If you have an interest in things that go fast, and are looking for a new hobby to occupy your spare time, you shouldn't be looking any further than a nitro rc car. Nitro RC Cars are so incredibly fun, that when you start this hobby, you will forget what spare time was, because every moment that you are not occupied will be taken up with tinkering, racing and looking after your new car. For those of you that are completely new to this hobby, RC stands for Remote Control (or Radio Control), and an RC car is therefore a miniature sized car that is operated via remote control. The most popular type of RC car is the electric, or battery powered car, but there are actually three basic types of RC cars...

The gas powered RC car uses plain petrol mixed with oil, similar to your lawn mower. Although these cars are much cheaper than their Nitro cousins, they are still a lot slower, and therefore not as fun for the serious enthusiast.

Th electric (or battery powered) RC car is, as I said, the most popular of the 3. This is with good reason, because the majority of RC cars out there are being bought for young children who have no prior experience with a remote control car. An electric car is a perfect place to start. because they are much easier to maneuver, and also much cheaper to run. Electric cars are also the cheapest type of radio controlled car you can get. Finally, there is no noise pollution, nor no air pollution associated with an Electric RC Car. Their main downfall is that the batteries need to be recharged at regular intervals, which can literally take hours and hours.

The Power of Nitro RC Cars

If you really want a hobby that you can take seriously, and you have had some previous experience with RC Cars, then Nitro RC Cars are definitely going to be the best option for you. A nitro car runs an a mixture of methanol, oil and nitro methane. The higher the concentrate of nitro methane, the faster and more powerful your car will be. This mixture is not something that can be purchased from your local gas station, however, you will need to have access to a hobby shop of some kind to get your top ups in fuel.

Now, when I said Nitro RC Cars are fast, I'm talking real fast. A good souped up nitro car can reach speeds up 60 or even 70 miles per hour! Remember that I said this may not be a good starting model? This is precisely why. If you have had no prior experience in handling a remote control car, a nitro car is going to have disappeared before you've even had a chance to get your hands around the controls. Another great thing about these cars is that once they are fueled up, you can run them for up to an hour and even longer with some models, before it needs to be refuelled. And, refuelling is an instant affair. Not like an electric car, which takes hours to recharge.

There are many different types of nitro rc cars on the market. If it's just a plain car you are after, you can get a model to match any real life car out there, anything from a Porsche to a Volkswagen is available, and you can even design your own models if you have enough know how. These are all on road models, and are perfect for racing on custom tracks made for rc cars, or for zooming around the local car parking lot. If something a bit rougher is what you are after, you can look at an off road model of nitro rc car to give you more grunt. These designs range from jeeps and buggies, through to the bigger truck models, and are ideal for obstacle courses, jumping tricks, and basically zooming around your rocky or grassy backyard.

For the beginner, I would recommend that your look at getting a ready to run kit. These kits have just about everything you need to get your car up and running with minimal fuss. You can pick up a decent ready to run nitro rc car kit for around $200 or less, and with that you will get all the parts you need, along with a comprehensive list of instructions to get your car up and running. Once you've put it all together, all you need to do is grab yourself some nitro, and a few spare glow plugs, and your ready to go. Vroom Vroom!