The topic of getting plastic parts or aluminum upgrades for RC cars is a hot debate among RC drivers. For us, we think it is good to point out some facts about it and the reasons to get aluminum, graphite, carbon fiber, or plastics for your RC cars. We know what our customers want for their RCs, either you are searching for an upgrade to increase the cars performance, trying to lower the weight of your car, trying to make your car indestructible, or want your RC car to look more realistic for show, we know what you want and this is why we want to let you know why you should get aluminum parts, but not plastic ones.

First of all, in terms of the strength of the two materials, aluminum is stronger than plastic. Both can be fused with other compounds and form a stronger material, but overall, Aluminum still has more strength on it. There are also different grades of aluminum, and for AsiaTees, we sell top grade 6061 – 7075 aluminum alloy parts, which are also being used in marine, automotive, and aviation. How does the strength of the aluminum be related to your RC? Either you are drifting, bashing, crawling or doing anything with your RC car, the more your drive it, the more it will wear off. Depending on your driving skill, even the most professional driver would accidentally crash or smash the car. Aluminum parts can extend the durability of your RC car at least 4 times more than plastic. The strength of the part matters, some parts like the bulkhead, the chassis brace, and the servo mount are high stress area for all the RC cars no matter what driving style you have. It will increase the stiffness to hold everything in the car in place.

Getting aluminum on those parts is already a standard for a lot of professional experienced drivers. They would go for aluminum upgrades right away to increase the stiffness and the durability of the whole car, but more importantly, getting aluminum upgrades have more accurate turning and performance. Minor damages such as cracks on the arms, or other parts of the body could possibly lose the race of a competition, but it can also be preventable by upgrading with aluminum. Plastics are more elastic. But one also need to consider other factors when they use plastic parts for it’s elasticity, for example, as a professional driver, you would want consistency to keep yourself/your car in the best shape. Racers want better repeatability to perform well and better everytime. The stiffness of the aluminum can make it more stable than plastics. It is also important to note that aluminum parts are 20 times more rigid than plastic. It would increase the handling if you have a car that can perform at it’s fullness everytime you drives it. Experienced RC driver usually look for the strength to weight ratio between aluminum and plastic or other materials. The strength to weight ratio is higher for aluminum, which means you will gain a lot more extra stiffness and durability to bring the most out of your car.

Most importantly, upgrade parts to aluminum gives you more diversity in terms of tuning your car. You can use alloy to tune performance in different situations. For example, when you are driving on a bumpy road, upgraded aluminum shocks will allow your car to travel more efficient because of the harder springs that were used. You may also tune your car to get more precise steering control. The upgraded aluminum shock towers with different tuning holes to adjust your preference for your car to have a better angle when turning. These adjustment and tuning can not be made with the plastic stock parts. If you want to improve, you would need to tune your car with upgraded aluminum parts to get that diversity.

Either you prefer going for aluminum, plastic, graphite or carbon fiber. Different materials have different tuning for every car. You would need to test your car and your style by getting different types of material upgrades for your car to see which material you like the best. Overall, the price for getting aluminum is not necessary more expensive than getting plastic stock parts replacement. It would worth a try if you have not tried to tune your car by upgrading it from plastic to other materials. One of the other biggest reason that most drivers also like, regardless of their experience and skill, is to have your RC look great with the bling bling factor. Like dressing for barbies, we want our cars to look awesome and handsome.

After all, every materials have different tunings for your RC car. Different cars also have different strength. We believe that upgrading aluminum on a certain parts is better than going for plastics. This is how we race and this is how we love to tune our cars. Asiatees also have nice warranty, and we think that there are more benefits for aluminum parts than the downside of sticking with the plastic stock ones.