Doverbashers Forum: Doverbashers Forum -> The smell of nitro.

My entry into the nitro scene was a rocky start, the reason it was rocky was due to a itchy trigger finger on the PC and not enough research into what was good and what was not so good.
I ended up with a not so good, that said though, it did get me into the hobby for very little money, had i spent what i have since spent and not enjoyed it, then i would have been more than a little dis-pleased.
Anyway, it was May 2007, i had sold some fishing gear on the "bay" for more coin than i was expecting to get, so while on the "bay" i went looking for a nitro 1/8th scale, not sure what i wanted to be honest, did what most i suspect do, looked at the savage/muggy etc, but they just looked a bit to weak to me, anyway, after some searching i saw a Rex-X RTR, in my defence it was a pro version, it had lots of nice shinny blue anodised parts on it, which looked good but as i found out was not that strong (More on that later), well, the order was placed and 4 days later i was the proud owner of my first 1/8th scale buggy and being a ready to run it came with everything i needed to get it going.
The Saturday arrived and it was time to start it for the first time, now i chickened out at this point and went round Sean's, as he has had all sorts of nitro's in the past and not wishing to wreck it before i even got a chance to try it, i packed the car with all the bits and bobs and headed for Sean's, now, anyone that knows Sean, will know he is a man of few words, what you need to do is watch the facial expression, and i can tell you, it was not good, but not wishing to hurt my feelings, he said it was ok, a little heavy.
Next up was the engine, we put fuel in it, and some down the plug hole, tried pulling it over (Force .25 pull start) it stopped at the top, it had so much mechanical pinch that it was ridiculous, Sean pulled the head off and pulled the engine apart faster than a F1 crew changes a tyre, checked it to see what the problem was, and yes it was mechanical pinch, so he kept trying, Finlay after over half an hour it breathed into life, he kept it running for a couple of tanks on the stand then a tank around his garden, this done i was off to the field down the bottom of the road from where i live, to put some more tanks through it.
Now i had driven boats before, which are nice and slow, the buggy on the other hand, was a totally different ball game, it was quick and unpredictable compared to boats, my biggest problem was the steering, i was ok with it going away from me, and to either side, but straight towards me was a different story, i was all over the place (some, if not all, will say nothing has changed) but i put the rest of the fuel i had with the car through it and it loosened up a treat.
Next up was trying to find some like minded people to race bash with, as being out on a field on your "Jack Jones" is no fun, so i hit the INTERNET to try and find a local club, this was when i came across the "DoverBashers" saw that they had a bash day in a couple of weeks in Canterbury so i thought i would check it out, the weekend in question arrived, i packed the car with my pride and joy, headed off to the bash day, i was met at the front gate by Gareth and Tommo, who pointed me in the direction of the gate to the track, the weather was not that great that day, but it didn't seem to bother the other guys so i made my way to the track, decided to watch at first and that was probably not the best thing to do as it made me nervous about running, up to this point, i had only thrashed around a field, the confines of a track, thats a different story.

How the day went for me will follow.