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It is no secret I hate nitro, so I found it quite “interesting” that Brian would drop a nitro car on my desk for review (then he RAN out of my office). The new Duratrax Nissan GT-R has all the makings of a success, it has a big engine, a 2 speed tranny, and ultra hot scale looks. Did we have a good time with it, or did I end up smashing it to bits with a hammer out of frustration? Lets find out…

From: Duratrax
Direct Link: Nissan GT-R
Unboxing Pictures: Unboxing the Duratrax Nissan

Review By: Cubby
Pics By: Cubby

Specs:

RTR or Kit: RTR
Age: 14+
2wd or 4wd: 4wd
Shaft or Belt: Bones
Electric or Gas: Nitro
Waterproof: No
Scale: 1/10th
Length: 17.32″
Width: 8.46″
Height: 5.31″
Weight: 4.1 lbs
Wheelbase: 10.2″
Clutch: 3 shoe
Transmission: 2 speed
Motor: .18 ST18-S Super Tigre
Radio: Duratrax 2.4 GHz
Differential: Rear only, spool in front
Slipper Clutch: None
Driveshafts: Bones
Shocks: Plastic bodied, oil filled
Servo Saver: In rack
Screws: Phillips
Bearings: Full set
Tires: Duratrax street tread
Battery: None included
Part Number: DTXD51**
Top Speed (measured by BSRC): 34 mph
Warranty: 90 days limited plus Stress-Tech 12 months
Street Price: $299

Primary Competition: Traxxas Nitro 4-Tec, Associated TC3 Nitro

What’s Needed To Complete: 6 cell Ni-MH for roto-start, 4 AA cells for receiver pack, 4 AA cells for transmitter, fuel, glow igniter

Build Quality: The quality of assembly looked good. Nothing was binding, shocks were not leaking, tires were well glued, camber settings were in the ballpark, etc.

Test Drivers: Cubby, Brian, and Iron Mike

Test Venues: CostCo parking lot, city park, and a cul-de-sac

Set-up Notes: We used a Duratrax Onyx 3000 mah Ni-Mh pack for the roto-start, Venom AA’s for the car and transmitter, and O’Donnell 20% nitro fuel.

Turning: The Duratrax had some push at speed, but could turn on a dime with a tap of the brake. Pounding on the gas rewarded the driver with some serious, yet controllable, drifting action. The stock tires had good grip helping the Nissan GT-R maintain good corner speed. Overall, no major complaints and a blast to throw around in the corners.

Jumping: Yes, of course we jumped the Nissan GT-R, it’s a regular part of our testing regimen, regardless of vehicle type. And just like you suspected, it is an on-road car, so it jumps very poorly (but is a LOT of fun to do!). If you plan on doing a lot of jumping skip the Nissan and buy a dedicated off-roader.

Bumps/Whoops: We didn’t drive the Nissan “off-road” as such, but we did drive it on some pretty rough pavement, gravel, and smooth hard packed dirt. The Nissan handled cracks in the pavement well, but you could hear the back of the chassis slapping on bigger hits. Still, the suspension soaked up what it was intended for quite well.

On-Road: This is the forte of the Duratrax Nissan GT-R. If you are looking for an absolutely gnarly nitro on-road machine, it truly fits the bill. It corners well, it has an animal of an engine, and it just flat out hauls ass on a large paved surface. It doesn’t traction roll, and it’s a blast to drift at high speeds. Very fun.

Grass: Yes, we tried the Nissan GT-R in the grass, and no you won’t want to. Its ride height is simply too low, it just can’t move in the grass (at all).

Tires: The tires were a relatively soft compound yielding great traction and that must be appreciated. However, when mated up to a monster of an engine they wear quite quickly. We burnt through all four tires in two quarts of fuel, you’ll want to pick up spares for the long haul. The stock inserts are a bit soft but usable.

Power: I don’t drive much nitro, in fact, very little. However, I don’t have to drive a lot to know the .18 powered Nissan GT-R has good yank. When properly tuned it burns all 4 tires off from a dead stop and keeps burning them off till it hits top speed. It blows through first gear in short order then second gear kicks in like a warp drive. It revs quickly, and has more than enough yank to keep a smile on your face.

Radio: The included radio worked well for us, range was great and we had nothing but glitch free performance. However, its ergo’s weren’t as good as some of the recent RTR radios we’ve tested. The wheel to trigger relationship was good, but the trigger was a bit too large and the wheel was plastic covered, not foam.

Broken Parts: The Nissan GT-R can get going real fast in a real small area, thus we ended up slapping a lot of hard objects with it. The good news is nothing broke during “normal” testing, and we hit a lot of stuff real hard with it. Only when we tagged a curb full speed during the torture part of our testing did we finally manage to break the car. We ended up tearing off the left front wheel, but at that kind of speed I highly doubt many (if any) cars would have walked away unscathed.

Misc Notes:

The Duratrax came in nice packaging with an easy to read manual.

A clear protective coating came over the body to keep it in pristine condition during shipping. Nice.

We weren’t a fan of the tiny body clips.

The Nissan comes with a plastic pipe. It’s relatively quiet for a nitro, quiet enough to run in the cul-de-sac without the neighbors freaking out.

The cut-out in the body for the exhaust exit didn’t line up with the actual pipe. We broke out the body scissors to correct the hole and keep a lot of unwanted exhaust gook out of the chassis area.

There were no holes provided for a glow igniter or the roto-start in the body. We busted out the body reamer and made some for easier access.

The second arm on the throttle/brake servo horn gets in the way of the receiver box lid, we cut ours off.

Our car wouldn’t start with the stock ultra-rich carb settings. We had to go a half turn leaner on the high speed and an eighth turn leaner on the low end for ours to even think about firing up. This still yielded an ultra-rich setting with engine temps around 110 F for break-in.

We ran O’Donnell 20% fuel and it seemed to work great.

Nothing actually “fell off” our car during testing. If you’ve driven much nitro, you’ll know that is actually an accomplishment. However, the rubber coupling on the exhaust header did come loose. Nitro cars really should come stock with a flanged header, this has been a problem since the beginning of time. Btw, when the coupling comes loose it causes the pipe to slide forward and bind up the steering on the Nissan.

The stock windows are a bit cloudy due to the clear sticker over them. We got out a hobby knife and removed this film for crystal clear windows.

Like most nitro engines, the Nissan really leans out when the tank is nearly empty. Resist the urge to keep driving, bring it in and fuel it up to keep temps in check.

Speaking of temps, we had great power at 220 F with our final carb settings. We ended up at about one and a half turns out on both the low and high speed settings (65 ambient, 400 ft above sea level, humidity 40%).

The brakes work ok on the Nissan, but the car could use more. For a car with Warp 9 power it needs brakes to haul it down in a hurry too.

You can drive the Nissan in a relatively small area, but then it’s just an exercise in trying to get slowed down before you slam something hard. The most fun to be had with the Duratrax Nissan GT-R is in a large open parking lot.

Do you remember what a PITA it was to properly set the shift point on a T-Maxx? No worries about that on the Nissan GT-R, the shift point was perfect out of the box.

We had issues with the stock receiver pack set-up. It worked fine for the first few tanks, but then had a short in it causing the car to lose electrical power (read- runaways are pretty gnarly on a car like this). The stock receiver pack consists of putting AA’s in a plastic holder, this is just begging for issues and I highly suggest you install a proper receiver pack before you do much driving with the car.

Our car turned tighter to the right than to the left. We had the travel maxed out but still couldn’t get enough throw for full turning both directions.

Did we mention the Nissan GT-R has a pretty insane power to weight ratio? Ya, it hauls, and more importantly, we had very few engine tuning issues during our testing period.

We experienced some “spider cracking” in the paint job on our review car. Not a lot, but some. Perhaps there was an issue at the factory while applying the paint.

The wing and rear view mirrors on our test machine did not get destroyed during testing, a nice surprise.

Best Mod Under $5: Spare glow plugs. Our stocker burnt up on the 3rd break-in tank, you should always keep a couple spares in your box.

Best Mod Over $5: Ditch the stock receiver pack set-up and switch, buy a real receiver pack to keep from having a dreaded runaway.

Summary:

Time To Bash: C You are looking at roughly an hour to charge up the roto-start pack, then perhaps a couple more hours breaking in the engine. The Duratrax doesn’t take longer to get going than another nitro vehicle, but it will take a few hours before you are up to full tilt.

Workability: B The Nissan is logically laid out and easy to work on, but we wish it came with hex hardware.

Car Show Rating: A The Nissan GT-R is the best looking Duratrax vehicle to ever hit the market, and overall one hot scale machine. The body, wheels and tires all look top notch. It looks so good you have to think long and hard if you really want to scratch it up by driving it.

Bash-A-Bility: B We did end up breaking the Nissan GT-R, but it withstood a lot of abuse with no issues.

Fun Factor: B Big power, 2 speeds, and good handling result is a machine that is a blast to drive.

Handling: B The Duratrax drives well, you can point and shoot it, or drift it all day long.

Value: A The Duratrax is $30 cheaper than the Associated TC3 Nitro and a whopping $160 cheaper than the Traxxas Nitro 4-Tec 3.3, yet performs at least as well. The Duratrax Nissan GT-R is the best value in its class.

Parts Availability: C Out of three local hobby shops none of them stock many Duratrax parts, and none had the parts we needed for repair. However, they were easily found, and in stock, on-line.

BigSquid Rating: B The Duratrax Nissan GT-R provided quite a nitro thrill at a very reasonable price point. If you are looking for the nitro experience, the Nissan GT-R is a solid car.

Monster trucks are the weapon of choice for a true basher, their large tires give them plenty of ground clearance for grass driving and driving over large clods of dirt. One of the latest entries in this product categories comes from Helion, a division of Firelands Group and an exclusive product at HobbyTown USA. We’ve been trying to destroy the new Helion Invictus 10MT for weeks now. Did we succeed? Read on…

From: Helion RC
Direct Link: Invictus 10MT
Unboxing Pictures: Unboxing the Invictus

Review By: Cubby
Pics By: Cubby

Specs:

RTR or Kit: RTR
Age: 14+
2wd or 4wd: 4wd
Shaft or Belt: Shaft
Electric or Gas: Electric
Waterproof: Yes
Scale: 1/10th
Length: 16.61″
Width: 13.27″
Wheelbase: 10.83″
Motor: Radient brushless, 540, 3500kv
Speed Controller: Non-sensored brushless, Radient Reaktor
Low Voltage Cut-off: Yes
Radio: Helion HRS-3.1, 2.4 GHz, 3 chan
Differential: 2 gear diffs
Slipper Clutch: No
Driveshafts: Bones
Shocks: Plastic bodies, oil filled
Servo Saver: Horn type
Screws: Phillips
Spur/Pinion Pitch: 32 pitch
Bearings: Yes
Tires: Helion chevron pattern, foam inserts
Battery: 8 cell, 1800 mah Ni-MH
Part Number: HLNA0248
Top Speed (measured by BSRC w/ 2S Lipo): 26 mph
Warranty: 90 days limited
Street Price: $290

Primary Competition: Traxxas Stampede 4×4

What’s Needed To Complete: Four AA batteries

Build Quality: We saw no leaking shocks, nothing was binding, no excessive flash, camber/toe settings were in the ballpark, everything appeared to have been assembled correctly.

Test Drivers: Cubby, Brian, Tim, Sam the Noob, and Iron Mike

Test Venues: RC Outlaws in Collinsville IL, Cliff Cave Park in Oakville MO, CostCo parking lot, and a backyard.

Set-up Notes: We ran the Invictus bone stock initially, then went to a 2S 6500 mah MaxAmps lipo with Traxxas connector adapter later in testing. We used a Hyperion 720iNet3 to charge both the stock pack and the MaxAmps.

Turning: Just like the rest of the Helion line-up the Invictus has a LOT of steering, in fact too much on high bite surfaces, and so much the truck is hard to drive in a straight line. The front end is overly planted making the rear very loose. In a typical corner the Invictus plants hard at turn-in and the rear starts sliding around.

Jumping: The Invictus is a backflip machine. Leave the gas pounded off a jump face and the Invictus loves to backflip, even on small jumps. If you are coming from 2wd or from 4wd with a center diff, the Invictus is lots of fun to backflip but for normal jumping the lack of a center diff makes the truck ultra sensitive to trigger input. A slight stab of the brakes on a 2wd barely nudges the front end down, on the Invictus a little brake drops the front like a brick. Otherwise, due to the large tires and decent suspension take offs and landings are a joy. The big tires and all the travel can soak up crazy amounts of airtime. For example, when jumping off a second story roof the suspension/tire combo soaked up the ultra high impact landings arguably better than many other vehicle we’ve recently tested.

Bumps/Whoops: The Invictus is a beast in the gnarly stuff. Once again those large diameter tires and ample wheel travel can soak up some very rough terrain. We found the spring and damping rates worked well with the chassis, just point it and pin it, it will blast through the chop like a champ.

On-Road: Overall, the over-steer of the Invictus makes it hard to drive on-road and in the corners the rear end likes to slide out. It certainly soaks up pot-holes and road-joints very well, but generally it was hard to drive. There is an upside, the Invictus can be made into a much better on-road machine with a few simple changes.

Grass: The Invictus drives quite well in grass. It has decent ground clearance and those chevron tires give just about the right amount of side-bite.

Tires: Obviously the stock tires are chevrons so they look scale (which is very cool in our book). For actual rc driving they weren’t bad. They give very good bite in mud and they are manufactured from a compound that lives a long time but isn’t rock hard. For their intended use on a monster truck the stock tires hit the mark quite well. The foams were right in the ballpark, not too soft nor too hard.

Power: The included Radient Reactor brushless system has decent overall power. It provides enough power to wheelie, backflip, and throw crazy roost. However… the stock power system cogs like crazy and it runs really hot. The Invictus is overgeared out of the box, and the stock battery pack is not capable of putting out enough current to quench its demands.

Even by simply holding the Invictus up in the air and hitting the gas it cogs and takes a long time to hit max rpm (and it gets worse when the wheels are actually on the ground). Stock, the power system just isn’t set-up for a vehicle of the rotating mass of the Invictus.

We did drive the Invictus multiple times with the stock set-up, meaning stock gearing and battery. The 8 cell Ni-MH ended up running even hotter than the motor (more on this later), proving the stock pack just isn’t up to the task it is being asked to do. When switching over to a lipo (that we know first hand can handle some pretty insane current demands), it still cogged more than we’d like to see, indicating that it was over geared or the brushless system just wasn’t up to the demands of the rotating mass involved.

To get down to what the truck actually drove like, all stock it coggs a lot and often times took a while to get moving (in both forward or reverse). Once actually moving, after its soft low end programming, for sure it had good yank. It had decent top end (although it couldn’t pull its entire gearing) and had enough mid-rang snap to make big jumps, blast up hills, etc. Going to a quality Lipo cut most of the issues out, still some cogging, but a lot more mid-range yank.

To boil it down, yes, you can drive the Invictus with the stock battery and gearing, but I would highly recommend dropping as many teeth on the pinion as will mesh up, and going directly to a quality 2S Lipo.

Radio: The stock Helion radio had great range and weight distribution. The trigger was of a decent size and was nicely located in relation to the grip and wheel. The wheel had a decent foam on it and all the spring rates felt perfect. Overall, a decent and very usable RTR transmitter.

Broken Parts: We did not break one part on the Helion Invictus, even after crazy/stupid abuse. However, we did have some issues. The first thing we do with a new test vehicle is do a mph test. That takes about 2 minutes then we start taking pictures. While we are taking pics we are somewhat cautious to not break the vehicle. So… halfway through the first pack while taking pictures the Invictus spit out one of its front driveshafts. Our local HobbyTown USA didn’t have one in stock yet, so it was a day-ender. We hate day-enders, especially when we didn’t even crash or abuse a vehicle and it happens. Because it might take a while to get a replacement (They are at local Hobby Towns now, but we got our truck early) we dug through our parts box and found an Axial 96mm shaft that was just slightly shorter than the one the Invictus spit out. The Axial bone was much thicker than the Helion part, so we had to bust out the Dremel and do some mod’ing. An hour later the Axial bone would fit in the Helion’s outdrives. When we put the front bones back in we tightend up the pillow balls to make sure they couldn’t accidentally pop out again.

We then went on with our normal testing and didn’t break anything. The Helion lived through some massive crashes, deep water dives, and generally proved tough as nails. If a test vehicle lives through normal testing we start doing stupid stuff. The first “stupid” test was to huck the Invictus off a second story roof. We did that (3 times) to grass with absolutely no broken parts. We then flat landed to pavement from two stories up and ended up bending the center driveshaft bad enough that we will need to replace it.

Misc Notes:

The Helion motor runs hot, but the battery runs even hotter. The hottest day we drove the Invictus on was 70 degrees Fahrenheit, yet we saw motor temps over 160 degrees and over 165 on the battery. The battery got so hot its heat shrink shrunk, the high temps have us concerned about the stock battery life.

The Invictus is very waterproof. We had it over its roof in water multiple times with no ill effects. Kudos to Helion on how waterproof the Invictus is.

The speedo fan was quite loud, but things get hot, and it apparently needs it.

We didn’t notice this out of the box but after a bunch of runs the rear hubs had developed a lot of slop, causing a wobble in the rear tires under power.

We had a lower front shock screw back out. No biggie, but something to keep an eye on.

The clear pinion/spur cover looks neat and helps keep the nasties out of your gears.

We measured run-time at 9 minutes. The stock pack is listed at 1800 mah, but we measured it just over 2000 during a 1C discharge. 9 minutes run-time sounds like a long time to an old schooler, but feels quite short compared to the “norm” now days. When we popped in a 6500 mah MaxAmps it would run longer than we felt like driving it for.

The stock body clips are of a nice design. Sadly they are a bit too thin and bend easily (then disappear).

We’ve been blown away by the packaging from other manufactures lately, the artwork on the Helion box is a bit disappointing.

See the two neat little flags on the back of the body? Look fast, because they won’t last there long.

The red anodized pieces that come stock on the Invictus look cool.

The drivetrain on the Invictus rolled exceptionally free. This is a good thing, it means nothing is binding, giving you longer runtimes and more performance.

The stock servo is quite slow. Normally that is a bad thing, but on the Invictus it helps take some of the bite out of the trucks over-steer.

I was getting the truck ready for the first top speed testing when I realized there were no AA batteries for the transmitter in the box. I dug through the box and searched all over for them, I simply couldn’t find them. I then called Brian and chewed him out for “stealing the AA’s” out of the Helion box. Brian is quite the practical joker, and he owes me about a hundred pranks, so I thought the missing AA’s were his idea. I was wrong, the Helion comes with everything you need to get running except AA batteries. Helion, can ya please just drop in some cheap AA’s? Thanks in advance!

Best Mod Under $5: A new pinion, any pinion smaller than the stock.

Best Mod Over $5: A high quality Lipo battery.

Summary:

Time To Bash: C We didn’t use the included charger. Why? Because the manual says it takes “4-5 hours” to fully charge the pack. That is forever in the RTR bashing world. If you are using an aftermarket charger you can hit the track in about an hour.

Workability: B Good layout but we are not fans of Phillips hardware.

Car Show Rating: C Scale looking tires with good looking rims couldn’t overcome the body and graphics. We were just not feeling it on this one.

Bash-A-Bility: B Having a “day ender” on the first pack isn’t good, but at the end of testing we didn’t end up breaking any parts. This leads to some serious potential!

Fun Factor: C We had a blast running the Invictus through water holes, over mulch piles, and across a rough field, but the cogging and over-steer held back its fun factor score.

Handling: C The Invictus had its upsides- great suspension and ground clearance, and it’s downsides- too much steering and too touchy to trigger inputs while jumping.

Value: C The Invictus is $290, the Stampede 4×4 is $430, that’s a $130 difference. The problem is that it will probably cost you over $130 to catch up the the Stampede in electronics quality.

Parts Availability: C Our local HobbyTown USA didn’t have the front bone we needed to get going early in testing, but we knew we had the truck before it actually shipped! Helion parts are only available from a HobbyTown USA location, and as of this writing, they do have the parts in stock.

BigSquid Rating: C+ You have to admire the Invictus for taking the best we could dish out without breaking any parts, and with a few mods it can be an epic basher. However, out of the box its power system, over-steer and dog-bone issues keep it from hitting the mark.

I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that the Vaterra Twin Hammers Rock Racer is the biggest vehicle release of 2013. Its scale looks got a lot of peoples attention, while its unique chassis layout got others to look its way. So what exactly is the Twin Hammers? It’s labeled as a “1.9 Rock Racer”, but with its cantilever suspension and two speed transmission it just might be a versatile bash machine. Lets cut to the chase and find out what the Twin Hammers is really all about…

From: Vaterra RC
Direct Link: Twin Hammers Rock Racer
Unboxing Pictures: Unboxing the Twin Hammers

Review By: Cubby
Pics By: Cubby

Specs:

RTR or Kit: RTR
Age: 14+
2wd or 4wd: 4wd
Shaft or Belt: Shaft
Electric or Gas: Electric
Waterproof: Yes
Scale/Size: 10th scale/1.9 crawler
Speeds: Shift on the fly 2 speed
Length: 18 in.
Width: 5.9 in.
Wheelbase: 11.6 in.
Motor: Dynamite 15 Turn Brushed
Speed Controller: Dynamite Tazer 12T
Low Voltage Cut-off: Yes
Radio: Spektrum DX3E 2.4 GHz
Differential: Gear diff front, locked center and rear
Slipper Clutch: Yes
Driveshafts: CVD’s
Gear Ratio: Low: 4.05:1 High: 2.27:1
Shocks: Metal bodies and caps, oil-filled
Servo Saver: None
Screws: Hex
Spur/Pinion Pitch: 48p
Bearings: Full set
Tires: Vaterra “Race Claws” with foam inserts
Battery: Dynamite 2S 7.4v 2000 mah Lipo
Part Number: VTR03000
Warranty on truck: “… will be free from defects in materials and workmanship at the date of purchase.”
Battery Warranty: 1 year
Street Price: $400

Primary Competition: The Axial Wraith and Axial Exo seem to come closest, there aren’t many hybrid 1.9 rock racers on the market for a direct comparison

What’s Needed To Complete: Nothing, everything you need comes in the box.

Build Quality: Giving the Twin Hammers a quick once over yielded two discoveries related to the assembly quality. First off, one of the front shocks was lacking in oil, and second, one of the rear tires was crooked and extremely out of balance. Otherwise, everything else looked well assembled and ready to jam.

Test Drivers: Cubby, Brian, Tim, “Iron” Mike, Jason and Sam “The Noob”

Test Venues: Dirtburners in St Louis Missouri (a muddy off-road track at the time), Cliff Cave Park in St Louis Missouri, St Joe State Park in Park Hills Missouri, a high school running track, a skate park, a backyard and a cul-de-sac

Set-up Notes: Our Twin Hammers was tested bone stock with the exception of ditching the stock EC3 connectors in favor of Traxxas. Also, we didn’t use the included wall charger, we used a Hyperion 720iNet3 instead.

Turning: At speed the Twin Hammers has a lot of steering, so much that it easily traction rolls on pavement, grass, and on higher bite dirt surfaces. You learn quickly to take it easy on the wheel to keep it from flipping. Those high bite/large sidewall tires combined with a prodigious amount of chassis roll yields a very tippy machine at speed. At lower speeds, like while trail driving on low bite surfaces in low gear, the steering is just about right. When working your way up a tricky trail you might want to turn a few inches to miss a rock or root and the Twin Hammers easily goes where you point it. If you are using the Twin Hammers in its element it steers very well, if you try turning at high speeds or on high bite you are just asking for trouble. If you get into some serious crawling action the stock servo just isn’t up to the task. It’s too weak and has too much play it in for serious crawling.

Jumping: We tried a bunch of different jumps with the Twin Hammers and it always jumped much better than we ever expected, and worlds better than a full blown crawler. We hit small wood ramps, jumps at the track, jumps made from sand, a 2 foot tall wood stunt ramp, and various ramps at the skate park, all the while the Twin Hammers was a pleasure to jump. It would typically maintain a slightly “front end high” attitude while in the air, while stabbing the brakes would instantly flatten things out. Maybe its low top speed kept it from getting into trouble in the air, but the Twin Hammers was a much better jumper than anticipated.

Landings were a bit on the brutal side. The suspension doesn’t allow enough “up travel” for the chassis to bottom out on the ground, this results in a lot of bounce while rebounding from the landing of a jump.

Bumps/Whoops: The Twin Hammers has a lot of suspension travel to soak up all kinds of nastiness. Generally it soaked up gnarly bumps quite well.

On-Road: You really don’t want to take the Twin Hammers on-road, at least not in stock condition. All the attributes that makes the Twin Hammers work so well in incredibly gnarly off-road conditions work against it when driven on pavement. The Twin Hammers has a very low top speed (for a bash machine or any on-roader for that matter) and traction rolls at the hint of turning on pavement. Yes, mods can be done to turn the Twin Hammers into a better on-roader, but bone stock you won’t have much fun with it on pavement.

Grass: The Twin Hammers gets around well in a straight line due to its 4wd and ground clearance. However, its low top speed and tendency to traction roll hurt it as an overall grass machine.

Off-Road: Here is where we get to the nitty grittty of the Twin Hammers. The Twin Hammers can’t do hardcore crawling like a dedicated 2.2 machine can, but it can run circles around crawlers when not in big rocks. Because of its smaller tires and front diff the Twin Hammers simply can’t climb like a 2.2, but it has a lot better handling (and more top speed) in open areas. The Twin Hammers can’t keep up with something like an EXO on open ground like a park or a track, but it can handle hardcore trail driving and crawling better. At the end of the day, the Twin Hammers is a hardcore off-road machine intended for natural trails and smaller rock crawling. Yes, you can use the Twin Hammers anywhere and everywhere, but unless you are driving where its high ground clearance and locked diffs (center and rear) really come into play, then you really aren’t seeing what the Twin Hammers can do.

Tires: Nice scale look featuring medium density foam inserts, the stock tires offer loads of traction on most any surface.

Power: A 15 turn brushed motor isn’t a lot of pure wattage, nor is the truck geared for massive speed. To boil it down, the Twin Hammers is definitely not going to blow anyone away with pure power. Top speed is around 16 mph and it doesn’t really get there in a hurry. But, there is an upside to the soft power. Soft power is easy for noobs to drive, and when in the really tightest of spots it can come in quite handy. For example, while out on a trail drive we came across a log that had fallen across an inlet to the Mississippi River. The log was probably 20 feet long and was about 6 feet above the water. Yes, of course we were going to drive across the log, but falling off of it ment losing the Twin Hammers to the mighty Mississippi forever. I can assure you the soft manageable power was the only type of power we wanted while driving across the log (see the second pic in gallery #2).

Radio: The stock radio is the Spektrum DX3E. Ergonomics were quite nice, the grip had soft inserts for comfort, the wheel had a foam donut on it, and the trigger was properly designed (even for guys with fat fingers). The grip to wheel relationship was also comfortable. Also of note, we got better range out of the DX3E than expected, we don’t know if something has changed or it was simply our imagination. We also seemed to notice an increase in range on the two previous Vaterra’s we have reviewed.

Broken Parts: We broke two parts on our Twin Hammers, the front top deck and the spur gear. The first part, the top deck, broke when landing from a relatively small ramp to grass. No doubt the fact that the Twin Hammers chassis can not bottom out put extra forces on the top deck causing it to break. We’ve jumped dozens of different rc’s off the same ramp without issue, but the top deck on the Vaterra gave way and the truck got no higher than 4 feet off the ground. The spur blew out after a mandatory huck off the roof of a pavilion.

Misc Notes:

The tires are vented on the carcass not in the rim. This is the first time I can remember seeing this from the factory.

The green anodized parts looked trick on the Vaterra.

Yes, the cage is screwed down and takes a while to get off for any repairs or maintenance. The quickest way is by removing 12 screws.

Old school collars are used to adjust the pre-load on the shocks. At the $400 price point I would expect threaded bodies.

That spare tire you see hanging off the back, yes, it’s the real deal not a fake.

The front a-arms have some webbing but are solid, good luck breaking one of those.

Do you break a lot of front shock towers? You won’t on the Twin Hammers, it simply doesn’t have one.

We measured runtime at 9 minutes. This was done on a small course in a backyard, half on pavement, half in the grass, and all the driving was done in “high” gear. 9 minutes comes across as a bit short in this day and age, and is no doubt due to the small’ish battery pack.

The highest ambient temp we ran the Twin Hammers was 70 degrees Fahrenheit and we experienced exceptionally cool motor and speedo temps. The highest temp we measured on the motor was 105 degrees.

We really liked the fact the stock speedo was waterproof, but in serious off-roading or crawling it drove us nuts. Most of the time the speedo would take multiple stabs to get forward or reverse to kick in.

Shifting between the 2 speeds on the fly is a LOT of fun, more fun than I remember from the old E-Maxx days.

The Twin Hammers comes with Vaterra branded wrenches and a extremely nice owners manual. Nice touches.

The stock servo while waterproof, centered horribly and lacked power for crawling or serious trail driving.

The stock battery is stated to be 2000 mah, when tested on a 1C discharge it only put out 1710 mah.

Best Mod Under $5: Heavier stock oil front and rear. We went to AE 60 in the front and AE 40 in the rear. This helps keep the truck flatter in the corners, helps it absorb jumps better, while not really losing any performance in crawling situations.

Best Mod Over $5: The stock servo centers very poorly, has a lot of play in it, and doesn’t have enough power for serious crawling. Putting in a Hitec HS-5646 waterproof servo will solve those issues.

Summary:

Time To Bash: B Everything you need comes right in the box. We didn’t need to make any adjustments before driving (albeit we drove it with one shock low on oil) and the included wall charger should take slightly over 1 hour to charge the Lipo.

Workability: C It takes 12 screws (ok, it can be done in 10, but it is simply easier to do the extra 2 screws) to get the cage off the Twin Hammers to work on anything. Once the cage is off the buggy is quite easy to work on.

Car Show Rating: B The entire BigSquidRC crew really liked the scale, yet aggressive, looks of the Twin Hammers.

Bash-A-Bility: C The Twin Hammers broke its front top deck on a relatively small jump, then we blew out the spur gear landing from a roof jump.

Fun Factor: B Despite its low top speed we had a great time with the Twin Hammers. How so? It was just a nice combination of crawling prowess mixed with more speed.

Handling: C Now this is a tough one. In extremely gnarly off-road conditions like crawling or climbing natural terrain, the Twin Hammers did quite well. But… on general “bash” surfaces like a baseball field, grass, hard packed dirt, or pavement, the Twin Hammers was out of its element.

Value: B Two of the closest competitors to the Twin Hammers, the Wraith and Exo RTR’s clock in at $400 and $350. The Twin Hammers is right in their ballpark in price point and bash-a-bility.

Parts Availability: C After checking 3 local hobby shops neither of the parts we broke were in stock, however, they were at both Horizon and on AMainHobbies.com.

BigSquid Rating: B- Raining outside? No problem, grab the Twin Hammers. Going to the beach? No problem, grab the Twin Hammers. Wanna do some rock crawling? No problem, grab the Twin Hammers. Going to hit the local park for some hill-climbing? No problem, grab the Twin Hammers. The Twin Hammers is a decent hardcore off-road machine, that is also quite unique and great fun to trail drive with.

The Tourareg 3 is based off the 10th scale 4wd M40S chassis from Carisma and it is an RTR that comes completely built and ready for action. Some of the other primary features include-

* Licensed Red Bull Racing body
* 2.4 GHz radio system
* Oil filled shocks
* Gear differentials
* 540 brushed motor
* 6 cell Ni-MH battery
* Off-road tires

Carisma is not available here in the states, but you can hit up the Official Carisma Website for more information on this and all their products. If you are looking for more Carisma news, THIS is the link you want right here on BigSquidRC.

The part number for the new Stabilizer 7″ is #6248-00 and you can expect a street price of right around $16. HERE is the link for the Stabilizer Wing on the official Pro-Line Racing website.

Thank goodness it’s Friday! How about checking out a TGIF Mystery Link?

* 2 SGX Gear Diff
* X Hard Graphite 2.4 mm chassis and Topdeck
* Duraluminium silver anodized Steering Blocks AL7075 T6 with Ball Bearings
* 6 degree C-Hub Nylon
* Duraluminium red anodized Servo Posts AL7075 T6
* Available now
* Part ##01626

To hit up the official Corally website all you have to do is Click This Link, and for more touring car news right here on BigSquidRC THIS is the link you want.

* Available in Soft (Blue), Super Soft (Green) and Indoor Soft (Gold)
* Low-height tread, specifically designed to tame high-speed courses
* Inner carcass and side-wall ribbing, limits carcass collapse and increases support
* Includes And-1 inserts

Retail price is $17 and you can get more information on the official JConcepts Website.

Looking for more JConcepts news? Hit up THIS link right here on BigSquidRC.

13110SRW 1:10 Buggy Handlebar LTD Rear (Soft) HEXLITE Wheel Pre-Mounted White
13110SRY 1:10 Buggy Handlebar LTD Rear (Soft) HEXLITE Wheel Pre-Mounted Yellow
13110VRW 1:10 Buggy Handlebar LTD Rear (S Soft) HEXLITE Wheel Pre-Mounted White
13110VRY 1:10 Buggy Handlebar LTD Rear (S Soft) HEXLITE Wheel Pre-Mounted Yellow
13107SRW 1:10 Buggy Impact Rear (Soft) HEXLITE Wheel Pre-Mounted White
13107SRY 1:10 Buggy Impact Rear (Soft) HEXLITE Wheel Pre-Mounted Yellow
13107VRW 1:10 Buggy Impact Rear (S Soft) HEXLITE Wheel Pre-Mounted White
13107VRY 1:10 Buggy Impact Rear (S Soft) HEXLITE Wheel Pre-Mounted Yellow

Retail price is $28 per pair and you can get more information on the official AKA Website. Give THIS link a try for more AKA news right here on BigSquidRC.

* Sale: 1/10
* Length: 415mm
* Width: 248mm
* Height: 138mm
* Wheelbase: 284mm
* Gear Ratio: 2.6:1
* Weight: 1530g approx. (with 7.4V/4400mAh)

No word on a potential price point or release date, but HERE is the link to get more information on the Precirotate website. Hit up THIS link to view our post on the Proken S1 buggy right here on BigSquidRC.