Tamiya TT-01

A great chassis to start with, easy to build, robust but easy to fix and spare parts readily (and generally cheaply) available from many good model shops. Most juniors will start with this car and stay with it for quite some time before moving up to something to more suit their developing driving skills.

Expect to pay from £60 to £120 depending on the kit and specification.

Tamiya TA05 & Hot Bodies Cyclone S

Fantastic price for these mid-range kits - reliable, well specified belt-driven chassis that can compete with many top-of-the-line models. Parts are easy to obtain and are reasonably priced. If you have a little more cash to spend, these are well worth considering.

Expect to pay from £110 to £140 depending on the kit.

Yokomo MR4TC BD, Schumacher Mi3.5, Xray T2'008, HB Cyclone, Associated TC5

All great cars and all at the pinnacle of the sport in terms of balance, adjustability and build quality. It is tempting to get right into these models when first starting out but you may find them to difficult to work with until you fully understand the way cars need to be setup to handle correctly. Expect to pay from £200 to £300 depending on the kit and level of specification.

Of course, you'll need some extra bits to go with your kit. Radio gear, Batteries, motor, speed control. We'll take a look at these now.

Radio Gear

Every car needs to be controlled by a radio system. These are operated on individual frequencies to other racers in your heat. There are three types for land-based vehicles - 27mhz, 40mhz & 2.4Ghz.

27mhz is generally the cheapest way to get a radio setup, there are however just 12 different bands and it is widely accepted that 27mhz can be more prone to interference/glitching. Acoms do a nice starter radio (AP202) at under £40 which includes transmitter, receiver & two servos (although you only need one).

40mhz offers many more frequency bands and is less prone to interference but does cost more than 27mhz. There are many sets to choose from - some with many setup functions (sometimes more than you will ever need) so its best to choose something that matches your ability aswell as your budget.

2.4Ghz is relatively new but is so easy to use and interference-free. Their are no frequency crystals to change as the radio selects a new channel from hundreds of available channels when you switch it on. If you can stretch your budget, this is well worth looking at - Futaba do a great value set, the 3-GR at around £200.00.

Batteries

Cells have come on leaps and bounds in the past 5 years. We've seen 2400mah jump all the way upto a massive 5100mah in capacity - more than enough for club stock racing. You can start off with what we can stick packs, these are 7.2v 6 cell preassembled shrinkwrapped packs that will get you into racing with ease. We suggest three packs of batteries (one for each race) with at least 2300mah. Hardcased 7.4v Lipo pakcs are also permitted. Prices range from £10 to £35 for stick packs depending on capacity.

Charger

Many people overlook the importance of a good charger - buy a decent charger to begin with and you're less likely to have to replace it in the future. A charger with a variable ampage upto 5A is very useful to have. Having one with a delta peak cut-off setting is very handy also. A basic 'fast' charger will set you back around £20. We'd advise not using the slow overnight chargers as they can become very inconvenient.

Okay, that's a bit more info, hopefully not too much to make your brain fry! If you do have any questions at this point, please do email the club or pop along to a club meeting. Next, we'll take a look at motors and other electrics.

Motors

WWMCC currently use 13.5 turn brushless & 27 turn brushed 'stock' motors. These are rebuildable non-ballraced motors which offer a pretty even playing field. The 'monster' based brushed motor (Trinity Revenge of the Monster)[ is one of the best to use at our club but needs to be geared correctly. You can use the silver can or a tamiya sport tuned motor that comes with tamiya cars if you wish.

Any further questions, come along to club and ask us!