Whether Your fondest Walter Mitty fantasy is to blister down the straight at Monaco in a Formula I machine or pull a three-g roll in an F-16 fighter jet, there's a sophisticated radio-controlled toy to satisfy your wildest dreams. The latest racing cars, for example, come in many styles and sizes. One-quarter-scale models are the largest; some of the newest ones are three feet long and weigh as much as 20 pounds. NASCAR stockers and open-wheeled sprinters are hotter than Bobby Rahal's exhaust pipes right now. Many have tubular-steel frames, fully independent suspensions and working disc brakes--and a price tag that's surprisingly reasonable, about $800. One-tenth-scale cars are about half the size of the quarter-scale models (and less than half the price). Miniature all-terrain vehicles come equipped with tiny oil-filled shocks, and pint-sized race cars roll on diminutive Bridgestones. Both scales are powered by either small electric motors and rechargeable batteries or gas engines that sound and smell like the real McCoy. Are the cars fast? You bet. The current world record for a one-tenth-scale electric car is 75.92 miles per hour.
Radio-controlled airplanes are priced from $50 to $1200, with electric-powered Styrofoam gliders at the low end and complex, fully operational B-29 bombers at the other extreme. But to test your hand-eye coordination, try piloting a radio-controlled helicopter, such as the 40-inch-long Kalt Enforcer pictured in this feature, through loops, rolls, drops and even inverted hovering.
In most cases, these radio-controlled cars, aircraft, boats and motorcycles come in kit form. However, some companies do offer custom assembly. And if you have neither the time nor the patience to build the kit yourself (or the bucks to pay someone else--such as the specialists at your neighborhood hobby shop--to do it), almost-ready-to-run/fly models that simply require radio installation are available, too. Gentlemen, start your little engines.
