First Tip For The XRAY NT18MT

We have been running our XRAY NT18MTs for awhile now and discovered some short cuts other current and prospective NT18MT owners may find useful.


During the break-in period and for some time right after that, we have been running our NT18MTs on our asphalt driveway. We did this to take it easy on the engines and differentials. When you're running through the grass, you drive the RC monster truck a little harder. So we got better acceleration and top speed out of our engines on the driveway while keeping the engine temperature low.

Even though we're running on asphalt, we are still flipping our NT18MTs over occassionally. Running 4 open wheel RC cars together on a small track will create come flips. And this brings me to my first tip for the XRAY NT18MT. When the NT18MT flips over and slides across the pavement, the antenna gets the grinded down pretty quickly.


The plastic antenna cover is one of the cheaper parts to replace however, if your antenna wire is exposed it gets considerably more expensive. The plastic antenna cover gets worn down even faster because it is bent at the truck body opening on each flip.


Bottom line: It doesn't take long for you to cut through your plastic antenna cover. To fight this, I recommend you double wrap your antenna at the point it exits the RC truck body with a small piece of fuel tubing or several layers of tape. The last thing you want to do is double back your excess antenna wire so it reaches this point. Don't do that.

Novarossi Announces Big Apparel Sale

Novarossi USA issued a press release stating all of their apparel is discounted until mid January. Here's the official word.

Hello And Happy Holidays,

Through January 15 2008, all Novarossi Racing Apparel is an additional 15% off. All pricing on the site reflects the 15% discount.

Thank you,
Jim Hottinger

We confirmed the announcement by checking the Novarossi USA website and the apparel sale is featured on their home page. Most of their gear is high quality stuff and with the winter months upon us, this would be a great time to get that blue Novarossi jacket vest you have always wanted.

Our Christmas Winners' Choices

We heard from all of our Christmas offer winners and here are the kits they chose.

1. Anthony Catullo: XRAY M18MT (#380600) - $105
2. Kyle Scheibler: Backed out
3. Tom Loranger: XRAY M18T PRO (#380501) - $185
4. Scott Manis: XRAY M18MT (#380600) - $105

We were disappointed Kyle declined the offer because he cost another XRAY fan an opportunity at a discounted kit. We were a little surprised we did not receive any requests for the XB8 EC, XT8 or the new T2'008 since the savings margin was largest for these kits. However, we received responses so quickly I did not have time to post the Christmas offer to the 1/8th and 1/10th scale forums. Of course, the 1/18th scale market is really hot now so that probably played a part in it too.

Bad News, Good News

We received our four XRAY NT18MTs on Thursday at 11:00 am. We got a chance to open them up at 6:00 pm and everything looked good. Not only had RC America sent us four different colors like we requested, they also sent us radios with four different crystals so we won't have any frequency problems. Then we got the bad news. Our shipment did not include the four starter boxes that come with the NT18MT RTR kit.


We called RC America right then and were able to get in touch with them. They apologized and said they would overnight the four starter boxes. The starter boxes arrived at noon on Friday. That's pretty impressive and we have to give RC America for fixing the problem. Thanks RC America.

For the rest of Friday we worked on getting each of the four NT18MTs ready for racing on Saturday. It looks like we're going to be set and I hope to be able to post photos and videos after the weekend and Christmas.

And The Winner Is...

Wow. You guys are fast. We got emails instantly. We received 3 emails within 2 minutes. Here is the official results.

1. Anthony Catullo @ 2:00:12 pm
2. Kyle Scheibler @ 2:01:24 pm
3. Scott Manis @ 2:02:09 pm
4. TL in a distant 4th

So Anthony Catullo is the winner of our Christmas offer and he gets to order any XRAY kit he wants for just $10 over cost. However, it's Christmas which is the giving season. Plus, we're still feeling great about getting our 4 XRAY NT18MTs.

With that said, we have decided to grant the orders for 2nd, 3rd and even 4th place as well. We will be selling Anthony, Kyle, Scott and TL their choice of XRAY kit for just $10 over dealer cost. We have to make them pay for shipping, but it's still a great deal. We will contact each one and I'll post their kit requests to the blog for everyone to see.

Merry Christmas To All XRAY fans

In honor of the Christmas season and because we're stoked about getting our XRAY NT18MTs, we are offering a one time discount to all XRAY RC hobbyists.


For the first person who contacts us at orders@rcglowplugs.com, we will sell them their choice of any XRAY kit for just $10 above dealer cost. The $10 will only cover our shipping cost from RC America so we are not making any money on this. This one lucky XRAY fan will pay for the kit and the cost of shipping it to them. We are located in Charlotte, NC if you want estimate your shipping cost.

There is one requirement to be eligible for this offer. You must be able to pay for your XRAY kit with PayPal. That's the only payment processor we can offer at this time. The additional $10 will also help cover our PayPal fees.

Here is a list of all of the kits you can choose from. Just remember, we do not have these in stock so we will have to order yours from the distributor. Your kit will not arrive in time for Christmas. Take note the XRAY XB8 EC is included and its suggested retail price is $645.

• $416 - XRAY T2'008 - EU RUBBER-SPEC 5-CELL EDITION - 1/10 LUXURY ELECTRIC TC
• $416 - XRAY T2'008 - EU RUBBER-SPEC 6-CELL EDITION - 1/10 LUXURY ELECTRIC TC
• $416 - XRAY T2'008 - US FOAM-SPEC 6-CELL EDITION - 1/10 LUXURY ELECTRIC TC
• $419 - XRAY NT1 '008 SPEC - 1/10 NITRO TOURING CAR
• $548 - XRAY XB8 EC - 1/8 NITRO OFF-ROAD CAR
• $510 - XRAY XT8 - 1/8 NITRO OFF-ROAD TRUGGY
• $105 - XRAY M18 - 4WD SHAFT DRIVE 1/18 MICRO CAR
• $185 - XRAY M18 PRO - 4WD SHAFT DRIVE 1/18 MICRO CAR
• $185 - XRAY M18-RTR - 4WD SHAFT DRIVE 1/18 MICRO CAR - LUXURY RTR
• $185 - XRAY NT18 - 4WD 1/18 MICRO NITRO CAR + ENGINE + MUFFLER
• $213 - XRAY NT18 - 4WD 1/18 MICRO NITRO CAR + ENGINE + MUFFLER + ELECTRIC PACK
• $105 - XRAY M18T - 4WD SHAFT DRIVE 1/18 MICRO TRUCK
• $185 - XRAY M18T PRO - 4WD SHAFT DRIVE 1/18 MICRO TRUCK
• $185 - XRAY M18T-RTR - 4WD SHAFT DRIVE 1/18 MICRO TRUCK - LUXURY RTR
• $105 - XRAY M18MT - 4WD SHAFT DRIVE 1/18 MICRO MONSTER TRUCK
• $185 - XRAY M18MT-RTR - 4WD SHAFT DRIVE 1/18 MICRO MONSTER TRUCK - LUXURY RTR
• $185 - XRAY NT18T - 4WD 1/18 MICRO NITRO TRUCK + ENGINE + MUFFLER
• $220 - XRAY NT18T - 4WD 1/18 MICRO NITRO TRUCK - LUXURY RTR
• $220 - XRAY NT18MT - 4WD 1/18 MICRO NITRO MONSTER TRUCK - LUXURY RTR

We wish you luck and Merry Christmas.

Our XRAY NT18MTs Have Arrived

I just received the FedEx shipment this morning and was happy to see that RC America saw our message to include one of each color. XRAY does a great job with the design of their packaging. Here are our four XRAY NT18MT RTR kits.


My brother and I are taking vacation days tomorrow so we'll have plenty of time to break in all four engines and get them tuned for some racing by noon. I'm familiar with 1/18th scale RC vehicles, but you really don't get a full picture of how small they are until you have one in your hands.


Looks like we'll have to cut the grass down a good bit in our racing field first. They are not pictured, but we got some spare parts (i.e. glow plugs, air filters, arms, etc.) just in case. We don't want anything to get in the way of our racing. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

My Brother's 2nd RC Car, The Team Associated RC10

In the year 1987 (somewhere around there), my brother and I got RC cars for Christmas and this set off a domino effect in our neighborhood. All of the kids in the neighborhood got their own RC cars and we used to run them in our cul de sac. Our first RC cars were Tamiya Grasshoppers. It wasn't long before it was time to upgrade our RC cars. I got the Kyosho Ultima and, of course, my brother had to get it's direct competitor the Team Associated RC10.


The RC10 came out in 1984 and was American made. Associated Electronics, also known as Team Associated, designed the RC car and it became a huge success for them. For my brother, the car was durable and well designed. The alloy chassis was a big reason for this. Since we did most of our racing on our cul de sac's asphalt, he also converted this car to on-road. Unfortunately, he no longer has his RC10 so I couldn't get any photos of it or the bodies he had.

Here's something interesting I found when I was looking up information on the RC10. If you have ever seen the movie Dirty Harry, starring Clint Eastwood, you probably remember the San Francisdo car chase scene when Harry is being chased by an RC car. Harry is running from the RC car because it has a bomb in it.


The movie director used a Team Associated RC10 for this scene. In the movie, the RC car sounds like it is nitro-powered but it's actually electric. The nitro engine sound was added later. Before the chase scene begins, the villian is having trouble controlling his RC car because some kids are playing with an RC car on the sidewalk (frequency problem). Before the kids put the car on the sidewalk you can see the distinctive orange chassis of the RC10. What's really cool (for me anyway) is the kid's radio is a Futaba Magnum which is a version of the radio my brother and I had.

XRAY Releases The Official XB8 Mud Scraper

XRAY is known for their quality and attention to detail. When I saw this recent release, it just confirms what I already know. Here is the official XRAY release.

353369 Mud Scraper - Graphite - Set

The XB8 Mud Scraper is CNC-machined from strong graphite material, and is easily installed on the composite rear hub carriers by the two included screws. The mud scraper is great when running in wet and dirty racing conditions, as it helps to remove mud from the inner part of the wheels, enabling the buggy to jump perfectly. A "must have" for serious racers or anybody bashing in dirt and mud.

Only XRAY would address the potential for a problem that can only occur in a specific weather and track conditions. Of course, it's made of carbon fiber because anything else would be just too heavy. The XRAY XB8 mud scraper retails for about $16.75.


For those who don't know, we are an official XRAY dealer. So if you would like to order the mud scraper through us, send an email to orders@rcglowplugs.com. Our prices are tough to beat.

Next Up - Optional Parts & Upgrades For My XRAY NT18MT

It's official. My new XRAY NT18MT is on its way and I should get it in a few days. Just in time for an extended Christmas vacation. This finally satisfies my desire for an 1/18th scale monster truck that started awhile ago. This also meets the requirement that I get a RC car that runs on glow plugs. In the end, we ended up getting four NT18MTs for some family racing on our field.


Now, the initial idea is to keep them stock so we can run pretty evenly. We'll see how long we're able to follow that rule. We had a similar plan for our XRAY M18 kits. However, My M18 didn't stay stock very long before most of the plastic was replaced with carbon fiber and it was running a Mamba 25 with LiPo batteries. But that doesn't mean we can't look at the optional parts and upgrades for the XRAY NT18MT. What could it hurt? After a glance through XRAY's price list, here are the optional parts I found.

• 382095 - ALU SHOCK TOWER FRONT M18T - 7075 T6 (4MM)
• 383095 - ALU SHOCK TOWER REAR M18T - 7075 T6 (4MM)
• 382252 - ALU SUSPENSION BLOCK LEFT
• 382262 - ALU SUSPENSION BLOCK RIGHT
• 385305 - DRIVE SHAFT M18T - HUDY SPRING STEEL™ - SET (2)
• 388400 - FRONT ALU OIL SHOCK ABSORBERS (2)
• 388401 - REAR ALU OIL SHOCK ABSORBERS (2)
• 285001 - ALU ADJ. BALL DIFFERENTIAL - HARD COATED - SET

Nearly all of these items are the aluminum replacements for the plastic counterparts. I also looked through XRAY's 2007 catalog and found two pages dedicated to the NT18MT.



I think I'm going to remain stock for awhile. This will give me a better idea of what parts break most often then I may consider the aluminum alternative. If I had to guess which optional part will be my first, it will probably be the aluminum adjustable ball differential. We'll see, but I'm looking forward to running all four of the NT18MTs together this weekend.

Vintage RC NASCAR Bodies

When I pulled my Kyosho Ultima out of the attic, I found I had a couple old RC car bodies with it. These are vintage NASCAR.



This is the newer of the two. It looks like the first Chevy Lumina body, but don't quote me on that. I noticed that I hand painted several of the small black areas.



This is the one I ran most often. It looks like something Richard Petty would drive. Very sturdy and it protected my Ultimas well when we were running (i.e. colliding) in the cul de sac with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood. My dad flew for Piedmont Airlines before they were purchased by US Airways. Anyone out there remember Piedmont Punch?

We Can Now Offer RC America Products

I just learned yesteray that we have an agreement with RC America which is the exclusive US distributor of XRAY and HUDY products.


What does this mean for our customers? Well, we can now sell glow plugs that come with XRAY's line of luxury RC cars. So if you want to buy the same exact glow plug that came with your NT18MT RTR kit, you can buy it through us. Until our glow plug store launches, you can send your orders to orders@rcglowplugs.com.

Of course, the RC America agreement also puts me one step closer to getting my own XRAY NT18MT. More to come.

Novarossi Announces Price Drop For 2008

Novarossi USA has posted an alert on their home page announcing reduced prices in 2008. Novarossi USA has made the new 2008 prices available this month. This is not a little drop either. Some of their more expensive items have been cut by 30% - 40%.


The new lower prices are across most, if not all, Novarossi products. This includes their glow plugs. Our RC glow plugs store will be able to offer Novarossi glow plugs at a reduced price as well. We plan on passing the savings on to our customers.


As I mentioned recently, we are already taking glow plug orders and are handling each one manually. We will continue to do so up until the launch of RC Glow Plugs. We do have Novarossi glow plugs and can ship them fairly quickly. If you would like to buy Novarossi glow plugs, email us at orders@rcglowplugs.com. You will get the new reduced prices.

My XRAY M18 Photo Made Wikipedia

This will be a quick post. One of my photos of my XRAY M18 was included in the article about XRAY Model Racing Cars on Wikipedia.org. Here's a screenshot of the article with my photo.


While my other photo didn't make the article, there is also a photo of the same XRAY M18 with my painted body.

The Kyosho Ultima, My Second RC Car - Part II

Recently, I was up in the attic digging out the family Christmas decorations when I saw my old Kyosho Ultima. Since I just posted a new blog entry about my Ultima, I decided to pull it down (I couldn't resist) so I could snap a few photos to share.


I was surprised to see I still have the original manual.



You can see I still have the on-road tires on my Ultima.


Here's a shot of the original wheels that came with it. Here are the front wheels while the rear wheels are still on the car. They may even be the same tires.

I did not run it around while I had it down, but I did the last time I got it out. Maybe it was because the electric motor was 15 years old or I thought things were faster when I was a kid, but I could have timed this old Ultima with a calendar. It was really slow. Now I understand why RC hobbyists prefer to buy a new RC car versus refurbishing an old one. Technology moves too fast in this industry. I'll have to post some photos of some of other components and add-ons in another post.

Featuring the XRAY NT18MT For No Reason At All

That's right. It's been a whole 9 days since I last posted something about the XRAY NT18MT. For those who don't know, the NT18MT is a nitro powered 1/18th scale RC monster truck. But there's a good reason for today's post, well not really. I was trying to get some more information about their distribution through RC America when I came across this image.


And that's the only reason for this post. While I'm at it, here's some information on what is included in this RTR kit.

• Premium equipment and electronics: 2x metal gear servo, receiver battery pack, XT1 Transmitter + XR1 Receiver, all cables and switch.


• Cool painted and trimmed body with all the stickers applied.


• HUDY Micro Starter Box (#104300) for easy starting. A $90 value included!

I don't think I'll be able to shake this desire for one until I actually get one.

The Kyosho Ultima, My Second RC Car

After my brother and I got our Tamiya Grasshoppers, the rest of the kids in the neighborhood jumped on the RC bandwagon. It wasn't long that we felt we need to take a step up. The next RC car I got was the Kyosho Ultima.


The Ultima was an electric 1/10th scale 2WD off-road buggy and was released in 1986. It won the IFMAR World Championship the next year. Of course, my brother and I didn't get the same RC car. He picked a direct competitor of the Ultima but that's a separate blog post.


Our neighborhood had a large culdesac at our house so everyone ran their RC cars there. Since we were always running them on asphalt we converted our cars to on-road and put NASCAR bodies on them. Go figure.

RC Glow Plugs & Your Pit Guy

When you race nitro, you must to have a good pitman. There are lots of tips and rules that apply to nitro pitmen however I'm only going to concentrate on one, the RC glow plugs. There's no surprise why either.

First and foremost, a good pitman needs to keep a couple spare glow plugs with him. If you have to replace a glow plug during a race, your chances are slim you'll finish near the top but at least you'll finish. Maybe more importantly, changing a glow plug right before the race may allow you to avoid a DNS.


Lastly, a good pitman should be familiar with the race rules. Each race and RC vehicle class can be different, but most will allow the body to have a cut out for easy access to the glow plug. The allowed cut outs can vary across classes, but I would be very surprised if a glow plug cut out was not permitted.

We Are Taking Orders Now

We are still developing our online RC glow plugs store and expect to launch it in early 2008. We're progressing in all areas: website development, inventory collection, data entry, etc. During this phase, we have been contacted by several RC hobbyists requesting glow plugs. To help them out we have been taking their orders manually.

If you would like to order some glow plugs, contact us at orders@rcglowplugs.com. We offer glow plugs from many manufacturers right now and will handle your order personally. We can accept PayPal, money orders and certified checks for payment. When we launch the website, all orders get free ground shipping. We are including free shipping with all the orders we are fulfilling now as well. When you contact us, let us know the exact glow plugs you want and quantity. We also need to know where you are located so we can confirm we can ship to you. We have had several international requests and there are some countries we can not ship to.

Thanks and we look forward to speaking with you.

The XRAY M18, My Last RC Car

The last RC car I bought was the XRAY M18. It's an electric 1/18th 4WD touring car and I still have it. Here's a photo after the initial build. I placed the M18 on my laptop for scale.



Of course, it wasn't long before we started with the upgrades. First, there was the Power Pack which made a little difference. I added so much carbon fiber it eventually turned into a XRAY M18 PRO. Then we put a Mamba 25 motor in it and got LiPo batteries. After that, we could hardly control it. Here is video of us driving it on an indoor track for the first time. We're barely touching the throttle.



That track had a great surface for traction. It absolutely ate your tires in a hurry, but you could really stick it in the corners. Even with the grip, my M18 had too much speed and needed some down force or weight to keep the car on the track. My last body had a large spoiler and it really made a difference in handling. Now the RC car wouldn't take flight.


My XRAY M18 is a big reason why my next RC car will be the XRAY NT18MT. You can really see and feel the quality of the XRAY kits. Also, the NT18MT is nitro which will be a nice change from electric and a requirement of the RC Glow Plugs race team.

Anyone Seen A Nitro-Powered Rock Crawler?

I've been looking at the RC rock crawling hobby lately. It looks really interesting given that most of the vehicles are designed and builted by their owners.


There are very few kits available, but I did see that Axial offers a 1/10th scale rock crawler kit called the AX10 Scorpion.


I have looked through several images and videos and couldn't find any nitro-powered rock crawlers. So my question is, have you seen a nitro-powered crawler and, if so, was it as good as the electric versions?

O'Donnell Racing Releases New Line Of Glow Plugs

O'Donnell Racing is best known for their RC glow plugs and fuels. Recently, O'Donnell launched their Super Sport line of glow plugs. The plugs are already available at Tower Hobbies, but I also found them on eBay.


Here is a list of the new Super Sport glow plugs.

• Red (#0D0001) - Medium/Hot - ~$4.00


• Purple (#0D0002) - Medium - ~$5.00


• Blue (#0D0003) - Medium/Cold - ~$5.50

Once RC Glow Plugs launches, we expect to have these new O'Donnell plugs in stock.