"For $350, you can be racing and can be competitive to a professional level," says president Charl Croeser.
The $350 cars are rally class cars that are super-tough, and ideal for someone just getting the hang of racing.
"From there, it depends on how much money you want to spend to run more classes."
Apart from the obvious one, the main differences between indoor and outdoor radio control racing are the fuel -- outdoor cars use nitro or petrol, indoor cars are battery powered -- and the size of the cars. Indoor cars are between 1:10 and 1:16 scale whereas the outdoor cars are 1:8 or 1:5 scale.
There are also more classes to choose from in indoor racing, with a range of different on- and off-road classes.
For each meeting a track is laid out with jumps added for the off-road classes.
Rally cars and minis can be raced straight out of the box, but other cars can -- and are -- modified.
"They can be as technical as a real race car so you can do everything you can do to a normal race car," says Charl.
It is even possible to incorporate telemetry systems.
Steve Thacker is the new club's secretary.
"I started in October or November and I wasn't that flash to be honest, but it's amazing how quickly you can pick it up," he says.
His biggest difficulty -- and one many people have -- is working out which direction to turn the controller when the car is coming towards you.
Charl used to race radio control cars outdoors in South Africa "10 or 12 years ago".
"I went along to one meeting in Hamilton, and I was hooked on electric (racing)," he says.
Already between 50 and 60 entries have been received for the March 21 meeting. Racing is expected to get under way around 1.30pm. There will be cars available for people to try, cars for sale and advice from members.
"We will do whatever we can to encourage people into the sport because the more there are, the better it is," says Steve.
