This Miniature Nitro Ducati Sounds Like a Monster!

In the past few years, advances in electric motors and battery technologies have allowed a pretty drastic change in the landscape of radio control cars, trucks and motorcycles, with a great number of enthusiasts going to electric instead of gasoline-burning engines. However, that doesn’t make the diminutive nitro-burning RC vehicle any less badass than they’ve always been, as you will see in the video below.

This scaled down Ducati is still relying on nitro to do its thing, and it sounds like it’s ready to rip the tire clean off the wheel each time the tiny engine revs. These engines run on a mixture of gasoline and nitromethane, the exact same fuel used in top fuel dragsters and funny cars, only in a much lower concentration. Most RC fuel mixtures are 15-25% nitro, which is still more than potent enough for these little rockets to reach some insane speeds.

My nitro cars and monster trucks were always a little finicky to keep running, while the electric versions are pretty much plug-and-play, which is a reason many hobbyists have made the switch, especially now that electric motors can match the nitro engines for power output.

I’ve never personally had an RC motorcycle, but I’ve watched them race a few times and they’re pretty dang cool to watch. I don’t know if a motorcycle would work in electric form because, at least to my admittedly limited understanding of the physics involved, the rotation of the engine itself works like a gyro to keep the bike upright. An electric motor stops rotating when you let off of throttle, so the bike would become unstable, though at speed, the wheels themselves would have a stabilizing effect that may work well enough to keep the bike from tipping over. Regardless, this thing looks and sounds like a badass little machine that we’d love to see in action!