nitro vs electric - can't decide!

I have yet to have an hpi electric car but I have an hpi evo and the only batteries are the 7.2 volt for the roto start,the radio system batteries, and the battery in the glow igniter. I have a large collection of electric cars and lots of experience with them.. the cons of an electric car are that certain batteries may loose thier life quickly in the cold weather on the nitro part of the sport the pros are that you can run when its cold without having battery life to worry about all you have to do is fill the tank back up.. now on the hand of maintenance. its not really that bad just keep the car clean and dont crash if ya dont want to have much maintenance to do the hpi evo is a pretty good car in my opinion

When I first got into RC's I had the same problem. So I went with electric and wasn't satisfied. You still have to clean the break in the motor and keep cleaning the brushes and recharging the batteries. Then the speed factor was enough so I tried upgrading the motor, but wasn't enough. So I decided to go nitro and I was hooked. For the same amount of time it takes to keep up with the electric was the same with nitro, but with longer run times with alot more speed. Both cars u mentioned are good cars so I hoped this helped.

Something to consider...

Electric is pretty much "plug and play". Nitro requires tuning. It also requires some understanding of how carbs work.

You should also be somewhat mechanically inclined or at least not afraid to dig working on your vehicle.

I've seen many people down at the LHS seeking help with their nitro vehicles. They can't seem to get them running correct. In the couple of hours I was down there. Every vehicle brought in for "support" was a nitro vechile. I'd guess probably a dozen....

I've been messing with electric off and on since age 12 I'm 32 now.......i just got my first nitro last year.....and now I'm on my third i like them alot better......longer run times....... not as much upkeep i dont think ....... just read about the nitro you decide to get and find out if its easy to tune are not...........i also like the sound of nitro

I once had a Sprint and no it didnt hold up well to my bashing..............espiacially to a newbies bashing..........If you want onroad go with nitro and if you dont know how to tune it , well you local hobby shop sure willl help you! Godd luck with the new car!
~~~~~~~nofx~~~~~~~

i've thought about getting an electric...it would be so nice and quite and easy...

BUT cleaning a nitro is half the fun of it makes you feel good after you found out the problem and was able to fix it and it makes a cool engine noise lol:buggy1:

i dunno mabye its just me...but the noise is only cool for a while..............

yea you can't drive nitros in the house or late at night/ early in the morn if you have a deed restricted community... id get both
a lil electric for some fun when you can't drive the nitro!!

A person can drive themselves nuts trying to decide on this one.
As an owner of both electric and nitro, I offer up the following:

ELECTRIC PROS
plug-n-play
longer run times (with good batteries and brushless setup)
more torque than nitro (good for pulling and rock climbing)
after run maintenance is less than that of nitro
typically less expensive than nitros (of the same type)
fuel supply (batteries) are re-usable

ELECTRIC CONS
not as fast (out of the box) as nitros
doesn't have that engine sound or smell like nitros

NITRO PROS
faster out of the box
great sound and smell
great if you like wrenching

NITRO CONS
initial startup is more complicated than electric (engine break-in)
overall maintenance is more (this might be a PRO for some of us)

I'm sure there are plenty more PROS/CONS for each of them, these are only a few. As much as I like the simplicity and ease of electric, nothing compares to running a nitro machine. Most of us grew up with the Radio Shack, Nikko or Toy-R-Us electrics and these higher end electrics are just that-still electrics. Yeah, they're better built and faster, but they're still electrics. Making the move to Nitro is a step up. Everyone I know has both. Which one to start out with is anyones guess. Good luck and have fun with whatever you decide on.

Thanks for all the replies! I'll stick with the nitro as a starter for now, but I would love to try out both types of cars. Maybe in the (not so near) future when funds permit I will invest in an electric, but the nitro should help me get started. BTW, which type of car has better acceleration? i.e. which car would win in a short distance drag race?

nitro

If you're asking which has better acceleration, electric or nitro, then it's ELECTRIC. Nitro motors need time to build RPM's where as electric has all of it's torque/RPM's available as soon as you pull the trigger. Check out an R/C dragrace sometime. You'll see the electric cars dominate. In fact, take a look at their 0-60 ft. times. Some of them are actually faster than actual top fuel cars. Of course after 60 feet we all know who wins. But it's a good example of how electrics produce max power in little to no time.
Same thing with truck pulls. With a properly geared electric, it will pull any nitro around all day. Electrics beat nitro in drag races. Not my opinion, just a fact.

But if you're asking which car within the nitro category has better acceleration, then that would depend on what size/type of engine and what the gearing is.

you know what they say..... once you go nitro you never go back lol! at least thats just me

Yes I agree! I'm never goin' back!:bow: :bling:

Here's my deal: I grew up on Radio Shack cars. Sure, they were what I then thought of as being fast. Hell, I even used to take RS's different cars apart and change out the motors!
Then I went to a real hobby store and saw the nitros. That was it for me, I never turned back, or even thought about it! Nitros are just to much damn fun. The sound, the speed, the sound, the knowing that it's not just some electric motor and battery that's making my car humm accross the street but instead the roar of a 40,000 RPM ENGINE propelling my car with nitromethane based fuel that leaves behind a sweet smelling scent of POWER!!!!
Nitro is what all us kids talked about getting (but then they were just knows as "gas cars").

Nitro is just cooler man, just cooler.

I'm so bored with electric now that I'm selling it all. I'm addicted to nitro and electric doesn't make enough nosie..ha. If it doesn't burn my eyes when I fire it up then I don't wanna waste my money on it..hehe.

THe new Brushless motors have totally changed the face of RC and Nitro VS. Electric. The brushless motors offer stellar performance, low or no mantinence and often use slighty less juice. It's 2004 now and their's a PLETHORA of cheaper high performance cells and assembeled packs coming out. A year ago you had to spend big bucks on a speed control, big bucks on a Motor that often required high matinence and big bucks on cells to power said motor.....this is whay you had to do to go FAST. With a high initial investment now in a Brushless systme you can go fast and elimiante the matinence for the most part. Then you can power said brushless motor with high quality cells that can still be expensive but are practically cheap compared to two years ago.

Peace

Originally posted by 30%NitroBoy
I'm so bored with electric now that I'm selling it all. I'm addicted to nitro and electric doesn't make enough noise..ha. If it doesn't burn my eyes when I fire it up then I don't wanna waste my money on it..hehe.

THe new Brushless motors have totally changed the face of RC and Nitro VS. Electric. The brushless motors offer stellar performance, low or no mantinence and often use slighty less juice. It's 2004 now and their's a PLETHORA of cheaper high performance cells and assembeled packs coming out. A year ago you had to spend big bucks on a speed control, big bucks on a Motor that often required high matinence and big bucks on cells to power said motor.....this is whay you had to do to go FAST. With a high initial investment now in a Brushless system ($189-250 roughly) you can go fast and elimiante the matinence for the most part. Then you can power said brushless motor with high quality cells that can still be expensive but are practically cheap compared to two years ago. If I stay in Electric it will be Brushless or NADA. I'm tired of spending big bucks on motors that require high matinence. It's not even fun matinence like Nitro can be.

Peace

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amen but the speed of eletric and nitro is not a factor its the...... I dont know but you ask every nitro user and its just the feel of useing nitro lol I havent been in this hobby for a long time but I can tell I'm not gonna stop for a long time either id try eletric mabey but id rather get a nitro truck instead

Originally posted by spyderpact
amen but the speed of eletric and nitro is not a factor its the...... I dont know but you ask every nitro user and its just the feel of useing nitro lol I havent been in this hobby for a long time but I can tell I'm not gonna stop for a long time either id try eletric mabey but id rather get a nitro truck instead

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SUp dude,

I must be tired as I quoted myself and then edited it...lol.

Yeah, I didn't totally elaborate but the Bottom line with NItro is that it well.....NITRO..lol. You running a combustion engine car that runs @ rediculous RPM"s. THe sound, the feel and the smell....their's nothing quite like it. The most powerfull Electric on the planet still can't touch nitro power for the FUN factor. 15 year old kids can go wild in a hobby that's shared by young and older alike. Like I've said before, nothing has impressed some of my REAL drag race buddies more then Nitro Trucks.

Peace