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Track/Parking Lot for Gas/Nitro RC Cars in NJ/NY?

Discussion in 'New York Tri-State' started by peterp, Jul 8, 2011.

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  1. peterp

    peterp F1 Veteran

    Aug 31, 2002
    6,649
    NJ
    Full Name:
    Peter
    #1 peterp, Jul 8, 2011
    My son is into RC cars and recently picked up a Nitro powered car that goes 70mph. The car is great; however, the problem is there is nowhere to drive it. The surface needs to be nearly perfect or else the car flips at speed, so he has broken a few suspension pieces driving in empty parking lots. I'm wondering if anyone knows of either an RC track for Nitro cars or a pristine parking lot that has a large open area. We are located in Montclair, NJ, so ideally somewhere near that area would be great.

    Thanks,
    Peter
     
  2. amalfe12

    amalfe12 Rookie

    Mar 14, 2011
    17
    North nj
    #2 amalfe12, Jul 9, 2011
    Raritian center, edison NJ !!! I own a business there and always take my little cousins there with their cars Tons of huge parkinglots that are great for NITRO cars... Sundays and saturdays are the best days
     
  3. Jaffster

    Jaffster Karting

    Mar 27, 2010
    201
    #3 Jaffster, Jul 9, 2011
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2011
    If you're looking to just place and not race in a sanctioned series - get a hybrid vehicle that can do on and offroad duty.

    This will make the experience substantially more enjoyable! You can get stadium trucks and even some monster trucks that you can lower and put on full slicks and do 70+ on pavement no problem...then you can slap on the offroad tires, jack the suspension up and play in the dirt!

    Nitro will always be headaches, but the technology is getting pretty good. If you're looking to stay under 1/8th scale, you can't go wrong with HPI, Team Losi or Traxxas.

    I raced 1/10th back in the day, $2500 for the setup, it was constant headaches...moved onto offroad and never looked back.

    As far as finding a lot to play in, if its 1/10th scale, you probably won't find anything good as parking lots of commercial buildings are rarely taken care of very well. most of the sanctioned tracks will be circle track too, so you won't have much fun there.

    There is a place in Jackson, NJ with a small offroad paved track, but thats a bit of a drive to play with an r/c car. www.jacksonrcracing.com I think they should still be in business?

    Another list: http://www.xtraactionsports.com/rc-car-tracks/new-jersey-rc-car-tracks.htm

    Best part about going with an offroad car is you can run everywhere!

    I would also suggest looking into electric cars. They are just as fast, if not faster than, nitro in many situations. The new brushless motors, new battery technology (LiPo), and the controllers make them a lot of fun, easy to use, and much less headaches...plus they are very quiet, which means you won't piss as many people off :) I'm going to get back into R/c once I get time and will be going electric for sure.
     
  4. peterp

    peterp F1 Veteran

    Aug 31, 2002
    6,649
    NJ
    Full Name:
    Peter
    #4 peterp, Jul 11, 2011
    Huge apologies for not replying earlier -- I looked at the thread date without opening the thread (on iphone) and thought nobody had responded.

    Thanks -- this is very helpful. It's a little far, but definitely doable. We will definitely check out Raritan Center.
     
  5. peterp

    peterp F1 Veteran

    Aug 31, 2002
    6,649
    NJ
    Full Name:
    Peter
    #5 peterp, Jul 11, 2011
    +1000 on street versus dirt and electric versus Nitro. He also has a Traxxas Stampede with a brushless motor. Even without LiPo, the brushless Stampede accelerates faster than the Traxxas Nitro 4-tec 3.3 does, but it doesn't come close on top speed (will get closer with LiPo though). The Nitro 4-tec motor has been pretty turnkey, but chassis maintenance will surely kill me. At speed on imperfect surfaces it can get damaged pretty easily. Currently the front-right drive yolk is broken and, although the part was in stock and only a couple bucks, taking it apart to install it is a task I am dreading. He is driving it on 3-wheel drive currently, but it messes up the handling.

    That Jackson track is quite a hike for us but looks really great. Even an oval would be ok for the time being. I have taken him out to the DirtRunners track with the stampede and it was pretty cool (the whole car was caked with clay mud when we were done).

    The only positive I can say for the Nitros is that they will run a long time -- just keep refilling the tank versus the electric which drain pretty quickly and take a long time to recharge (at least our non-LiPo batteries do). That makes it worthwhile driving to a distant track where I don't feel the same with the electric (we have 2 batteries that last about 15 minutes each, so DirtRunners was fun for him but pretty short-lived considering it takes us an hour each way to get there).
     
  6. Jaffster

    Jaffster Karting

    Mar 27, 2010
    201
    #6 Jaffster, Jul 12, 2011
    True, but you buy a couple batteries, and the new high capacity LiPo's will give you 20-30mins depending on use.

    There is a new battery technology being worked on (mainly for cars) that will actually run on a fluid! So you fill up your battery with new fluid thats "charged" and you go instantly. No recharging. So you'd in essence bring a bottle of 'charged" fluid with you instead of running gas.

    The problem I had with Gas was my motors ran so loud that people always got pissed off...even way back in remote commercial lots, they are very loud. I had better luck running karts in those lots then r/c cars without getting a visit from the popo.
     

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  7. peterp

    peterp F1 Veteran

    Aug 31, 2002
    6,649
    NJ
    Full Name:
    Peter
    #7 peterp, Jul 12, 2011
    The Nitro isn't too bad volume wise. We sometimes run it at a middle school near our house. The school is directly across from a residential area separated by a somewhat busy 2-lane road and we haven't had any complaints. We did have a cop stop by once reporting a complaint about a car speeding around the school, but it turned he was just playing a prank on my son and he wanted to watch the car run.

    I definitely agree with what you're saying, this is my first and (hopefully) last Nitro. Not that the motor has been that bad, but electric is just better these days. I need to upgrade to LiPo batteries in the Stampede.
     
  8. Jaffster

    Jaffster Karting

    Mar 27, 2010
    201
    #8 Jaffster, Jul 13, 2011
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2011
    Nice. I remember I used to give the cops a show when they realized this 1/10th scale car was doing 70+ (and this was 12+yrs ago, HPI RS4 Racer days). We actually used to have a series sanctioned/run by volunteer firefighters in Livingston, and they would bring firehose in to use as the track barriers. Worked pretty well.

    I want to get back into it once I get time - probably HPI Savage Flux HP.
     

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