Smartechracing

Nice video, more videos comming?

Foxy

DIABLOTAC78

more vid!!!!!! more vid!!!!!!!more vid!!!!!!!!

rckiwi

Great review foxy! and also awesome video as always!

It is a pity Smartech didnt do more research and development on there own motor before discontinuing the CY motor as a std motor for their 1/5 cars. The improvement in the test motor power is day & night! it will make their cars once again worth buying!

SMT have great products and there engineering department is obvious one of the best in China with developing new cars (not clones) so they have learnt alot from cloning, and now developing there own products.
I just feel they need to address there lack of support, or should I say slow introduction of upgrade parts to the market that they have had for along time now, they obvious have had alot of internal issues, but that doesnt help importers trying to sell there products and offer good after sales back up.

They should take a look at what Redcat Racing has done with the Rampage, if things don't improve then I think they will be left behind!

Smartechracing

Rckiwi,

thanks for your comment.

1. In fact we just start our engine department few years, our existing gas engine is nearly CY engine's quality. CY makes their engine in Taiwan, We make our engine in China,Zenoah makes the engines in Japan. We can't say we can compare with Zenoah even CY this moment. The truth is we offer much better price and quite similar quality than CY. We just want to offer a reasonable price for our RTR products. Meantime, we do belive theres no one willing to take a risk to invest gas engine to their own gas cars until now.

2. We do mainly customer's private lable business until last year, and many of our largescale product has been exclusived by some wellknown brands in past years. We just formally start selling our 1/5 scale pruduct under our Smartech brand this year in Europe and US market. for the lack of support, we suggest people can buy parts or upgrads from major accounts, Like hobbico, Carson...this moment, they can offer mostly our 1/5 parts just in different brand and different article numbers. We do have many imporers distributor can also provide our products and parts, if can not find our parts stiil, please do not hesitate to contact our sales department.

3. We are not only concentrate in the US market, we are doing worldwide business. In the past we produce almost 90% in house, since this year we start buying more and more from ouside, for our RTR, we can provide different brand's equipments such as Futaba oem transmitters, Zenoah engines.... We want to extend more market share so we change a lot of marketing stratagems just trying to provide the good products and better services to different countries and customers. During the changes there is some issues comming with. we will keep on improve our service.

Welcome people give us more comment and suggesitions.

Thans again for your suggestion.

Smartechracing

Very good cameraman! Good job[sm=thumbup.gif]

dimag093

......."Meantime, we do belive theres no one willing to take a risk to invest gas engine to their own gas cars until now.".....

That's a very sincere statement .
It's almost certain that the risk of developing their own kind of gas engine is very high due to the "safety" that Zen and CY brands can provide.But this didn't prevent Smartech from getting into this project,jeopardizing their rep and a lot of money.
[sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif]Kudos to Smartech for that[sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif] They simply show some industry "b@lls" [sm=shades_smile.gif](other well known and established RC vendors don't [:'(])
The huge potential of that 23cc prototype engine confirms that Smartech isn't joking and all that effort is NOT in vain
Keep up the good work guys

DIABLOTAC78

is that me

Foxy

It sure is!

Smartechracing

Yes, of course, sure, certainly, why not.[X(][sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbs_up.gif][sm=tongue_smile.gif][sm=teeth_smile.gif]

Smartechracing

[X(][sm=red_smile.gif]

Smartechracing

hi,
We are planning to release Thunderbolt version2, since the specs is not finalized yet, we need your suggestions.
Firstly, we would like to ask our reviewers to give us some comments.

For your reference,Thunderbolt RTR price is $1200-1300. for more details you can visit our website or check Foxy's depth review for Smartech Thunderbolt.

We need your sugessitions for the specs., body design, retail price point, improvements.....

The Thunderbolt V2, will including our prototype design body,new 23CC engine, a new disign beadlock tires.....

Here is our protoype body design for V2.

Foxy

Nelson, Thunderbolt v2 (or Pro, if you like ) is real simple. The problems with the original car are the following...

Dogbones pop out. Use o-rings in the drive cups.
28cc engine has no power, use the 23cc you sent me (absolutely awesome engine), or a Zenoah. Skip CY, your engine is better so far.
Servos are strong and fast, but fragile. At least put a better servo on steering.
Shocks were too soft, you fixed that.
Centre diff needs to be SEALED and take silicone oil (this is REALLY important, surely easy to do, and will make people VERY impressed, as even FG do not supply such a thing as stock).
The prototype body is SUPERB!! Use it!!
Beadlock wheels fine, but not necessary.

Hop ups I would buy straight away if they are available...

Alloy clutch bell carrier.
Alloy engine mounts.

Nothing else is really needed. Address those issues and you will do VERY well.

$1400 rtr would be a fair price for such a car, but no more than that. You do not want to compete with FG. The retail of $1250 for the current car is a little high, considering what else is coming into the market now.

Smartechracing

Thanks, Foxy.
1. dog bone pops out- solved
2. 23CC engine- under tooling, after new 23cc is finished, then New 28CC will be the next.
3. The center diff -already finish the new design( can use silicne oil), will start the tooling soon.
4. New body- will change a little bit from the prototype body

Foxy

Note I just changed the RRP to 1400 since you replied. Anybody reading this should consider that the RRP is rarely what the cars actually go for, so don't worry. Look at the original TB, retail up to $1300 but going for $900 on the 'bay. If a car has a retail of $1400, you can expect to see it for maybe $1100 on the shelf.

When do you expect the upgrade parts (body, engine, differential) to hit the market?

Smartechracing

The Price of original Thunderbolt should not be less than $1150 this moment, the 900$ retail is not accept by our company, we will check out the retailer who sell thunderbolt on ebay ($900) then stop offer our product to them or who sells to them.

The first shipment will be arrived in Germany next month, therefore , I dont know who offer the thunderbolt to this company( which sell thunderbolt $900).

Once we lower our retail price, we will inform our customers accroding to our company's policy.

The upgrade parts, most Titan's upgrades can fit to the Tbolt, end of this month, we will have the Tbolt's testing upgrade parts. Once the test is finished, we will post then.

Foxy

Fair enough, 1150 is a fair price. 1400 max for the v2.

pwaicon

I personally think you should make the TB V2 a kit, much like the Baja SS. You could include all the improvement Foxy recommended but ditch the electronics, leave the body clear and let us put it together.

Foxy

That's actually a really good idea, and will cause Smartech to be taken more seriously, as a kitmaker as well as an RTR box shifter.

lbsickboy

hi all what about a longer suspension travel similar to the hpi baja that would also help for the bashers like my self with jumps and so on

Smartechracing

Good idea.

Cal-Torque

Wow...that's brutal.
I HATE company's that try to control pricing. It's none of your business.
I know that Foxy is highly respected here, but I very much disagree on the pricing advice.
Unless you are going to be a very high end RC (pro version, etc), the market should be around $1000. Largescalers have just gotten used to paying too much. If I can buy an LST2 with a great radio system for $600, there's no reason that a super size version should be twice the price. The physical difference in cost should be minimal.
Consider the new Redcats... I just received mine yesterday. It's a better unit, and under $1000.

Otherwise, the suggestions are spot on. You also need a huge improvement in customer support.

Smartechracing

Maybe it is not polite to say "It's none of your business, too", but I still have to say it.

We spent a lot of time and money to develpe new products, of course we have the right to get back our investmet.

As mentioned, once we lower our retail price, we will inform our customers.

We dont want to involve into the price war. we need some basic quantities to get our investment back then we can feedback and lower the price to cumsumers. I think this is way of business, nobody want to invest product with no margine.

Yes, we are not famous brand in US and maybe our product is not like "very high end RC", but still we have the right to control our retail price to protect our delars. I do agree A under $1000 retail price point is a good value for a 4x4 1/5 R/C products.

I think this is the problem of different market, we sell a good q'ty 1/5 series in Europe, the retail price is usually 20-30% more than the US market and the Quantity is always 500-700% more than US. Maybe a lower retail price point we have to sell in the US is a good idea for us.

Every company and manufactuer have different cost, even we have the factories in China, but we still have different cost compare with the other makers in China. For exsample, better material, better quality, better design..... all of those, we have huge cost difference than others.
( It needs more time and money to make things different!)
We offer different quality, design ....than others who make their giantscale cars in China. so we offer different price will be reasonable. Don't you agree?

I think the market 1/5 should be around $1000 , it doesn't make any sense, there are a lot of RTR selling price over $1500, is that correct?

Smartechracing

Mr. Cal-Torque,

After consider and reviewing your comments, we feel that it's really sad that you feel that way about our product.

But, we really need your report on our Thunder Bolt as you promise everyone and us too. It's been more then a month already, please help us with the report; or is it really about "FREEBEEES"? [sm=confused.gif]

AngelShark

This is a completly unfair remark! I hate to to point out the fact that if a person does not have first hand knowledge of what something cost to produce, you should not comment on what the retail price should be.

As far as price control, you realy don't have the first clue of economic structure. First off it always the guy that wants the best price possible to B!tch and complain about everybody making all this money off of Him or her. But the reality is it cost money to stock product (so that when you need it. It's there!) pay employees to talk to you and help you with your problems. Insurance, rent, etc. These are many things among others that cost businesses money to operate.

And yes lets consider the Red Cat! Two different companies, two different cars! I can point out many spots where on the Red Cat there has been corners cut for cost. Now I'm not claiming that Smartech is at the top of the list for quality. There areas where they have cut corners to save on cost. But apples to oranges the Smartech models have the third diff. better shocks and shafts and a few other things that would warrant extra cost.

Don't take this personal But this goes on in the hobby industry non stop, It's funny how auction buyers get these killer prices, Then walk in to there local hobby store looking for service or parts! Wow I wonder who pays for this? I'm sure it not the guy that sold the item at a discounted rate for the quick buck!

Concider this information when deciding how much something should cost, because if your local hobby store is not making money on a product then why support the line of parts that you will need.