There are numerous brands of fuel available for RC Cars and most people are aware how essential it is if you want to keep your engine parts well lubricated and working freely.

In reality, no single fuel is ideal for every application. The correct mixture of nitro in a fuel and its effects on engine performance are rather complex issues due to the many variables such as the climate, humidity and the glowplugs used.

In order understand how nitro affects an engine’s performance; it is useful to have a little basic understanding of it.

Nitro Methane is a monopropellant containing nitrogen and oxygen providing more ‘fuel’ for the combustion process and burns in the absence of air.

More fuel plus more air potentially returns more horsepower.
Nothing is ever simple and running more nitro does not always mean more horsepower so it isn’t simply a case of increasing the nitro content to give you extra power.

Each engine is designed and recommended to run on a specific the amount of nitro methane and running a mixture of say 25% nitro fuel in an engine designed for low to no nitro methane content, will only give you poor performance and hot running engine characteristics.

Conversely, using 0% nitro fuel in an engine designed for 20% or higher nitro will produce the same results - poor engine performance.

Fuels have different oils and whilst some people down at your local RC car club will have their own preferences and be more than happy to offer you their opinions and experiences, the best suggestion is to start with the recommendations from your RC car manufacturer/supplier and then experiment.

If you are looking for something to do with your time and/or with the kids on a Sunday morning, it really is worth checking out your local Radio Control Car Club.

Watching RC cars race around tracks can be a bit of fun and pass the time away, but to actually do it yourself simply takes it to a whole new level!

The adrenaline starts to rush around your body as soon as you start to get caught up in the moment and race.

Just enjoy feeling all the pressures from the daily grind fading away (for a time anyway), and start to feel that buzz. You will soon see why the sport is constantly increasing in popularity, across all age bands.

Never forget though that a lot of people put in a lot of effort to maintain the tracks and conditions and for most, this is on a voluntary basis.

Please ensure you and anyone else going along with you respects the rules of the track and club, remaining courteous and appreciative of all the time and effort your local club members put in to keeping the enjoyment and adrenaline flowing for you.

The British Radio Car Association website offers details of many RC clubs across the country and should help you find details of a club near you.

Alternatively, go and have a chat with your local hobby shop, they will probably know as well or be able to put you in touch with someone who does!

When choosing a remote control car, the question may arise whether to go for a two or four wheel drive model.
This decision could be based around your preferred engine placement i.e. whether you prefer your cars to have a mid-engine placement or the more popular rear engine placement.

Either way, when considering the drive element, it is always worth thinking about what you actually want to do with your RC car.

If you are looking to use your vehicle off-road or on dirt tracks, the logical choice will probably be to opt for the 4WD versions.

These cars and trucks are more able to negotiate rough terrain and uneven racing surfaces because they are able to both pull and push themselves, particularly on accelerating out of turns reducing the chance of unwanted spins.

4WD will prove to be more stable putting less strain on your cars chassis enabling the car to go faster and control any jumps more effectively on rough terrain.

During a race, if you do find yourself having to slow down for any reason, the traction and grip from the 4WD tyres will enable you to get back up to speed faster on the more difficult terrain.

At the end of the day, there will always be a place for both two and four wheel drive vehicles so the choice is yours.

Many racers believe that there is a set sequence/science to charging and discharging batteries.

Use the correct type of battery charger.

Many chargers use a timer system or assessing the temperature of the battery to control recharging but these is not really as effective as peak battery chargers.

Whilst timer and temperature assessment chargers will be ok for most RC hobbyists, the HPI Team Drivers for example charged their batteries at 4 to 5 amps at the ISTC World Cup.

The other main factor to assure battery efficiency is to ensure batteries are discharged after running. For the majority of racers simply running the car until it goes very slow and then taking the battery out and letting motor cool down will do the job.

However, if time is likely to be an issue such as when you are in organised race events, you can use a 12 volt car light bulb to discharge the battery pack.

Some racers consider that using 30 amps to discharge the batteries after a race allows them to gear the car better, but with later batteries such as the RC3300 and RC3000, runtime can be less of a factor.

Properly cared for, no matter what price you pay for your battery, could last you for quite a while.

If you have been running your car for a while you may be thinking of looking at ways to improve its performance and speed.

Well, there really isn’t any quicker way to increase your radio controlled car performance than upgrading that motor unit.

It is important to remember that when choosing to upgrade your motor you will need to ensure that your electronic speed controller can actually handle the output of your proposed new motor.

More powerful motor units using more current and will drain your speed controllers quicker. You therefore need to check the motor limit of your speed controller.

If you fit a high performance motor above the normal operating limits of the speed controller you potentially run the risk of making it run hot. It could even let you down and overheat or fail completely, something that would not go down too well during a formal competition or race with your friends.

It is also worth noting that faster motors will reduce runtime. A standard 540 motor can normally run for about 10 minutes whereas a 21 turn motor will run for about half that time.

So it is also worth considering upgrading to a battery with a higher capacity to maintain that runtime.

The electric motor in RC cars requires regular and careful maintenance in order to keep it running at its optimum performance levels.

Just like a normal car, these electric motors have many maintenance-intensive parts and to gain an appreciation of why and when certain maintenance activities are undertaken, it is always beneficial to have an idea of the workings and principle operations of such a motor.

For those of you operating brushless motors, good on you, you don’t have to worry about keeping the brushes clean. For those of you not yet moved into the realms of brushless motors here are a few tips.

Its worth noting that the brushes are the only parts of the motor that actually makes contact with the commutator. They are therefore very important, particularly in modified motor racing.

The brushes on your motor should be cleaned when you clean the commutator. It is important to make sure that debris does not build up inside the motor, particularly between the brushes and the commutator, so use a cotton bud coated with motor cleaning spray to clean it all.

Squirt some of the degreasing motor spray onto the cotton buds and gently wipe off any grease/debris build up around the commutator, (rotate the motor if necessary) and then clean the face of the brushes.

Rotate the cotton buds rather than move them up and down on the face of the brush to prevent transfer of dirt/grease.

Complete this activity every 10-15 times you run your car and you will help maintain electric conduction between the brush and commutator, and thereby optimise performance.

Finally, if you notice that your brushes have worn down to more than half their original length, don’t waste your time cleaning them, you should replace them.

Are you getting pefect performance from your RC car when running it flat out?

If you are, congratulations, but for the majority, the answer is likely to be a categorical no, not yet or I don’t believe I am.

Most cars will have a tendency to over/under steer when pushed to the very edge of their designed operational speeds.

A car that neither oversteers nor understeers when pushed to the limit is said to have neutral handling which sounds ideal.

But is it actually the best/preferred choice for racers?

For road racers, being able to accelerate early (especially before your opponents) on exiting a corner allows your car to gain that little bit of extra momentum and speed for the following straight.

The driver who accelerates soonest and/or hardest will undoubtedly gain a significant advantage over their opponents.

But to do this those rear tyres need to get some extra traction from somewhere in order to accelerate the car in this absolutely critical phase of the corner and whilst they are doing that, those front tyres will need to concentrate on gripping the track to assure a fast, efficient turn.

So, the car will in all likelihood, need to be set up with a slight understeer.

It is worth noting that if a car understeers slightly, although drivers’ ability can have an impact, the car will tend to be a bit more stable during sharp/fast changes of direction.