Radio Control, it’s an addicting little hobby. Well, maybe not so little, and certainly not inexpensive! Regardless, it’s fun!
Wednesday past a friend of mine (I blame you Carr.. I blame you for all of this) told me about this in-door R/C racing track in Bremerton, very close to my house. So we headed over there and checked it out. Wow.. OK, who knew that was in our little town.
This place is not just some po-dunk room with some plywood ramps and piece of tape across the floor to mark a start/finish. No, this is a real racing joint here! Specially formulated clay track surface, plenty of combo jumps, including a nice double-triple right before the finish line. And to top it all off, they have a legit set of transponders for down to the fraction of a second real timing. This is bona fide indoor R/C off-road racing!
Thinking this would be a pretty cool thing for for the kids to check out, we headed over to the track Saturday morning to check things out. Unfortunately, they not only found it cool, but they loved it! I say unfortunately, because.. well, these things are not exactly cheap!.
After quite a bit of reading on the internet, talking to a number of local shops and R/C racers that I’ve started to meet, it was pretty clear, that the truck to start off with is the Team Associated SC10.
This truck is not your Wal-Mart R/C special. This thing is the deal.
Using a 2.4 GHz digital 3-channel pistol-grip controller, 3300kV brushless motor (equivalent to a 550 class heli motor), big programmable speed controller, and a chassis that is tough enough to hit a wall at 35mph, bounce off and keep running… you have some SERIOUS fun!
The only modification we made to hit the track was an update skit plate and front bumper. All the people running the truck said it’s the only thing it needs. And after finding out how easy it is put one of these things into the wall at full throttle, I understand!
The first truck, and I suspect there will be more, actually belongs to my daughter. She’s really quite into this thing. After we spent almost 3 hours practicing last night at the track, we brought it home and spent about 1/2 hour taking it apart, cleaning, checking bearings and putting it all back together again. I think these are going to be valuable experiences and lessons for her.
I can’t wait for race night, and I think she’s pretty stoked too!