My friend and I are interested in Touring Cars (until my LHS finishes their off-road track - lol) and we have tight budgets.

I read a really nice article on what to buy here... but the price range was still too high (I think TowerHobbies had them all for over $200 for the Tamiya TT-01.

Are there any RTR kits...that trully are RTR (come with everything - other than the radio AA batteries) for less than $200 or even better around $150'ish range?

Forgot to mention, we want 1/10 scale.

That is a tight budget. Your $200.00 would go pretty far with used equipment. Here are some options

This comes with a wall charge it will take a few hours to charge your battery instead of a few minutes
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXCWGC&P=0

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...ro-24GHz-Radio

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...ro-24GHz-Radio
You will still need a battery charger and battery pack with this combo.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXAEGF&P=0

Thanks for those links! If I wanted to buy used equipment and piece all my stuff together, what radio would be a good investment that I can grow into? What should I be willing to spend the most money on? Car, radio, etc.? I was thinking maybe the radio since it can be used from car to car, no? I take good care of my stuff, so I would keep it a long time and then maybe upgrade the motor, battery to brushless later when I can afford it.

Do you plan to race, or just drive for fun? Have you checked out what classes the track runs? Typically the most budget friendly class is the Tamiya Mini spec class, you're VERY limited to what can be done to the cars so it's a lot more budget friendly.

You can buy a used TT01 complete for well within your budget. We run a class of them on Saturday nights just to get the old style racing back. They are not terribly fast around "25mph" but are still fun and handle surprisingly well. We also run super modified RS4's, Sprint 2's and E10's all brushless for our speed fix.. but honestly we've made these cars so fast they are not really as much fun to run as the slower TT01's.. White knuckle runs at 60mph when a crash will take you out isn't fun compared to bouncing off other cars, passing and spinning out like racing should be.. The minispec class is also a good idea, but as wparsons said before.. You are very limited to what you can even find for the car.. The TT01's have an endless supply of parts support and mods..

Originally Posted by Nickerz

Thanks for those links! If I wanted to buy used equipment and piece all my stuff together, what radio would be a good investment that I can grow into? What should I be willing to spend the most money on? Car, radio, etc.? I was thinking maybe the radio since it can be used from car to car, no? I take good care of my stuff, so I would keep it a long time and then maybe upgrade the motor, battery to brushless later when I can afford it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Good advise above^^^^^^^^^^^^^

As far as a radio to grow with I would look at a good 3 channel sport radio with some model memory. I recommend what I own now or have owned in the past.

Futaba, Airtronics, Hitec, all make great radios for a budget. Spektrum makes some great radios. I don't own one a lot of my friends do. I would buy on if I needed it.

What should you spend most of your money on that is a hard one. It is going to be a balancing act. You need money for a good car. But you need a good radio.Now you need a battery and a charger. Don't forget about the ESC and motor. It can be done but you might have to a little leg work.

This is true in any hobby. There is always someone get out of the hobby when you want to get in. Find that person and buy their stuff.
Check at the local track some one will be bound to selling a car.
Ebay make sure they have very good feedback.
We have a classified section here on the forum. Check their feedback before you buy

You need a good car that is first you can always save a few bucks on an radio and hobby king batteries are priced good. A good charger is going to be pricey but a good one will serve you for a long time. If you buy a used charger be extra careful I have never bought a used one always new.

A brushed ESC and Motor will be the cheapest way for you to go.Again be careful. I bought a used brushless system for a great price but it was from a very trusted source. I don't know how good the hobby king stuff is it seems like people have some luck with it.

Check some completed listings on ebay of a TT01 chassis maybe a Associated TC3. You can see how much they are going for. You can still get parts for both of theses cars.

Good luck keep us posted on your progress

Thanks for the advice guys! Yes, I want to race but I'm a noob so keeping it stock will probably help me and my friend out.

I have read about the FlySky radios. When I saw the price for less than $40 my jaw dropped and then I thought..."what's the quality?" but I've read some good things about the FlySky FS-GT3B.

What's difficult is for me to decide between onroad and offroad. I want to race both and I have both - but my onroad car is a pan car not touring. So do I go super cheap to get into both onroad and offroad or do I spend a little extra and stick to one?

To make the decision even more difficult now...I drove to a BRAND NEW offroad track this evening and it's going to be done this Thursday!!!! It looks really good and the guys building it own a construction company and have plenty of money to pour into it and plenty of land! The onroad track is owned by my LHS but they only race Saturday. The offroad track will be open a lot more and even nights!But I LOVE both!!!

By the way...the drivers stand in the 3rd pic is HUGE and you can easily see the entire offroad track. It's located on the right, background, it's built on top of a cargo crate and looks AWESOME!

I run the flysky GT3 radio in a couple of my cars (bashers not racers) and honestly its a great radio especially for the price. additional rx's are less than $10, has I think 10 channel model memory and enough functions to make your head spin. I have a couple of high end radio's that I use for racing and on my expensive stuff, but for a budget, these radios are great. Very long range and I have yet to experience a glitch.. they are a bit heavy with 8AA batteries and they do consume batteries faster than I'm used to, but other than that no complaints.

I prefer off road racing to on road, but it's a purely personal choice.

If you're on a TIGHT budget, off road (and broken parts) might not be in the cards for now, you'll need about $400-$500 to get into off road racing (figure 2-3 packs, good charger, vehicle, etc).

Originally Posted by cenracer1

I run the flysky GT3 radio in a couple of my cars (bashers not racers) and honestly its a great radio especially for the price. additional rx's are less than $10, has I think 10 channel model memory and enough functions to make your head spin. I have a couple of high end radio's that I use for racing and on my expensive stuff, but for a budget, these radios are great. Very long range and I have yet to experience a glitch.. they are a bit heavy with 8AA batteries and they do consume batteries faster than I'm used to, but other than that no complaints.

Yeah, I'm leaning towards the FlySky GT3. Even one of the guys building the offroad track last night said he thinks they're good radios but he said he uses Spektrum for racing. If FlySky is good like everyone says (and I seriously haven't heard any bad feed back yet) why don't they use them for racing? Is it pride? lol? Heck...I won't have any issues showing up to the track with cheap equipment...as long as I can race and be competitive. There's even a new model (iT4) that includes all the Telemetry modules for $120!

Originally Posted by wparsons

I prefer off road racing to on road, but it's a purely personal choice.

If you're on a TIGHT budget, off road (and broken parts) might not be in the cards for now, you'll need about $400-$500 to get into off road racing (figure 2-3 packs, good charger, vehicle, etc).

I do have an old RC10 Graphite that I'm willing to use and keep it stock for now. So I really only need to buy some more batteries and maybe a charger. I technically have everything now for onroad and offroad but it's all old and my onroad car is a pan car - lol .

I think I'll show up to some of these races and start asking around. The guys at the offroad track said they will have free practice nights for beginners, so I'll try that and then I'll get a better idea of what I'll need afterward. Then if I move up from stock, I can buy a brushless kit ($60) and I think I might buy the FlySky GT3B for $35. I know I can get cheaper chargers but I think I will put more money into the iCharger (since I can also use this on my planes).

Either way, I appreciate the feed back here and I'll probably have more questions but I'm gonna get to a track and see it how it goes.

There is a big reason I won't use my Flysky for racing or serious vehicles. I've been thru several rx's in them. They don't last like the other ones. On the other hand, I can get them for cheap. The last order was 10 for $70 shipped from overseas.. at that price who cares.. but for racing thats not good odds. I run some of my touring cars (bashers) very hard and will break them pretty much every time out.. A couple of good hits and the rx loses it bind.. a few more and it stops functioning.. It will work on an off road track, but I won't take that chance. I use Spektrum for those.

^^ I've only had one RX go south, but it was after a solid crash. I started mounting them on multiple layers of double sided tape to give them more vibration/impact isolation.

I use my GT3B in my 22T, as well as my jet boat, old XXT and TT01 drifter. I modded mine with the upgraded firmware, bearing supported steering and voltage regulator from overkillrc.com, plus a 3s lipo pack from hobbyking.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...idProduct=9787

Originally Posted by wparsons

^^ I've only had one RX go south, but it was after a solid crash. I started mounting them on multiple layers of double sided tape to give them more vibration/impact isolation.

My crashes are usually memorable. Head on collisions or crashing into a curb at 50+. The cars can take the hits, but not always the electronics.. but keep in mind most people don't do this to their r/c cars.. We have built ours for this purpose, but nothing is fullproof.

My 22T took A LOT of tough crashes over a summer of racing before the RX crapped out, and it was held on by a single thin layer of double sided tape. The replacement with more tape has been great since.

Sounds like we need to play of game of chicken to see who is right..LOL My point is that they are not trustworthy enough for serious racing or expensive vehicles, but they are more than adequate for bashing. Sure you can use it for racing, but in my opinion thats not the place to start skimping.