Hey guys,as I snagged an almost complete roller for $50 & a complete FRE RTR (with all the fancy- schmansy red anodized aluminum hop-ups already installed,the blue head SH28 & an extra set of wheels) for $70 w/free shipping (yeah I know,sweet deal huh?) to go with the RTR stocker I already had,I'm not really in need of any spare parts anymore.
But,seeing how CEN has decided to return to their stellar (yeah right) customer service by disconnecting the phone #'s listed above & charging way too much for parts @ their CEN DIRECT site (and don't forget the way too high shipping charges),I took a couple hours & did some more research for you guys. I hope the following helps.
If you're hunting parts & can't get anywhere with CEN DIRECT,punch "matrix tr arena" into your search box on Google. Scroll down to "Spare parts Matrix TR Arena" & hit that link. The website is
www.rc-race-shop.com & the only problem I forsee is everything is priced in Euros and they seem to be based in Germany,so you might want to make it a big order to cancel out some of the shipping charges. As I don't know the exchange rate,I can't guarantee this,but as compared to CEN DIRECT's prices,they seemed pretty cheap & had almost every part in stock including the original SH .28 nitro engine. But for you resto guys, they were out of stock (3 week backorder) on the original MX322 tires. So,in a nutshell,good luck & please post your experience (good or bad) if you order from either source so the rest of us know where to go for parts.
Now,as far as a brushless conversion goes,the only thread I could find that wasn't another "anybody got a kit or a clue how to make an HPI/LOSI/MUGEN conversion work" was the CEN forum thread "Cen Matrix TR Arena Factory Brushless Conversion" posted by an RCU member with the username "TAKEDOWN" that did not list the part #'s of this elusive conversion kit,but he stated his setup worked great on 4s lipo & was going to see if it could handle 5s. That was in 2008. I then went to his RCU profile & found the last thread he posted,titled "What's new guys & posted an "any info. would be helpful/please visit this thread & post the part #'s if possible/or at least some pics of his setup if that info. is long gone. If you've read this far,there's a good chance you're a CENnatic like me,so you might as well take 10 minutes to go to the above mentioned "CEN Brshlss TR Arena" thread or send him a personal message or email him on his profile page & let him know more than one guy wants to do this conversion.
I apologize for the length of my essay here,but I can't think of anything I can take out & still help people get their TR Arenas up & running again.
Except to ask "The Real Dogman" if CEN took a dump on us again? Sorry to throw you under the bus here dude,but if anybody has a clue to what's going on in the land of CEN,it's you. Any help?