Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Team XRay M18MT Kit Build and First Impressions

Friday, April 24th, 2009

I recently acquired a Team XRay M18MT + Power Pack kit from Hobby Extreme in Red Deer. (Thanks Tim!)  It is the old model that still had the Pro-Line Cadillac Escalade body and Masher style tires as opposed to the new kit that has the Pro-Line Hummer body and step-pin style tires. Everything else in this kit is absolutely identical to the kits sold today. 

I’d previously built an XRay M18 Pro so the build was very familiar.  XRay uses the same basic parts for their entire 1/18th (M18) line.  The main differences between each model is the main chassis, a-arms, and driveshafts.  All XRay M18s use the same adjustable ball differential/shaft drive set up that makes for a very smooth drivetrain and snappy acceleration.  The M18T and M18MT have very few differences.  The M18MT differs by having larger wheels than the M18T, four shock towers and eight shocks as opposed to having two shock towers and four shocks on the M18T, and the M18MT forgoes the roll bars so as not to affect ground clearance. 

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Posted in Bashing, Offroad, Reviews, XRay | 3 Comments »

Duratrax Evader BX

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

Duratrax Evader BX

I didn’t purchase this car with high expectations. I expected a mid level electric RC car that I’d have to put some decent coin into to make it work the way I wanted to. I was wrong.

I opened the box to be pleasantly surprised by the quality of the build and the parts. Admittedly I didn’t do the research I should have before buying this car so all the extras came as a surprise to me. The car already had all the common upgrades installed:

  • CVD Driveshafts
  • Aluminum Oil Shocks
  • Adjustable Ball Differential
  • Adjustable Slipper Clutch
  • FM Receiver and Controller designed by Futaba
  • Ball Bearings all the way around
  • Metric Hex Screws

And a few other things that are probably worth mentioning but I haven’t thought of them yet.

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Posted in Duratrax, Offroad, Reviews | 5 Comments »

Tamiya Rover Mini Cooper

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

So one of my latest project has been building a Tamiya Rover Mini Cooper RC.  This was a definite change from all my other RCs as this is not only the first on-road RC I’ve purchased, but the first one I had to build from scratch. 

The instructions had six different languages in them so space was certainly limited leaving the written instructions fuzzy.  Fortunately for me, the illustrations were excellent and easy to follow.  It took me about six hours from start to finish to complete the project including paint.  Originally I had planned to paint the RC the same colors as my real MINI Cooper but I decided to wait until I get my hands on the BMW MINI body instead of the classic Rover Mini body. 

The Tamiya Rover Mini uses a M-03 platform which is unique in it’s front wheel drive design.  This allows for incredible steering however acceleration is adversely affected by the weight shifting to the back wheels, not unlike a full size FWD vehicle.  To compensate for this I will be replacing the rear shocks with stiffer springs to transfer the weight back to the front of the vehicle under acceleration. The front wheel drive design does allow for a predictable level of understeer and makes the vehicle much easier to steer than any of my other RCs which are all rear wheel drive.

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Posted in Onroad, Reviews, Tamiya | 2 Comments »