Interfacing two independent circuits for a RC car hack project

Thank you for your reply. What you suggest is exactly what I thought to do first but then I wasn't sure if connecting two different power sources to a common ground would damage the Arduino or the RC car circuits. I'll give your suggestion a try. I'm using 3.3v Arduino Pro Minis so I guess it will be safe to go directly into the RC circuit from the Arduino output.

Hector