Complete newbie question - RC car from scratch

..and I came from an RC10 background!

I think the hardest part of the build is likely to be finding a suitable gearbox; may I suggest something like a tamiya DT-02 gearbox? It takes a standard 540 sized motor (the most popular motor size, so it allows you lots of interesting brushless upgrades) and has an integral diferential with output to dogbone style drives that should be easy to build. Many people buy tamiya kits to seperate out to sell on auction sites for those that require spares so the bits will be easily found. It also has convenient mounting points to allow it to be mounted to a simple frame.

I would suggest you look at the design of the Kyosho 2wd buggies such as the Tomahawk; for all intents and purposes this is two pieces of solid square section bar bent up at an angle at the front, and joined together with flat plates for the speed controller, radio gear and such. the motor hangs off the back.

Flysky 2 channel 2.4GHZ radio gear such as the GT2 will be ideal for this project; it's cheap and reliable, and when you want to add another car you just spend another fiver on a receiver and pair it to the transmitter.

Another quick point, Nitro is fun and all, but a good electric brushless setup with a lipo is simple, clean, rapid charging (but you need the right charger) and astonishing power. Way more reliable than nitro and more cost effective too.

Thanks so much for all the replies! A bit overwhelming, so we'll need to carefully read through together and see where it leads. Quite a bit already goes over my head, hopefully less so his. I'm especially surprised by the precision needed in setup - those blocks listed on the Hudy site made that clear, XD. But as you say, physics is physics and that's what I'm hoping he'll get to immerse himself in - the practical application of what he's learning in school.

And thanks for the offers of help, no doubt we'll be taking you up on those in the months to come!

Cheers, C.

A lot will depend on what your son wants out of the car and how much he can put into it. A very simple flat or pan chassis with solid rear axle and primative front suspension will be relatively easy to make with minimal tools, there are budget race classes for cars like this such as the Mardave cars.

At the other end of the scale you can have fully adjustable suspension, diffs, gearboxes 4WD etc which will require more work and equipment and possibly buying in more parts. Some people do get a bit carried away and also make the engines too such as this V10 powered car which is right at the opposite end of the scale compared to a Mardave