Whether you are a hobbyist or a hardcore enthusiast of RC cars, you must have heard the debate of Gas vs. Electric powered remote control cars. This question has confused many RC car enthusiasts, especially the beginners, who have no idea about the fueling systems of RC vehicles and what effects it can have on the item.
Gas or Electric Power?
RC cars are just like real cars. They come in a wide range of sizes, designs, shapes, engines and power requirements. Choosing the right parts with the best powering mechanism (Gas or Electric) is what sets apart your RC car from others. So it’s important to have a good knowledge of advantages of both type of fueling options.
There are basically two main options for powering your remote control car i.e. Gas powered or Electric powered. Electric powered RC cars have further options but we won’t be discussing that here.
Electric Powered RC cars
Electric powered RC cars simply have an electric battery that can be charged to power up the RC vehicle. There are different type of batteries and motors that go with them which is a big topic itself. But with Electric powered systems, you will mainly be dealing with batteries and their charging cycles. You will need to have a couple of batteries to have a decent amount of running time for your RC car.
The main benefit of having Electric powered RC car is the easiness and affordability. Maintaining batteries is not that hard as compared to taking care of a Gas fueled powering system for your RC vehicle. And the batteries aren’t that expensive which.
Gas powered RC vehicles
Gas powered remote control cars requires a lot of the same things as that of a real car that you use on daily basis.
These are basically a mini version of your CNG powered cars. You will need to refill your gas tank every once in a while and you will be required to fine tune your engine in order for your RC car to be on the top of its game. With a Gas powered RC car, you will mainly deal with the same situations as that of your real car like refueling, fine tuning, cleaning the tank etc.
Benefits of Using Gas Powered RC Cars
When it comes to gas powered RC cars there are a lot of benefits that make it worthy of consideration.
Realism
The first and the biggest advantage is the realism that it brings to your RC car. There’s no better feeling of looking at your RC car with smoke coming out of it and giving a nice heavy starting noise. It really gives an impression of a real car. So if you want your RC car to be more like a real world car, then Nitro/Gas powering system is the way to go.
More power and speed
The other major factor is the speed and power. Of course, when you are powering your RC car with real gas fuel, it is bound to be more powerful and faster compared to other RC vehicles. Although you will need to keep refueling it, but as long as you keep your tank filled it should be fine. There are, of course, many other factors that determine the speed and power of an RC car but, generally speaking, a Gas powered radio controlled car will be much powerful when compared to an electric one.
No time outs because of insufficient power
There are no worries of fueling and there’s no time out for you. You can keep refilling your gas tank and keep playing with your RC car for as long as you want without having to worry about recharging your battery. This is without a doubt a great benefit over an Electric powered RC car because you get tired of waiting for your batteries to get charged. The situations where you have to wait for your other batteries to charge or when you can’t go with your friends because your batteries aren’t charged is a deal breaker for many RC machine enthusiasts.
With the Gas powered system, there’s never a problem of fueling unless, of course, you are really far away from a Gas station. You will never have to quit a race just because your batteries ran out.
Acquiring skills
It helps you learn real tuning and care taking skills. Since your gas powered car needs to be maintained and have a tuned engine to be highly efficient, it helps you learn mechanical skills that can be transferred to your actual car because that runs on the same principle. This is, in fact, one of the biggest reason of people switching to Gas power because it gives a better understanding of technical and mechanical problems with your own car.
Reliability
Gas powered RC motors are more reliable as compared to electric powered cars because these are more mechanical and are water resistant. That’s not to confuse with complete water resistance, they are more water resilient as compared to an electric one. You will have to be very careful around water deposits if you are running an Electric powered RC vehicle because you don’t want to waste all the money that you put in your RC car. But if you have a Gas powered system, then you don’t have to worry a lot about the water issues.
Disadvantages of Using Gas Powered RC Cars
Although there are a lot of benefits of having a Gas powered RC car but there are a few disadvantages as well.
One of the main disadvantage is the learning curve. If you are beginner then it can get really frustrating to have to worry about the tuning and gas refueling. Most of the people actually like the technical challenge but if you are one of those people who are looking for a fun and relaxing time then this might not be for you.
Apart from that, the only other disadvantage is the Gas price. Since you will be running your RC car on real fuel, you have to keep that into consideration as well.
Conclusion
Although the learning curve of a gas powered remote control car is a steep one but once you get the hang of it, it’s quite fun. It will help you learn a lot about your own car. So if you don’t mind spending a little time on fine tuning and refueling then having an RC car powered by Nitro surely is an amazing thing.
