Which 1/8 nitro truggy?
 

Looking to get a 1/8 nitro buggy/truggy to play with, not any real racing, just some good fun. Looking to get a quality but budget friendly unit. I'm looking at the HPI Trophy Truggy 4.6 and the Losi 8ight, the larger engine of the HPI attracts me in that direction, it also looks nicer than the Losi.

So any feedback on these models or any others I should look at. I'm hoping to get something durable with good parts availability.

I have a Losi 8T 3.0 race truggy (KIT). Great truck - I picked mine up gently used. Once setup, it’s an easy and nimble truck. But I prefer my 1/8 monster trucks better though. The turnoffs of the truggy for me are the center diff and single speed drive. I don’t like how the center diff works - I locked mine with putty to get a better feel from it, which helped quite a bit, it just took awhile to take the diff out, do the work and put it back together. The 2-speed transmission is me liking to go fast. My monster trucks are much faster than the truggy, but the truggy will handle way better.

I do know that the HPI trophy truck is a piece of crap compared to the Losi. The HPI is a RTR based platform which is always pretty basic. Plan to upgrade the engine, servos, and radio. They’re always pretty cheap - especially the crappy RTR engines (which usually run okay, but are nowhere near as easy to tune as a top quality engine like Novarossi and Picco). I would tell you the Losi race kit Truggy is the quality and durable truck you would want - paired with a nice .28 and it would be pretty stupid fun to drive. My buddy has a modified Nova .28 in a Mugen truggy and it’s damn fast. I was pretty surprised. My truggy has a modified Nova .21 in it that runs great, but it just doesn’t have the oomph I want. I am going to put one of my modified .28s into it to compare since I know they can be fast with the right engines. If you do end up racing it, you would need to step down to a 3.5cc (.21) engine due to regulations.

Thanks for the feedback. I was just watching some more videos on the 8ight-T RTR last night. Honestly I don't think I could justify jumping up to a full kit build, seems those will get to $1200 quick where I can get the 8-T RTR for $400. I know the quality would be way better but for my uses and interest level right now I can't justify spending 3x as much.

hi zanemoseley , you can look into tekno nb48 buggy or truggy mugen mbx or mbxt kyosho mp9 buggy or truggy or losi or team associated plenty of part for these r/c models out there also the electric model are real faster ok
hoped i helped mugey also good nitro motors .21 nitro motors .2.5 hp to 3.00 hp novoarossi . O.S. ALFA . WERKS RB concepts good luck with your choice