Off-Road RC Cars - Are Electric Brushless Motors Killing Off Nitro?

For as long as I can remember the RC industry has gone back and forth between nitro and electric motors. Just a few years ago most off-road trucks and buggies were running Nitro due to the raw power it delivered.

A recent visit to my local hobby shop this week reveals a totally different picture just a few years later. The new electric brushless motors coupled with the powerful LiPo battery backs are killing their Nitro competition.

Of course die-hard nitro lovers will still probably stick to nitro for quite some time but the big difference in power that nitro used to have as an advantage isn't there anymore. People are switching to electric engines because they are quieter, cleaner and require much less maintenance / tweaking and tuning compared to nitro engines.

The brushless electric motors are especially attractive to those that are new to the RC hobby, and don't want to go through the learning curve of learning how to break-in, tune and tweak a nitro powered engine.
Most of the top RC car manufacturers have released electric brushless motor versions of their favorite nitro trucks, such as the HPI Savage Flux HP and the Traxxas E-Maxx Brushless Edition.

These trucks running electric motors can easily reach speeds of up to 50+ mph straight out of the box and even up to 65+ mph with some minor modifications and hop-up parts.

Another added benefit to the new brushless systems is that most of them now run everything on the truck itself off the battery packs, without needed extra batteries for the receiver/steering servo, and an extra batter pack for an engine starter such as is needed with nitro engines. You now just need to worry about one set of batteries for your radio and one set of batteries for your truck. No more having to worry about having three different sets of batteries charged on top of your nitro fuel.

One of HPI's top of the line electric brushless motor monster trucks is the Savage Flux HP. For more information on this and other RC trucks please visit http://www.rccarbasher.com/hpi-savage-flux-hp/.