Son has recently decided cars are better than planes () and pestering me for an r/c car track in the shop.  We have a bunch of 1/10-1/12 sized cars, but thinking of a couple in the 1/24-1/28 range.  I was looking at the Associated 1/28th cars tonight.  Looks like ECX just released a couple of 1/28 as well.

It looks like they are more or less all the same, is that a fair assessment?

Someone was making some near HO size R/C cars, too.

My guess anything Associated is still priced 3-5 times more than it is worth...

Generally yes, but these are in line with everything else in that size.  I would guess TA would at least have some parts support.

I found them on Amazon in the $55-$58 range.  Not bad.

Watched a few Youtubes on these cars... no extra gear needed.  They even supply batteries.  
No fast charger (it's in the transmitter).  And the cars look KISS.

I can see the kids (all ages) having a blast in the basement or den on a rainy weekend.

And not much you can do to "hop up" these cars.  Just charge and race.  That's cool.  Not
much expense after initial investment.  Just batteries.

A lot of cool factor here.

I like the fact they are probably not fast enough to get themselves broken.  Then again, my son might find a way.

Wondering if 3/4" PVC would be big enough for a track bumper or if I would have to go up a bit.

Foam pipe insulation.

Look at the Kyosho Mini Z line... Seriously

I have no doubt those are badass, but ouch.

I have a Kyosho balsa kit from the 1980's.  It is a work of art, I feel bad about the prospect of building it.

I have bought the team associated 1/24 (or as some say 1/28) scale SCT’s. The black fox body and the Lucas oil.

They take a long time to charge, they are not fast, and only have rear springs/shocks. They are incredibly light and wouldn’t be a bad start for $50.

I also have some Losi micro 1/24 scale whips. Very fast, durable and generally kind of killer. Problem is they don’t make them anymore and the parts are getting extremely hard to find ( esp tires and the steering linkage)

Just recently me, my brother and the kids got Carisma rally 1/24 cars. LHS said they are making a version 2.0 but most of the parts will v1. This story fits the fact these cars are not super available on the internet. Currently all the parts are plentiful, and actually really cheap $.

I wouldn’t take an ECX if you gave it to me. Pieces of shit. Breaks easy and parts are incredibly expensive given the car.

If that doesn’t convince you, I’d be happy to sell you some ECX torments cheap. Red or blue.

We have tracks in our basements. The TA’s ran about 10 (super high 9’s at peak) seconds and as nimi batteries they slowed as they died.

The losi’s got into the upper 7’s on 2s lipos

The carisma stock ran high 7’s on 1s and mid 6’s with optional ties and springs. The car on 2s is really too fast for our track, and you can upgrade the motor and drop in a 3s if you have the desire. 4 pinion and 2 or maybe 3 spur gear choices. I think you get a 2nd pinion with the car. 2s did make us slightly faster in a random lap but it gets squirrelly and turns are much more difficult with the additional speed.

My track is down at the moment, it will get back up in a month or two.

This is my brothers



This is a pic of us in process of building it

Here is a video his wife sent the day he got his carisma.

This is a shit vid sent via text.

Also this is the carisma completely stock on 1s

Mini-z are ridiculous.

You can probably get close to dropping a grand into one if you try, and out of the box I think they are close to 200 bucks.

I’ve never drove one, but if you are like my brother and like to tinker, those are the dream of small scale.

This has become a rabbit hole, lol.

Ended up ordering a couple of K989s cheap, price was right and a ton of upgrade options if so inclined.

Now I have to figure out the track.  Thinking of 3/4" PVC track surround.  Floor is epoxy finished concrete, a bit slick but that should be fun too.

We went with foam board cut at 2 inches.

My first track used pool noodles cut in half, but they sucked.

If you are going to race on concrete, you will need something to hold the rails down.

double sided tape would work if strong enough, but then you may have a mess at clean up.

Ideally you want something with give.

90% of the time one of these little cars has broke, it was either the slipper getting loose (probably overpowered it) or a steering arm. The steering arms break when the tire is turned and it hits another car or a wall, exposing the tire to the impact. The softer the wall, the less the damage in my opinion.

If you have been to a local indoor track, the couple near us have some obsolete square pvc that they how have replacement parts and special curves 3-D printed.

Most Velcro the walls to the carpet track. that also allows for some give.

good luck. that little rally looks like a nice starter car.

no local indoor tracks?

We have a couple of local indoor tracks.  When they are open they seem pretty "serious".

Got the two cars in today.  I am actually pretty surprised how much zip they have for being so tiny.  This should be fun.

Built a small 20x10' track in my shop this morning and did some racing.  Hilariously absurd is probably the best way to describe it.  The epoxy floor is pretty slick and racing is a bit of a cross between track racing and drifting.

I don’t know about the wltoys models, but you might want to try some different tires. They can make all the difference in the world.

Wow!  The interlocking matts look like a great road surface!  I'll bet grippy, too.

You could cut curves with an old electric carving knife if you wanted to, but what you have
looks like loads of fun, too!

How are you anchoring the blue foam bumpers?

I can imagine, three other friends, four cars, and pure chaos!  Whooooo!!!

the track comes with edging that interlocks. We cut out one of the "teeth" on the edging and used a Velcro strap to hold the edges. roughly one strap per side.

The insides are with Velcro with sticky on both the wall and track.

We are thinking about making the walls higher on either side of the straight-a-way to reduce a car jumping the track, but otherwise 2 inches of wall has worked out well.

Tire choice is the biggest element for success. We have not tried oil filled shocks, but have tried the different weighted springs, but so far tires are where it's at.

And different tires for different drivers. If you drive crazy, you might want a smoother tire to drift into your turns a little, vs the pin tires which give tons of grip, but you are gonna pay if you take a turn too fast

From the video, looks like the cars are plenty fast, that driver's skill will be the most
important factor.  That's good!  No one can claim, "No fair! Jimmy's got a faster car!"

that video was of us slow....

The best lap there was probably 8-ish seconds.

in a time trial now, with tires, shocks, and a servo arm upgrade I have been down to 6.111 and my brother broke 5 seconds a couple times.

He has an app on his phone that identifies cars based on their color, which works well as long as the colors are distinctly different. Hooks it up to the speakers in the basement and you have yourself a $5 timing system.

The Carisma cars come in two colors, blue and red. So we have masking taped a yellow and green (which is thankfully different enough from blue) and can rock and roll.

4 cars on a 3ft wide track can get squirrely. And with laps being so fast, if you spin out or crash you are down a lap real quick.

@Maverick17

I'm interested in the little TA 1/28's. What do you consider a long time to charge?

Run time?

How long do the 4 AA's last?

Thanks!

Probably close to an hour to run for 15-20 min of runtime on a track, not just completely squeezed trigger.

As to how long the batteries last, we use standard Duracell or Kirkland batteries and my guess would be 6-8 charges, again assuming you don’t leave the transmitter on accidentally and charge the car correctly.

I don’t know how much the TA’s cost in your area, but seriously consider spending a little more and get a Carisma buggy, rally or monster truck.

1s lipos are relatively fast, and if you buy a 2s you clip along pretty quick. Parts are cheap and available online.

I got rid of the TA’s and the horizon hobby cars and have only the Carismas right now, until either me or my brother get stupid and go kyosho mini-z’s, lol.

I'm just going by online prices which seem to be a consistent $55. Seems like any "cost savings" would get eaten up pretty quick buying batteries or second or third TA's so I can run more than 20 minutes at a time.

I'll look into the carismas.

Long story short is that I need some new hobbies that don't involve great eyesight anymore

I was casually into nitro rc's a while back and enjoyed it and have always thought about getting back into it (electric this time) but never did.

My plan now is to find a smaller scale truck or buggy I can run around my basement. I don't know the square footage, but let's say small-average.  Low carpet, no padding. Sit out some red Solo cups go entertain myself for an hour or so. I don't want anything too big as the space is small, don't want to have to travel to do it, don't want anything that requires a lot of set up time and equipment (looked at the crawlers but it looks like to really enjoy them of need a lot of props).

I went over to the LHS today to check out their track and see if I could get any info about what I might be getting into to get set up and start racing 1/10 scale somethings.

They had these little guys on the counter so even though I had kinda talked myself out of one I couldn't help it. They were selling them for $1 more than internet prices.

I ran one charge through it so far. It's quicker than it is fast but on the short carpet in my basement it was a lot of fun to just cruise around looking for things to zip around. It turns really quick and will easily oversteer and roll itself.

No damage after bouncing it off just baout every hard thing down there

Had the exact one and the Lucas oil SCT.

Good starter whip for sure and as long as you don’t break it you will be able to sell it for $35-40 when you upgrade

Haven't broken it yet (knocks on wood).

I have trouble coming straight out of a turn with it or straightening out. The steering is so quick it just darts all over and bounces off of everything.

Just need to keep at it.

That's just needing to drive the thing. You will get used to driving it.

They are real light so they can take a decent beating, and getting the SCT vs a open tire style racer will help when bumping the wall in a turn too.