RC Racing Tips

Practice, practice, practice. The simple fact is, if you really wanna get good at remote control racing, you have to practice driving the car first. There's no getting around it. If you can't drive the thing good at a low speed, you're not going to be any good going fast.

You can have the most expensive best looking fastest remote racing car on the block, but if you're going the wrong way during a race (because you don't know how to steer) or you're jerking you're beautifully fast expensive remote control race car into other drivers cars, (again because you don't know how to steer and this is sure to get you known on the track if not hated.

Maybe hated is too strong but you can believe if you happen to get a few good racer on the track, they won't be all that happy if you keep crashing into them.) Or if you're just crashing into everything in your wake.

At a very high speed mind you, some cars reach speed of 45-55 mph or higher!

Just in case you didn't know, you can ruin the body of a remote control toy by crashing into a hard surface. I got one of my nephews a huge monster truck one Christmas and he cracked the body when he ran the very fast truck into a wall in the house.

So please be very careful and realize that the toy may be much to fast to use indoors where it's on the same level as shoeless feet and unprotected ankles! You just might wanna take it outside and so might those shoeless feet and unprotected ankles.

I've seen people who know what they're doing when it comes to driving a remote control vehicle and they can drive indoors and not crash into a single thing.

I think these are two very important things to remember (along with taking it outside of course!) and I also know that they are the two things that a lot of drivers especially beginners totally forget about as soon as they get their finger wrapped around the transmitter.

I mean who the heck wants to go easy with a remote control vehicle? Everyone wants to speed zoom and fly all over the place. But, being smooooth with the gears is very important if you want to have any chance at winning a race. After all the smoother and more in control you are of your car, the faster you will go.

So ease up and get smooth first. Then get out there and eat up some track and win some races!

Here's a little exercise you can do to see how smooth your remote control racing is.

Do about three or four laps about two or three times and have someone time you. You can even time yourself with a stop watch, just press the button on the watch and then grab the transmitter. Allow a few seconds for picking up and putting down the transmitter.

If your lap times vary from fast to slow, such as the first three laps took four minutes, the second set of three laps took two plus minutes and your last lap took about six and a half minutes, then your not smooth enough and can use some practice time. But hey, practice time is fun time so have some fun and get out there and practice!

Another very important thing to know is how to use the throttle during turns. D on't go all out all the time. You're gonna wanna ease up on the throttle at some very important points during racing, one is during a turn. If you give your car too much throttle you can actually be slower going around a turn, you can also crash into other racers or flip your car, so ease up a bit.

One reason you'll wanna ease back off the throttle is it can really 'tear' up your tires and waste your batteries.

Another reason and I feel one of the main reasons is because the object is to win the race, and going to fast into a turn will cause you to make a wider turn that not only puts you further behind the racers that are able to ease off the throttle and steer smoothly into the turn, making a much tighter turn and therefore be further ahead then those that are now trying to adjust for the wide turn they made.

You'll also end up off the track onto an area that is dirtier then the track causing your tires to become dirty which will in turn cut down on your traction until the dirt wares off and if you keep going off the track, it never will.

Remember, with dirty tires you get less traction, and with less traction, you get less speed and you just don't win with less speed. I can't stress how important this is if you want to have any chance at winning a race.

If you've ever seen someone who knows anything about remote control racing in action, you know how exciting and beautiful it can be to watch.

Now when you come out of the turn you're going to want to apply more throttle and pick up some speed.

Again, this takes practice. You're going to want to really practice this so you can get the feel of it so get out there and have some fun and practice, practice, practice!

To fast = wider turner = ending up further behind = dirtier tires = less traction = less speed = you don't win or have a chance of wining.

Remember the formula:

Easing up on the throttle during turns + being smooth with the steering = much faster ride.