Book review- The R/C car bible.

[necronomicon]

REVIEW OF ‘ THE R/C CAR BIBLE’

Book by Robert Schleicher. Published by Voyageur press.

Review by Neil Cooper January 2007.

Rated: 6/10

I had great expectations of this newly published book (November 2006), and the A4 sized 192 page count seemed to promise much, along with the 'bible' title, I was expecting extensive, wide coverage of the sport of RC model car racing/ bashing/ collecting and building.
I write this review with mixed feelings. The book is extensively illustrated with very large colour photos of RC cars, both electric and nitro, but there are also big 'gaps' in the text, and around pictures as if the authors couldn't find anything else to say or were filling space and upping the page count. The quality of the pictures, however, is excellent.

I would not really recommend this book for beginners, as there seems to be some knowledge assumed in several areas, as for instance the section on electric motors does not even mention 'running in' a new motor and the stock, standard 27 turn Mabuchi motor gets no mention. There are no guidelines on constructing a kit car, no guidelines on avoiding radio interference no guidelines on waterproofing your car for off road/-wet use. The text assumes you are using a trigger and wheel type transmitter. The book is written with the US 'ROAR' guidelines as a major factor, and cross references to them continually (unfortunately the book lists the ROAR website as www.roadracing.com instead of www.roarracing.com). As a UK reader, I wanted a wider perspective on things, as promised by the books summary information.
There are some odd mistakes in the book, for example the electric battery section shows a picture of a 7.2v racing pack wired completely wrongly with cells in parallel (giving 1.2 volts), yet the accompanying text talks (correctly) about 'series' connected cells.

The section on painting lexan bodies is poor, you usually get more information supplied with a newly purchased clear body, no mention is made of pre-washing the shell to remove moulding residues, or lightly scuffing or sanding the surface to help paint adhesion either, rc users with hard styrene/ ABS shells get no mention at all!-other than to say that lots of 'toy' grade cars use polystyrene shells. 8 pages of massive pictures illustrate the basic lexan painting text.
There are good sections to the book. The chassis set up chapter is very detailed and covers all aspects of chassis tuning and suspension adjustment. The sections on how to race fast are good, with info on how to take corners, when to brake etc. The section on building a race track is useful, although I would suspect not many of us are in a position to be able to do this!
I do not use nitro cars, but a large portion of the book covers them,in a nitro introduction section, and later in a tuning section. It seems the author prefers nitro to electric vehicles.I cannot comment on the accuracy of information on nitro cars as I dont have one.The glossary has a sparse 37 entries, which seems a bit light for a 'bible' of the RC car.
Oddly the book has no history of radio controlled cars at all, so you wont find any information on older RC kit such as mechanical speed controllers etc- which are still used and even supplied with cheaper kit.

In summary, if you live in the USA, and want to seriously race under ROAR guidelines, and already know the basics, this book is for you, otherwise you may find the Tamiya R/C guide 2005 more useful and cheaper to get all the basic car setup, painting and construction information- I consider myself a relative beginner and still found the R/C car bible lacking in information and depth in some areas, and found the heavy bias towards US information frustrating. Not withstanding this slight disappointment, there are some very good sections to the book, especially the tips on racing on and off- road.

Expect to pay around £15 for this book.

Neil Cooper 2007.

[VonBlade]

It's a sad fact of life that the world is geared towards the American market, and the American market is "I want it NOW & Biggest/Loudest=Best". So RTR Nitro is where it's all at. Which would also explain the trigger rather than two-stick transmitter thing.

Still, thanks for the review.

[Hibernaculum]

Thanks for the review.

I've seen few decent books written about R/C cars, particularly their history.

However I did pick up a large 1981 hard cover book last weekend simply called "Model Cars", which made a great effort to compile a history of all model cars - from diecast to plastic model kit cars, to rail cars, slot cars, tether cars, and finally R/C cars, with a chapter on each section. It showed how the disciplines evolved from one another and/or a common ancestry, describing a timeline of small toys over hundreds of years, culminating in toys that could actually work. The chapter about latent powered car racing from the 1930s was fascinating, with guys racing spring-loaded cars in a straight line that could reach some crazy speeds, and how this small, thriving hobby disappeared completely during WWII, never to reappear afterward having been superseded by newer technologies.

The R/C chapter probably focussed too heavily on practicalities (how-to change tyres, and various other instructions), rather than profiling specific models or discussing their evolution at length. But in 1981 it was a much younger hobby. The book did include a number of pictures including full page shots of the Tamiya Cheetah and XR-311, explaining how R/C cars "can now be driven off-road too". The static models section also included a number of pictures of Tamiya kits, particularly the Porsche 934 1/12 scale kit. Unfortunately, the book did not include references to the Sand Scorcher or Rough Rider.

cheers,

H. 

 

[peejay]

I also bought this book, and found the content disappointing.  If you are into off-road nitro then you will find some good quality pictures, and that is about all I can say in the books favour.

Given the diversity of radio controlled cars with at least 6 different scales and two main methods of propulsion, the production of a "bible" would be a mammoth task.  Sadly this effort doesn't even begin to come close.  IMO Neils 6/10 rating is very generous.

Peter

 

[Mad Ax]

Very well reasoned review - thanks [] 

Does anyone

think there is a market for a really good detailed book on the history

of RC cars from its beginnings to present day?  Does nothing

already exist in bookstores to cover this?

I only ask because I'm

a freelance journalist and fiction writer, and writing something like

this would be an interesting side-project to combine my factual writing

with the long-term enjoyment of writing a full-length fiction

novel.  Don't expect a quick return on it tho - given my workload

on other projects, a few years, maybe?[]

[necronomicon]

Thanks for the comments so far guys. I cannot seem to find any modern books on RC cars, other than the one I reviewed, perhaps i am looking in the wrong places. Searches on amazon etc return relatively little, unless you like RC planes and helicopters. Not sure why this is, not enough demand perhaps- I keep going back to the Tamiya RC guide for info, but there must be more out there surely.

If anyone knows of any good RC books still available please let me know, as I am hungry for information!

Thanks.

[Tamiya1/10]

Radio Control Car Action Magazine put our several how to Magazine from painting, simple tricks to solve RC problem, handling etc....  The details on how to order these special issues (Tech Tips) are in the Magazine itself or visit their website and order from them

 

[Capt.Camping(PANAMA)]

I was  looking a round the pages of the Xtreme RC magazine for information and they focus too much on hard racing and expensive spare parts. I dont see this magazine for beginners like me. Are the other magazines the same?

[robster959]

R/C driver is a good all around magazine - lots of beginner stuff.

Rob