Many people think of remote controlled cars as toys for kids. However, there is a huge difference between remote control cars for kids and remote control cars for adults. The complexities of the cars have a very wide gap. Kids cars will run on just a few AA batteries. RC cars for adults feature full miniature engines. Lots of the popular motor kits run on fuel such as gasoline or nitro. Others run on large battery packs that are essentially beefed up versions of kids toys. These cars require just as much maintenance as a real car, since they have all of the same components (plus all of the radio transmitting gear!) to deal with.
When building a remote controlled car, you will have many different choices regarding the quality of the components that you use to make it. You can stick with some simple hobby store components, but those are not likely to make a car that will win any races. If you want to go all-out on a project, you can get top quality parts. You should be prepared to spend some money to get what it takes, but once you have it all together you will have a car that you can truly be proud of. If you want to assemble this type of amazing car, you will need to look for several things in particular when buying components. These will help you get the maximum performance for your money.
The fastest engine choice that you can find is a nitro engine. Nitromethane is an alternative to regular gasoline, and runs much better for RC cars. It is usually heavier, and therefore more cumbersome on the handling of the car. However, if you are going to be on a fairly straightforward and tame race course, it is a great choice and will provide a huge speed. The only down side is that nitro engines are known for wearing down faster, and breaking at a higher rate. If you use a nitro engine frequently, you can almost expect it to break after intense usage. It is a good idea to have an electric engine that you can swap it out with when the need arises.
The other parts of the car are equally important when you are aiming for absolute fastness. If you are you going all-out on a project, you should expect to spend quite a bit on components like wheels and axels. Usually you want to get wheels that are extremely firm and light. If you have the opportunity to go out to a hobby store and test out a few different components, you will be able to decide exactly what you want based on experiencing it first-hand. This is the best way to shop for anything, and the same goes for remote control cars. Since the parts are usually highly swappable, you can directly compare one with another by trying them in quick succession.
If you aren't a very technically inclined person, the thought of picking all of these parts might not sound very fun. However, you might not have to go through this process. It is possible to buy kits that include all top of the line parts, and are quite easy to assemble. With these you won't get the high level of customization that you would get out of building a regular home-made car. Being able to choose all of the parts separately is a great benefit, although 90% of the time you can replace individual parts if you decide that you want to go for something that is of a higher quality or a little bit faster than what you had before.
All of these things really add up. If you have one part of a car that doesn't perform as well, the entire thing will be affected. Therefore you need to choose your parts carefully to have the best remote controlled car possible.