Is nitro really dead?

[Ziggy122]

The ease of speed and cheapness to run vs Nitro I see why electric is winning hands down

 

Nitro will always have my heart tho

 

But I see online (Face ache for reference), people saying its going down/dead

The fuel market is dead (only seems to be Optifuel?)

 

More Electric models been sold vs Nitro (based on my FB market place viewings)

 

is it done for?

There will always be some Nitro out there, but it feels like Nitro is just ""poor man's RCs""

 

Share your thoughts

 

Ziggy

[Lone-wolf]

my last nitro was 1992 ish and have to say would not go back to it

[Fred barlow]

sadly yep the karens of this world are slowly killing nitro most places you can't manager 15 minutes without a complaint about noise/ dangerous or they are banned altogether on insurance grounds, there's only 3 suppliers of fuel now optifuel who took over model technics,weston uk and southern modelcraft (but their fuel has always been very oily so only good for the old nitros,) id say nitro is the preserve of the spec racer and those with karen free places to run them, i've got vintage ones but i'm not in a rush to get them running because i've only got one place to run them and that's a rubbish tiny car park

[Stormbringer]

I still have 2 or 3 nitro models in shed but in all honesty i cant see me running them again

I converted my Hyper 7 and Hyper ST to electric a couple of years ago and they are awesome 

[bunnie]

I wouldn't say it dead but unfortunately a lot of "entitled" people will find any reason to moan even when you fully go out the way to stay away from everyone. I'm lucky in the sense that I've got a few local spots where there are no issues at all even had Mr officer interest. 

 

Also a lot of people don't wanna learn the tuning side of things and don't wanna get their hands dirty so plug and play is the way forward for them

[wolfie1]

I was a nitro and petrol guy for many years, a couple of years ago i got my first lipo powered car and am really enjoying them, my mind was jaded on electric from many years ago with nicad and nimh batteries, and how rubbish they were lipo is fantastic for an rc car, ok you dont get the smell and noise but that can also be a plus, folk complain as they hear an engine thinking that you might hurt them if it crashes into them but with electric you dont get that even though the speeds are matched

[Nitroholic]

Nitro has died more times than that wierd bloke in a hockey mask in that film franchise.

 

It will probably die again next year as well.

[Yrkoon]

On 07/09/2024 at 10:41, bunnie said:

I wouldn't say it dead but unfortunately a lot of "entitled" people will find any reason to moan even when you fully go out the way to stay away from everyone. I'm lucky in the sense that I've got a few local spots where there are no issues at all even had Mr officer interest. 

 

Also a lot of people don't wanna learn the tuning side of things and don't wanna get their hands dirty so plug and play is the way forward for them

yeh the sheer noise of nitro more hassle maintenance has led to leccy dominating.

 

i even got complained at for using a hyper vse on 4s outside the house as the karen neighbour thought the whole street should be silent on a lovely hot afternoon, coz she was working and had her window open.....

 

she wasnt happy when i pointed out lawnmowers that i had been hearing all day are a  lot louder and went "yeh but" but what? go away karen 😛

Edited September 8, 2024 by Yrkoon

[Ziggy122]

I've had the threats of calls by to police for noise, but not much they can do tbh....

 

Karen's weren't a thing just grumpy old people back in the day...

 

I did enjoy Nitro for the fact its mechanical, you can see it all working

where as Electric is very little see and do....

but goes like stink....

 

I'd love to get the nitro going, but I do like the ideal of brushless Hyper 7! 

 

I've got a local park where I think nitro wouldn't be a problem! just shame about the fuel thing....

 

It was like the TM bashes were nitro filled and Hpi Baja's 🤣 and a few electrics as they were showing some promise....

 

I might be heading for a midlife crisis 🙄🤣

 

Nitro is a dead as Scottt Kilmer if you get the reference we can be friends 🤣

[locky]

I'm doing my bit to keep nitro alive. Dont tell the boss but I've now got 27 nitro cars.

[Nick]

Not as dead as Petrol.

 

Obviously the tech surge of electrics killed a lot of it off but also the lack of places to use noisy IC RCs, it seems like every place I used to run RCs has turned into a park, or housing estate.

[Ziggy122]

On 09/09/2024 at 20:39, locky said:

I'm doing my bit to keep nitro alive. Dont tell the boss but I've now got 27 nitro cars.

Do they have their own garage? 🤣🤣

 

2 hours ago, Nick said:

Not as dead as Petrol.

 

Obviously the tech surge of electrics killed a lot of it off but also the lack of places to use noisy IC RCs, it seems like every place I used to run RCs has turned into a park, or housing estate.

Petrol was I'm my opinion super cool, but the cost to buy and the fact they were way louder than Nitro meant they were a limited market....

never could afford one...

 

I'm hoping to make a guide of places to play with RCs in my area

since I travel to different places around my county I spot open fields / near forests / large parks where you could have some fun 🙂

 

Still remember @HappyLad with his Baja? been mega loud at the old TM bash

 

I'm going back some time tho!

 

 

Ziggy

[wolfie1]

Many years ago i was very active on rc universe, especially the large scale and the hpi savage pages, its pretty dead these days and i have pondered what the folks on there back then are doing these days

Edited September 12, 2024 by wolfie1

[Yrkoon]

i still miss the tinkering and cleaning the nitro by half taking it apart after a messy bashing session up the dusty quarry, we got a hyper 7 nitro of some one from ehre went havers on it, unsure if were gonna run it as a nitro along side the few nitros we have left or use for spares or convert it lol

 

still got nitro savage, possibly a intact hpi mt2, a ishima rave buggy ( that thing is grunty as hell sounding) a hyper tt and a wee mini nitro our old neighbour gave us like 16 scale or something lol

[Stormbringer]

yeh its 1/16 scale Colt 

The ishima with the 25 engine was awesome you could leave it idling whilst talking and nail the throttle and it just went 

[SimplyChunk]

I'd kill to have my old Savage 25 back.  All Purple Alloy TVPs, Purple Alloy Arms, Purple Savage 21 Springs, Pull start (cause the 'roto start' kept blowing the one way bearing) 52 Tooth Spur (after 3 overpriced 49 tooth spurs), 3rd forward gear, reverse gear unit, Beautifully painted 'El Camino' bodyshell, black chrome wheels, sand pin tyres. 

The 'thing' was amazing and sounded wonderful as it crashed up through the three gears to it's top speed. 

 

Just a shame I didn't have as much of a handle on my voices back then as I ended up attacking it with a 5lbs club hammer while the voice of a lost family member was egging me on to do it 😞 

[Stormbringer]

Hpi purple ohh ohh excuse me 

[Ziggy122]

22 hours ago, Stormbringer said:

Hpi purple ohh ohh excuse me 

Purple friend! 😁

[SimplyChunk]

On 13/09/2024 at 22:29, Stormbringer said:

Hpi purple ohh ohh excuse me 

 

1 hour ago, Ziggy122 said:

Purple friend! 😁

 

It was damned beautiful 🤣

[Fred barlow]

Well with force RC shutting down who supply hpi is a sign of the state of nitro in the RC world

[Cactus]

On 26/12/2024 at 22:47, SimplyChunk said:

thought that already was a thing of the past for the current generation??

You're right haha, perhaps we're too far gone already 🤣

I think it's a massive shame for the future and our kids... 😕

[Ziggy122]

On 27/12/2024 at 12:27, Fred barlow said:

Well with force RC shutting down who supply hpi is a sign of the state of nitro in the RC world

It's a big Blow.... Force did ALOT of engines

HPI said they would try to keep there engines in a usable state for a while

 

but anything new now is gonna need a completely new engine.... which tbh with how nitro is.... gonna be a killer gold mine to find 😞

 

It makes me wonder if traxxas engine maker may benefit? rebadged traxxas engines in HPI? 

shame they don't have a Big big blocks like HPI

 

On 03/01/2025 at 09:50, Cactus said:

You're right haha, perhaps we're too far gone already 🤣

I think it's a massive shame for the future and our kids... 😕

The kids will never know the orgasmic noise!!

Loud of not, they are just better for the way they work!

you can see it happening! vs electric which is just.... like A sound of having a big morning wee... nowt special and all too common

 

Ziggy

[Red MG]

Nitro may be in a bad place in England but here in Spain its very much alive and well 🙂, we dont get the "Karens" here so much and the local track still holds national and club level races alongside the brushless stuff 👍🏻. Go into my local RC store and I can still buy engines/pipes/manifolds/spares etc off the shelf as well as different makes of fuel, although the nitro content is limited here........😉 it also helps that the shop owner is a 2 time Southern Spain champion racing Kyosho's 🙂👍🏻

Love TM bashes reference, been too a few of them 😉🤪 crazy times.