What Is Nitro XRC?

Nitro XRC, which stands for eXtreme Radio Control, is a new series of radio-controlled vehicles from Hasbro, America's #2 toy & games maker. They are powered by "nitro" fuel-burning piston engines and recommended for folks 16 years & older. They will be sold at Wal Mart stores and serviced by Hobbytown USA franchises across the country. The first two vehicles in the lineup, the Revolution MT and the Ricochet, are expected to cost $129.99 and $179.99, respectively, placing them at the high end of the price scale for toy-class RCs, but cheaper than any mass-marketed hobby-level nitro RCs.

What's the difference between toy-class and hobby-class RCs?

Toy-class RCs are those that you can buy at stores such as Toys R Us, Wal Mart, Target, Kay Bee, and Radio Shack. They are simple and durable, but limited in speed, most of them topping out at between 5mph and 15mph. The fastest (and some of the most expensive) to date have topped out at 20-24mph. They come mostly or fully assembled and are generally meant for owners in the 5- to 13-year-old range. Hobby-class RCs are sold at hobby shops and specialty online stores. They can be extremely complicated and intricate in design, as advanced and tunable in many ways as full-scale race cars & trucks. The smallest, slowest ones do around 10mph with stock equipment, while the fastest push over 70mph without modifications, and even over 100mph when highly customized for speed. Between 20 & 40mph is very common.

Take a moment to read even more about the differences between toy & hobby-class RCs here.

What is nitro? How do nitro engines work?

Read about this subject on this page.

Which is better, nitro or electric power?

Before the Nitro XRC line, there were no nitro-powered toy-class RCs, so there's really no comparison there. Nitro XRC vehicles go as fast as the fastest toy-class electrics, and don't require waiting for batteries to charge -- you just add fuel when it runs low. In the hobby-level RC community, however, the debate between nitro and electric power has gone on for many years, and there isn't a clear winner yet, nor any signs that there will be one any time soon. Ready-to-run hobby-level nitro RCs are almost always significantly faster than their electric counterparts, yet the world's fastest RCs have all been electric-powered. An electric-powered RC with the same top speed as a nitro-powered RC will have better acceleration (more torque), but also cost more.

BeginningRC.com breaks down the pros & cons of nitro & electric power in an easy-to-read, four-page article called simply "Nitro or Electric?" Definitely worth reading!