Newbie Advice and A New Take On An Everyday RC Experience

Speed isn't everything. 

The following quote from an RC forum thread about building cars for maximum speed sums this up nicely - 'I built my car up to go as fast as possible, I got it over 100km/h, but, it got boring very quickly.'

It's true, fast model cars are just not very interesting. It's easy to build or buy a car that will crack 100km/h, but really, what are you going to do with a car that goes from 0 to out of sight in 3 seconds ?

Most of us that have a long term involvement in RC started with something moderately fast, learned to control it, upgraded it, then bought something faster. Many of us actually end up selling the faster cars and building a growing collection of moderately fast cars.

Part of my collection of moderately fast Tamiya M-Chassis Cars

A New Take On An Everyday RC Experience

Its a universal experience shared by RC Enthusiasts all over the world, your driving your model, working on your line through a fast s-bend you have marked up in the street. Someone approaches you, they could be of any age, race, or background and the conversation will be exactly the same -



Passerby: How fast does it go ?
You: Answer whatever you like ...
PasserBy: I have one that goes 100km/h
You: Thats interesting, where is it ?
 
Choose one -
PasserBy:I don't use it much (we knew that, fast cars are boring aren't they)
PasserBy:Its broken I need to get get it fixed (it was too fast for me, I crashed it, I would get it fixed, but it wasn't that much fun anyway so i never got around to it)

The interesting thing is that these guys who bought the faster cars and since lost interest, they always make the effort to come over and talk to you. 

It often feels like they want to show off.

I am trying to see it a different way -

They see you skillfully threading your model through the corner,fine tuning your line at each pass, the car looks amazing, braking slightly on entry, turning in, holding the speed through the corner and then accelerating out. It's everything they wanted their own RC Experience to be, they just bought the wrong car.

Do I ever offer these guys a turn of my own car ? If I am honest, no! never.

But now that I understand them a bit better, next time I will slow my car down and offer them a chance to see how much fun a moderately fast car can be.