each for a while, go to some race meets, look at how much effort and skill is required in each, decide which is more your cup of tea, and then make your decision.
All you will generaly get here is biased opinions.
(no offence guys)

[ 09-03-2001: Message edited by: Bishop ]

[clancy]

I've never seen any electric drivers steaming like I do a nitro driver who either can't start the thing, or it keeps dying on him/her. And it see it all the time. Maybe it goes away for the most part with experienced drivers, or maybe it's worth dealing with for the adrenaline rush you get from that extra power.


After running for several races, you will get tuning down to a science and wont have to worry about flaming out and/or not starting. These thing come with practice. Like knowing how often to turn you comm on an electric motor, or how often to change brushes. Or from personal experience when I was a pup, making solder stick to the motor. :mad: Both are great, and equally as competitive. Both have a lot of gadgets to play with.
my 2cents

[KilRuf]

Well I've done both, but I still prefer Electrics. I think it's just a personal thing. Do you plan on racing or is it just for fun around the house? Around the house is total preference. Are the neighbors gonna complain, blah blah blah. Is it for racing? Well which is more popular/greater turnout. I'd go with the greater turnout. Here, they run gas trucks, 1/8, and electric trucks/buggy. I can easily outpace alot of the 1/8 gas buggies with my stock truck. But that's mostly due to my driving experience and their lack there-of. I'm sure with a mod motor or even 4wd electric I can take them out quite easy.. hehe (notice my uhh hate for the 1/8 buggies hehe i have to turn marshal for them ******** hehe) Also, seems that the gas cars break quite easy/more often. I think besides the driving, it could be the power that they generate. Plus the bulk/weight of the cars/trucks. I'm not saying electrics don't break. I just see more gas breaking. Hmmm what else... uhhh Electrics of course use batteries. So you have to charge them and/or have alot of packs. Gas you can just fill'm up and go! Like in the mains.. in electric we only run 5 minute mains. For gas, it's up to them. 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour. All they need to do is pit stop and go! Anyways, it's just best for you to go out to a race and see what they are like. I'm sure you'll pick the one that attracts you most! Just my 2¢.. L8R :D

Mike

[athowells]

I have owned an electric for about 2 years. I am getting a new one and can't decide to get an electric or nitro. I have seen both run but I don't like that electrics have short run times compared to electrics. :(

[jeepinator]

I think we know what he means ;)

If you got enough fuel (nitro for nitro cars, battery packs for electric cars) run time is irrelevent.
When I go to the track, I gurantee you that I am on the dirt longer than the nitro guys.

Nitro guy: tug tug tug tug tug vroom tug tug tug tug tug vroom
Me: jump, turn, turn, jump, jump

OK, joking aside (even though that was not really a joke), when I go to play I pretty much run non stop for a few hours, maybe as much as three. I don't go to watch packs charge, that is for sure.

[hotmodrc]

well... my forst rc was a nitro. and i think your expeirience really depends on what kit you get. for me it was the tower hobbies st-15 and dear god what a nightmare that was!! i almost swore off rc for good, heh heh. But once you get the feel of your nitro car, its smooth sailing. nitro does take alot more work, but if its your thing, it wont seem like work. it really all boils down to testosterone induced nitro high. the smell of gas the roar (ok whine lol) of a niotro engine, tearin down the track. that kind off feeling cannot be had with an electric car, electrics are great fun, but you wont get the same satisfaction that you get when you tweak .0005% more horsepower out of your nitro engine, lol. its all personal opinion, which do you like better chocolate or vanilla? try em both and make your own decision. thats what its all about! ;)

[athowells]

If you have a track at your town or a place that wouldn't anoy anyone, diffently go nitro. If you don't have a track or can only run in your street/backyard, the neibours will be impressed for the first few runs but after a while they would get anoyed with the noise.

[wjj]

Nitro seems to draw adults, while electric draws kids.

[MtnKodiak]

Definitely true about the adults/kids thing. It's a generalization, but I think it's close to being the case. Nitro just takes too much patience for a kid.

I started out with Nitro, never done electric (never even thought of it). I'm 35 though. :)

--mK

[bender49858]

electric is nice for the plug and play factor, but I like nitro over electric. I run a MP and a HPI nitro RS4. When I run with my friends E-MAXX he runs out of batterys and I just fill the tank. If you are new to the sport then I would suggest the electic. Nitro can be a hole differant experiance. You dont here electric two blocks away. :D :D

[athowells]

I still can't decide on EP or GP. If I was getting the EP i would get the XXX-T and if I was going to get the GP i would get the XXX-NT. Most people I know have a lot of troubles with there nitros, not only the engine, but the fuel eating plastics, chassis breaking, fuel eating cords, leaking tanks/tubes etc. :mad:

[ 09-08-2001: Message edited by: athowells ]

[roadrage]

athowells said:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I still can't decide on EP or GP. If I was getting the EP i would get the XXX-T and if I was going to get the GP i would get the XXX-NT. Most people I know have a lot of troubles with there nitros, not only the engine, but the fuel eating plastics, chassis breaking, fuel eating cords, leaking tanks/tubes etc.
You never said anything wrong with electric so whats the hard choice?
-Electric is quicker
-Run electric anytime
-Eletric is more durable
I don't see where you get this adults=nitro?
I see kids draw to nitro because they THINK its fast. The sound and smoke give you an illusion that its fast. I say this because when I was a kid, I was drawn to nitro and now I don't like it. I got a Tamiya kit and it's faster than my friends nitro RS4. Stock tamiya kit with a mabuchi and 6 cell nikko battery. I'll stick with eletric until nitro technology improves but I don't know if I'll go back because electric is improving just as fast. :D Get both and you'll agree with me electric is the way to go :D

[roadrage]

electric*

[Bishop]

I'm thinking the friend with the nitro RS4 either can't drive to save himself, or his car has one very sick engine...

[Portlander]

Nitro wooooo!

[HauntedMyst]

Nitro seems to draw adults, while electric draws kids

I find the opposite is true at our track. Most of the kids have nitros, most of the adults have electrics.

You need twice the skills to get a nitro car to go fast compared to a electric car,

lol there isn't one bit of logic in that statement. Tuning an electric is just a different set of skills then is tuning a nitro. Read some posts by Railman or jeep on motors, brushes and timing before you make blanket statemens like that.


there is a simplisity to electric cars that will allways draw people to them, and like wise the complex nature or nitros will allways draw a more hard working type of person to them.

Nitro RTR's are the single biggest selling segment today so I guess that blows the "hard working" theory.

Ulitmately Railman is right, its just a personal preference. I started out with nitro and moved to electric, and I find it no less challenging. Electrics to me are a lot more precise and unforgiving. You can justify it to either side to make it seem like your preference is the "higher calling", but it's really just a matter of what you enjoy more. My experiance is the same as ron's, the electrics maybe have one guy get knocked out of a race, the rest finish, all with times that beat the nitros. The nitro guys all run around trying to start, then restarting their cars, having a guy with a glow starter and extra fuel at the ready in case of flame out....oh yeah, then BAM! half way through the race someones header comes off and he scream around half a track until he flames out. Then we just wait for the next nitro failure. Does that sound like I don't like nitro? I will probably end up getting another one this winter and give it a go again.

[ 09-11-2001: Message edited by: HauntedMyst ]

[Bishop]

When I said you need twice the skills, I was talking about how you need to know how to tune a nitro engine to go fast in nitro, I know electric motors can be tuned to, but generaly you can walk into a shop and buy a electric motor that will go fast without it ever having to be touched.

Even a RTR Nitro needs carefull tuning to get the best out of them, and there are an awfull lot of people who constsntly need to drag their rtr back to the shops every time they need a tune.

Nitros are generaly more complicated, it's just a fact, for some it's a negitive, for others it's a positive, there is nothing wrong with deciding to race either car, I just beleive you need more dedication and skill to stick with the Nitro racing.

Oh and once you do get the hang of the nitros, you can go meetings without having a bad flame out, or stalling, or crashing and having something fall off or flame out.
It's all to do with how well you tuned it to begin with, which is where we come back to the skills part again.

[InspGadgt]

I've got to disagree on nitro being any more complex. I agree it is a different skill set but not more complex. The motor and battery theories used in electric racing these days are so complex it almost takes an engineering degree to understand them. While yes it is easier to make an electric car run...to make it run well in a race situation is a different story. As far as flameouts and whatnot no matter how good of a driver or tuner you may be these things will still happen...not as often but they still will because of 1 major consideration. You cannot control what the other driver is going to do. Out here Nitro seems to have the bigger draw in both the adult and children populations. The noise they make and the illusion of speed due to that is what is drawing them. Heck...that's what drew me to run nitro. I've run both for years and enjoy both for different reasons.

[TC3 Benjammin]

Another point: I am a neat freak. One of the aspects I like the most in R/C is the building/finishing/appearance of the cars (both static and when moving). Electric is much more conducive to keeping a clean, good looking ride.

[HauntedMyst]

Bishop,

I think what you are really trying to say is, you run nitro, therefore it must be difficult and require more skill. Have you ever raced electric?

Even a RTR Nitro needs carefull tuning to get the best out of them, and there are an awfull lot of people who constsntly need to drag their rtr back to the shops every time they need a tune.

The vast majority of these are probably newbs who bought a car thinking it would run great every time they pulled the cord. Usually they did not read the insructions, haven't read the how to nitro articles and didn't realize they would have to learn how nitro engines worked.

Nitros are generaly more complicated, it's just a fact...for some it's a negitive, for others it's a positive, there is nothing wrong with deciding to race either car, I just beleive you need more dedication and skill to stick with the Nitro racing.

Fact? I think not. Ever try programming a Cyclone? I did once just playing with a Pit Wizard and it makes nitro tuning seem like childs play. Ever seen what many expert stock electric racers go through to get their motors ready for a race? Factually, you need skill and dedication to stick with either. It's just a different set of skills.

Oh and once you do get the hang of the nitros, you can go meetings without having a bad flame out, or stalling, or crashing and having something fall off or flame out.
It's all to do with how well you tuned it to begin with, which is where we come back to the skills part again

Thats odd, the guys at our track who have been running nitro for years still have problems every week. You must be an expert and I look forward to reading your nitro tuning articles in RCCA when I get my nitro again!

About the only part I agree with is that yes, electric is easier to get started with. To stick with and understand either requires dedication

This whole nitro vs electric argument is silly. The nitro guys will scream "Nitro is faster! The electric guys will point out the fastest rc cars in the world are electric. The electric guys will say "Our cars are more precise and turn faster laps", to which the nitro guys will counter with "Yeah, but ours sound and smell like racing cars not toys!" You can pretty much find a pro and con for either. Trying to make the one you run sound "loftier" or more difficult is just plain silly.

[ 09-11-2001: Message edited by: HauntedMyst ]

[Bishop]

I used to race off road electric rc cars, I loved them they were great.

Motor tuning skills are in my nature, I've had experience with cars (piston and rotary), motorbikes (2 and 4 stroke), and had race experience with both.

I've never said that Nitro is better than electric, both are great fun, I just beleive that Nitro is more chalanging to operate and race.

As for the whole which is faster thing?
Well, I'm tempted to leave that well alone, but generaly I beleive that the average Nitro is faster than the average electric car.

[Randy]

i like electric because that what i race and iv come to like it. iv owned a few gas cars/trucks in the past but they were to much hasel. to much cleaning and tuning.
i now that if i put my gas car away for a whail its gona be a little work to get it to run properly again.
whail if i put my electric cars/trucks away for a whail all i have to do is dig them out and charge a battery. suposing i put them toghter in one peace.
electric is also cheeper in the long run in that tires tend to last longer and u dont have to keep buying fuel.

[balapan]

Electric=Jackie Chan/Jet Li
Nitro=WWF

[athowells]

I am probably going to get Electric. Longer lasting parts, more reliable and can be run anywhere. Don't have to worry about fuel, air filter oil and after run oil. ;)

[DaLoSiGuYWiTdAxXxNt]

My first RC car was Losi XXX NT... :) :) :)

[jetfan]

My only question is.................How much would a hot battery pack cost you for a fast electric and then when you got those packs how much does a good trickle charger cost.Remember a beginner doesn't think about battery memory and most likely doesn't discharge batteries and has 15min quick chargers that burn them out.A good memory free nmh battery can cost as much as 50 to 100 bucks for a 6 cell pack.That can buy you a good motor and a gallon of fuel in most cases. :D ....On top of that to a beginner you have to remember that no car whether electric or gas will be easy to keep up if they don't read and follow the directions. :D

[athowells]

True, but then you add the price for glow plugs, glow plug starters, new piston, sleeve and con rod after a cuple of gallons and then it takes 12AA batteries instead of 8AA batteries like the electric does. Sure you can buy a reciever pack but then that is the price of the Electric's packs and then a charger for the reciever pack.