Your favorite ESC (with photo)

[Tang]

My personal favorite from 1995 is the Novak Hammer. It never won any world championships, so it won't have the popularity of the 410's or the Cyclone, but it was awesome. I'm hoping to snag one for an upcoming build, so if anyone has one they'd be willing to part with, please let me know.

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[fleetwood472]

Mine was the tempest. I always liked the looks of the hyperfet II model better than the hyperfett III because it had the dial attached. Not sure why Novak removed it for the Hyperfet III model.

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[mamadoesntletme]

I love LRP and Novak

[sandkil]

I´ll have to say Tekin 410K.
It was that highly sought after ESC that you never could afford and so different from all others.

[LTO_Dave]

It's a tie between the Novak 410-HPc and Tekin 410K. The M.troniks Monster FET isn't far behind.

[TokyoProf]

This is a special ESC recently obtained for my 1997 Yokomo MX-4 World Champ buggy. The Tekin M Star Gold is my favorite for 2023. The gold heat sinks should look sharp installed.
I believe both the gold and red label Tekins were the winning ESC's at the 97 worlds.

[TRX-1-3]

Woah! That thing looks trick! Sweet.

[V12]

So the Tekin M Star Gold is a special version made for Yokomo. But basically it is a G12?
Of course it looks special and nice.

[Mwildmann]

Here is a couple of my favorites. Novak 410m1c and Novak racer EX.

Novak Racer FTW! Good call! Loved that ESC, had one in my Kyosho Ultima II that I really wish I still had.

[ArnDenaan]

This was one of my favorites, hardly any information out there about them.

I could be wrong but from memory it was the smallest ESC of the time and pre-dates the Novak Atom.

My favourite and first proper ESC (which I raced with all through the 90's)
The M-Tronks Pro-Digi. Ground breaking at the time as the smallest and lightest no motor limit digital brushed Pro ESC.
Here's mine.. it's literally done 100's of hard races.. had untold abuse..never let me down.. absolutely battered, never missed a beat. And still works like a charm today.

[XXWoodmanXX]

If I had to choose, I would say my fav is the 410K. Just so unique. A close 2nd would be the G-11 PRO.

And that’s coming from a diehard Novak fan!

[TokyoProf]

For Futaba users in the 90s, the FETMC116 "Speed Control for Experts" looked the most race-worthy. Simple basic design.

[TokyoProf]

I have got to add the CX-1 from KO Propo inside the 1987 winning 4WD Schumacher Cat buggy driven by Masami. Very modern and sleek design even by today's standards.

[azone]

Novak 1, of course. In 1986 I bought an RC10 w/ XL2P from Sheldon's Hobbies out of RCCA magazine. One of the best days of my life, I couldn't believe my parents let me get it with my money. After getting it I then wanted the Novak 1. Then I could drill holes in the chassis, get a good motor, and go racing, right!? Somehow in 1987 I got the Novak 1. I used to stare at RCCA and the tower hobbies ads and I remember the Novak 4 was $70-$80 and the Novak 1 was $120, that was a lot of money. It lasted me a few years. Finally in early 1990 I had my drivers license and could take my friends to R/C Performance Center in Hanson, MA to race! Well, I burned out the Novak during practice, and to this day I have never club raced an rc car. I'm sure many of you can relate. Soon after I traded my RC10L w/ the Novak 1 & Twister 11-turn single with my uncle for a guitar amplifier, before going to college soon after. Fast forward a few years and my mom got it back for me, she knew I would want it when I got older, but even just a few years later in 1994 she got it back. In July of 1995 (home for summer break) I decided to send the Novak 1 to Novak for repair. Eight years after I bought it! Well, they wouldn't fix it any longer but they replaced it with a remanufactured 410-MXc so great on them - they didn't have to do anything. It's kind of neat to see all the paperwork. I'm not sure if they sent back the whole Novak 1 or just the shell that is shown here - I haven't found the rest yet. My note in the repair form below is funny it's says I tried to remove the bad mosfet but botched it up, probably still using a Radio Shack freaking solder gun , you know the one even basic weller soldering stations were too much money at the time.

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The other one I'm intrigued by is the Robart HQ-505. You guys remember those ads from those companies that you never saw anyone using... Victor ECS's, Dialed Racing Products ECS's, Aristocraft motors, Robart ECS's.

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RCCA happened to do one of those scoping out reviews of the Robart. It was fairly capable and cheap. In early 1990 when the Novak fried I was so close to buying this strange thing. I have this piece of paper with my writing from 1990 with the model number and catalog #. See that phone number? I looked it up and it's... you guessed it....tower hobbies. It's still their number! I went so far as to draw that scale picture of it to see how it might fit into the RC10L. I'd still like to buy one just because.

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[dinglem]

I’ve got a couple of those Victor Engineering esc’s. Both are the top spec 4 version. They are surprisingly small and a high specification considering how early they were.