Is nitro a dying power source?

[Rory]

Looking at this forum the nitro section is so quiet compared to what it was say 5 years ago.  When looking through the videos, its all electric models too ... Is nitro dying off?

 

Is it only the old timers still using it ? lol  Just some food for thought ! 

[Si Coe]

Its not dying, its just become a little more niche. I doubt the market will go away completely as some people prefer the sound, smell and just the tinkering involved but for the causal basher electric does have many advantages and hence has very much eclipsed nitro.

[Wraithstorm67]

For me nitro will always be my favourite fair enough electric is convenient for getting out 

for a quick bash but the tinkering and constant tuning needed with nitro is all part of the hobby for me

[Sharkfat78]

I'll always have nitro, pretty much for the reasons mentioned and because nitro was the first 'proper' RC I started with  

[XV Pilot]

I reckon nitro will always be around - just like steam power, CO2 power and rubber band power, there will be a small group of hobby enthusiasts that find it to their liking. However as with the aforementioned power sources, I do see it becoming very much a niche in the years to come, with most mainstream hobby activities relying on electric power.

[J.K]

Yup i'll always have nitro - it can be frustrating at times but mega satisfying when you tune it to perfection and you get that perfect scream

 

I find the plug & play of leccy convenient and they can be run anywhere -  however they're a bit soulless and lack character IMO.

Edited May 14, 2016 by James1986

[RCbutcher]

Nitro was my game I didn't care about electric. But then I got an fg marder and then wanted a baja.  Once I drove 2stroke nitro wasn't needed.  

 

I just hope the 2stroke 1/8 scale kicks off. Losi have tried and it wasn't great but that was a cheap brand engine wasn't it. Mayb if OS or Picco tried it could be better. 

 

Nitro fuel costs a fortune, the squeel of them can be heard for miles. 

 

Surley nitro racing is as strong as ever tho.  I hope to race some day. Some day soon. 

 

Hot bodies D8 for off road and something for indoor electric too. 

[NOFX]

Nitro won't die. But brushless has taken it's place. More power, ease of use, less maintenance, no stink,less cleaning up. My brushless is so much less hassle than the nitro. Charge the lipos. Get to bash spot. Plug in. Have fun. Take trucks/ buggies home. Clean for 10 minutes. Put lipos on storage. Sorted. 

[locky]

Brushless - soulless

Nitro - joie de vivre

 

Now brushless motors/ESCs are so powerful and affordable, the plug and play generation have it easy, but dont know what they are missing.

 

Yes it is probably declining but will keep going.

 

I've passed the habit on to number two son, so hopefully nitro skills and enjoyment will continue for a bit longer.

[stretch]

I started with nitro then moved to electric so know exactly what i'm missing and thankful for it as i'd never go back.

[tomr]

Brushless power is great but it does get a little boring without the involvement of a real engine .

[autobutcher]

If all engines sounded like nitro's we'd still be on horseback! Started with nitro myself, got the boy a bl, sold the nitro and went all leccy. 

I don't care if it's the canned sweat from a Minotaur's back door or the dreams and aspirations of a drunken mole that power my rc at a rapid rate of knots up a ramp, fun is what counts and if I'm tinkering and working on it because the tune is off then I ain't launching it, maybe a petrol one day but I don't think Dartmoor Rangers would take too kindly to a pair of DDM  piped 5ths tearing up the Moors.

[Rory]

Yeah I think nitro power is definately becoming more niche, people seem to be moving away from it in droves.

 

I think the cheap engines that come with standard cars is maybe what puts people off, once you buy a more expensive good quality engine its a doddle to run.

[Tamiyacowboy]

 

Nitro will phase out in choice for the much quieter electric classes, but it will not dinosaur , back in the day the major motor was OS,
if you had a nitro it ran an OS lump or a pico, but once china and likes got into the crappy build stuff , the nitro engine got cheaper and more crap ( im being honest here).
the machines got crap and you started seeing things like acme and redcat. its us oldies now left to sort out the rubbish these brands created and the fix it problems.

its the same with two stroke, zen motors and the likes were built from the hobbyist using old homelite weedeater motors, if you couldnt afford a zen or likes you did the homelite conversion and you big arse plane flew. again china and likes got into the mix and came out with those cheapy lumps seen in those 1/5th scale clones/copys.

its the way of the hobby, but nitro is a noise producer same as those two stroke BZM and likes ( everyone hates noisey peds , and that goes for rc to), its why a lot of the tracks closed and clubs converted from nitro running to leccy running. and the cost. half a gall of fuel is what a tenner , for that price you can now get a battery and charge it  upto 1000 times. yet that half a gall is only going to last you say 25 tanks , and dont forget that messy castor/synth oil mess thats left after running a nitro , that sticky goopy mess you have to clean up. and that new tub of fuel that goes up in price every year 

leccy wins because its more easy on nature, its quiet, its cheap to run and its on tap 24/7 , but there will always be a nitro lump somewhere 

[Si Coe]

I don't buy the electric is soulless argument - maybe an old low power brushed system is but the way a brushless 1/8th explodes off the line is something to behold, like a cobra striking. There is also something otherworldly and eerie about a 1/12th zipping at blazing speed around a track in almost total silence makes it very sci-fi. Electrics can certainly have character.

 

If 1/8th petrol hadn't flopped I could see nitro as being in trouble. Brushless may have taken over the 'just want to bash don't care how its powered' market but for those who need their car to burn something to run petrol is the real threat. After all nitro engines don't actually sound or smell even vaguely like a real car, whereas 2 strokes (whilst not quite right) are a lot closer.

 

Below 1/8th I think nitro is basically dead. There a few 1/10th nitros left, but not not many and 1/16 gone totally. At this scale the performance difference is to great, and the convenience of electric so high there is no point.  At the top end the few attempts at large scale nitros have basically gone in place of petrol.

 

1/8th though remains the battleground. Brushless does offer more power, but not enough that you don't miss the smoke and sound. Petrol offers the noise and the smell, but so for not the performance.

[Rory]

A few years ago the nitro section of this forum used to be so busy, youd post up a topic and get lots of replies within minutes, now its eerily quiet.  I have a feeling the youngsters getting into RC are going straight to brushless electrics and its going to be the older generation who use nitro.

 

[Pistonhead]

I'm more into racing where nitro is pretty much still king. I find it easier to drive with than brushless, with brushless, the lack of noise makes it more difficult to judge throttle application for jumps and turns - especially with a large group of other cars trying to get round the same part of the track, i will admit that the power delivery of brushless does make the bigger jumps easier to land and control midair though.

 

I prefer nitro for the noise, smell and the tinkering required, getting gearing right is less risky aswell, they either bog down or rev out if geared wrong, rather than run too hot and risk something catching fire. I personally prefer the way nitro drives, with power being more predictable and progressive and it makes the cars lighter. 

 

I've seen a couple of posts mentioning cheaper cars snd engines putting people off nitro too, I believe it's not because it's a cheap engine, it's more because they're probably going for the wrong scale. I've found that 1/8 scale motors are by far the easiest to tune and less messy - and I don't mean high end race engines either - i used to race an engine costing £65 new and had no tuning issues with them at all. In my experience anything smaller than 3.5cc becomes temperamental and over sensitive to temperature and needle changes, and thats where I believe noobs are being put off nitro.

 

 

[BK67]

I'm for nitro's but do agree if you buy a cheap crappy engine you will tire of it very quickly,buy a good engine from the start,run it in properly and maintain it properly and there great 

Took my sons to the local race track to watch the races their brushless mad so i said turn your back on the track, when the leccies raced we never turned around to watch them when the nitros started it only took a few seconds for them to turn around i said i rest my case 

[Ziggy122]

Half the issue for people is cost
Nitro is chuffing expensive to run.....
Not just Fuel - its airfilter and fuel filter maintenance - and glowplug

and then the neighbours getting arsey and say to go away or call the police.....
You stay out and NOWT happens


I Love my Nitro - i love how much easier they are to drive Vs electric
The power band is much much smoother, there is a satifisying thing about the noise and the fact its an actual engine

Electric i do prefer for quietness (keeps neighbours happy) and its alot cheaper to run too
Hell i could charge off the car battery - and probably hardly feel the fuel consumption off it...

 

If i was going out bashing - the nitro i could drive there - bash - drive home
Electric you defo gotta carry....

Ziggy

[scatteh316]

Once these new mini 2 stroke petrol engines like the one seen in the Savage Octane improve over the next few years you'll find nitro will eventually die out.

 

 

[Tamiyacowboy]

 

electic is a pain in the field, once its gone its gone unless your hauling that 12v car battery around and a charger.

on the other hand nitro could be useful in another way, hook that nitro motor to an electric motor and you generate electric, the right motor combo could be used to power a small in field battery charger and then electric comes not cheap but when its needed.

 

fry a piston you need to replace the sleave and piston, fry the clutch bell you gotta replace that , fry clutch thats replaced , buts the exhuast header - head you gotta replace them.
more cost outlay, 12 quid or more for clutch bell - then a fiver for new clutch shoes n springs, then that exhuast header runs you a tenner, then the piston and liner throwing you a swift 40 quid. let alone the quart gallon of fuel you gotta fork out for to.

leccy, its a motor at 25 quid an esc thats around 25 quid and a battery and charger, all can be throw direct into another machine, unlike a nitro lump its more easy to handle - use and convert from one machine to another. 

twostroke, what lets this down is the gearing, if those machines had a 4-5 speed box they would fly like hell on earth , but how do you get a 5 speed box in a small motor, you just cant let alone in a tiny chassis, then theres the problem of shifting those gears, the twostokes can develop some nice horses but they are pinned out at high revs on very low gearing ( think scooters and mx bikes, screaming at 9k but doing 40 mph ) , a gearboxed unit would be able to really give those 1/5th scale some balls and huge speeds. using the whole power range. 

twostroke 1/8th failed because they were really just a nitro engine given a gas conversion, a hall sensor triggering the capactitive discharge ignition to fire when needed to burn the fuel. bit like the term "its a golf but not a golf" and just way to expensive for what they really were 

[Rory]

56 minutes ago, scatteh316 said:

Once these new mini 2 stroke petrol engines like the one seen in the Savage Octane improve over the next few years you'll find nitro will eventually die out.

 

 

 

That would definately be a great innovation, it just seems progress has been so slow on 1/8 petrol power.  From what I've read of the hpi and losi small petrols they are just about useless.

 

It will be interesting to see if manufacturers put R&D into it.

[scatteh316]

1 hour ago, Tamiyacowboy said:

twostroke, what lets this down is the gearing, if those machines had a 4-5 speed box they would fly like hell on earth , but how do you get a 5 speed box in a small motor, you just cant let alone in a tiny chassis, then theres the problem of shifting those gears, the twostokes can develop some nice horses but they are pinned out at high revs on very low gearing ( think scooters and mx bikes, screaming at 9k but doing 40 mph ) , a gearboxed unit would be able to really give those 1/5th scale some balls and huge speeds. using the whole power range. 

 

I hope you're not talking about 2 stroke petrol??

[Anthoop]

12 hours ago, Rory said:

A few years ago the nitro section of this forum used to be so busy, youd post up a topic and get lots of replies within minutes, now its eerily quiet.  I have a feeling the youngsters getting into RC are going straight to brushless electrics and its going to be the older generation who use nitro.

 

Kids will be kids....short lived.

I started with electric....mmm...raced a bit with 1/12...then I was old enough to use an engine....never will I want an electric car again....bring on the tinkering.

 

(bit odd that some people think that an engine using glow plugs is different to one using spark plugs...in that they are both two stroke engines...just one has a better potential power to weight ratio).

 

[Ziggy122]

Will never get rid of the nitro..

Its a differemt class and uniqueness of its own

Ziggy

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