arless

When my new Forzaarrived at my door stepTuesday 06/19/2012 I got really excited reading and l@@king the car over, First thing I did was adjust the throttle and brake linkage slightly. After that, Iopened the exhaust pipe took out the baffle. I previously ordered a header from HPI, I was relieved to see Phillip screwswith the new header. Anyway, Addfew drops of Synthetic Mobil 1. Filled the tank with Blue Thunder break in fuel, started it up, The motor is really loud with the gutted exhaust and tuned header. I was reving the motor a little to get some heat in the head as soon as possible. While it ran, I lowered the idle some, and richened the air fuel mix on the idle and fast screw. Their is no back pressure to speak of,I ran only one tank of fuel. It was getting dark outside, All in all I'm very pleased with my new buggy. Today is my birthday, I'm 58 years old, my dad is on his way to bring me a b -day card, and some $$$. I'll try save some money for a new .28 5 port SH engine for my new 10Th scale buggy. The power to weight ratio is already idea at 3.9 lbs 1750 grams with a little over 1 hp. Hopefully I can run a couple more tanks of break in fuel today, take it off the stand and start driving, and so forth. I'll keep you Exceed Forza guys posted after I drive the buggy a little. Thanks for reading this post

JohnP2

Just be careful. It is not the most durable car in the world. I have one and really enjoy it for on-road running, but 100% of the time I've taken if off-road something has broken on it. It's a fun little car (and I love the two-speed), but I would not recommend bashing it too much.

Let us know how you are liking it. Thanks!

arless

Went overthe school parking lot. I sort of putted around, every now and then reving the engine to clearit out.I will have to get use to driving it. This is the third tank fuel so far, I will only run on asphalt, bashing is not my thing. I love to pretend I am racing on a short trackTempting to go all out,I have to resist till I get some seat time. I oiled the engine and drained the left over fuel, leaned the idle and high speed needles a twelfth of a turn. Hopefully when I getit sorted out, I will have the engine broke in, start running a little faster. It's deceivingly fast, The header and gutted exhaust I'm sure helped . I will let you know tomorrow how things turn out thanks for letting me know how easy it is to break! luckilyExceed has parts at a cheap price! Thanks! keep you posted!

arless

Ok..... Now have 5 tanks of fuel through the engine. I think it still needs some more break in time. I defanately need some seat time behind the wheel. This little buggy hauls the mail for sure, I haven't opened it up on top end yet? has anyone run a radar gun to see how fast it will run? I'm gonna need an even bigger parking lot in order to get full top end out of the Buggy. The thing seems to run as good as some moded out cars, the school parking lot is about the length of a football field. It's down their and back lickity split. I had my throttle trim set to low and I ran the car up and just barely had enough break left to stop the buggy, had it up on two wheels turning it around, either that or run it into the forest trees.

arless

I now have eight tanks of blue thunder break in fuel ran through my Forza .18 engine, it's pretty much broke in now and wants to lift the front tires a little when it shifts to second gear, " Thatsif it don't spin the tires first". That is a slight problem with the modified engine, I think for the owner of nitro vehicles... purchasing a tuned header and ridding the baffle from the muffler is by far the best mod for a stock engine you can do. And at a cheap price. Less than $20.00 dollars from "HPI RC" the evo .3 header will fit the vx.18cxp exceed (side exhaust engine) perfectly. It's painted black, and it's polished aluminum for no back pressure air drag. As mentioned already it's as loud as a chain saw, it will out run my friends stock Exceed Forza hands down. Their really is no comparison, it will leave his buggy in the dust, and be already turned around and half way back to me before he can get turned around. We've checked his throttle for opening, and air filter, every thing to compare apples to apples. My friend now has ordered a new header from HPI racing, seems every time I runmy modedbuggy it gets faster than before. Lovin it so far.

JohnP2

My Exceed Forza will smoke yours, sir.

I'm kidding. Wait....no I'm not. :-)

In all seriousness as one of the few posters on this forum that own an Exceed Forza.....if you ever need help with it, just let me know. I've taken mine 100% apart so many times it is not funny (check out my YouTube channel below)

My inclination tells me you will eventually get bored of driving it on-roadand think to yourself "I wonder how this car will handle itself in grass....or I bet I can jump off this curb with no trouble". DON'TDOIT. The car will fall apart. Trust me. Keep it on-road.

With that.....man to man. Nitro RC fan to NitroRC fan, I ask that you please, Please, PLEASE look intotrying a mainstreamhobby grade RC buggy to see the incredible difference there is.

Hey-I love my Forza. It is what got me in to this hobby. However, I also own anOFNAHyper 7 and a Losi 810....the quality of those two compared to the Forza is mind-blowing!

Most everyone on here as tried to tell you this, and now I am telling you this....and I am one of the few who actually owns both. So....enjoy the hell out of your Forza! The more people into this hobby the better. Just please do yourself a favor and if you decide to continue with this hobby you obviously love....try an upgrade. You will be SHOCKED at the difference. Either that....or you are right and everyone else is wrong. ;-)

Thanks!

arless

I think your point is well said, as I go along I will upgrade, may also get a car for strictly asphalt racing. I have crashed my Forza twice now, and I have yet to break anything. Knock on wood, First crash I bent the frame in the front next to the bumper, easy enough fix. The second crash I ran over a curb and flipped it over up side down, bent the top cooling fin on the motor, and one aluminum shock tower in the front. The Forza rips with the header and gutted muffler, it out runs my neighbors 1/8Th scale traxxas hands down. I ordered up some blue thunder race fuel, with 20% nitro, this race fuel has extra Castro oil and synthetic oil, about 10% more than standard fuel.It is formulated so you can lean the motor out for all the power itcan make, and still have enough lube to keep the engine alive. I leaned the idle and full throttle in about a 12Th of a turn. Their still white smoke coming out on both the idle and the high speed settings, this made a big improvement over the break in fuel. The Forza rips, probably could go leaner than it is, but why risk a engine melt down. I am saving my money to get a .28 or .30 size engine, I seen a video of" the fastest 10Th scale yet" the buggy is a atomic warhead, the buggy will do wheelies, it has a 5 port japan engine? can't remember the name. He upgraded the steering servo, and added adjustable shocks, new motor mounts, throttle linkage. New clutch. You talking about a buggy that rips!!!!! you know what I'm saying! anyway that's the plain. Thanks for your help I will take your good advise and upgrade as I go along.

arless

Just one more thing! what year Exceed Forza do you have? I have the latest version, with the up graded chassis and up graded engine. The new nitro engine puts out 2.1 BHP at 32,000 rpm and practical rpm is 4000 to 40,000. point being if you have the old style Forza the one with no slipper clutch and that low compression dog of a engine. Then no wonder you say take it easy it will fall apart! We did check the speed and time it took to get to speed. It covered 100 yards in a little over 4 seconds and topped out at 62 mph with a head wind, we had to cut it short because of thunder storms moving in. I will post more when we do more testing and tuning on a cool morning or late evening run.

JohnP2

I have the latest/greatest version (unless they have released one in the past six months) ;-) You can check out my YouTube channel to see.

I'm glad you are enjoying this wonderful hobby. You seem very intent on making the most out of what you have, which I fully respect!Keep it up.

As noted, once you are ready for something "off-road", check out a buggy such as the OFNAHyper 7. It is like night and day compared to the Forza, I assure you.

p.s. I replied to your PM, but it seems your settings disallow PMs.

Thanks!

arless

No you have the latest version Forza, which is leaps and bounds better than the old models, no clutch, plastic axles and a low compression dog for a motor. What I'm getting at is with steel gears and axles and drive shafts "no more plastic" should hold up to a .28 engine. The atomic warhead 10Th scale buggy is roughly like our Forza buggy's, don't you think? Me being disabled, and living on a fixed income... You get the picture, hard for me two have what I have, I have a cheap radio controlled helicopter, and a control line Sig nitro stunt airplane with a .15 nitro engine with a 8x4 prop. I built it from a kit with balsa wood and etc. A Traxxas truck that was rescued from a neighbor who has more money than the law allows. he was running his Traxxas and hit a curb wrong and the tire come UN glued from the rim, "he flipped out" and was going to set it on fire and run it till it burned up. So I ask him for the truck, he said I could have it, but he wanted it out of his sight. Said no problem dude, so the rest is history. The Traxxas is not all that much better than my Forza. But hea I own it now. Thanks for your info. I use to live in Texas Dallas Houston and Austin TX. from 1986 to 1995 then moved to California and came back to my home town Alabama in 2006. I loved Austin the whole city smelled like BBQ people selling it on the side road Mexicans selling hot corn and etc. Thanks again John!

arless

Well all is well with my Forza, I have hit a light pole and bent the front frame, and flipped it over several times running over a man hole. That knocked both shocks off the top holders. I hit a tall curb running very fast and bent the engine cooling fins. "I still have not broken any parts" All the wrecks the buggy has had, nothing has broke on my Exceed Forza, The bent frame and engine fins, have all been repaired with a small hammer and screw driver. The steering front end hit so hard where the tires are that the steering servo failed to operate. But with a radio reverse setting brought it back around and it works perfect again. I do have a good race buggy, it is as good as anything out their. The abuse that the Forza has had would have put most buggy's in the scrap yard. I've run almost a gallon of blue thunder race blend fuel through the engine. With a radar detector we ran the buggy on asphalt with a head wind, marked off 100 yards. And from a dead stop to the other end it ran100 yds in a little over 5 seconds @ 62 mph. When the buggy shift to second gear it lifted the front tires, not by much, but indeed it did. The only problem I have now is getting traction, the least amount of fine gravel or dust will smoke the tires. I have on order a new SH .28 cc nitro engine and clutch for the Exceed buggy. Along with adjustable motor mounts. A 9.9 steering servo, and a new linkage for the new .28 engine. Adjustable shocks. And a dual roto start back plate's and hardware, the kit came with both the small and big block back plates. A new starter wand for my cordless drill. Since I already had the drill. Anyway the kit should be hear in a couple days, I also ordered a cold glow plug for the.28 engine. I spent more than the buggy cost new! but it's a fun hobby, school will start on the 20Th of next month, and I will not have the huge parking lot to race my buggy, that's till after 2:30pm. The it will be mine to race till dark approaches. Anyway all you Exceed runners tell me what you think of my project. All the best Arless

nitrosportsandrunner

there are a few redcat tornado s30 owners (same as the exceed buggy basically, just different brand motor and electronic gear) who have dropped in a traxxas 3.3 motor.

Usually they swap out the 2 speed tranny for the single speed from the shockwave. While the 2 speed has obvious gearing advantage, its more moving parts and more prone to stripping than the single speed.

And, since you are upping the motor power, the lower 1st gear isnt needed anyway.

Parts to keep on hand: wheel hubs, "C" hubs, dogbones and spur gears. Those are the most likely to break. I own the tornado epx pro. Its a brushless version of the same buggy. The diffs, suspension parts ect are the same on the nitro and electric versions.

I upgraded my shock towers to the billet alloy ones.


OH, add a tiny piece of fuel tubbing inside the drive cups. This will limit the play the dogbones have. They need alittle play to move with the suspension, but generally out of the box they have to much play and this causes excessive wear.



My brushless version goes 35 with my 2s lipo. Ill be upgrading to a 3s soon, so 45-55mph will be a breeze

NETTWIN

I just bought an Exeed forza .18 buggy myself to get into rc racing and ran across you upgrade. is this the header you bought? http://www.hpiracing.com/products/en/86037/

arless

Sorry it has taken so long to respond to your header question, yes the pictured header at hsp is the one I bought. However I found a better muffler and header, also a air filter kit as well, all from the upgrade section in your parts manual. Go to redcat racing parts, click eBay and you can get the same kit that Exceed sells in there upgrade kits. I have not tested the new chrome muffler or the longer header kit, nor the air filter yet. It's been to cold to run nitro engines lately. However the stinger on the new muffler is smaller than the stock muffler and more restrictive. But they claim "nitro engine modifiers" that the smaller more restrictive muffler will give better low mid and top end performance?!?! I will keep you posted once it warms up a little. I do hope you are still enjoying your Forza, can't wait to run my new combo. All the best Arless