silverman1

This is not meant as a put down to Ofna owners as I am one I own a Ofna mbx 9.5 pbs buggy. I am just baffled that ofna is not on top. Why you ask? They are constantly building new models, and upgrading by now you would think they could compete with kyosho or ttr. I know ofna buggies are cheaper in price, but they should be in the run for a championship.

MassiveMods

all the good drivers are with other companies. Ofna is the distributor , hong nor make it. The TQ sport is a let down, the Jammin is great.

motohead279

Same reason Suzuki has not lost a motocross 250 National this year. Ricky Carmichael.

At that level of racing I believe the top driver can drive for almost any different brand and still win. Most of it is driver skill, plus confidence, with the proper set-up also.

Super_Dave

Driver is a very big part in racing but with bikes the rider is the most important part of racing. With 4 wheels you need a buggy that will perform as well as the pro drivers that drive them. The hyper 7 buggies don't take rough terrain well at all they just bounce or beat through it because of the short suspension arms giving them a lack of leverage. The hyper 7s also weights a FULL POUND heavier then buggies like the Kyosho MP777 SP1, Mugen MBX5, and XRay XB8. Ofna just doesn't have the track time to really dial in the tiny changes that make the high dollar buggies drive like they do. The jammin is probly Ofna's best racing buggy. I never drove one personally but I have heard they have a handfull of steering and fairly smooth handling when they are setup which is exactly how the higher end buggies handle. If your a backyard racer you can deffinatly win with one but when you get into the world of professional factory sponsored racer even hundreaths of a second matter because the drivers are all exactly matched in skill the only thing that lets them go faster is the buggy they are driving and they way they set it up.

No matter what people say when you look at ofna its instantly clear that they just don't put the countless hours of testing and tuning that companies like kyosho have done just because they have so many different buggies you know instantly they just make a design and put it together. There is no way they spent even a year designing any of their buggies accept for maybe the hyper 7/8s and jammin buggy. If ofna really did try to make a buggy I'm sure they could but first they would need atleast 2 top drivers and atleast a year to design the entire buggy from the ground up with hours of track time to fix each and every problem the racers don't like and they would really need to get rid of the crap electronics and motors that come in all of their buggies. Really they are a lot like traxxas use to be... just flat out bash quality and no more. I would really like to see what the new hyper 8 will do though hopefully they did actually put the effort they need to make a good racer into that one.


I'm experience in racing motorcross and its an entirly different world. You can't compair them because the rider on a bike makes such a massive difference with the way the rider works the bike around... but of corse to keep up with pro times in motorcross you still need factory power to keep up with guys like Ricky. With 4 wheels and no rider to muscle the vehicle around the pros are basically running perfect lap times as long as they hold their line and push the buggy to its limits (not the rider push himself to the limit like you would do on 2 wheels). With that the only way to go faster is to have a faster buggy, faster setup, and hopefully a microscopic edge in skill over the driver whos on your back. Like in nascar they can only go as fast as the car will let them.

Engrose

HongNor makes the Ultras, 9.5 and the Jammin.

HoBao makes the Hyper buggies.

Since HoBao only makes the Hyper they should have had the opportunity to make it go right. But if I'm not mistaken a Hyper7 was fastest at last years world's. Again it was probably because of the driver's abilities more than the buggy's, but it shows that if Ofna/Graupner/Pirate/Hobao spend as much on the driverbudget as Kyosho/Xray/Mugen they could compete.
That is not to say that the Hyper7 is quite at the same level as a 777sp2, Xray or Prospec, but it's not far behind. The same should apply to the Jammin.
Another thing to remember is that the Hyper7 and Jammin isn't quite in the same pricerange as the three topbuggies.

Da Smak

Erm, Ofna, Graupner and CML are the International distributors for Ho Bao. Ho Bao also make the Pirate series of buggies in 10th and 8th scales. These though are just pure bashing buggies.

On the note of top level, the Hyper 7 is there, with a driver of skill it can be formidable, Yannick Aigion proved it last year at the worlds beating off the MBX5s, 777s and such like, but due to a slight fuel tube problem (too much of it), he stood a good chance of winning.

As for the TQ being a let down, it is probably the highest spec RTR buggy on the market and with one of the lowest prices and so few RTRs come so compatable with the parts from the pro models.

CHAVAN30

My Feedback: (2)

OFNA HAS HIRED GREG DEGANI.
HE HAS BEEN EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE IN THE STATES WITH HIS HYPER.
IT IS ALL ABOUT THE DRIVER.
THEY ARE JUST AS GOOD AS KYOSHOS, MUGENS, XRAYS, ETC.
THE DIFFERENCES IN EACH BUGGY IS MINIMAL AT THE MOST.
WHERE I RACE, IF A XRAY DRIVER MAKES A MISTAKE I BEAT HIM, IF I MAKE A MISTAKE HE BEATS ME. OTHER THAN THAT, THERE REALLY ISN'T MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE.

Engrose

Alex if you had read my entire post, you would have noticed that I said that HoBao makes the Hyper. But in the different countries where Ofna etc. is the distributors, they are the ones that hire drivers. And I also wrote about last years worlds where Aigion wouldn't have been dq'ed if he hadn't changed the fueltank to one that was expanding to much in the heat. I didn't in any way write that Ofna/Graupner or Pirate manufactures the Hyper....

Da Smak

No, you wrote that Pirate distibutes. Well there is no company in RC called Pirate, the only Pirates in nitro RC are the one I wrote about.

motohead279

With 4 wheels you need a buggy that will perform as well as the pro drivers that drive them. The hyper 7 buggies don't take rough terrain well at all they just bounce or beat through it because of the short suspension arms giving them a lack of leverage. The hyper 7s also weights a FULL POUND heavier then buggies like the Kyosho MP777 SP1, Mugen MBX5, and XRay XB8.


But I tend to believe just like at the top of any level of racing, what a "factory" rider/driver races is not comparable to what joe public buys off the shelf. I'm sure that the top guys cars are very comparable in weight, power, handling etc. as long as they are set up correctly.

Engrose

My mistake - T2M Pirate RS2 sport or Proteam are the names of the Hyper7 in France. So I guess that it's T2M that distributes in France.

Super_Dave

In my post I did say you can win with one mainly in just local racing and yeah when your pushing as fast as you can go one small mistake will let the guy behind you pull straight by you and get 10-20ft infront of you. One thing I wasn't thinking about when I made the post was driving style. I personally didn't like how the hyper 7 handled it always felt more like you were driving a tank and no matter how I changed the setup I always felt limited by the buggy I was driving. But that doesn't mean someone else should be as uncomfortable with it as I was and I still won a race with it. When I got the MP777 it was a whole new world. Just loads of steering and very light nimble handling which was exactly what I want. I gained a full second on my lap times with the stock kit settings the first time I put the 777 on the track and every weekend I get slightly faster and find ways to make it handle even better. Its really just what you like to drive. I still do think you have a slight edge with the 777, mbx5, etc because you really have much more responcive handling which allows you really to dive where ever you need to on the track with ease to get by someone or just get that faster line. They hyper 7 never really had that quick responce or handfulls of steering even with 3-5-1 in the diffs so you would need to stay ahead of the buggy and react a tiny bit sooner then you would with the buggies that are on top right now.

Edit: With that responcive handling can come more mistakes though. The hyper7 was extremly easy and consistant to drive while with the kyosho you really do need to stay on your toes mainly when coming out of corners to keep it straight and hold a steady line.

Da Smak

Indeed Engroseit is T2m that distibute in France and they do refer to it as the Pirate RS2 but only because HoBaos first 1/8th was the Pirate(I'll do some pics to show you what a bag of crap they were tomorrow).

The weight of the Hyper 7 I find helps on the bumpier tracks. As it is then that I run a really light shock setup and the weight stops the buggy from lift off the ground and losing traction and thus power laydown. But the less time on the floor always means the less time propelling forwads in my eyes and yes anyone that has seen me driving will say I like my big air and how much the crowd loves to see a buggy fly, but they'd also tell you how conservative with this unmanned flight I become when the pressure is really on.

Super_Dave

Yeah I always find the line I can stay closest to the ground with off the jumps without casing them. I haven't noticed this kyosho fly any higher or farther over the hyper 7 but I just couldn't get the suspension working as smoothly as I wanted with the H7 so it wasn't on the ground as often as my 777 is. What shock oil are you running? Lowest I tried was 40front 35rear with piston holes drilled out 1mm more.

For me the H7 was always good on smooth hardpack because there were no serious bumps to bounce you around and the weight helped get a tiny bit more traction on the slick surface.

Da Smak

I run white springs with 25wt front, 20 wt rear, 1.5mm holes and 10mm preload all round. Soft to the feel but very responsive when the feet should be down, THEY ARE.

Mrfranchize02

In an interview with Greg Degani, he dodged the question, "Which car is better the Kyosho or the Hyper 7". His response just noted that they were currently testing an updated version of the buggy which has potential to be the better of the two.

octospider0

"QUOT!SubjectRE: Why do Ofna buggies fall short in the winner's circle? !QUOT!

Maybe it has to due with the 16+ years Kyosho has had !QUOT!control!QUOT! of the 1/8 scale racing situation. They started the class basically. Kyosho Inferno's have been around for a very long time and before that was the vantage. Maybe it has to do with the market share Kyosho controls. Race tallies in the mags list: kyosho 777, kyosho 777, mugen, kyosho 777, kyosho 777, (ofna usually is right around the middle point of the scores). It could be said that this is because Kyosho provides a much better product, but, I would venture to say that it is because the vast numbers of Kyosho buggies running out there. Would make sense to me that if 10 buggies are racing in the A main and 6 of them are Infernos, the odds of an Inferno winning are pretty high. These guys are all running top end ported out .21's, fastest servos money can buy, not to mention tires and tweaks, IMO, the winner could be anyone on !QUOT!any given Sunday!QUOT! if the field were more spread out.

I own both a 777 and a hyper 7 pbs and I have to say that I enjoyed driving the hyper much more. It was more stable, didn't require as much steer tweaking on the corners and has better rear squat.

I have seen entry level buggies keep up with thousand dollar cars, IMO again, you should purchase your buggy based on things you have read and liked about it. Lord knows it will be updated soon enough. Lets face it, as far as the distributors and manufactors are concerned, this is all about money. They sponsor races, sponser drivers, in hopes of winning so there name is in car action or rc driver and we purchase there kits. (good marketing so far, hehe).

I would also venture to bet that if Hobao, or Ofna for that matter had the kind of capital Kyosho has, you would see many more drivers with their brand.