Duratrax has designed an 1/18 scale short course truck that is as much at home on the race track as it is in your drive way.

The Vendetta SC is great for racing. The thing that makes this truck special is the ability to fine tune the chassis to any race surface.

We will discuss what's hidden beneath the hood of the Vendetta SC as well as the many tuning options.

Name: Vendetta SC
Price: $219.99 (price may vary)
Length: 12.75"
Width: 6.6"
Wheelbase: Adjustable 7.25" - 7.5"
Motor: 380 VR3 brushed
Drive Train: Front and rear differentials
Batteries Used: 6 cell NiMH (sold seperately)
Radio equipment: Included two channel 2.4GHz Tactic radio, 2.4GHz Tactic TR-324 3-ch receiver, and standard size Tactic TSX200 steering servo.

• Four AA batteries for transmitter
• 6 cell 2/3A NiMH battery pack
• Charger
• Charge adapter plug

First glance

As I removed the Vendetta SC from its box, I noticed a few minor things. The body wasn't very interesting and the front fenders rubbed on the front tires. Both of these problems needed to be addressed.

After taking the photos I applied the extra decals that were included with the Vendetta SC. They were simple to apply. The sponsor groups were connected so you don't have to struggle to align them. After the decals were applied the body was literally transformed. It went from plain to "dang." It looks great! It's amazing what some stickers can do.

Now I need to address the body rubbing the front tires. The adjustable body posts are secured with clips. I raised the body posts by one hole and trimmed the front wheel wells. A little of the headlights had to be trimmed as well but it's not noticeable and still looks great. The two minor issues are solved.

The Vendetta SC has durable front and rear tube style bumpers. Attached to the rear bumper are two rubber mud flaps. The mud flaps don't increase performance but they sure do look cool.

The plastic frame was well thought out. The plastic used in the bumpers is flexible and the plastic used in the chassis and suspension is sturdy. Aluminum is used in some key areas that we will discuss later.

Duratrax offers the stress-tech guarantee on many of the plastic parts. They will send you a free replacement for any Stress-Tech part that breaks during the first year you own the vehicle. You will need proof of purchase and there are some limitations. Check out their web site for more details.

Weight distribution is great. After installing a six cell battery pack, I tried to balance the truck. The balance point from left to right was dead center. The balance point from front to rear was 1/16" behind center and can be adjusted by battery placement. That's great!

Dropping the Vendetta SC from 12" reminds me of a dead blow hammer. There is no recoil, the suspension soaks up all the impact.

I can tell the Duratrax Vendetta SC will be a decent track performer. Let's take a closer look inside the truck.

Wheels, tires and drive train

The wheels are plastic five spoke and have the appearance of beadlocks. Scale off road tires with directional tread patterns are glued to the rims.

Most vehicles being produced these days have loads of power and require metal drive trains. As you can imagine, I was a little disappointed to find plastic gears throughout the vehicle. The majority of the drive shafts are plastic as well. Although the center drive shaft is aluminum, the other four drive shafts are plastic with steel reinforced pins.

The longer I thought about this, the more I realized that in this application, weight was more important than brute strength. Testing the vehicle is the only way to know for sure, but I'm going to guess these plastic gears will be plenty strong for this motor/esc setup. Going brushless however is an entirely different story.

As we've already discussed, the spur gear is plastic and uses an aluminum center drive shaft to transfer the power to the front and rear differentials. The differentials consist of plastic bevelled pinion and drive gears. Beveling a gear's teeth creates a larger contact surface and a more solid mesh. This in turn makes a stronger gear unit.

Inside the differentials are four plastic bevelled spider gears and plastic left and right drive gears. The differentials are filled with grease. All drive components are supported with ball bearings.

Radio

I am delighted to see Duratrax using a 2.4GHz radio system with their Vendetta SC truck. 2.4GHz offers a clearer and more secure operating frequency. The 2.4GHz radio also means no more messing with matching crystals. Interfering with other racers vehicles by crossing frequencies is not something you will need to worry about. That means no more frequency clips stuck to your antenna. Yeehaa!

The Pistol grip Tactic 2-channel transmitter offers dual rate steering, steering and throttle trims, and servo reversing.

The Tactic 2.4GHz 3-channel receiver is mounted to the plastic battery hold down with double sided servo tape. The receiver does not have an exterior antenna, so threading antenna tubes is not necessary. The receiver comes bound to the transmitter and only requires the push of a button if rebinding is necessary.

The steering servo is a Tactic TSX200 standard sized servo and is held to the chassis with double sided servo tape. Although there is not a whole lot of strain on this servo, Duratrax still protects it with a horn style servo saver. The servo saver mounts directly to the servo's out drive gear just as a servo horn would. The servo saver uses a plastic c-shaped spring to protect the servo gears from any unwanted jarring.

Motor, ESC, and Batteries

The motor is mounted on the right side of the chassis just behind the chassis center line and the battery is centered from front to back on the chassis' right side. All electronics are spaced well which results in a well balanced vehicle.

The "get up and go" of the Vendetta SC comes from a Duratrax 380 sized VR3 brushed motor. An aluminum motor mount holds the VR3 in place and a metal pinion gear delivers power to the spur gear. The motor is fitted with a plug that makes it easy to disconnect it from the ESC. A plastic cover protects the pinion and spur gears from debris.

The DTX ESC7550 electronic speed controller is mounted to the plastic battery fastener with double sided servo tape. The DTX ESC controls forward, reverse, and braking power. The on/off switch is clipped to the rear of the ESC and can easily be moved to the side if you choose. There are seven cooling fins on the top of the ESC for efficient heat transfer.

The battery tray is on the left side of the chassis and is basically centered front to back. A plastic fastener slides into the front bracket and is secured to the rear with one clip. The truck comes with two different sized foam blocks. These are used to position the battery securely. The battery can be placed toward the front or rear of the battery tray. This will help tune the handling of the short course racing truck.

Suspension

The suspension is similar to many 1/8 scale buggies and truggies. It is highly tunable and consists of upper and lower A-arms in the front and lower H-arm with threaded upper links in the rear.

The front A-arm suspension uses adjustable ball links to secure the left and right steering blocks. The balls can be adjusted in and out (look in the tuning section below) and are held in place with metal threaded ball retainers. The benefit of threaded ball retainers is that you can tighten them as the steering blocks wear. This ensures the suspension remains tight.

The rear suspension contains traditional hub carriers. Both front and rear suspension contain trapped metal pins at the suspension inner pivot points. Check out the tuning section below for several suspension handling options.

The front and rear blue anodized aluminum shock towers support the plastic bodied oil filled shocks. The shock caps are aluminum and the ride height can be set using the plastic spacer clips. Check the tuning section below to see how the different mounting positions will effect the truck's handling.

The steering linkage had a little too much play so I tightened up the screws and removed the excess wobble.

The Manual offers many tips for tuning your Vendetta SC for the race track. The section below will highlight some of those tips however, the Vendetta SC is not limited to these few adjustments. Many others can be made and the manual covers them.

Performance & Handling

The Vendetta SC looks as if Duratrtax designed it with racing in mind, but to be honest, I wasn't expecting a whole lot in the speed department. After all, how fast can this little VR3 brushed motor be? Well, I was surprised to see how quickly the Vendetta SC scoots along. On the dirt track the tires lit up and propelled the 1/18 scale truck over jumps and around corners with authority.

The Vendetta turned very quickly. The supplied steering servo has plenty of torque for this little racer. As I was getting used to the truck it got a little squirrelly in some areas of the track, I could tell already I was going to have to make some adjustments to the tunable suspension.

I've already trimmed the body's front fenders and it still rubbed the tires occasionally but nothing to get worried about. The scale tires hooked up great and supplied plenty of traction.

The mud flaps looked cool but I think dirt was bouncing off them and getting in the chassis. It's not that big a deal but I was concerned about dirt getting in the empty receiver ports. I think I'll put some tape over them just in case.

The track at Chickasaw Trace was very loose, especially the jumps. The truck had some difficulty keeping momentum on the loose slopes, but it was still able to get some air.

Jumps were level over the packed slopes and nose heavy on the loose ones. I was able to keep the nose up by applying full throttle. This worked well for an hour or so and every jump was predictable. After an hour and a half of landing jumps with the throttle wide open, I finally broke the end of a rear diff cup. While packing up my stuff for the day, I was thinking of how well the truck handled on the rough track and I was satisfied with the video footage I was able to get.

While waiting for the parts to arrive, I made some necessary adjustments.

I knew the first thing I needed to do was lengthen the wheel base. That was accomplished by simply removing two clips and reinserting them in front of the lower rear H-arms. The next thing I did was move the rear shocks inward on the bottom mounts.

When the new parts arrived I rebuilt the rear diff and filled it with silicone grease. I put enough in there to stiffen the diffs movement. This will also help with straight line performance.

The last thing needed was to insert the battery pack in the rearward position. I am now ready to try the changes made and get some action shots. Oh, man! It's been raining for days and the track is still wet!

My only option was to find an indoor dirt track. Thankfully Thunder RC Raceway, an indoor dirt track in Nashville, allowed me to use their facility to get the needed shots and continue track testing the Vendetta SC.

The indoor track is a seasoned track with tight jumps and hard packed straights. The Vendetta SC was right at home on this track. The changes I made were great for this location. The jumps were smooth and the truck followed a perfect arc making the landings soft and predictable.

The tighter rear diff offered more straight line control and allowed the rear to slightly brake loose during on throttle cornering. The truck was handling like a dream! The guys at the track were getting ready for an oval race so I needed to eventually get out of the way but, I sure would have liked to have been able to stay and drive the truck for a few more hours. It was a pleasure to drive.

See the Vendetta SC in action!

Download and Watch in Windows Media Player here!

The Vendetta SC surprised me. I did not expect the speed and handling this short course truck is capable of. Driving the truck was easy and enjoyable, especially if you have a nice track to drive on. It was difficult prying my hands from the controller. I was like a little kid in the toy store with his mother in the background telling him to put down the toys so they can leave. That little kid is me, I can drive the Vendetta SC all day long and enjoy every minute of it.

Duratrax already offers several hop up parts for the Vendetta SC. If the diff cup gives me any more trouble I will replace it with their optional metal parts. Leaving the plastic parts in the truck as long as possible will save on weight and probably give me faster lap times, so I will leave the plastic parts alone as long as they hold up.

With that being said, I give the Duratrax Vendetta SC two thumbs up.

DURATRAX
Phone: 1-217-398-8970
Fax: 1-217-398-7721
Email: carsupport@duratrax.com
Website: www.duratrax.com

Distributed exclusively by:
Great Planes Model Distributers®
PO BOX 9021;
Champaign, IL 61826-9021
Website: www.gpmd.com

A special thanks to;
Robert Dirla
Thunder RC Raceway
810 Cherokee Ave
Nashville, TN 37207
Website: www.thunderrcraceway.com