Nitroholic

Thanks for the comments ...especially Hiks... that's EXACTLY the kind of info I was lacking. It's also nice that this is one of the few RC forums where you can actually mention clones without people frothing at the mouth about copyright. Knowing the pro's and con's is crucial for me to decide. I don't expect to be giving it too much serious bashing straight off...but I am not paying this much cash for a buggy that won't get used and I expect it to be more than just a toy. I also considered a used item, but you never know what the previous owners have done/not done to their buggy! It's also worth noting what would be needing upgrades on an SS. It's not going to get hammered until I have got used to it. I know this is a big step up in terms of performance fro a Nitro, so I will be heading for the gentle slopes and wide open spaces until I get used to it....and with Winter and Christmas coming, things like a filter sock etc. make excellent pressies Would probably hang on until I break one to upgrade the arms. I hear what you are saying in terms of the drivetrain on a clone. The clutch and diff would be the parts I would expect to go first...but also have heard the clutch on the SS would need the alloy cover to avoid stripping spur gears and keeping the dirt out. So...yes...I would expect the SS to absorb another

This is a tough one, and I don't know which way to turn! Having long yearned to 'go petrol' it's finally going to happen ( subject to a sale on Ebay of my old Suzuki Katana ....got a bid on her for

The HSN is the one to tune the flat out performance with. You still want a clear smoke trail to be visible, so don;t go too lean! The LSN is more to tune the pickup. Poor acceleration and a lot of smoke when you gas it means the LSN is a bit rich. Again...you want some smoke, but you also want clean pickup. Make your adjustments in small steps and take a note of what you have changed. If you make an adjustment and it makes things worse, that way you will know what you did and can take a step backwards. This is half the fun with nitro buggies. Tweaking the settings to get that elusive 'perfect tune' and the great feeling of satisfaction when it rips away like a rocket running like a dream and you think..'I did that'.

One question, Imran.... does the alloy only come anodised orange? Would prefer plain old alloy colour, though I am sure a bit of dismantling and wire wooling would remove the anodising. Also...one pictuer shows sand-paddle tyres, and the other more normal ones. Did you get a choice with the car?

I certainly didn't need the extra toys and fancy goodies on the latest version. IF they are a benefit...pay the extra. If like me you just want rock solid reliable control with plenty of scope to adjust things to your liking....then the DX3.0 is a good buy. I am very impressed with the quality of mine!

Oooohh....now that's interesting! The prospect of buying one of hte better clones through a UK retail outlet definitely excites Trouble is...I#m about

Fuel tank definitely looks OK as far as the cap seal goes now. I would be concerned that you cannot get a decent idle. You need to get that sorted out before you start tuning the rest of the needles. My tuning 'ritual' starts with that. Assuming the carb is set at 1mm open on the idle screw, and the servo is not holding the throttle open at idle you should be able to get the motor to idle with the other screws set at the baseline numbers. Check these .... you have no idea what the shop has done with the needle position. Gently screw the needles in counting how many turns as you go, so you can put them back if need be. With the motor running , preferably up on a block of wood or somesuch, you can blip the throttle a few times to get the motor spinning properly. Don't over-rev it though...the motor under no load will happily rev itself to destruction. You need to get the motor warmed up to see where things actually are. Once done, you will get an idea if the idle is stable or not. The engine should be able to idle happily for around 1 min without cutting out or revving up. If it revs up, richen up the LSN (anti clockwise). If it dies, lean it (clockwise). Once you have a stable engine at idle, you can then start tuning the engines HSN properly. You may need to come back and tweak the LSN to get good pickup...but dial in the HSN first. What worries me about this car is that you have been through so many attempts to get even a basic working tune on the car with no proper results. All the cars I have had ran in some shape or form out of the box, the XT2 brilliantly...the ST1 like a sick dog .... but both responded well to a basic tune up. Both could be got to idle with correct setting of the idle screw, and both responded well to tuning. I don't pretend to be an RC genius, though I am an experienced home mechanic and have messed around with engines since I was old enough to hold a spanner...but I have not found a huge issue in following tuning advice to get an acceptable result so I can enjoy running my cars. I can't help feeling your buggy is a flawed piece of engineering either through manufacturing faults or poor quality control. In short...methinks tis a pup.

End of the day, if you have a fuel that works well in your car, and is acceptably priced...stick with it. As long as it does the jobs it has to do. Better performance may be got from fancier fuels, but it's a question of whether you drive hard enough to notice the benefits. IF you want to run long sessions and push a buggy hard, then better fuels will probably pay for themselves in the long run.

First off, the fuel tank looks OK ish to me. The seal looks to be engaging OK and if the spring is doing it's job, then you should get a seal. As far as the idling goes, I wouldn't want to be holding the car down and revving it...the clutch engages as the revs rise, and you have the car held tight. You are putting load on teh clutch that it won't thank you for, as well as putting the engine under heavy load at the same time. It does look to be running rich, and leaning it off would help some ....but there are a couple of things you should bear in mind. 1) To properly tune an engine, you want to let it run for a few minutes so it gets up to temperature. This will help give a true picture of how it is going. 2) The car performance is easier to gauge if you actually let it run on it's wheels rather than holding it. The clutch is centrifugally driven, so when you rev up it engages. You can't rev it 'out of gear'. It stalls under load as it is trying to pull the car forward. I don't think the guy in the hobby shop has done much to really tune the car, as I would think the least you would get would be a slightly fluffy runner, but with a rock steady idle and acceptable pickup. You could then get it up to full temperature and fine tune the HSN when you ran it for real. Trouble is, right now, you can't!

Yep..I did the same a few weeks back and picked up a DX3.0 for under

Changing the gearing will alter the way the engine delivers it's power. Lower the overall gearing and you will get better acceleration but a reduced top speed. Raise the gearing and you will get the opposite. You change the gearing by changing the clutch bell. Increase the number of teeth on the gear there and you will raise the gearing and vice versa. It really depends on what you want to gain. If you are just looking at driving as fast as possible and keeping it flat out, then that can give you a good increase. If you are more into having fun on those nice scree slopes in the picture, then acceleration is more what you want. Mind you....dare I say it .... but if you have

To be honest, it's hard to be all that specific with fuel consumption, as it also depends on how you drive! Depending on the individual motor and the revs it makes it's power at, different engines will use fuel at different rates. A higher revving high performance .21 will more thirsty than a less powerful lower revving .21

He will be using a charger designed to work with a12V battery. It's a common thing to have for electric powered RC. You can then re-charge your battery when you are out and about. Something like these: http://www.modelsport.co.uk/?CallFunction=Category&CategoryID=99206520

Depends on what tuning plan you follow. I have seen and used ones which start with getting a stable idle and work from there. This tunes the basics of the idle and then works on the pickup and top end tune.Dialling in the HSN is not easy with a buggy that will not idle without revving up or dies as soon as you cut the throttle. It's a can of worms kind of thing really. If the HSN is way off, then it will affect the overall running, but I would have through that each carb needle is most significant in it's individual speed range. I think this is a bit of a matter of opinion and what works for each engine. Once you have it basically running well right across the range you can fine tune HSN and LSN endlessly to seek the perfect tune. Must admit, though, if it is stalling at high revs the top end tune must be quite a bit out. I would suggest checking hte manual for the base setting for hte HSN, then put it back to that and tune from there. Don't assume the thing came with the right base setting anywhere....I have made that mistahe before

Er....not sure about Q1...but Q2 is easier! You can get chargers that work off a 12V car battery to charge NiCad's etc. but these are using the car battery to power a purpose built battery charger designed to run off a 12V supply. If you have one, and it is able to handle the size of batery in your starter box, then you can do it. If not, attaching a 12V battery directly to charge your starter box one is a) doomed to probabe failure, likely to result in the messy expiry of your battery, c) all of the above! The lack of any voltage regulation is a bad thing when charging a battery. Personally, I have never tried it...and never will!

Hypers seem popular, but I am a big fan of my XT2. Had it for a while, and it ran well from day 1. Out of hte box it was set up nicely for break in, and all I had to do was tweak the LSN and HSN a bit. Idle was perfect from the start. Aside from wearing out the gears on the first clutch bell, nothing has broken. Still has it's original pullstart Also has the advantage of being imported by Ripmax, which means Hobbystore keeps all the spares on the shelf ...and they are 5 minutes up the road from me

Good luck with your next buggy. This is a great hobby when the buggy runs

Long grass would tempt me to say Monster Truck ..but that's a matter of taste and driving style. The things look awfully unstable in the corners. Go for a decent 1/8 buggy with a .28 motor and you will soon flatten the grass out or a truck to roll over it! In your budget there is a decent choice too.

Very much a matter of personal opinion. I don't like EP cars as I can't be bothered with all teh batteries etc. and love the smell and sound of a nitro engine. For your budget... petrol power is out. Bear in mind the extra cost of a nitro startup when deciding what to buy. You will need fuel, a glowstarter, a failsafe and probably a recharchable pack and charger to power the servos. This will be on top of hte cost of the car. Additionally, to buy a decent car, you are really looking at spending around

This thing must be driving you absolutely crazy. I admire your patience for not just parking it in the middle of a busy main road and walking away. Assuming you have the carb set at 1mm open on idle, and that all is well with the rest of the car, you may end up having to go back and re-tune from basic. The car was not trying to move at idle, so idle speed is not too high, and nothing is binding as you rolled the car with no issues. The fact that a change to the idle settings improved things suggests that there is a need to re-tune ( again..... ) Also, it took a lot of pulling on the pull-start to get it going every time. Once I prime mine, they usually start or try to start within half a dozen pulls. My ST1 can be a pig to start when hot and needs the throttle trim up a tad or use of the auxiliary throttle control system ( son...hold the throttle open a bit for dad....thanks) I start my tuning with getting a stable idle then work from there, but you need to get the motor warmed up first. Changing a glow-plug can result in a need to re-tune especially if you tuned to the old one.

I think the camera being on the ground doesn't help the clarity. Can you get someone else to hold it at a better height to film it? I can't see much by way of smoke, but if you can see it with the eye then it may well just be the camera angle making it hard to see.

Motor sounded good, but may be running a tad lean on full throttle. I couldn't see much by way of a smoke trail in the vid in a straight line, though there was some on the donuts... might want to richen it up a fraction on the HSN. Better to be slightly rich than lean.

The .28 motor will give you noticably more punch than the .21 sized equivalent. Should go well. Also, whilst I have never owned a Hyper, there are lots of people on here who do own them...so practical advice should be easy to come by if you get stuck with the thing at a later stage. Should provide a lot of fun once you have it broken in and tuned. For the tuning stage, there is a useful flowchart on here that really helped me get the low and midrange dialed in on my ST1 : http://www.rcnitrota...g-flowchart.pdf

I don't think the glowplug would improve acceleration. More likely poor midrange performance is down to the carb tune. You say it takes longer to 'get screaming' which implies that it does eventually. As long as the glowplug is in good shape I doubt that's the issue. Assuming it idles well and runs well at high speed, you may need to adjust the LSN to improve pickup. It's hard to diagnose something like this, as lots of factors can be at play. It may be the motor in your maverick is less powerful, the gearing may be different, the tune could be wrong. You don't say if this has always been like this or something that has recently started. Also, the temperature outside can have an impact. The glowplug may be worn or need replacing.... Having a few spare glowplugs is never a bad thing anyway since they are pretty cheap compared to the other things you can break on an RC car

I can appreciate the desire to build a buggy yourself, and the pleasure of seeing a buggy that you bolted together from a kit of parts. In the main, though, that's not how things tend to go. Most of the 'kit' buggies out there are aimed at the top end of the scale for racers who would only have ripped out the motor, servo, radio gear etc. so the manufacturers sell them without any of this. They still are not cheap as what they DO include is going to be aimed at a serious racer. You would be better off getting a good ready to run package which you would still need to do some tweaking and tuning on ( so there is still opportunity to play about with the build ) but would be a lot cheaper for a first buggy and less prone to complications. Nitro takes a bit of getting used to, and requires a fair amount of owner input to get the best out of it but it is worth the effort. There are plenty of good 1/8 scale off road buggies in the