SEE also Crash's thread, "HPI SAVAGE 21 REVIEW" I have a few things to hit on, and some mods to mention.

TIRES: (Thumbs Up)
Very nice for thrashing around. Soft with good separation in the tread. Thread blocks are wide and tall, so they will last a long time even with occasional concrete and hard clay use. The width of the blocks also allow for good traction on concrete. The height of the side walls allow it to absorb bumps and landings.

FUEL TANK: (Neutral)
On the plus side the tank is large, but I’m not sure it’s any larger than any tank on a .21 equipped truck. I like the fact that it has a primer. The pressure nipple is right where is should be….on the highest point of the tank to prevent blowing raw, unspent fuel through the pipe. However, the pick up is in the wrong place. It is located in the very front of the tank. A 30 degree hill climb on a 33% full tank, could cause your engine to lean out and die. Also there is no fuel filter. One cool thing is that it is visible with the body on, so there is not need to stop the truck to check the fuel level, assuming you use high-visibility fuel.

PIPE: (Thumbs Down)
Sucks…nuff said. OK, I’ll elaborate. It’s plastic. That makes it ugly, and makes the truck look cheap. It doesn’t give great performance, and the engine will run better and cooler with a different pipe. It doesn’t even muffle well. It’s probably going to be leaky too.

SHOCKS: (Neutral)
I like them, and I don’t like them. On the plus side, they are long…tons of travel. They also work well for absorbing bumps and landings without bottoming for at least 4 feet, maybe more. There are 8 which is needed for a truck of this weight. Now for the negatives. Like Crash said, the springs are weak. Great for absorption, but bad for racing and jumps. We had a 5-ft long ramp at about a 35 degree angle. Hitting the ramp at about 25 mph, the truck absorbs the entry and doesn’t rebound fast enough, resulting in a smooth jump, but with little air or distance. With the springs being so long, pre-loading them too much will result in a buckled spring. [to those that don’t know, preload is for ride height adjustment]. “Long,” “Thin,” and “Plastic” don’t make a good reliable combination. A direct hit on the right object could be bad. Also the seal stack is too short for a shaft of this length. A taller stack would give better linear stability, decrease torsion strain, and have better sealing.

ADJUSTABLE TURN BUCKLES/TIE-RODS: (Thumbs Down)
There are NONE!!! Any corrections to front and rear toe, require you to partially remove the tie-rod to adjust. There is no way at all to adjust the camber. The rear has a slight positive camber. I like all of my tires to be at least slightly negative.

EXHAUST MANIFOLD: (Thumbs Up)
Considering in the engine placement, they did a good job not making the flow path too restrictive. It’s nice and shiny and had a nice lip on the pipe end for secure coupling grip.

ENGINE: (Neutral)
It has a big cooling head, but I’m no fan of painted heads. It appears to be cast aluminum head rather than billet. Cast head are intrinsically poorer heat conductors. It’s a pain to start, but it’s new. The filter it comes with is pretty sad. The engine uses a 2-shoe clutch. The shoes look identical to the ones equipped in the OFNA GTLX. Seemingly you can use a Kyosho MP-5 clutch (or one of the MIP’s). The clutch bell, as installed, moved fore and aft, a bit too much for my taste. This is easily fixed.

ENGINE MOUNTING: (Thumbs Down)
There is very little room for adjustment. You can not go to a larger clutchbell without going with a smaller spur. With the stock gearing, the top right engine mounting screws are obstructed by the right side chassis plate. So it’s best just to get the smaller spur. The engine is just a little too far aft, which make manifold selection limited. The limited space also requires you to dismount the manifold in order to remove the engine.

TWO-SPEED TRANNY: (Thumbs up)
It comes tight, so that you can break-in the engine in first gear. It takes about 2.5 turns out (as Crash mentioned) to get it in the proper shift position. There is access to the adjustment screws. As for reliability, it’s way too soon to tell.

STEERING: (Thumbs Up)
Unbelievable for a truck of this size. The servo is only 70 in-oz at best, but even on concrete, the truck relatively turns on a dime. HPI did a good job with the steering geometry to make the most of the servo’s power. As the batteries start to fade, the brakes go before the steering does.

BODY MOUNTS: (Thumbs kinda Up)
Slotted and height adjustable, but not enough to support an SUV body while the aluminum handle is installed. The boy interface should be a bit wider, as not to penetrate the body when the truck lands lid down.

SLIPPER CLUTCH: (Thumbs Up)
The cool thing is that it exists. Though the spur is plastic, seems that it will handle the job. The sucky thing is adjusting it. Simply turn the nut. Easier said than done. The engine carb is in the way. You have to use an open end wrench to adjust it rather than a socket driver. Unlike the Traxxas design, the slipper surface is a disk, not pegs that can wear down and expose the spur to the clutch plates.

BODY: (Neutral)
Nice body design. Good looking color scheme. But they are all the same. That’s a big minus in my book. If you are only going to offer one body, it should be clear. It’s not a flimsy body, but I would prefer thicker. The window stickers are big boo too. At least it’s trimmed nicely

OTHER MENTIONABLES:
The overall build of the truck seems very resistant to damage. The sides are 0.1” thick aluminum. Other than the shocks, the plastic parts seem beefy, but I have my suspicions that the arms are hollow. The aluminum handle is a nice attribute. It is positioned to be away from everything, yet fit well under the body, and allow the truck to be nicely balanced when supporting the truck with it. The steering servo is well protected. Dogbone slop is minimal. However, rear toe isn’t. It’s way sloppy, half due to the rear rods which are sloppy at the balls.

PERFORMANCE: (Thumbs Up)
Good low end power, and descent top end. It doesn’t quite give me the .21 feeling though. The steering is very good, even in concrete and dense grass. This puppy soaks up bumps like a sponge does water. Easily clears 7” parking lot car stoppers. Takes a huge drop before bottoming out.

READY to RUN:
I hate RTR’s for many reasons. Some of the reasons are obvious through my review/article. But it’s really a whole new topic all together. A couple things need to be done before you run the truck. I suggest you pull the engine out and use thread-lok on the clutch bell screw. I was able to remove this screw effortlessly. But before putting the screw back in, use shims to remove the fore-n-aft play of the clutch bell. Put the engine back in. Use thread-lok, Also check the mesh between the spur and pinion. Now, glue the tires on better. They are not fully glued on well.

MODS:
The pipe was tossed shortly after break-in. We used a OFNA Pirate pipe. It worked much better.
I removed the engine on mine immediately (just because I have another engine to use). Never even pulled the start chord. All performance data was obtained while driving a friend’s Savage. I replace the engine with an OS RG-X. This required me to add a spacer on the pull chord so it would be easily accessed from between the engine and the tank. This also required some flattening of the manifold cup (an OS issue only). Since the RG sits differently in the truck than the original engine, I had to take a Dremel to the right side plate so the manifold would fit between the shocks and the chassis. I replaced the pipe with new, but old school CVEC (single stinger).

FINAL THOUGHTS: (Overall Thumbs Up)
Very nice unique looking truck. It drives well and has good power. Only the shocks look a little vulnerable. The rest of the truck looks hard-core. Compared to a 2.5 T-Maxx, the bang for buck would probably go to the T-Maxx. If the Savage had reverse and was the same price as the T-Maxx. Then it would be a tie. The T-Maxx would have an electric start (which I hat anyway) and more adjustability, but leaves you stuck with using that engine, which is a nice one, but I like choices. The Savage would have nicer tires and be ready for any big block pull-start engine you want to put in it.


SUGGESTIONS TO HPI:
1) Put out built kit with clear body, no radio, no engine, and no paint on the body. Personally, I would prefer a real kit.
2) Supply front universals.
3) Supply Adjustable turnbuckles. I couldn’t add that much cost.
4) Put the fuel pick-up in the rear of the tank, not the front.
5) At $40 more than a T-Maxx , the reverse module should be included.
6) Fuel filtration on an off-road vehicle is a must.


MODS.
1) I replaced the engine with a modified OS RG
2) Removed the original shock oil (30xt I believe) and replace with 45. Then added a bit more preload until I can find stiffer, shorter springs.
3) Going to add a big volume, inline fuel filter to provide filtration and reduce fuel starvation.
4) Going to use turnbuckles, Losi Balls and HPI Balls. This will provide a very free-moving yet slop-free operation
4) Kyosho .21 air filter with dirt guard, or a Motor-Saver Super Duty filter.
5) Added alloy wheels, just for looks, and because I got them cheap on ebay.
6) Going to use a thicker Pro-line body with my own paint scheme.
7) Going to use a higher torque steering servo, and use the current one for the brakes.
8) If I don’t buy the reverse module, then the radio comes out, and I’ll use my Mars setup.

I guess I should have sent this to RCCA