RC cars, here we go again

When I was younger I was very into RC cars. I started with a Team Associated RC10 Championship Edition. Great starter car for the time and really enjoyed its versatility. Through the years I also picked up a Kyosho Spider GP10 4wd nitro, HPI RS4 Rally 4wd, and lastly an HPI RS4 mini. Had a lot of fun with these cars and really enjoyed racing, building, and upgrading them.

These cars were all purchased between the years 1994 and 2000. After that, I lost track of the hobby and didn’t pick it up again until recently. A friend of mine wanted to get into RCs, more specifically off-road. He was trying very hard to get me and another friend to join in and clearly succeeded though it really didn’t that much convincing for me.

I did a bunch of research and picked up a Team Associated Rival MT10. A significantly more off-road capable vehicle than I have had in the past and with the new electronic upgrades such as brushless motors they are surely faster too. I wanted something that was durable, had a brushless motor, and wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. The MT10 met those requirements and was from a brand I still recognized from the 90s. There were lots of brands I didn’t recognize and the hobby sure had evolved since I last participated. The electronics brands we probably the most different from what I remember. The vast majority of cars now are ready to run which is sad as I had really enjoyed the building aspect of them. I thought they really taught you how they worked and you got a good intimate knowledge about the car right from the start.

To complete my Rival MT10 kit I also picked up a battery charger and 2S lipo battery that day. Lipo batteries though I had heard of them before didn’t really know much about them. The nice gentleman at Hobbytown Westminster CO dropped some excellent knowledge on me about how to care for the and what to do and not to do. I surely would have made the mistake of leaving the battery on the charger or storing them empty. Now that I knew my MT10 was capable of 3S lipo batteries I would surely have to get one later.

We brought our new cars home and started charging the batteries. My buddy came home with an Arrma Senton kit and we were both stoked to give them a try. With batteries charged, we went out and had a blast ripping around the street and year with our new toys. Those brushless motors sure hauled and the suspension was truly impressive what it could handle. Of course, within the first minute, we had a small fender bender with each other and countless other flips and cartwheels as we learned to drive them.

So here we are again, decades later and I’m back into RC cars. Time to add (back) another category to my hobbies for posting.