Hello and welcome to my blog. This blog
will be about the hobby of R/C cars, specifically Nitro ones. You may know
nothing about nitro cars. You may never have even heard of them before. Or, on
the other hand, you may know quite a bit. Either way, you will leave this blog
knowing everything you need to know about these awesome toys. I will
cover the basics needed to get started, as well as additional information
you can use to fully enjoy these amazing little machines. Check back often as I
will be posting tons on information soon to come. If you have any questions,
you can post them in the comments section. Enjoy!
There are 3 main types of vehicles for a nitro R/C
car. There are on-road street cars, off-road buggies & truggies, and off-road monster
trucks. Well I've choose off road nitro buggy and truggy to join a race here in Doha Qatar.
To know about more on nitro buggy and truggy:
They have 1-2 inches of ground clearance,
and still go very fast. Their shocks are larger to absorb the bumps and impacts
of driving off-road. Their tires have bumps for traction. They usually have
4WD, so they can go over many obstacles and steep inclines, on almost any
terrain. These are a very good type of vehicle, because you can drive it
off-road, as well as race on-road since they still can achieve speeds of 25-50
MPH.
First off, with the purchase of a nitro R/C
car, you will receive a 2.4GHz transmitter. It comes in the
"pistol-style" format, with a throttle/brake lever, a steering
control, and some other small dials that aren't important right now. The
transmitters usually take 4 or 8 AA batteries. Once you get that hooked up, it
will send a signal to the receiver on the car itself. The receivers usually
take 4 AA batteries, and it tells the car what to do based on what you do with
the transmitter.
Once the receiver gets the signal from the
transmitter, there are 2 basic motions that are controlled: steering and
throttle/brakes. The steering is controlled by a servo, and the throttle/brakes
are controlled by another servo. When you turn the steering wheel on the
transmitter, it tells the servo on the car to turn which turns the wheels.
Unlike a "toy-grade" car, it is not a 3 position system (100% left,
center, or 100% right", but it can turn at any angle in between, based on
how far you turn the wheel on the transmitter. Just like a real car.
Now for the throttle/brakes, it is somewhat
similar. When you pull the throttle lever on the transmitter, its signals the
throttle servo to turn, which opens up the throttle. When you push the lever
out, it engages the brakes. Most cars (at least off-road) have 4 disc brakes,
which do a VERY good job of stopping the vehicle, even at high speeds, in just
a foot or two, depending on the surface type.
Now for how the engine runs. You start out
by putting some Nitromethane into the fuel tank, and priming the engine (I will
go into detail of the starting process later on). Next you put the "glow
plug igniter" onto the glow plug, and start using starter box. A
"glow plug" is just like a spark plug in a car, but instead of
sparking every time, it is heated up once with the igniter to get the engine
going, and compression keeps it running after that. Anyways, once the engine is
running, you can control it with the transmitter. When you apply the
throttle, it opens up the carburetor, which is a device that mixes the air
and fuel together. The wider the carb is opened, the more fuel and air that can
get in, which makes the engine run faster, making the car go faster. When the
brakes are applied, the carb is closed almost all the way, and the brakes are
then engaged, slowing the car down.
The engine is hooked up to the crankshaft,
which rotates all 4 tires when the throttle is applied. The tires have very
high-torque for the car's small size, which makes them go very fast, with
really snappy acceleration. The carburetor has some adjustments that have to be
adjusted. They are called the "high, low, and idle speed needles". I
will go into further details about them later, but the high speed adjusts the
air/fuel ratio at high RPMs, the low speed adjusts the ratio at low RPMs, and
the idle needle adjusts the engine speed while it is at idle.
