The Price of 8th Scale Racing (and how to reduce it)

[@dernawey]

I really like your blogs.

[@brandonbentley5453]

Great video, regardless of budget I'd get the best Buggy/Truggy you can afford in Kit form. Starter box, controller, etc can all be cheapos starting out. Run the tires the guys/gals at the track are running.

[@Marcoskicks]

Was waiting for the price of that cart lol. Just finished my Mugen build and it was a doozy.

[@jeromeross9247]

I started with ecx revenge type n and raced it at best it was a mid pack car with an aftermarket engine.

[@maxthunder2]

My 8th scale rig is a eb48 it's a little old but it's still performs pretty well! I got the car used for 500 bucks so I think that's a good deal! It also helps that 8th scale cars are very durable so you don't have to replace Parts as much as the smaller scales. I'm also not the that great at driving off-road so take that with the grain of salt.

[@RoachRC]

As long as you're out there racing and having fun, you can run whatever you want no matter how old it may be

[@Purefunk4]

I just moved down to the Knoxville area and i'm looking to get into RC racing, this is the perfect video, thank you!

[@JoeTheBlacksmith13]

Great video. I very much enjoy being a budget racer. Something I would add, is that it is worth spending money on a used roller or slider for backup parts to have with you at the track. A lot of times if you have an older used model, there won’t be parts support at your track, so having your own might be crucial. I just bought a Tekno eb48.3 slider that was wrecked into a curb for $150. Dirt cheap when you add up the value of the individual parts. Also, I made my own car stand, shock stand, tool holder, wheel wrench, lamp stand, and some other odds and ends that led to more hobby activities and saved hundreds of dollars. I’ve also bought a lot of my tools and tires second hand. It’s fun hunting for deals on FB and asking fellow racers at the track about their old equipment. It pays off if you’re diligent. All of this is an important part of the hobby for me. Plus, beating people with “lesser” or “outdated” equipment is fun. 🙂

[@dirtyfingersninja]

great content, i bought a used roller, new electronics, one set of fresh tires ( i hit up the free table) had most of the tools, chargers already, oh and a new transponder. plus i sold a bunch of of rc's to get into 1/8th

[@ZingZingNZ]

I love 8 scale. 8th scale nitro in New Zealand is crazy!!! Expensive but I love it

[@mikehoskins4112]

I love your videos.. keep up the good work. One thing that helps me save a little bit of money is glueing tires myself, and recycling inserts and rims.

[@bluegroovemodelsports9650]

another well informed video Thanks for sharing

[@Chenstrapftw]

Ive not run 1/8th scale, but have been 1/10th scale off road racing on and off since around 2002 (Granted with some big gaps in between), often on a really tight budget. In short, this is all great advice, and I think the hobby in general is in some ways more budget friendly and more simple then it used to be (Be glad the days of brushed motors, brush replacements, comm turning, NiMh batteries, ETC are all behind us). The big piece of advice is don't be afraid to be a generation or so back on your cars. When a new model comes out, it can be a great time to get a deal on something that isnt really that obsolete. Generally these cars will be new enough that manufacturers will still have to support your older car because so many people wont upgrade immediately. This can be a really useful practice for a lot of things in electronics. Often time its a great practice for gaming PCs as well (When the markets are working properly, which ATM they kinda arent). In the ~20 years ive been doing the hobby on and off, I have had a brand new car one time, and it was the Duratrax Evader stadium truck I got for christmas in Jr High. Same goes for transmitters as well. As long as your radio isnt EXTREMELY old, just about everything above RTR should work fine. Another big thing for 1/10th scale, is just run stock class. To be hyper competitive in stock you often need to shell out for some expensive upgrades, but for a beginner that is all noise and is kinda useless. You need to learn to drive, and learn some of the more important things like tire prep, working on your car, and all that jazz, the other stuff is more marginal. You can get a stock motor/ESC combo for ~$100 brand new and do just fine to start out. Then as you get some experience, you can decide if you wanna stay in that class or go to mod. But above all, just do your research. For me starting out there wasnt nearly as much info out there as there is now, and there were some wasteful purchases on not great equipment along the way. Whether buying used or new, search around and know what youre buying.

[@ayske1]

How I saved money was buying my old 1/10 TC from five years back from someone from the track. It's the Yokomo bd8 which had several electrics in it Finding out ideal tyres to use at the track was ideal and only just getting enough to get it running again was all that was needed, charger, two batteries and a remote. Not cheap but saved me from getting a new kit And lucky I still had all of my tools from 5 years back.. One more thing is joining RC buy sell groups, especially when you need the more odd stuff like tyre warmers, transponders and so forth...

[@ragsixracing]

The cost of any competitive racing should be the title

[@RcOffroad9513]

I started 4qvi g with a mbx7 eco I bought for 125, it was claped out a bit, but also upgraded with alot of stuff. I put a goolrc 4276 truggy sensor less motor, jx servo and wp sc8 esc, DHK ( rtr ) remote and receiver, and would podium at my local track. -400 is qhat it took to start, as I would barrow a transponder and had a charger and batteries. Great video! 👍

[@rcbender823]

Always love your stuff. My local track (Thornhill, near Austin Texas) has a freebie table with tires, bodies, and even batteries that pros leave out free for the taking. They're typically lightly used but serviceable. I've heard of people going an entire season at the track never having to buy a tire. Also, things like soldering; if you're polite to people at the track, folks are often willing to do some soldering work for you to help get you going. Generally, just showing up to the track regularly and being polite and curious is going to save you money in a bunch of ways that are very hard to quantify.

[@RoachRC]

That Freebie table is an amazing idea

[@alphawlff]

I would recommend the Kyosho Inferno Neo 3.0 VE as a first 1/8 race buggy. Yes it's a rtr.. but it has a race proven design with wins behind it. The electronics it comes with are good for the price. The motor it comes with is a beast on 4s if you gear it correctly. And some of the parts are interchangeable with the MP10.

[@taconamedpaco]

I'm in the same boat, I just came back from the track with the losi RTR truggy, first 1/8 scale. But I had a blast. Now it's time for tires, shock oils, and more engine tuning. But as a start to get you on track and jumping I agree with you

[@broccli2007]

The neo 3.0 ve is also a world championship winning design since it's the same chassis as the mp7.5 and all parts interchange between the two cars. The cool thing about kyosho is they still offer parts support for 2 previous generations (not counting the tki updates). Currently they are the mp9 and mp7.5 (which is renamed to the inferno neo 3.0)

[@alphawlff]

@@broccli2007 And some parts from the MP9 and MP10 can be used as well.

[@dazaspc]

I raced 1/8th and 1/12th from 80 ~ 90 both on road with the odd 1/10th thrown in. I would say my experience differed quite a it from what you spoke about. Although the technology has made most of my experience redundant it still might be worth something. Things have improved significantly for the better car wise as in my experience the jump between model generations and engines was huge in the beginning.1/8th on road 7 new kits, 5 Brands each with seconds {mostly} a lap between them and required parts like wheels 4 pair of fronts and 6 pair of rears and 3 bodys {F1, Sedan & GT}for a full season. 1/2 ~ 1 liter of fuel each meet with at the end 3 sets or rear tires an 1 ~2 sets of fronts in the end with the AWD, 2 speed cars with Italian motors. Decent tires were 20$ a pair and didn't have wheels unlike today so you had to mount them and that was a real pain. On average it was about $100 a meet depending on breakage. Kits started at 400$ and finished at 1200$ for the last Serpent I bought. Motors were on average 1/2 the kit price with the odd exception. normally 1 per year but some years it was 3 due to incidents. I figured out real quick the difference between the top line engines and the lower ones was only a 2~5% nitro content so unless the chassis could handle it I used the cheap units. Today it looks like the tech has pretty much topped out with only incremental small change between cars and drive trains. One thing doesn't look to have changed though and that's hobby shops selling new old cars that parts availability isn't good. The Internet has changed a lot of that though as you can source the newest cars a lot more easily and priced way better. The change from pan cars to suspension cars was amazing and the worst kit to assemble and set up was my Associated RC300/500 , most fragile was the PB Nova AWD 2 speed but it was fast. Best overall was the Serpent Quattro easy setup and robust. The crazyiest to drive was a Koyosho AWD pan car. Fitted with an OPS it would hop all over the track leaving the other pan cars in its dust.

[@cdwag23]

Also don’t forget about tires. Easily the most expensive part of 8th scale racing

[@chaserogers2529]

Ive raced 8th scale since 2007 and have run every brand over the years. The experienced racer would be extremely suprised in how capable the tlr tuned typhon is, if your new i cant recommend it enough, i wish they would offer a new set of arms though so you didnt adjust everything by shock tower position.

[@RoachRC]

Last time I went to a race, a TLR tuned Typhon won sportsman. They are very slept on.

[@thatonebeone]

i had a 4px then got the 7px..i have no reason to get a 10px radio...maybe later in 4+ years but i dont see buying race spec radios every year when a new version comes out..i do like th 10px since its more slim and lighter but im sure they will have a 10px R coming out just like previous futaba radios or other brands that come out with this radios just to sell in the market but i dont really see buying a new radio even every 2 years unless you are like a pro racer or just have money to burn lol .. i like this cost price topic because lots dont put that in their mind that all this stuff add up and you dont want to get the cheap stuff and end up buying again nor have good warranty service...if you are into the hobby spend the money on quality so it last you in the long run, but tires/bodies/wings/battery dont last lol.. nor the parts and bearing they will see breaking and wearing out lol.. if the was to run 1/8 again id just stick 1 to E buggy..nitro is cool use to run it but so much maintenance and cost bit more...

[@bismark6691]

simple steal one 👍

[@nemesis8664]

I'm not rich enough to afford cheap things. On other side, missinformation is a bad thing

[@donnienicholson180]

Electric 10th scale touring cars are the MOST expensive by far

[@ceh329]

Totally disagree with your cost comparing 1/10 to 1/8. I just priced out a TLR 4wd on amain just like you did with 1/10 and it was only $200 higher for 1/8. Rule of thumb is buy your first car used, buy new electronics. A 1/8 buggy has to brake in to be good. The other item not mentioned is that you get more runtime for your race entry fee compared to 1/10, with 5 to 6 minute qualifiers and 8 to 10 minute mains.

[@RoachRC]

I was mainly talking about the price difference between 2wd buggy and Ebuggy as those are the two most popular classes for each scale at their respective tracks. Also I did do a video adding up all of the stuff for tenth scale before or at least what I paid, and it added up to roughly 1500 bucks. I do agree that buying a used car works well, but buying used electronics isn't the end of the world. Lastly the qualifier times heavily depends on where you're racing. Where I race, qualifiers are usually 6 mins on a club race, and 7-8 mins on a big race. Add on two mins for mains.

[@JustGrant25]

First