One of my hobbies, is Radio Controlled vehicles. I have been fascinated with them ever since I was a kid. Well, one day, DataShark invited me along to the hobby store. I knew this was bad, because DataShark always convinces me to spend money. I _was_ looking for a new hobby.. and with his convincing, I ended up buying a Radio Controlled Nitro Car. Now let's get one thing straight: DataShark is not sane. He owns several types of RC car, both nitro and electric powered, as well as a RC Helicopter. He has spent lots of money on his hobby. OmegaOne is also into RC vehicles. Not quite as insane, but he is defintely into it. Both of them wreck, alot. Both of them dump money into it, alot. So, now I have joined them. The car I purchased, was the Team Associated Nitro TC3. There are two versions, the "ready to run" and the "performance kit". The "ready to run" is exactly that. Its ready to run out of the box, just add fuel, glowplugs, batteries and igniter. The performance kit, on the other hand.. requires building. I opted for the RTR, as DataShark stated that it was a BMF. After some trial and error, I realize that he is right. It is. The RTR kit is THE kit to start with, hands down. The TC3 is a touring car. It's all wheel drive. There are two differentials, linked together by a free floating shaft. This allows for better handling and power dispersion. The stock motor, the Team Associated .12, holds it own decently. It defintely holds it own for someone who has never driven a nitro car. The TC3 also features disk breaks, fully adjustable suspension (including oil-filled shocks) and a rotary carb. This car is great. So great, that I promptly wrecked it. This cost me a carb linkage nut, a shock-tower assembly, and a new body. Most of that, was largely due to DataShark playing "chicken" with me. I was driving my TC3, he was driving a mini-z (go ahead, laugh!). The mini-z did not survive, but it did get its vengence. I am now hooked. I want to race. OmegaOne and DataShark both own TC3's of their own, performance kits loaded with hop-up parts. They equally want to race. DataShark gave me alot of hell for the RTR after he learned how cool his performance kit is. It is cool. I am not worried. Because I have joked about "blowing things up = UPGRADE!", the inevitable has happened. I have now done major damage to my pride and joy, and now require a new engine. This I am doing, almost as I write this.. and by next week, I will have a running car, complete with performance motor. Damn the DataShark for getting me into this hobby, as I officially have almost 1000 dollars into my RC car. My advice to all, if they choose to take this hobby up: remember that it costs money, your car will break, and you will always need the part you don't have a spare of. I usually keep spares of everything I replace, and then some. This doesn't always help. This hobby is alot of fun, but it is also, a pain. Update 3-7-2003 Well.. The rebuild was bunk. Between some kind of whining sound, and the constant ugly weather, and my schedule, I have not been able to really work on the car until this weekend. We figure out that the whining is coming from the clutch bell not being tight enough. This is due to a shim being missing.. I did not mount this motor, Hobbytown did. I found some other things that were not correct, indicating that they rushed.. I won't have them work on it again. I will do the work myself. I had to replace some clutch bearings anyways, so I bought a 2-speed kit. I was lucky that Hobbytown had one.. they are usually sold out of them. I also purchased a Dynamite exhaust and a freeflow airfilter. I built the two speed setup, and learned how to mount it.. Thanks to Omegaone on that! He checked over my work, and let me know that all was well.. I didnt have any problems, aside from having to drill out one stripped screw, and then building a custom stablizer for the shorter exhaust. After some tuning, and some breakin time for the OS engine.. I can honestly say that this thing is fast. It's not as fast as Omegaone's (his tops 75 MPH) but it IS raceable. I cannot wait. Now if I can just keep from wrecking it... Pictures of the current setup will be available when I am not being lazy..
