Radio-Control Car Manual: The complete guide to buying, building and maintaining Hardcover – September 15, 2008

This book is a *Must Have* for anyone that is looking to enter the R/C Car (vehicle) hobby! Unlike a couple of other books that I have read and reviewed here ( RC Racing It's More Than Just A Hobby: Fulfill Your Need For Speed In The Thrilling Sport Of Remote Control Racing , The R/C Car Bible: How to build, tune and drive electric and nitro-powered radio control cars on and off-road ), this one definitely fits the bill as a guide for people new to the hobby.As the previous reviewer stated, it breaks everything down by subject matter. It goes into detail about how both electric and nitro vehicles operate, what to look for in each when purchasing (especially for the first time), and how to maintain them. The maintenance it covers is a general maintenance that is applicable to any R/C vehicle that you get since this book does not cover specific brands or models.It gives a bit of history about the hobby (sport), it goes into purchasing RTRs (Ready-To-Run) and Kits (must build yourself) and building a car from scratch, painting bodies, upgrading parts, maintenance (including the setting of camber, toe, etc.), driving and so on in easy to understand language. (Please note that this is a product of the UK, so Queen's English spelling and grammar are used, as opposed to American English. But that doesn't mean that it is any more difficult to read.)I highly recommend this book to anyone that is just starting in the R/C Hobby. It will definitely save you some time, money and aggravation since you will come to know what to expect and how to deal with some of the intricacies of the hobby.

I have been a fan of RC for a long time but am recently getting back into it hardcore, and this is an excellent reference tool for anyone from a pure novist to a intermediate level. Some areas there is a level of assuemd knowledge but the book does a great job of really breaking things down to the simplest form. Great history and documentation on the birth and development of the RC movement, tons of info on both electric and nitro vehicles and more than anything it is VERY current. most of the book and manuals i have found are so dated that most of what is in them barely applies, this book has a ton of the newest vehicle and advances in technology covered... and covered well.I would recommend this book to anyone.

The product arrived on time, no problems with that. But the book is outdated, or felt like it was and it spoke a lot of kids and follow directions, which is what it was suppossed to do I guess. I was just looking for more of a "how to from ground up" and I don't consider a kit to be from ground up, that's just an unassembled rc car.

Although it was printed in 2008 much of the information still pertains today.The book arrived well packaged and smelled very new, no dog ears or fingerprints, the book will make a good reference.

Lots of useful information of your looking to get into RC cars especially info about nitro/gas cars. Great pics.

Being new to RC cars I've found this book very helpful. I'm very happy I brought it.

Was looking for something for a 10 yo. His dad will read it.

This book is mostly for a novice, but very informative.

It's written in plain language so is great for those new to the hobby. It also goes into a lot of depth on technical matters. There was little coverage of off-road crawling, which is what I wanted, but then it is an overview. It's a little long in the tooth and requires updating, but then the technology moves so rapidly, there's bound to be developments between the author signing it off and it being available.

Doesn't cover as much as you would expect from the description, mainly not quite as technical as I was hoping for probably not bad if you have bought an electric car as does explain a fair bit but doen't go into any detail about nitro models and to my mind only gives an introduction to everything else. If you know nothing and have an electric car then possibly worth buying but wouldn't recommend it to anyone who like myself is new to radio control cars but having read a bit on the internet have learnt the basics, but now wants to go into more detail on setting up a new car or modyfing it.

I expected more from a Haynes manual. It has very little on large scale RC (1/8 and 1/5) and virtually nothing on petrol engines. It's dominated by battery and nitro. Not much cop for a serious amateur but ok for a young adult or a newbie.

Good broad introduction to radio control, if a little dated. For example the electrics have moved on. Brushless motors and lipo batteries are universal now.Feels like a collection of magazine articles.

Disappointed with this book not enough about TX and RX wanted more on electronics, wiring diagrams etc, waste of money for me!