cbr6fs

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XERUN-10-5T-Combo-XS2A-Xtreme-60A-ESC-Stock-Racing-/380347620835?pt=AU_Toys_Hobbies_Radio_Controlled_Vehicles&hash=item588e7c1de3 About the same price and the best Esc i've yet to across, including those twice the price

No hating. Just out of the cars i've tried drifting with so far both the TT01 and Sprint 2 are the worst. They still drift and a decent driver can still be fairly competitive with them, but by the time you've got them with a good consistent and reliable setup you could have bought something better. On the good side the balance is pretty good, a bit of extra weight at the front helps though. On the bad side they feel very loose when new, after a few hours drifting they start to feel even more sloppy. Last i checked they were around

All good valid points As a buyer looking to buy one of these a few months after they're released though i'm of the view, the more options the better. Oddly enough for me (i'm a pretty extreme example of a form over function kinda guy) even if the Axial wasn't as good as the HPI (but close) as long as i knew about the problem and there was a known fix, i think i'd still go for it. Didn't put me off the XR10 after all

Absolutely agree 100%. The odds i'd be on the Apache to be better made, because as you rightly say this (to my knowledge) is the first foray into high speed cars for Axial (Wraith doesn't count in my eyes), where as the D8/Vorza are well bashed and seem to stand up well. Only problems i've heard of on the Vorza is the Esc's bursting into flames. Is it the D8 that had the crap battery location with the pinion only mm's away from the battery pack? If so going with the Vorza layout has solved that. Looking again at the pics the Apache seems to run the exact same diffs as the Vorza. Have these been holding up well? Be really really interesting to see how these compare, both in performance and the actual price they hit the shops at. Wonder what Traxxas have in works as well. Cheers Mark

Just been looking into these more closely, gotta say i'm having a real tough time. Absolutely no doubt i much prefer the Axial looks wise, but HPI have a fair bit of experience in builds like this Axial doesn't. Managed to find 2 pics at similar angles, to my mind the Axial does look more scale.

Tough to get a clear pic on the vid. It does like very very slightly different from that angle though. It looks like the roof scoops are gone and possibly the rear window section is a noggin smaller. Might just be the angle of the video though. If not the same shell it looks to be very very similar.

I agree. Even without accountants everything is still a compromise in engineering. As an example lets say you find that the driveshafts are weak, so you then increase their diameter. This then puts more stress on the diff and gearbox, so you can't go too thick on the driveshafts otherwise you cause these other components in the drivetrain to fail. Aluminium is great for some parts, but it has no give so plastic is better in some areas as it bends and flexes. As i say it's all a compromise, nothing is indestructible. If we as users use a noggin of good old common sense we can at least be honest with ourselves and decide if a failure was because of a design flaw or down to us as users using outside it's design envelope. Saying that though I still by my statement that if a company produces a RC car it should be fit for purpose. That purpose in this case to be driven off-road and used on reasonably sized jumps without NEEDING aftermarket components. HPI's track record has been pretty good, so i'm fairly confident it will be fit for purpose. The Axial one i'm less confident about. Either way though i'm not confident enough to preorder either. I'll hang on for 6 months or so after there is a good deal of experienced opinion out there. Cheers Mark

Of course for us the buyer any failure when we are out is unacceptable, it's really only after a few days of contemplation we can start to be honest about if we think we used it outside it's designed parameters. My Firestorm was a prime example, right after it happened i was properly miffed, it was only after a few days i really thought about the crash and looked at the broken parts that i realised that it was my error rather than a design flaw. My XR10 is the complete opposite, it eat it's gears within 5 mins of very very mild use. Personally i was/am mega miffed, but in the crawling world most folks just seem to have given up in expecting a well designed truck. Not only is it rare to see a miffed user complaining, on many forums anyone that dares to offer any negative comments are shot down. On her it's a great balance though between fan boys and honest opinions. BTW i do agree with you that RPM make some great products. My stock ERevo arms failed on the first bash, 8 months use on the RPM arms and still no problems. I'd still much prefer the Apache or Exo (depending on which i buy) to have decent arms from the off rather than having to buy RPM ones. Depends on the car though. The ERevo for example should be built for 6S, put 6S through it in stock form though and it breaks quicker than a supermodels ankle in 18" platforms. You also have some cars like the Blitz which with stock motor and Esc you'd really struggle to get enough speed to break anything. I think most of us her are honest enough with ourselves and have enough experience to have a decent opinion on if a failure was our fault or a design flaw. Even if we're wrong on popular models the quantity of users out there give a great cross section. A good example of this was last week when a guy on here said his ERevo wasn't steering right, there are enough ERevo owners on here to say if this is a known common problem. Fingers crossed the Axial performs and lasts as well as it looks, if not then i'll go for this truck and run the gauntlet of HPI "customer service" by far the worst i've come across in the 25 odd years i've been interested in RC.

Has it really got THAT bad that people have given up all expectations of getting something that works well out of the box, it's a damn shame if that is the case. Of the top of my head i can think of a few of my RC's that need no hop up's at all, the Cyclone is one, the Firestorm works great stock, but does need hopping up if you keep driving into things. Me Blitz was pretty fantastic with just the motor and Esc changed, likewise there is not that much i've changed on my ERevo. Can't think of a RC i've not hopped up, but that's more a case of me wanting more performance or perceived reliability.

Surely the ideal is to have a car that doesn't need any bits, be them from RPM or anyone else I will be buying either one of these or the Axial, looks wise i prefer the Axial but i'll wait and see which is tougher and performs better before i hand over my cash. Either way i really really hope i don't need to upgrade anything, if i do then i hope it's only the servo, motor and Esc at worst. Cheers Mark

That is a nice shell, thing to remember though is that shells are pretty much a consumable item, especially if your drifting with friends. I'm on my 6th shell now, so your better off buying a chassis that does the job, then buying the shell you want separate. Even if you buy the kit, if you drive hard and often it'll be unlikely the shell will see 6 months out I do love the Golf shell though, one of the best scale drifters i've seen was a Golf. That guy has mega talent, wish i had half his patience Cheers Mark

Aye we tried this type of cone first, it certainly makes a obvious and well laid out course, problem is though even if you ever so slightly clip one they move, to the point where we couldn't use them even on very windy days. So you end up spending more time putting the cones back in place than you do drifting. With those discs i linked to you can drive over the bugger and they don't move, so: 1/ You don't have to keep moving them back inti place 2/ You don't damage or even scratch your car when you do hit them. Cheers Mark

Man these look to be taking off now. Gotta say though, based 100% on looks alone i prefer the Axial. The rear just looks wrong on that. Interesting times though, as long as these manufacturers can keep the shell, chassis and component strength and weight to a minimum, then the more scale the better. Weird that they're getting a drifter to advertise a SCT/Baja style truck though.

Much appreciated Gary thanks No doubt (at least from the pics) the looks are there, still not sure about the 4 seater layout, looks ok from some angles and a bit awkward at others. Either way i'm eager to see and drive one, and i've not had that on a RC car for many many years

Bloody hell, that's a LOT of money for what should be a scale SCT. Still it's in a market by itself so it'll be interesting in seeing if it sells at that. Wise words

What a load of old tosh. You have never seen the car, you've never even seen a video of it running, you've seen no detailed pics and have absolutely no idea how strong it is. So to judge it is absolutely pointless as you have no information, never mind enough to form an opinion. It'll be what ever it is, we'll just have to wait and see some videos and tests. My guess is, someone in Axial saw the Losi XXX-SCB liked it, so designed a competitor. After saying that though there is no such class as a scale SCT or scale buggy, so we have absolutely no idea how well it'll handle or how tough it'll be. To put a spanner in the works of your opinion though, my mates Wraith has taken an absolute beating and it's still going strong, ohhh he also jumps it So you can have fairly good scale and pretty tough.

Sounds great, did you snap and videos?

Problem here is all crawlers are solid link axle, this is great for crawling over rocks but very very bad for speed off-road. I drove one of those Wraiths the other week and although modified to be faster than my Blitz we ended up using the Wraiths batteries in my Blitz as we got bored with it bounding around and falling over even before the pack died. So you really need to pick either a solid link axle car like the Wraith, or other crawlers, or an independent suspension car like most other buggies, monster trucks etc. I'm also trying to think of 1 thing articulation would be useful other than rock crawling? Can't think of anything. Even when rock crawling too much articulation is not good. IMO you need to choose between either a basher, in the flavour of a monster truck (ERevo, Savage etc) SCT (Blitz, Slash etc) or Buggy (Ve8, Vorza etc). Or a crawler (Wraith, SCX etc etc) As getting a truck to do both is too much of a compromise.

Good on ya for having a go It's not like you'll be making up links on weekly basis, but it only needs a few chassis or steering alterations (where you would have had to buy new links) though and not only will you have had more fun making your own, you'll have saved some money. Win win The Revo steering eyes come at 4mm and are tough as old boots, i'm using them on my XR10 and they hold up great. Let us know how you get on Cheers Mark

Looks the part, but Axial's track record ain't exactly good recently. Lets hope it's better than the Wraith and XR10.

If you fancy getting your hands dirty then it's not that hard to make your own. Something around 5mm in bar diameter http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-STAINLESS-STEEL-ROUND-BAR-ROD-5mm-x-250mm-304-/160662133617?pt=UK_BOI_Metalworking_Milling_Welding_Metalworking_Supplies_ET&hash=item2568359b71 If you'll need to bend it, then something like aluminium of brass would be better than stainless steel as it's easier to form into the shape you want (within reason, curves to tight will shear both aluminium and brass if not worked correctly) M4 die http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M4-Nominal-Dia-20mm-OD-Machine-Hand-Circular-Screw-Die-/390354734491?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae2f48d9b Plus a hacksaw and 30 mins If you want to make life even easier you could always select threaded bar, then just cut it to length. Only worry there is making sure nothing is binding against the unused thread as it is extremely abrasive. You could even use delrin if your not planning on being too hard on the truck. Cheers Mark

Very very nice, i'm running Exotek chassis's on both my Cyclones and they're a quality chassis. Real shame they couldn't have done something with the battery mount though.

You need to get a wriggle on then as they've been discontinued so it's really a case of until stocks last.