Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Just as a heads up, when buying this RC car, you will also need a few other things: -12 AA batteries which can be rechargeable or not. I have been having a good experience with some Eneloop ones. -You will also need an starter kit for the glow plug which comes with an igniter, a wrench to take the glow plug out if you flood the engine or if you need to check for power of the igniter, and a fuel bottle. -Since this is a nitro powered RC car, you will also need nitro fuel (not regular gas). Good brands are recommended further down this review. -Blue Loctite is highly recommended to keep metal to metal screws in place. -Oil for the air filter to prevent dust from going inside the engine. -After run oil is recommended by some to put inside the engine after use. It is relatively inexpensive at 2.99 and gives you a piece of mind. Let me start by saying that this is a great first RC car. It has decent power and there are a good amount of upgrades that can be done including engine, shocks, aluminum parts, and many others. One of the draw backs of buying this RC car is that parts can, mostly, only be found online and not at most Hobby shops. It is pretty easy to break some parts when you have a little car going this fast, especially if you like to make it jump and other more demanding tasks than just have it run on a smooth paved road. The good news is that Exceed, Redcat racing, and Himoto all make very similar cars with very comparable, if not the same quality parts, which can usually be interchanged with each other. This allows you a bigger selection of parts online. There are forums online of people who own cars from these brands that have tried parts from all these companies as well as from other more known companies like HPI, Traxxas, or Losi. Therefore, if you are willing to do some reading online, there is a lot of helpful information. Below I have listed many parts that are compatible with this car as well as the Redcat Tornado according to research I have done on forums of what other people have tried. For those of you wondering how fast it is, I have tuned mine to go 35mph (measured by a car gps strapped on to where the wing goes) and I believe I can still lean it a bit more but I have been holding off until I get an infrared temperature gun to make sure the engine is not overheating. Considering the weight of the GPS, I can see it going even a bit faster. I believe that the amount of speed is pretty good for just a single speed and probably more than enough for a lot of people. It is important to keep in mind that losing control at 35mph and hitting something hard will most likely break something so while the car is not exactly delicate, it is likely that you will need some spare parts eventually. If you goal is to get more speed. then switching the single speed transmission for the 2 speed one can really help. Also, you might eventually consider upgrading the engine for much more power. UPDATE: (37 mph with the ball bearings upgrade instead of the original metal bushings and the GPS strapped on the back)2mph increase. One of the benefits of this car is that it is pretty much the cheapest you can buy for this size, 1/10 nitro powered RC car (you might find the Exceed brand a bit less on other websites since prices vary on Amazon a bit). Exceed and Himoto make very similar, if not the same cars, sometimes with slight modifications on the options in shocks, transmissions (one or two speed), engine size (usually either a vx-16, vx-18, or sh-18, and radio controllers. You are more than welcome to check them out and come to your own opinion. I bought mine here because at the time it was the best price available (130). If you are limited on how much you want to spend then go ahead and buy this car. If for twenty or more you can buy the tornado, then I would recommend doing so because for that you get better shocks, and bit more powerful engine, and a 2.4 ghz radio which I'm not sure how good it is but might be better than the am one. At the time of my purchase, the difference was over $40 I believe so I decided not to. One of the disadvantages of buying Redcat products, or any of the other two companies mentioned, is that these companies are not very well known and relatively new to the market, and therefore have not yet established themselves very well. Therefore, most hobby shops will not carry parts for these RC cars. This might change in the future as more people buy these brands since they are more affordable for beginners. While reading forums in order to become more familiar with the car, I have encountered many people who talk bad about these smaller and not so well known companies and about the quality of their products. But you will also find people who have owned more expensive brands like HPI and Traxxas who love their Redcat cars because they allow them to really have fun with their toys while not having to worry so much about braking something in their more expensive vehicles. I do believe that the more respected companies might have better quality products, but for someone who is just starting up, this is the perfect tool to start learning. It is easy to make mistakes when you first learn how to tune properly an engine as well as how to properly take good care of your RC car. One of the things that I should mention for people who plan of using this car for off roading and jumps is that the aluminum shock towers, mainly the front) is actually very soft and will bend easily if it hits the ground. The good news is that you can just bend it back to its original shape. If that was not the case, then you could buy a new one online for as little as $3 plus shipping. Best fuels according to online forums (everyone has their own opinions) I'm currently running O'Donnel: 1-Cold Fusion Magic Blend 2-Byrons 3-O'Donnel 4-S&W 20% Nitro is what I use and it's recommended in the manual. I'm not sure about higher percentages. Other tips: -Start with a rich engine setting while you break the engine in and then start slowly leaning the engine for more speed and performance. Lean the engine by turning the high speed needle clockwise, counter clockwise to richen it. -If the pull cord feels harder than usual then you most likely flooded the engine. Take off the glow plug. turn the car upside down and pull from the pull started a couple of times to get the excess fuel out. -Loctite engine screws at the bottom of the chassis as well as the clutch bell. I did not do the clutch bell when I first got it so mine ended up coming off after 1/2 a gallon of use. -Check other screws periodically to make sure they are not slowly coming off. -Put the shock spacers at your preference because if you do not, the bottom aluminum plate will be constantly scraping the ground. The stock suspension is a bit soft. -Tape the 4 batteries that go in the car inside the battery holder so that they do not jump out of the holder which can cause you to lose control of the RC car. You can also use a rubber band. Keep in mind that there is a lot of vibration which can cause the outside of the batteries to start scrapping so the tape or two or three rubber bands should help with that. -When the break is not pressed, the carburetor will remain a bit open which makes the car want to speed up. -Remove the air filter and make sure that when the brake is pressed, there is still a 1mm opening to allow fuel and air mixture to get in. -Only leave the glow plug igniter a few seconds after the car starts. Also do not leave it in for too long if you are having trouble starting the engine. -If the igniter battery is a NiMH and it has a capacity of 1800mah it would take about 18 to 21 hours to fully charge with a 100mah charger. Of course you can charge it less and use it but once in a while you should give it a good charge and then you will able to use it for a long time without having to charge it. The formula to calculate charging time is capacity/charging current, times 1.2 because batteries do not absorb energy perfectly. Therefore, a 500mah charger would take about 3.6 to 4.2 hours to fully charge the same battery. Tuning engine guide: -Always mess with the high speed needle only unless indicated otherwise below. -If the engine starts but dies right away even if you give it gas, most likely it is to rich and you need to lean it by rotating the screw clockwise. -If the car goes off when you start it, hit the break a bit. If that does not help, then remove the air filter and make sure that the carb opening is only about 1mm when you hit the break. The middle screw adjusts this opening. I believe that clockwise you open it more but I cannot remember for sure at the moment. -If the car does not seem to rev very high then it is probably too rich. Lean it a bit. -If the car bogs down when you hit the gas and accelerates on its own (and you have already checked the carb opening) then it might be too lean. Turn the high speed needle counter clockwise. -Once the high speed needle is properly tuned, as well as the idle needle that controls the carb opening, you can mess with the slow speed needle. There is a test called the pinch test. You pinch the fuel line close to the carb and you count how many seconds it takes for the engine to turn off. Ideally, it should take between 3 and 4 seconds. Clockwise makes it faster or leaner, and counter clockwise makes it longer or richer. Compatible parts that should work with little or no modification from other brands that I have read off in forums : Engines: SH .18, OS .18cv-rx, Traxxas 3.3, OS .18tz-tx, and OS .21tm Glow Plug: OS #3 (which is now called #6) is great, you can also try OS #7 Shocks: HPI mt shocks, Jato shocks, or even the Tornado ones. Bearings: 10x15x4 (4 of them for the wheels hubs), 5x10x4 (4 for the wheels hubs ((other side) and 2 for over and under the clutch bell). AvidRC makes some cheap ones. Go for the all metal if you want the most slippery ones. The $1 dollar bearings on the wheels alone gave me about 2mph extra measured by GPS under the same conditions. Clutch: HPI A885 racing clutch, HPI firestorm clutch shoes, teflon clutch shoes are usually best (for what I read). Optional Clutch bell: HPI Clutch Bell 12mm 2-Speed Nitro 3 - 86039 HPI Aluminum Threaded Pinion Gear 17T Nitro 3 - 76977 HPI Pinion Gear 22Tx12mm Nitro 2-Speed Nitro 3 - 76982 HPI RS4 bell would also work with 18T and 23T There should always be a difference of 5 between gears although I am not sure why...example above 17T and 22T Wheels: Tsunami wheels and tires will work, or any other wheels with a 2.2 offset and 12mm hex screw size. Single speed spur gear: 44T (part # 05112) or 42T from on road car called Lightning (part# 02112) which will give you a bit extra speed with the sacrifice of some low end power. Double speed transmission (which are relatively easy to swap): Tornado's (part# 06034) uses 47T (#06032) and 42T (#06033) Lightning's for a bit more top speed (part# 02076) uses 44T (#02040) and 39T (#02041) For reference, a lower teeth number in the spur gear increases top speed but decreases low speed power or the low end. The opposite is true for the teeth in the clutch bell. (More teeth = more speed or more high end) Adjusting 2 speed transmission advice: -Adjusting screw clockwise makes it shift at higher rpms so it stays in 1st gear longer, if its stuck in 2nd you want to turn it clockwise. My reason for writing this review was to help those people like me that have this RC car and also those who are considering on buying it and want to learn more about how to properly take care of their new toy. Most people will have no idea on where to start, and while some may just skip performing any reading at all and just jump into starting the car and driving it hard, there are many things that can help you extend the life of your new RC car. I know there is a lot of info here and I would be surprised if you got this far. But, If you did, I hope that I saved you many hours of reading forums(which I did) in order to find what you were looking for. Currently I have had the car for 2 and 1/2 months. I have ran about 3/4 of a gallon through it. I have bent the front right dog bone, which is the part that transfers energy from the differentials to the wheels. The car is extremely difficult to flip on an even paved road, even when making it slide sideways all the time. But on one occasion I caught one of the wheels on a crack and that made it flip several times with the speed it was carrying. I was able to bend the dog bone back to almost its original shape and I still use it although I should really replace it. My tires are bold from making the thing slide. New tires are a bit expensive, about $12 or more for each pair. Expect to have to spend some money once in a while to fix something that breaks. In case I have not mention this earlier, I have used my RC car 95 percent of the time on pavement and not to make jumps or much off-roading. Such activities will probably cause more wear and more broken parts. I do drive the thing hard on the pavement though :) I will update this review as my experience with the car progresses.