For_The_Win

The only reason i would get it is. Because i dont want to get saddle packs just for a b44

DARKWAV

Hmmm, I guess those electric buggies don't impress me based on what I see in the product literature. I would be expecting a level of quality at least on-par with the Firestorm. With all the new stuff coming out from Traxxas, Associated, and Losi this past year, this is what we get from HPI?! Really dissapointing.

I can only hope there's more going on behind the scenes…maybe HPI has some kind of brushless 1/10 E-Savvy and brushless 1/8 product releases pending availability of reliable high-power ESCs for full production. Maybe delays associated with that sort of thing has forced them to slap together these rather mundane electric buggies so they would have something to offer at the end of Summer. Maybe these things were not slapped together but developed some time ago, cancelled, and now just recently resurrected. I just think these things will not help the reputation of the brand.

If they're gonna release a 1/10 4WD buggy it should be a basherized version of the HB Cyclone D4.

For that 1/18 buggy, they should have at least given it turnbuckles.

At least the Trophy 3.5 1/8 Nitro buggy looks respectable.

wookie_racer

My Feedback: (8)

as previously stated HB does have a beater version of the D4 coming out sometime. witch is why i dont undestand why hpi relesed this...i would pick the D4(s?) instead of this.

CustomTamiyas4Life

My Feedback: (34)

Wow, what a step down from the firestorm. Looks very cheaply made.

pesty351

Anyone have one of these yet?

FairTax4me

Was wondering the same thing myself. I got an email from Tower a few days ago advertising this for $170 with charger and battery. Looks like it might be fun to zip around the neighborhood with. I don't think Id try to race a $170 buggy though unless it was a used B44 off Ebay or something.

ElectricGuy007

Looks very similar to a tamiya DF-02. Could be good or bad.[:-] And this is coming from a previous DF-02 and DF-03 owner.

Budget Monty

I just ordered one of these because I have wanted a 4WD buggy for some time now, but am not in the level of RC that warrants spending the type of money that a decent 4WD buggy usually requires these days. Sure it comes with a bunch of fixxed links and some bushings to keep the price low, but that does not meen it is bad quality, it is just more basic. And these are things that can easily be upgraded. I have had many different HPI cars in the past, and havent owned a bad quality one yet. It seems like there are too many negative comments from "Racer Types" that arent seeing the things they like in a racing 4WD buggy. I am just glad that they have filled a niche that has yet to be filled from my standpoint (Affordable, Quality brand. 4WD. 1/10 Buggy), and I ordered one the day after I found out that they became available. What else even comes close to this in the 1/10 4WD RTR buggy market for it's $170 retail? $200 retail? $250 Retail? People seem really quick to bash on this forum.

DARKWAV

Take some good pics for us and let us know how it works out for you. Good point that we really don't have much in the way of affordable 4WD basher buggies out there. Maybe it is a lot nicer setup than many of us are giving it credit for.

redfisher1974

They did a reveiw of it in the new RC Driver.....They liked it but it tops out at 13 mph with the stock battery.

DARKWAV

My HPI E-Firestorm wihen it had the stock brushed motor was pretty slow. Not horrible slow for general street use but really it seemed as though it could only just barely jump. Maybe HPI sacrifices some speed in favor of reliability. Unless you are running higher voltages, you'll get bored of the motor before you manage to burn it up.

Budget Monty

Well, I got the car last night, and had to use the overnight charger because I basically sold all of my RC stuuf recently. I got to drive it today. For $170, it has it's ups and downs, but overall, I am very pleased!

Pro's

-Very Durable Apperance (Time will tell). A-arms and various other parts look very beefy

-Motor comes out in 30 seconds

-Overall quality seems tyoical of HPI

-Seems to handle really well

Con's

-Unbelievable slow (Stock 35T motor, Really HPI?). Why they chose not to include at least a 27 turn motor I will never know. Don't bother buying one unless you plan on buying a new motor and speed control at the same time, it is simply not even fun as a basher at these speeds. I planned on upgrading to brushless from the get-go, so not a huge concern of mine.

-The thing is fully fitted with ball bearings except for the hubs out at the wheels (Will require 8 5x11x4 [DTXC1547 at Tower Hobbies at $2.99/Pr. = $11.96 Total] bearings to fully outfit the car). The complaint here is that they fitted the white plastic tamiya style bushings here. These particular ones are so non-precisely sized that the wheels just flop around due to slop. I recommend buying them at the same time as the car.

-The geared differentials are very free spinning often putting the car in a stuck position leaving 1 front, and 1 rear tire just spinning. I remedied this by JB welding the rear diff. This helped immensely! If I already had the brushless set-up, I would probably have done the front as well. But with the current lack of power, I don't want to have it hamper steering too much right now.

-Lack of adjustable tie-rods (It was $170 RTR, I guess they had to save $$ somehow, and it's an easy upgrade)

-The ad I had from Tower Hobbies claims that it comes with a 2000Mah NiCd Pack, Mine came with a 1500Mah NiCd pack. No biggie, as neither are anything to brag about.

-They should have mounted the receiver over the steering servo. the area that they mounted it is too high, and it pushes up on the left hand side of the body so it sits funny, no biggie, a new piece of servo tape and it's fixed.

Here are a few pics (I threw in this 20T motor I had, but it was a dud, probably not the best idea anyway as the stock speed control is only meant to handle down to 21 turns)

















My suggestions:

Buy 8 5x11 bearings, and a new motor/speed controller at the time of purchase. JB weld at least the rear diff.

I just now need to research brushless motors as I am new to them. I am looking at the Associated Brushless ESC Motor combos, but have no idea what equals what. I am looking for something close to the speed of a 12T brushed motor, what should I get?

I was looking at the 9.5T Combo listed here: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXTRX9&P=SM



What would that equate to brushed wise?

redfisher1974

I agree my Firestorm was slow stock....The Havoc fixed that

86waterpumper

Haha I couldn't believe these had 35 turn motors either when I read the specs. I know how slow my wheely king was with a 27t saturn motor...so I can't even imagine. With it I made a crawler so the speed wasn't any issue but it was definately slow. I guess that's my question on why people like these rtr so much. I mean if the first step you do is to immediately trash the motor, esc, and battery etc then what is the point in even getting rtr and not just buying a nicer buggy kit like a df03, or durga or something? If you go to a better battery then the included charger with that crappy 1500 isn't going to be good enough either etc. I guess the only benefit was if you didn't have a tx/rx then obviously that saves some money. Anyway it's a hpi so I'm sure it will stand up to a fair amount of abuse, let us know how it holds up once you stick a hot motor in it

pesty351

Well I bought one too. Drove it down the driveway and back and thats all I could take of the stock motor. Threw in a speed gems 11t and this thing came alive. Going to the track this weekend I'll let you all know how it did.

redfisher1974

you must have changed the esc to?

pesty351

Yea I used a tekin.

redfisher1974

must have been alot faster with that over the 35t....

MadManAndrew

it looks kinda "toyish" to me, but most buggies look like that...

FairTax4me

The A-arms look pretty hefty. If they had a kit version with no electronics that would be sweet.

Budget Monty

Well I swapped out the 35T motor for a 9T and Super Rooster (Wouldn't have chosen to go quite that low on turn count, but I got it cheap from my brother). It goes pretty good now! If you take out that radio tray (Only held in by the 2 servo mounting screws from the bottom of the chassis) and replace it with 2 basic servo mounting posts, a whole bunch of room is freed up to mount a large ESC (Those of you who have owned a Super Rooster know how big that thing is!). I just mounted the reciever on top of the servo, the included reciever is super tiny. The thing is a bit too fast with that motor, and run time was pretty bad, so I was going to swap out the pinion from the stock 24 to a 20 (The car has pre-set holes on the motor mounting plate top run a 20, 24, 28, or 32T pinion. After borrowing a 20T 48P pinion from a friend, I found out that the pitch was not the same. After a little research, I found out that the car uses an oddball ".6 pitch" that none of my local hobby stores carry. Thanks HPI![:@]. Overall, I am very happy with the car. JB welding the rear diff made it a ton more fun and solved the wobble of the outdrives (I put JB on the shaft where it goes into the diff before I slid them back in. HPI makes a spood for the differential for the E10 drift cars, and I assume it is a drop in for this since it is based on the E10 car, so I am gonna drop 2 of those in. That will also eliminate the plastic diff outdrives, as the unit is all one piece, you just bolt your diff gear to it.

Here is the spool:



Here are a few pics of the car: (Note the Zip tie on the battery side holding the pack to the side, it starts to slide and rubs the driveshaft without it, the car does not like to hold this style pack in place, it likes stick packs, or non-heat-shrinked packs with the same cell configuration as the heat shrinked pack I have pictured with the battery stay flipped.)

Budget Monty

Update, and not a good one!: There apparently is no available bearing to fit the wheel hubs (The only area on that car that does not come with bearings). Tower lists that a 5x11x4 bearing fits, but it does not. It fits in the hub fine, but does not fit the axle. The axle is about .5mm too big to fit. I have tried 2 different brands of bearings so far in that size. HPI told me directly that there are no known bearings that fit. I will update if I find a solution.

sheograth

Releasing buggies like that damages HPIs image

reanimate8000

I love hpi..... the savage is legend and the firestorm 10t is great among with a host of other cars and trucks they make....but this brama thing... well
I dont think it will be around for very long seems like a lame duck

Budget Monty

Agreed. I think the intention was for the 11x5 bearings to fit, but the tolerances in manufacturing made this a no go. I ended up puting the axles in an electric drill, and spinning them while holding a strip of emery cloth around the axle. About 15 seconds on each made the bearings slide on. I am pretty happy with the car now other than speed. I want to add a brushless set-up now, but can't find a decent write up on brushless systems as this would be a first for me. I am looking at the 9.5 associated/lrp system, but not sure what that would equate to in a brushed system speed-wise. I am hoping to find a system for under $200 that is similar or better than a 15 turn brushed motor. The car has it's quirks, but at it's price, it really is a fair value and I am not upset I bought it.