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FTX Frenzy review


PurcyP

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To start out, this review is slightly biased being its my only and first nitro powered 1/8 scale buggy, i am however not affiliated in any way shape or form with FTX/CML distribution ltd

 

So with that, lets begin shall we?

 

A Noobs review of the FTX Frenzy 1:8 scale Nitro powered off road buggy. 

 

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The FTX Frenzy is a now discontinued buggy from the FTX RC range, distributed by CML it comes in at a RRP of

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Good write up!

 

Shame its discontinued as I imagine spares are hard to find, just searched it on the bay and got 3 results, so hopefully it holds up to the knocks!

 

I cant really see from the pictures but is it all phillips hardware or allen?

 

Like I said good write up, but for me there is no question, Hyper 7 hands down  :thumbsup:

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its a mix of phillips and alan hardware

 

bottom of the chassis bar the engine mount, phillips which will not amuse some im sure 

 

spares wise ive been told my local hobby pro can get all the spares from CML as they are still readily available, just not on the bay chop shops like hyper. 

Edited by PurcyP
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  • 2 weeks later...
Update on the frenzy 
 
So the buggy has been bashed, raced, tinkered and broken several times, heres a few updates and things to consider.
 
The buggy itself 
Buy thread lock and lots of it, kinpins, motor screws etc all came loose and lost during racing on a astro track 
other than that, nothing broke, bent or snapped and held up very well to the abuse i gave it
 
The Engine
Pull start broke off 3 times from its string at the start of the day, i suggest replacing it with a starterbox, the engines high compression puts far too much strain on the string causing it to sheer off. 
Engine idles high and bogs even when leaned out, possible issue with just my engine but something else to think about, as a result cant sit n idle or will bog out and stall.
it likes 25% nitro with optifuel race blend, the bogging stall is a tad less frequent i noticed with this than the 20% RTR blend, for a basic engine though it was more than capable of racing. 
 
Suspension
No breakages however their was leaks, the flanges that are under the rubber boots can come loose so shock fluid can leak out, easy to rectify and not a huge issue, the springs themselves i have no idea what rate they were but 40wt front 30wt rear proved a tad unstable at times but did not grip roll nearly as much, have recently changed to 40wt all round and moved the suspension up slightly from my last setup to compensate for a few things, however overall it does the job.
 
Servos/Electronics 
With the etronix servos gone and alturn aas750mg's taken their places i can report that nothing broke, failed, killed batteries etc..both servos worked fantastic, with a 1400mah receiver pack and vapex 2500mah rechargeable AA's in the Transmitter, they survived all day use with no issues at all! 
 
Overall
 
 
If you are looking at buying this buggy, dont be put off, i may have a bit of a lemon out of the box so to speak however all the mishaps will pay off in the future as it will teach me the ins and outs of the buggy and the skills learnt will carry on to further models i build myself, it held up to my terrible driving, bashing and racing and was reliable once up and running, wack it on a starter box and off it goes, take into consideration the bogging issues, i am not sure if mine is rectifiable but i plan to change the engine out at some point anyway, but i was not the only one driving in a circle before the race started to avoid bogging out lol. 
 
Great buggy, great fun, can hold up to some abuse just a shame about the screws that like to vanish! so buy threadlock  
 
also replace etronix servos straight away! 
Edited by PurcyP
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  • 3 months later...

Hi bought one today, charged the glow start for 6hours, primed engine got fuel to the carb etc. went to start.... nothing what a pain to get going so far ive only had a few spits of flame from the exhaust prob becasue there so much fuel in their, did u have to alter the carb much before you got yours to fire?

 

 

thanks.

 

Brand new from box, cfm hobbies duke st glasgow.

20% RTR Mix

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mine was a bit of a pig to get going at first, make sure the idle gap in the carb is 2mm and all the servos open n close the carb correctly and then its a case of keep trying whilst blipping the throttle etc etc. 

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Hey mcdaddy2010 did u get the frenzy started ?? been tryin meslf for a hour no joy apart from backfire out the carb twice lol

 

everything charged good glow at plug using opitmax fuel at 20%  any ideas ??

 

Thanks

mchaggis

Edited by mchaggis
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Hey Guys,

Thanks for replying... got it going at last yesterday morning, re-tuned the carb bought a new glow plug (got a cold one)... put few drop fuel in the carb and through glow plug hole pulled the start a few times and then put glow plug back on and hey presto it fired!!! woohooo. although as you noted PurcyP it bogs out on idle so had to adjust throttle when ever i wanted to start it again making sure i had it secured.... learnd that leason fast heehee. Did however on the 2nd tank burn out the glowplug so used the factory one and it seemed to go well.. got onto the 3rd tank and maybe got a bit carried away in the ecitment and hit a tree... broke the from right lower suspension mount... oh dear although still driving and steering ok parts only a few pounds from CML so not bad right... then was fannying around with it in the garden later and all of a suden the engine revs like mad but the cars not moving.... oh dear what have i done??? thought it might be the clutch or box but surley not its new... checked the screws that held the engine down and found 3 to be missing so mchaggis, purcyp was right on that also make sure you get threadlock for those... as i have ordered them from cml but theres a back order and its going to be 5-8wks before they have them!!!

 

other than that quite happy with what i got for my

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yeah youll soon find that screws go missing very quickly so i highly suggest thread locking. 

 

and funnily enough the head bolts on my engine were also loose, fixed that quickly, also check the carb as well make sure the pinch bolt that holds it in is nice and tight.

 

and finally, thread lock the living hell out of the bottom screws, especially the engine ones.

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  • 1 year later...

Hi guys I have also got an ftx frenzy had it for about a year couldn't get it to start and pull start broke spent a lot of money on getting it tuned and starter and running right, I had all these problems because it didn't come factory set but now it works fine and is very fast and durable and will take anything that you throw at it. Great buggy.

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