When I started racing radio control cars, my first race was with my Tamiya Falcom in the parking lot of a hobby shop. It was the first time I had actually run my first RC car, prior to that I had driven a friend’s car in his driveway for about a minute. At the track, I ran practice and then my father bought some on-road tires, which we fitted to the Falcon.

Using an engine heater is quickly becoming the norm on the nitro racing scene. By preheating your engine before start-up and runs, you allow the engine to start easier with less wear and tear. It also allows you to get the engine to proper running temperatures at the beginning of the race rather than later so tuning is also easy.

Novarossi set out to manufacture a well-balanced, high performance clutch and the result is what you see here. The four-shoe clutch has a balanced flywheel with four hardened steel pins to support the included aluminum and carbon friction material shoes.

Project: Traxxas Slash: Our hop-up parts and accessory picks for today’s popular vehicles that will boost performance, durability or appearance and leave you with a sweet custom ride.

Tamiya is great for designing all sorts of interesting RC vehicles and keeping every format of our hobby fresh and interesting. The DT03 chassis is more geared for beginners in stock form, the cost is many design cues had durability in mind over all out performance.

It wasn’t too long ago when electric 1/8-scale buggies were almost all homemade creations and the few RTR’s that were out there were super expensive and generally unreliable. The ECX Revenge Type E is a true example of how far technology has advanced in the RC world.

One of my favorite 1/10-scale classes is 4WD buggy. These little ground-level fighter jets can turn almost any track into a fun-filled playground, carving corners and flying high over triple jumps.

When Horizon Hobby first launched its Vaterra product line of realistic, scale, licensed cars they hit the ground running with a garage full of imports and first-gen Camaros. For those of the Blue Oval persuasion there wasn’t much to get excited about; and then—BAM—Vaterra knocks one clear out of the park

Pickup truck body, a potent powerplant, four giant tires and plenty of ground clearance for go-anywhere ability are the main characteristics that make a monster truck a monster truck. In my opinion, this makes RC versions of these rigs a great vehicle for bashing and for someone just starting out.

In the grand scheme of things, 1/8-scale truggy platforms are the beasts of RC, combining speed and power in a nimble package that is primed to conquer any race course or bash area.

Tekin has pushed ESC development in racing ever since the early 90’s. I remember those gold anodized heat- sinks coming out of the top of my 411G2 and loving how smooth, efficient and programmable Tekin gear always was.

I don’t care what vehicle you currently drive, just about anyone will admit that Traxxas has gotten a ton of people into the hobby in recent years. As such you have an influx of people getting into the hobby who …

The Hot Bodies D8T has enjoyed a long life of wins in many racers’ hands from the club level up. Its simple design makes it easy to work on, its refined geometry makes it easy for any driver to tune and its price tag is certainly in the affordable range.

Let’s face it; our industry has been overrun with Short Course trucks. Why is that, you might ask? I chalk it up to a few different rea- sons; they’re modeled after an exciting full size racing class where contact and flying parts are common on every lap. They’re pretty durable as well and have large bodies that help protect the suspension and chassis mounted parts.

Graupner is back! Graupner is a company from Germany who are well known throughout Europe for their superb quality products. They are starting to become more well known in the American market thanks to Open Hobby who picked up the American distribution.