Thinking about buying this... [newbie]

[integra818]

I wanna buy this...

http://www.hlj.com/cgi-perl/hljpage.cgi?TAM46306

I'm gonna get it for about $65 new. I have every question possible.. how fast would it go, can I make it faster, is it worth it, is it like the other electric cars, will it be easy to take care of it if I don't know much about R/C car????????????????????????????????????? I havea million more questions, so please, tell me everything you can. Thanks in advance.

[Asmenoth]

The QD series are not terribly fast. The unfortunate things is, the only thing you can change are the tires and body. They are a step above Radio Shack and Toys R Us RC cars...but not much. If you want one that can be modified and allready built with the electronics instaled, get one from Tamiya's XB series. They cost a bit more, but you can buy better motors for them, oil filled shocks, add sway bars, they use "standard" RC car batteries and change the gearing (a big factor in making it go fast next to buying a motor with a lower number of winds...ie a 10 turn motor is faster than a 19 turn motor)

[integra818]

OK then, forget the QD series, I'll go with the XB series. Basicly, I just want something I can play around with like settings and stuff. I want to be able to change the suspension settings, modify this and that, not just a car I just turn on and drive when I feel like it.
They way things seem, the XB is more interesting, I'll go with that. How much do they cost? And are there any ready to run ones? The only reason I want the ready to run one is becasue I don't wanna go through all the trouble of picking a radio and controller and what-not.
Can I modify the XB to go more than 35mph (after I learn how to control the car) ?

[Asmenoth]

Expect to pay anywhere from $150-200. I couldn't get Tower Hobbies website to come up, so I couldn't check there. On Hobby Links Japan, they are not listed as XB, or Expert Built. One is the Enzo Ferrari and another they have listed is an Opel DTM car. The DTM car is one of the older XBs, built on the TL-01 chassis. The new XB's are built on a TB-01 chassis, a bit more stable. The problem with the RTR cars, they generally are not very adjustable. To make the TL-01, for example, more adjustable (and a bit more stable), you also need to buy the Long Suspension set, about $40 or so. That will give you more shock mounting options and ads sway bars. You may be able to pick one up on eBay, I have seen them there before.

Thay can be made to go more than 35 mph, depending on gear ratio and the type of motor and batteries you drop in. You can probably get a pretty insane speed run out of an 8 turn motor and 2400mah-3300mah batteries. You don't have many gearing options with the TL-01, and the way the chassis is designed, motors can get too hot. Not sure about the TB-01 though, don't have one yet. Check out the forums on rccaraction.com. They have an area where people talk about different kinds of cars. A TL-01 forum, an HPI RS-4 forum, etc.