Nitro Versus Electric RC Car - Which is better?

There is a lot to think about when purchasing an RC car, especially if you're going to be spending a significant amount of cash on it. One of the biggest decisions you will face is whether to buy an Electric or Nitro powered car.

For a long time I just assumed that electric powered cars were just the cheaper, toy grade ones, where as the nitro powered cars were more expensive and meant to be the "real deal". I've since learnt that there are a lot of expensive, hobby grade electric cars on the market that have a lot of good things going for them.

RC Driver have taken it on to test drive two new RC cars, one electric and one nitro powered. I have summed up some of the main points of the article below:

Starting Out: The electric powered RC car can be run at full throttle straight away, while the nitro powered RC car will need to be 'run-in' with a couple of tanks of fuel before it can be really let loose.

Topping Up: Obviously, both styles of cars run out of 'juice' eventually, but with a nitro car its just a case of topping up the fuel tank, where as the electric one takes time to charge the battery when it runs flat.

Get Up and Go: While the electric car is faster off the line, once the the nitro car gets going it has the higher top-end speed.

Cleaning: Naturally the nitro car will end up dirtier than the electric one with oil and gas leaks which also attract more dirt.

To conclude, they write:

The bottom line is neither is better than the other across the board, although one, rather than the other, may be better for you. Only you can figure that one out. Personally, I go back and forth between nitro and electric. Some days, I don’t want to mess with the grit and grime of nitro, and others, I crave the sound, smell and raw power. The real answer here is to get one of each. Wasn’t that simple?

Read the full article here.