[Closed] Offroad RC Cars...

I've got a Rustler and Slash, and just picked up a 1/16 Ken Block replica too, all Traxxas. When I was looking it was at Wheelspin where a guy told me even though the shop was full of HPI advertising, all the staff chose Traxxas as they're more resilient. He explained why and it's mainly due to the type of plastic used. It's just less brittle. Stuff will break but there are millions of spares available. You can get your building fix by upgrading stuff too. I've got a Tamiya Lunchbox and had a Manta Ray as a kid, they're a lot more like a model than a fun a usable RC Car. Tamils just carries a lot of nostalgia for most of us as that was the main brand of our youth. The Rustler in VXL form on 3s is crazy fast and you need a bit of room to go fast as they don't slow down too quick. I prefer the Slash as the full body tends to protect it more, less chance of a wheel catching on a curb and breaking. You'll enjoy whichever though.

Just go balls out and pick up an HPI Baja in kit form. Massive, fast, uses a hedge trimmer engine so utterly reliable and runs straight unleaded fuel. None of the nitro down sides all of the nitro fun.

I agree, making the kit from parts it's half the fun of ownership. The Baja kit comes with upgraded components too.

I bought a traxxas bandit xl5 for my son for xmas( and then shortly after bought a maverick strava xb evo s for me :-))

The traxxas is really good, very tough,decent handling, well made, well thought through, well screwed together.

The maverick I bought is faster than the traxxas (being brushless with lipo battery), but not as well made, it breaks parts more often, and generally feels not as tough. I have had to upgrade several of the parts on the maverick because I broke them, whereas the traxxas just keeps on running. The traxxas is the better overall car IMO. So if you're going for the vxl traxxas (ie brushless and lipo) then it'll be great.

You can buy the kit RC cars still , just not from traxxas.

I have a Nitro Traxxas revo 3.3 that I converted to brushless.

No doubting that the nitro powerplant was immense. The noise was like a mini old school F1 car but equally as annoying and tempermental so the brushless conversion was done.

It's now even faster on 5S but more controlable.

Awesome toys but do need a bit of room and respect when going fast.

Those 2 stroke ones have the world's most annoying noise.
The electric ones are not so bad but still make me want to kill.

Traxxas have a really good rep for resilience, as has been mentioned above. It's just a case of pick your preferred style and price point really, and you're good. And go brushless if you can afford it, it's a MASSIVE improvement over the old brushed systems, to the point where they are far superior to nitro cars.

That was one of the ones I was looking at, ended up with HPI e-firestorm as that was the first thing I won on ebay of the few models I was bidding on. Fine for just mucking about with, LiPo battery lasts as long as my attention span and not had any issues so far.

I have a Thunder Tiger ST4, it's mental fun, but has limited appeal for me, yes it can do mad things with it, but take it to the local woods rather than a nice track & you'll probably break it 🙁
I also have a traxxas Ken Block that you can have a lot more fun with outside your front door, you can't control it though due to the SWB, but it's fun fun fun, until it breaks 😉

Twonks - Any idea on the cost and parts list please???

I've a revo 3,3, that I often toy with swapping the motor out for a brushless...

DrP

I'm currently enjoying a monster beetle and building a pumpkin. There's a lot of fun to be had with these old tamiya..

I recently bought a Tamiya Neo Fighter (just before Christmas) and it's pretty good fun albeit at the more budget end compared to some of the options being mentioned above.

It's seems like a good car, although I am planning on getting some stiffer springs for the back end & the turnbuckle kit to give it some steering geometry tweaks.
I wouldn't bother, but it's quite understeery as standard and the rear springs are way too soft - the back end squats to over 50% sag & doesn't come back up again on the dining table squidge test.

It comes with an ESC (that will take a brushless set-up) and the Tamiya Torque Tuned brushed motor - if I use it a lot over the summer I might upgrade to brushless, but in reality I'll probably just by a couple more battery packs.

Anyway - here's a pic. I was quite pleased how the paintwork came out given it was the first one I've ever done....
Tamiya have since released the Racing Fighter which is the same kit but comes with black wheels & a (IMO) better looking body.

[URL= http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m215/me96kka/DSCN8525_zpsu2hb6jtr.jp g" target="_blank">http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m215/me96kka/DSCN8525_zpsu2hb6jtr.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

DrP - Member

Twonks - Any idea on the cost and parts list please???

I've a revo 3,3, that I often toy with swapping the motor out for a brushless...

Sorry I missed this.

It was a while since I did it and I got parts from all over.

Here is my thread on the msuk forum with amazingly terrible driving and a bit of abuse. Throttle was about 50% during the bursts and needs a lot more space.

Other than what is shown in the below thread, it is fitted with racing wheels and a anti roll bar kit from a racing company in the states who's name I forget, and the transmission is the std revo but locked in second.

http://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/forums/topic/125729-revo-33-converted-to-brushless-first-outside-run/

TBH it hasn't run since then. Just don't seem to get the tme or desire to take it out - probably because it's scary 😆

Sorry this is all a bit vague tastic but hope it helps a bit.

It's kept about 5 foot from where I'm sitting and will take much better pics if needed. Drop me a line to the email in my profile if you fancy a chat about it so as not to derail this thread.

Cheers.

So I bought the Traxxas Rustler. It's here and looking good. It comes with their 7 cell nimh battery. I have a nice 2s lipo coming for it. Will try that for a while before thinking about the 3s lipo which supposedly makes it crazy fast and hard to control.

Also got a wheelie bar and tried to order rpm wide front bumper but first two places I ordered from, both of which said "in stock" actualy didn't have them in.

Now thinking about body post mounts. It came with white washers to put on top? of the post mounts although some use them underneath, or both. Seems damage to the body often occurs around these mounts.
May go for the rpm snap tite body savers if I can find them.
Anyone using these or something else?

Waiting for more daylight/dryness to take my 1/10th out for some bmx track action, race it indoors atm. Wallride last time out was fun/carnage...

anyone dabbled with drift RC?

Not drifting as such but I have raced my 1/10th Touring Car in a wooden surfaced sports hall with narrow mini pin tyres, this was essentially drift racing just at a higher speed 🙂

Quite a few dedicated drift cars out there

Some interesting advice here.

I've got 14 cars at the min but riding has took over. If you're having a baja, go brushless. Mines around 7HP

slimjim78 - Member
anyone dabbled with drift RC?

I work with a chap that was the UK champ a few years back, he has moved on to full sized drift cars now but we were talking about it the other day, it seems its all about RWD now, we tried this a while back & traction verses momentum was a real struggle as much as we tried.

What are Axials like? I like the look of the wraith.

Axials are good dependable cars, I have a wraith and some SCX10s at the moment ... The wraith is good fun and will go almost anywhere with the right setup.