Me again!
Thanks for all the replies to my original email, most helpful...
So I scratched that itch an bought one...
I'm very happy, the pictures you see of it don't convey the size of the thing when you see it in real life. And certainly in motion, the sheer heft of the thing running at speed is a sight to behold!
I have had many RC cars over the years and now everything feels like a toy compared to it.
As my mate would say it's a bit "plastic-fantastic" when it comes to the components. But they all seem to be fairly well moulded and glass filled where it counts. Overall it's changed my perception of Traxxas from "they make barely hobby grade RC" to something more positive. Things like a tube central drive shaft are great examples of using real engineering to achieve something lighter than the standard heavy steel dog bones used in say 1/8 buggies.
I bought the bluetooth link module for the TX and although the TX is clearly built to a budget, it seems OK. Being able to put the car into training mode easily is great so my son who is 7 can also drive the car safely.
So overall very positive.
I tried the self righting feature, but on the 4th go, it lunched the pinion and the spur. The spur has lost 90% of it teeth and the pinion 1 or 2. Looks like the pinion came loose, slid down the motor shaft and was partially engaged with just a few mm of overlap when looking from above onto the spur/pinion mesh. So I'm now running a spare 18T pinion with the 46T spur that it comes with. And have thread locked the pinion..(lesson learned) . I'm still slightly wary of using the self righting function..Is it known to cause issues? Seems like it's puts a lot of stress on the drive chain...
Also, a few times after I have stopped the car say 50m away, the throttle doesn't respond when I then try to start moving again? The TX has good power and I can see the wheels turning, so the RX is receiving OK. It's only 50m, is the stock setup junk for range? After a few seconds the whole thing works again? That would make me think some sort of thermal overload, but it only happens at longer distances, never when it's close to me. Any ideas?
I would like to get a 50T spur. The Traxxas ones seemed to be made of some weird metal, maybe sintered? What mod1 spurs are better?
I am running HobbyKing 6000mAh 4s x 2 in the car with EC5 connectors. Batteries are good, plenty of punch, long run times and good value. I wanted higher capacity batteries, but the price of the HK ones means it's better to buy 2 sets of these than say MaxAmps, which are eye wateringly expensive!
Thanks
M