The Ultimate Beginner Guide to Getting Started With RC Cars

By Mark Ronge

If you’ve watched remote control (RC) cars whizzing around a track or climbing a trail, you may be curious to try them. But RC vehicles can be overwhelming for newbies, with multiple categories, types, scales, and power options to choose from. We’re here to make your introduction to the hobby easier. Here’s a helpful beginner guide with the answers to many frequently asked questions.

Why Get Started With RC?

Here are just a few reasons to explore the RC hobby.

• You’ll join a community

  Whether you’re at an in-person race club or on an online message board, RC enthusiasts are usually happy to share their knowledge. The hobby can be overwhelming at times, especially in the beginning. But someone will likely be there to help when you need it.

• It’s a fun hobby to do with friends or family

  Hobbies, in general, are amazing. It’s even more fantastic when you can share them with those close to you. With proper selection of gear and supervision, RC cars are fun for any age group. Once you get familiar with them, you can find plenty of ways to enjoy the hobby. For example, you may want to teach other people how to drive, learn to build and paint them, race other people, visit RC tracks and crawler courses, or take off-road cars to beaches or hiking trails.

• It relieves stress

  Studies link leisure-time hobbies with improved health and wellbeing. It’s important to practice self-care and set aside time for yourself. What better way to relax than to grab an RC car, take it for a drive, and watch your stress melt away?

• You can learn

  An RC hobby offers numerous opportunities for education and growth. For instance, when you tinker with an RC car or build an RC kit, you’ll learn about mechanics and electronics, which are helpful in many careers.

What Does Radio Control (RC) Mean?

Radio control uses radio transmitters to send radio waves to control a model vehicle at far distances with precision and minimal input lag. At one point, RC vehicles used AM and FM radio signals. But today almost all RC transmitters communicate on a 2.4 gHz broadcast signal (as most other modern wireless devices do). Multiple people at a time can run cars using this signal without any conflicts.

Which Categories of RC Cars are Available?

Confused about all the different RC cars out there? RC cars broadly fall into six categories.

Which Type of RC Car is Right for Me?

Once you know which categories of car you want, you can choose from many types of RC cars.

What’s Scale?

Now that you understand the categories and types of vehicles, you may be wondering about scale. Scale basically means size in the RC world, and RC car scales operate in fractions. For example, a 1/10 scale vehicle is roughly 1/10 the scale of its full-size counterpart. Scales aren’t set in stone because RC cars aren’t always based on real-life vehicles. The most popular scale is 1/10, with 1/8 as a close second. Cars can get as small as 1/32 scale and below. Conversely, you can get large-scale vehicles at or above 1/5 scale.