Here's a top off and potential end to my experience with my new Mayhem.

I finally got all of the fasteners that were too short replaced and loctited. I also got all of the other screws (metal to metal) loctited. I finally got the engine down and tuned. I took it out last night for a first all out run to check temps and do some full throttle sprints to get an idea of what I have. After doing what I thought would be my final adjustment, I was running the buggy in a large parking lot. Although I'm running a Spektrum DSM, I lost radio contact with my buggy. I was also running an Ofna fail safe, just in case. While running wide open, I noticed that I had lost steering, but didn't immediately freak out. After all, I had the failsafe and the DSM system, when it looses contact with the Tx, will by default move the servos to their centered position. Well, after a few seconds, I did start to freak out. The buggy didn't stop and ran full speed into a foot tall concrete curb.

When I got the buggy back home, I assessed the damage. Bent chassis, chassis braces, rear shock tower, center dog bones, cvd shafts, servo tray, broken servo cases, and other stuff that I haven't found yet, I'd imagine.

Well, I took the buggy apart to salvage what I could and when I pulled the servos, I noticed something. The ground wire on the throttle servo has a very neat cut right through almost all of the insulation. It would seem that the cut had been there all along and the wire was making connection by a couple of strands. Somehow, during the evening of running, the remaining strands broke and that's why the buggy didn't stop. I didn't catch it while going through the buggy because the cut was in the middle of the "stock" bundle of wires in the electronics box and it was zip tied from the factory. I didn't see any reason to disturb it, so I left it alone.

Man, oh man. It just makes me sick to think that I could have bought a Cen or XTM for around $300. Oh well, I ordered the parts on ebay. It cost me around $150. I'm gonna try to put it back together again. I'm just waiting to see what happens next.

I emailed Horizon about the whole thing. Maybe they'll do something about it. I'll see.

On the plus side, the engine never killed through out the whole thing, so at least I got that part right. Maybe I'll just drop the .26 into one of my X-Terminators.