Haven’t seen this posted anywhere, so thought I’d share. It looks like Traxxas has a new version of the 1/16 Summit on the way! Looking through all the details, it appears to be identical to the current 1/16 Summit VXL except for the radio and ESC/Motor. This new version will come with the Traxxas AM radio and the Titan 12T 550 motor and XL-2.5 ESC! This is the same motor as some of the Traxxas 1/10th scale vehicles! It is still all waterproof and will be able to take a serious bashing.
Why a new version when there is already a brushless VXL version? My guess is to save us people on a budget about $100!

I’d tell you to hit the Traxxas web site for more info, but they don’t have this one listed yet. But after breaking the news here, expect it to be up on their site VERY soon, that’s usually how it goes.

I have seen the top of the mountain, and it is good! When first unboxing the Traxxas Summit, one word comes to mind, BIG. Big wheels, big tires and a big suv body. Just looking at the Summit, it looks like it can go anywhere and do anything, and that is exactly what Traxxas built it for.

The Canyon A tires look like they would grab on any kind of surface. Combine that with the T-Lock remote locking differentials and the transmitter-operated High-Low transmission, and you have one serious basher!

Looking at the outside of the truck, you have 10 l.e.d. lights on the bumpers (4 in the front and 6 in the rear) that give an even more realistic look. The ExoCage body held up well to our brand of testing. This included running upside down across a parking lot at full throttle. Under the body is just as amazing. A massive Titan 775 Motor moves the high-low transmission. And the waterproof EVX-2 esc and 5 servos means the bashing don’t stop because it’s raining or snowing. Yes I said 5 servos! There is a lot going on under the hood of this thing, how well does it all work?

When we took this monster out there was no stopping the fun we had. The high gear (25:1) had it doing 22mph on the supplied twin 7 cell packs. Not that fast to us, but when you flip the switch on the 4 channel TQ 2.4GHz radio and go to low gear (70:1) you can easily pull a small child across the floor.

Unlike many of the vehicles we have been testing lately, this beast was going to have no problems running in grass, leaves, or anything else we could throw in front of it. The world has been so caught up in the short course scene, it’s nice to get back to the bashing roots! The Summit made quick work of the leaf piles we had laying around, and it was fun to experiment with locking and unlocking the differentials to see what we could to do get unstuck when those times arose. The low and high speed shifting was a interesting feature, and we did a little crawling on the curbs and rocks. Out on a trail somewhere is like an idea situation for the truck. Speed when you need it, and power when you need it more. How often you actually end up in that sort of situation all depends on you and where you live.

On the track we could see the effects of locking and unlocking the diffs as we traveled through the air off the jumps. It was the difference between having some control in the air, or just goes nose down. This truck was not really built for the track, but it was fun to scare the people driving their little ‘speed bumps’ around as we would come barreling down the whoop sections. The suspension worked well and really gives the truck a soft ride.

Back outside it was in its element. The snow was coming down and there was fun to be had! Throwing roosters of snow off the massive 7″ tires and blasting across the snow banks was a lot of fun. All that bashing did make us want a little more speed, you can never have enough speed right? We’ll save that subject for another write up.

If you’re looking for a go anywhere basher, look no further then the Traxxas Summit. It’s built for the trails, for the streams, for the mud, dirt and snow!

Overall I’d have to say this truck feels like it was overlooked. Maybe the top speed was a turn off for some folks, or they were unsure if it’s supposed to be a monsters truck, or a crawler. Maybe it was the price. Five servo’s alone can add up quickly. Taking a step back, it does a little bit of everything, and it does it well. If you have some trails you like to bash at, or a camp site or something, this is the vehicle you are going to want to have with you.

As with all of our stuff, if you see us at a bash, stop by and check out the vehicles we have with us. We may let you take a test drive, and at the very least get you some stickers!

SUMMARY

Time To Bash – 8.5/10 – Charge the supplied batteries and go bash!

Workability – 9.0/10 – Slightly based on the Revo means this truck will be easy to work on.

Car Show Rating – 9.5/10 -10 LED lights, cool ExoCage body, massive wheels and tires! This thing looks great!

Bash-A-Bility – 8/10 – A tough go anywhere truck, just wish it had a little more speed.

Big Squid Rating – 9.0/10 - Tentacles.. The price is a bit high, but you get what you pay for. Traxxas quality and reliability! It’s a truck that you will have a hard time putting away at the end of the day, and your day won’t end because it’s broke.

America’s iconic rc manufacture, Associated, did a great job of teasing before the release of their SC8 short course truck. This week, AE started the teasing on their new SC10. Only thing, the teasing this time sucked. Come on, a simple banner saying SC10? Even my illegal immigrant Mexican neighbor knew AE was coming out with a Slash killer, just a matter of time and at what price point. Spy photo’s are a great tease, but a banner stating the models designation is just fluff. So while this tease sucks, it’s nice to know AE is going to try to be the first to release a Slash clone. Sweet, in before the flood I guess.

Wow, even I didn’t think Trinity was going to catch the backlash that they are with their Li-po warmer. That thing might not (read- should not) make it to dealer shelves. Who was the brain surgeon that put the warm-up temp at 140 degrees? Achtung- you really want to avoid 140 or greater temps with lithium based batteries. Yet, they are making a device that purposely warms them to a borderline temp? I don’t think even Johnnie Cochran would take the defense on this one. Oh have the mighty have fallen, just how much lower can they go?

Btw, there is only two ways of stopping all this bulls**t Li-po warming, bumping, tap-shorting, ect. Eliminate the need for trying to enhance the output of these cells. How do you do that? First, eliminate cell count limits, ie- make 3S, 4S, 5S, 6S LEGAL. Secondly, eliminate all this spec motor bulls**t. If open Kv motors are run, there is No Need to warm/bump/tap Li-po batteries. So if you are a sanctioning body, and you have some stupid 2S cell count limit and .5 turn spec rules, YOU are the ones to blame for all the dangerous crap racers are doing to their Li-po’s. Step up to the plate, make the smart choice and change the rules before somebody’s track gets burnt to the ground (maybe with some of your “members” inside of it).

The print mags are hurting. Not just in the RC world, but universally. The future is the internet, either hop on wfo, or go under. Notice that this months RCCA is 30 pages thinner? RCCA is the icon of RC print rags, but even that icon is having a tough go in these times. If it’s not pressure from internet sites like BigSquidRC, it’s the crap economy. What a blatant sign of the times when the big bull of the RC print mags is shrinking. It’s elegantly simple, who cares to read in print what they already read on the net 2 months ago?

I thought the Traxxas Summit looked awesome at I-Hobby. Had all the makings of a great crawler, right? Well, seems the Summit is having an identity crisis. The crawler guys have no love for it, as it’s not “core” enough for them, yet the basher guys would rather buy/drive the E-Revo. Traxxas hit the mark with the Slash (hell they created the mark with that one), but seems they just missed it with the Summit. No pity for those guys though, I’m certain they’ve got more aces up their sleeve than Les “Worm” Murphy.

Guess what? Pro-Line came out with something really trick this week- the Carnage body for the Slash/Slayer. You haven’t seen it? Damn, get on the internet more! It’s a body that features fall away fenders, so when that noob behind you holds it pinned and takes you out in the next corner after you pass him, your fender falls off just like in real racing. Ok, it might be a little on the dorky side, but it’s trick in the realistic/scale context. And hell ya, I must get one of these. I can’t wait to call up a half dozen of my favorite Slash driving buddies and have Slash demolishing derby while using these bodies. Fun, fun, and more fun, exactly what this hobby/industry needs to make it through this recession.

That’s it for this week Squid fans. Catch you again next week. Till then, support your LHS and local tracks!

Your Cub Reporter

What was the hottest news at the show (besides the BigSquidRC and IMEX booth babes)? It was a hard call this year. I think the general consensus would have to go to the Traxxas Crawler. It was on display in all it’s glory, and looked really gnarly. Although, in my opinion, it looked a little more “monster truck” than “crawler”. Any which way, it was big, had huge tires, and looked like it could go over or through anything that might get in it’s path. Will it be more well received than the Slash? No way, but as with anything the Golden Child Traxxas touches, it will be a steady seller.

Traxxas had their first entries into the “mini” market also on display. The Mini E-Revo and Mini Slash were both shown under glass because they weren’t even plastic models, they were foam mock-ups. First time I looked at them, I thought they may have been shrunk down models of their larger offerings just for show. But, they are actually going to sell these. The rc world has been waiting for Traxxas to jump into that market for years, and during this time, 18th scale has gone from “hot” to “has been”. These two trucks are destined to pump much needed life into the “mini” market, and become all time favorites of indoor bashers. 18th scale trucks tend to be very durable, have insane run times, and are a blast to drive in your friends driveway or garage. With a Traxxas stamp on top of one, they should set new standards for all the above.

You couldn’t move two feet without seeing a Traxxas Slash at the show. I had personally totally dismissed the Slash when introduced, but it has become the “next T-maxx”. It’s everywhere, and when you watch them being driven, you just have to have one. At most local tracks, rules are strict, keeping them nearly stock. But bashers are having none of it, bolting on every hop-up they can bolt on. A company by the name of Xtreme was showing aluminum chassis’s, towers, and even hub adaptors to run 8th scale buggy wheels/tires on the Slash. The guys at the local track will tire of running bone stock sooner or later, so I can’t wait to see what direction the aftermarket takes with Slash hop-ups. Also can’t wait to see Associated and Losi’s rebuttal’s.

You also couldn’t move two feet without running into a booth selling brushless and li-po. The “new technology bastard” is now being sold by Everyone. It’s amazing satisfying to watch all the “old school” companies who hated this stuff when it was first introduced sell their soul to the devil while peddling it to keep their doors open now.

Sign of the times? Booths featuring 8th scale gas truggies were getting very little attention, yet a booth with a bone stock Slash in it had people stopping and taking pictures.

Btw, pretty much every year for as long as I can remember, the Hobbico/Great Planes/Tower Hobby booth had the prime real estate right at the entrance of the show. This year, there was a full size Traxxas CORR truck parked in front of it.

There were many large companies that didn’t come to the show. Big hitters like Kyosho, HPI ect didn’t make the trip out to the midwest. That didn’t keep exhibitor numbers down, as there seemed to be ten little companies show up for every one of the big guys that stayed at home.

BigSquidRC didn’t just get their name on the map at I-Hobby, nor did they just get their name on the radar of the mainstream dead tree magazines, they showed they are a legit, uber urban hip, and trend setting/digital era media source. The combination of hot booth babes, great view numbers for advertisers (with very reasonable cost per view rates), and very professionally done track demo’s, made BigSquidRC the break out hit of the show.

While walking the show on Sunday, I asked around about attendance numbers. Seems Thursday dealer day was nearly a ghost town, Friday dealer day was steady, Saturday consumer day was extremely heavy, and Sunday seemed about an average turnout. It’s obvious the show organizers have worked really hard, both to provide lots of activities at little to no cost for consumers to enjoy, and also with/for exhibitors to get them good deals on booth spaces and demo areas. The 08′ show might very well have had a record number of exhibitors, and from looking at the demo’s, that might have been a record as well. Nearly all the times were sold out for the BigSquidRC demo track, but there were also tons of airplane demo’s, monster truck racing, tractor pulling, and robot fighting going on. So props to the show organizers, they have their chit together, and put on one hell of a good show. It’s hard to pull record amounts of exhibitors and consumers in such a rough economy, but they pulled it off. All the exhibitors seemed to have gotten their money’s worth, and the consumers looked happy as larks.

To conclude, many say the day of the trade show is dead. While I might agree that they are on their way out the door, the 2008 I-Hobby show proved that they aren’t dead yet, and do serve a purpose, perhaps an even more important purpose in a bad economy. It pumps up those juices (and opens up the wallet) of not only the consumers that attend, but also pumps up those working in the industry.

Thanks for reading, read your BigSquid every day, and support those friendly folks down at your local hobby shops.

Your Le Cub Reporter