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You will get more performance from a tuned exhaust, but you are going to have to be creative to get one to fit. Look for an FG touring car manifold or exhaust so you can get the exhaust coming out from under the engine. Aowei Yama closed down during covid and haven't reopened. The only official supplier was Nitrotek, so if they haven't got them in stock you will have to find the many breakers that are around. Join the Aowei Yama Buggy /HPI Fan Group on Facebook and most of the more reliable breakers hang around on there.

According to the instruction manual for this, the colour is PS-30. No reference for the yellow though as they are large stickers for the number plates.

Ones I know of are Extra lap RC - UK off road racers ActionRC - Australian racing but international interviews Radio Impound - US racers No Name RC - US racing That Scale RC Show- scale/crawling

RC Car Action is still around, but the only way you are going to find a paper copy is to subscribe to the digital+print version from the publishers. Works out about £5 an issue delivered. https://www.airagestore.com/magazines/subscriptions/radio-control-car-action.html They do feature a lot of scale and crawler stuff in their articles. If you want a cheaper online only version https://www.magzter.com/US/Air-Age-Media/Radio-Control-Car-Action/Automotive/All-Issues

I would rate Sanwa as the best on the market these days, closely followed by Futaba. Both big name brands that have been around for years. Not cheap compared to others, but both are known for their reliability which is most important when running big, fast cars.

Nimhs can now be found up to 5000mah capacity, but as saddle packs were only used in race buggies and they went to lipo batteries about 10 years ago you aren't going to find them in the usual shops. Vapextech, Overlander or Componentshop should all be able to custom build you a battery pack that fits. The XX4 belts will need replacing, they are known to degrade over time and can strip all the teeth off them when you first run them after a few years. Tough racing in South Korea make a good replacement belt set for the XX4. Spares for both cars are still around, more so for the XX4 as it was more popular and was rereleased. But as said above, a used Fireblade could be worth £100-150 and a used XX4 £150-300 depending on condition to vintage collectors and racers.

Not many options for touring car size, there's only the L and L Models range of Mk2s https://landlmodels.co.uk/search?q=tc022

The DT is based on the HSP Breaker chassis https://www.nitrotek.co.uk/breaker-1-10-scale-electric-off-road-rc-trophy-truck-2-4ghz.html All HSP cars use the same gearboxes and suspension, the only differences are the wishbone length and shock mounts. Nitrotek list a lot of upgrades, usually cheaper than the official Maverick parts but colours aren't as subtle https://www.nitrotek.co.uk/upgrades/hsp-racing/high-speed-xstr-buggy-upgrades-hop-ups.html but the upgrades can be bought for a lot less from the far east.

There are plenty of options designed specifically for r/c transmitters. https://www.modelsport.co.uk/boxes-cases-bags/rc-car-categories/9980/998050&MSAttributeID[97]=982 I use a Sanwa Exzes, so it travels around in a Logic RC hard case.

Start the engine and rev it up with the wheels on the ground. If none of the gears turn its the clutch bell. If there gears turn but the driveshafts don't, it's the diff gears. If the driveshafts spin it's the wheel drives. Wheel square drives are simple, remove the wheel and there's the drive square. Unscrew the grub screws, line them up with the flats on the axles, put a little thread lock in the hole and refit the two grub screws.

As others have said, the cheapest way is buying second hand. While some cars are trashed requiring a whole new engine, just wait a few weeks and will the unused Christmas presents will be appearing. Lots of people buy them expecting to be racing around making lots of noise, then discover the engine can't be turned on and off with a switch and that there's a big learning curve for beginners just to get the engine run in. As for plastic gears breaking, they are designed to do that as a safety feature. Engine idling too high so the clutch drags and overheats, I prefer the spur gear to melt before the clutch bell explodes throwing shrapnel around. Crashing into a solid object at full speed, I would prefer the spur gear to snap teeth off rather than the crankshaft suddenly stop and damage the engine.

This doesn't need fixing. The front wheels toe out deliberately, for handling. The toe out helps stability so it runs in a straight line. If both wheels were straight the play in the linkages means it would wander when trying to go straight. The toe out also helps steering when cornering, it helps the tyres bite when you start turning into a corner and stabilises the car when you put the power on coming out of a turn. Steering trim is adjusted by driving the car forwards and adjusting the trim until it runs in a straight line.

Nope. In its wisdom the UK government has removed the minimum allowance, the EU is planning on introduction something similar later in the year. This means if you buy a part that's £1 posted, you will have to pay the 20% vat owed on it, plus the £8 processing fee from the post office. They have also introduced a new system for foreign shops selling into the UK, something that no other country in the world does. As customs will be a bit busy this year the UK government had decided that the shops should do the work for them. The shops themselves have to collect the vat at point of purchase, so no parcels marked with a low value or as a gift. To do this means the shops around the world have to be vat registered with HMRC in the UK, and to post on the vat collected each month. It does mean while we will always have to pay the vat we owe on every item, at least we no longer have the royal mail processing fee to pay. This gives shops two options, either add on 20% to the price of goods and swallow the costs of processing the fees, or just stop selling to the UK. I know RCMart and Aliexpress now add 20% at their checkout, we will just have to see whether others that have suspended sales to the UK will start up again or not. I do know a lot of EU bike parts suppliers have just decided to stop selling to the UK. Of course no one knows yet what happens if a seller send something to the UK without charging the vat, or how customs will tell if the vat has been paid. If parcels come through as before, with us paying vat as before, then expect the system to collapse as shops which do collect vat will be operating at a disadvantage to one's operating legally.

At the moment the only option is Conrad in Germany. Nitrotek are the only UK supplier, as Jim says above all ebay resellers have them sent from Nitrotek. Nitrotek had around 40-50 trucks in stock at the start of the lockdown and were sold out within two weeks. They will have to order more from the factory but I don't think even they know when FS will be able to produce them with FS being in China. For most r/c retailers March and April are usually dead which is why most shops are now running out of stock entirely, I believe Tamiya UK themselves are out of stock of most kits and are not expecting more to arrive until July. I have asked them about bringing in the pro version, or the reverse rotation gearbox as a part.

Easy, RW Racing pinion. https://www.modelsport.co.uk/rw-48-dp-pinion-22-teeth/rc-car-products/13818 22T is the number of teeth, 48DP is the tooth size. as long as a pinion is 48DP it will match with the spur gear. RW Racing make gears for many r/c companies, as well as selling them under their own brand.

The only reason to choose nitro these days is for the noise, which then limits where you can run it. Modern electrics are faster, more powerful and with modern batteries can run as long as you want. From dealing with rtr nitros, owners these days expect them to just work without having to deal with tuning and adjusting the engine before you start running when you can just plug in a battery and go. Plus you don't have the cost of nitro fuel and with shops closing there's less local shops to buy fuel from, so you have the extra expense of courier postage to get it delivered.

HPI Racing have been around since the 1980s and have several world championships to their name. They have been struggling lately but the new owners should mean things improve for them. Arrma is a more recent brand, it used to be one of the in-house brands for the company that made Axial, Kyosho, Losi and HPI models, but Arrma has been sold onto the biggest distributor in the industry. Traxxas isn't liked for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the Rustler first appeared in 1994 and 25 years later they are still using an update of the same chassis, just changing the body graphics every few years. A lot of Traxxas models are like that. While they have some figurehead models, rather than product development most of their budget is spent on marketing to get their name out there to non hobby customers. The biggest reason people hate Traxxas is their litigation. They have patented everything they can regarding r/c models, even down to linkage ball joints, and are happy to sue anyone they can. Traxxas sued Vaterra over a laydown shock suspension design, which was in use on several cars about 25 years before Traxxas patented it. They have sued several companies for having a waterproof receiver box on their cars, again something that was around long before they patented it. They also designed their own battery connector, rather than using the industry standard ones, then patented it so battery suppliers are forced to buy their connectors from Traxxas. This means Traxxas can control who is allowed to make batteries for their trucks, and if a battery supplier doesn't use a connector bought from Traxxas they will happily spend a fortune suing the battery supplier. Acting as a patent troll and trying to stifle competition by lawsuits instead of producing better products than them tends to upset a lot of people.

Look out for the Kyosho Ultima gear set, part UM-1. While the Ultima layshaft is different to the Optima the spur gear is the same part.

Most cars these days come ready to run, for most manufacturers the only kit models are the high end race chassis. Tamiya is the only RC car manufacturer that sells everything as a kit, and they are the experts when it comes to clear instructions to put their models together. They cover everything from budget beginners models up to expensive high end race chassis, so first decision is deciding what type of car you want.

Hobbykings business model revolves around buying in large quantities and selling cheap for a quick turnover. Great for us customers as we get cheap cars, but means they have to keep selling in large quantities to get the level of discounts they get from the suppliers. If they can't sustain the level of sales then they can't put in orders for the spares, so the spares run out and aren't replenished. But Hobbyking doesn't produce their own products, they are all rebadged models so identifying them means a continuous supply of parts. Hobbykings Skullcrusher is a rebadged Acme Circuit Thrash so spares are available from Nitrotek. I have a Hobbyking Nitro Circus monster truck, which like the Sabertooth is based off an Acme Barbarian, again spares available from Nitrotek so just made sure I bought all the unique parts in Hobbykings annual sale. I also have a Bad Bug, which is based on the Acme NB16. Their Berserker is the awkward one as it's based on the HSP Sea Rover that only appears to be sold in Australia. As for something with better spares availability, look at what hobby shops such as Modelsport are selling, if they list plenty of spares in stock for what your want then you can be guaranteed a parts supply.

The only Kamtec body with 280mm wheelbase is the Kyosho Street Van. As well as Delta Plastik there is Team Bluegroove. Stickers for team Bluegroove bodies are available from MCIRacing.

Addiction RC does a lot of the official Rocket Bunny kits, usually more expensive than the body they fit onto though!

The whole scale drift scene is all about building your own. Bodies don't come with engines, interiors or body accessories, you add your own to customise them yourself. Any of the specialist drift suppliers such as Drifted.nl and RC Mart will give you a list of available products. Vacformed engine bays are made by Killerbody and Demi Works, plenty of 3D printed versions can be found on Shapeways, or scratch build your own. Of course in the UK Modelsport sells many of the parts you want.

Try them before binning them, leaving them fully charged can shorten their life and reduce capacity and punch but doesn't mean they are junk. No need to get rid of them if they are still working fine, just don't expect the ultimate performance of new packs.

2S should be between 6.0v and 8.4v 3S between 9.0v and 12.6v 4S between 12.0v and 14.8v If they are and the batteries haven't puffed up they should be fine. Balance charge them to bring them back into sync in case any cells have discharged at a different rate to the others in the pack. If the voltage is too low the charger won't charge them.