Part number for the Twin Hammers rear CVD is #13240, price is $40, and they are available right now. For more information THIS is the link you want on the MIP website.

Want to catch up on MIP news? If so, CLICK HERE.

The part number for the FullForce Vaterra Twin Hammers aluminum top deck is #VTH001 and the street price is only $12. Hit up THIS LINK for more information.

TGIF my friends, how about getting your weekend kicked off right with a MYSTERY LINK?

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.

So here is the big news for the day- BigSquidRC has official switched over to being a “racer” site. Yes, I know that might not be the best of news to some of you readers (actually, it will downright offend some of you), but we’ve decided that racing is where it’s at right now. The tremendous surge in sales of racing gear, along with the enormous popularity of all the sanctioning bodies, has proven to us that instead of being a basher site that we need to go all racer. I hope you are just as excited about this as I am, and I hope you are looking forward to all racer news all the time now from BigSquidRC.

In other news… the BigSquidRC crew will be covering all of the remaining ROAR national events, the IFMAR worlds, as well as the RC Pro Series national finals. We’ll be loading up Brian, Jeff, Tim, Bill, Craig, and tossing Adam in the trunk, to give these prestigious races the coverage that they so rightly deserve. Expect full coverage of the practice days, as well as up to the minute updates during quals and the mains. We are incredibly stoked to be bringing you a full weeks worth of intensive coverage per event. Brian is lined up to do all the videos, Tim and Jeff will be handling the pictures, while Bill, Craig and Adam will be searching out all the latest trick parts and hot news from the pits. Like I mentioned earlier, with our new format we’ll be all about racing from here on out.

March Bashness is still going off here on BigSquid. As I write this (Sunday evening) it looks like the Traxxas Summit is going to pwn the Vaterra Twin Hammers in one of our final four match-ups, then voting starts for the HPI Savage Flux and Traxxas Slash 4×4 tomorrow (read- today/Monday). I had personally thought the Twin Hammers was a lock to make it to the final, but all those pesky Traxxas fans have been voting in force.

Speaking of the Vaterra Twin Hammers, our very revealing review goes up on Tuesday. We’ve spent more on the Twin Hammers review than perhaps any other vehicle we’ve ever tested, mainly because it is so unique. Is it really a crawler? It is just a trail-truck? It is a perfect “all purpose” bash machine? Or is it simply a hodgepodge that is average everywhere but excellent at nothing? Yes, this paragraph has been one big tease, you’ll have to tune in on Tuesday to find out if we thought it sucked, or if we thought it kicked ass.

On a serious note, the BigSquidRC crew will be invading the Weak Signals RC Expo in Toledo Ohio this Saturday. If you are in the area we invite you to come on by and say hello to Brian, Tim and myself while we roam the arena doing show coverage. For those of you that may not have heard of the Weak Signals show is it primary an rc airplane event, but, it is a selling show, which draws a TON of people and makes it a whole lot more interesting. How many times have you went to a show and seen some incredibly cool looking gear, but then found out that you can’t buy it and take it home with you? At a “selling show” a lot of the booths (but not all) are actually selling their products, making it a whole lot more awesome. Anywhos, HERE is the link if you want to check it out.

That’s it for this week guys, as always support your local hobby shops, practice as much as you can at your local tracks, and race as many classes as you can.

YOUR Cub Reporter

The Vaterra Twin Hammers has proven to be the most anticipated release of 2013. The combination of tough scale appearance and smart features seems to have everyone looking at the Twin Hammers. Below you’ll find all of our unboxing pictures for the Twin Hammers, from top to bottom, from front to rear, you can see the Twin Hammers in all its glory before we bash the daylights out of it. Check out the official Twin Hammers page on the Vaterra website for more information.

We have 29 unboxing pictures in all, including size comparison shots between the Twin Hammers, a 2.2 crawler, a Losi SCB, and an Axial EXO. Click the “read more” button to see all the pictures.

First up- we are still looking for an account rep (or two, or three). The job involves being a kick a$$ guy (or gal) and taking care of our advertisers. If you know what’s up in the hobby shoot Brian an email. If you can’t figure out his email address chances are you can’t handle the job. LOL

Second up- Wavy Davi gave up the red plate last night in Daytona, “sigh”. 2013 was a breakout year for Millisaps in the big boy class but it seems a couple of injuries have thrown a monkey wrench into his plans for supercross domination. Lets hope RV2 doesn’t win out and make the rest of the season a bore. Btw, it was sure refreshing to see bright red Honda logo’s at Daytona instead of the Monster claws plastered everywhere.

Third up- The Formula 1 season is officially here! 6 days, 4 hours, 17 minutes and 51 seconds till the tone goes off in Australia for the first GP of the season. Alonso FTW, bank it! And… it should be interesting to see how the tv coverage on NBC Sports stacks up to previous years when it was on Speed and ESPN.

Fourth up- Don’t forget our Google + LIVE Show this Wednesday night. Last week Brian was wacked out of his gourd on Red Bull and Pez and couldn’t make the show, so this week expect something extra special from him. But seriously, we always seem to say something that ticks off half the rc community each week, so it can’t be all bad. Mark it down on your calender for 9 pm CST every Weds night from here on out.

Fifth up- The BIG news of the week is that BigSquidRC March Bashness is under way! If you are a new reader- March Bashness is the ultimate contest where you guys select the top bashers of the year, then just like in the basketball version, we do bracket style eliminations (based on your voting) to determine which is America’s favorite bash vehicle. Voting for the initial “Sweet 16″ is going on right now, click THIS link to get all the info on how to place your vote.

Hands down, March Bashness causes the most smack talk around the BigSquidRC offices. Brian has his favorites, Jeff has his, Bill always gets in his two cents, Craig lets it fly on his picks, Adam gets quite adamant about his fav, and of course I live to state the 82 reasons why my top bash-mobile is better than theirs. Here is a quick Cubby break-down on how I see March Bashness stacking up-

Axial- Axial doesn’t have a dedicated “racer” in its line-up, every vehicle they make can be considered a legit bash-mobile. Perhaps leading the pack for Axial would be the EXO and their new Jeep Wrangler.

ARRMA- The ARRMA Granite took home our “Basher of the Year” award (which was voted on by the staff here) for 2012, so it has got to be considered a serious player in March Bashness. The rest of their line are also bash-mobiles, so perhaps another one (or two) of the vehicles might be in the starting sweet 16. The ARRMA brand has been picking up momentum among the bash main-streamers, and it’s well known ARRMA is the “basher line from Durango”, so the odds of an ARRMA doing well in March Bashness look pretty darn good.

ECX- Mainstays like the Torment and the Ruckus have really taken off with the bash crowd, I would expect to see at least one go deep into the tournament. One of the new 8th scale buggies from ECX might also make it into the show.

Duratrax- Duratrax is known for their bash-mobiles, but they haven’t had many new releases the last few months.

Traxxas- There is no doubt Traxxas is the sales leader at local hobby shops and one of the highest regarded brands in the entire bashing world. Traxxas has several vehicles that should be capable of making it deep into the tourney. Their new LCG 4×4 Slash and Rally Car might very well be players in the big show.

HPI- Arguably the second biggest name in the bash world is HPI, and once again they have a half dozen vehicles that are enormously popular among the bash crowd. Their 5th scalers have an insane cult following, as does their Savage series of monster trucks. Will the Block Rally Car make the show? We’ll find out in just a few days.

Helion- The crew from Firelands Group took home a controversial win with their Helion Dominus last year. For 2013 they’ve got a new truggy and a monster truck on the way, but with the depth of the field it will be incredibly hard for them to repeat again this year.

Thunder Tiger- Just a few scant years ago Thunder Tiger was looked down on like their cars were made by Tyco. Now days, things are a lot different. Some key changes in their product line-up combined with a much improved marketing plan have resulted in a whole lot of happy Thunder Tiger owners out there. It is also a brand that many Traxxas haters have fled to. I would have to think their MT4-G3 and eMTA monster trucks will be in the hunt, as well as the truggy they released last fall.

Associated- Ummm… while their parent company is looking so good among the basher crowd, Associated has focused on re-hashing old platforms for the race crowd and fell off the face of the bashing planet. Certainly AE is still considered a good name in the racer game, but it is increasingly rare to see anyone actually bashing an Associated product.

Vaterra- The newest kid on the basher block is Vaterra. We’ve only gotten the chance to bash their little scalers and both of them took a pretty good beating. I would think their biggest threat to take home the March Bashness title would be their Twin Hammers crawler/basher, but I’ve yet to drive one, so I have no idea if it’s worth owning or not.

Losi- The 5th scale Losi 5T is a well regarded bash machine, as is their SCTE 4wd short course truck. Who knows, a Losi might just surprise some of us and make it deep into the bracket.

RedCat- There are a Bunch (an insane amount actually) of RedCats sold each year. Will they get enough votes from their hardcore army to make it into the show? RedCat has yet to place a vehicle into our sweet 16, will this be the year the RedCat faithful put a rig into the big show?

There are a bunch of vehicles I haven’t mentioned that might very well make it deep into the voting. I feel like I was only scratching the surface, there are simply a ton of great bash machines on the market right now. Everyone on the BSRC crew hopes that you take the time out of your busy day to vote for your favorites, wear your brand loyalty proudly, and show not just the other readers of BigSquidRC which machine is your favorite, but show the entire industry what machines are hitting the mark with the bash crowd. We don’t do the voting to try and spam you or get your email address or phone number, we do it simply because we want to learn exactly which bash vehicles are the best ones in YOUR eyes. This is entirely your vote guys, we hope you have a blast with it.

And on to…

Sixth up- Last week I asked for you guys to shoot me proof that the class action suit against ROAR actually exists. We have yet to receive anything from anyone other than the original PR. Are the courts just that slow down in Florida or….. Ya guys, if you can dig up some concrete proof the the suit is legit shoot it to us so I can post what an idiot I am for even having questioned it.

Seventh up- Adam “The Intern” has a new job around here- he’s the head of our New BSRC Tumblr Page. Look for a post on our front page early in the week with a link so you can check it out. Tumblr is the big player of social media with the “young” crowd and Adam has tons of cool pics and things to share with the sub-20 crowd. If you are “young” (in body, or at heart) and looking for something more your style, checking out the BSRC Tumblr page should be a must.

That’s it for this week folks, support your local hobby shops and bash spots when ya can.

YOUR Cub Reporter

The Driven app is Free and you can download it at THIS link from iTunes. Hit up THIS link for the Horizon Hobby website.

Have you read our latest Vaterra review? If not, you can read it HERE.

Vaterra is the newest name in the rc game and today we’ll be taking a closer look at their Kalahari 14th Scale Desert Raider. The Kalahari comes with detailed scale looks, a brushless power system, and Spektrum 2.4 GHz radio gear, all the makings of a great bash machine. How does the Vaterra Kalahari stack up? Read on to find out exactly what we learned about the Kalahari after weeks of bash testing…

From: Vaterra
Direct Link: Kalahari Desert Raider
Unboxing Pictures: Unboxing the Kalahari

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: 1/14th
Length: 13.18 in
Width: 7.08 in
Wheelbase: 8.27 in
Motor: Dynamite Fuze 280 4500 kv brushless
Speed Controller: Dynamite Fuze brushless
Low Voltage Cut-off: Yes
Radio: Spektrum DX2L 2.4 GHz
Differential: Gear front and rear
Slipper Clutch: Yes
Driveshafts: Bones
Gear Ratio: 2.46:1
Shocks: Plastic body, oil filled
Servo Saver: At servo
Screws: Hex
Spur/Pinion Pitch: 0.5 MOD
Bearings: Full set
Tires: Scale look, foam inserts
Battery: Dynamite 6 cell 7.2v Ni-MH 1200 mah
Charger: NiMH Peak wall charger included.
Part Number: VTR01001
Top Speed (measured by BSRC w/ 2S Lipo): 23 mph
Warranty on truck: “… will be free from defects in materials and workmanship at the date of purchase.”
Battery Warranty: 1 year
Street Price: $290

Primary Competition: Traxxas 1/16th Slash

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

Build Quality: The Spektrum transmitter felt exceptionally nice for an RTR unit. The body on the Kalahari was exceptionally well done. The drive-train was nice and free spinning, wheels were properly tightened, and we didn’t find any large pieces of flash on the plastic parts. The velcro used to secure the under-tray was loose and eventually fell off. The pinion/spur mesh on our Kalahari was spot-on.

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

Test Venues: Slot and Wing Hobbies in Champaign Illinois, Dirtburners in St Louis Missouri, a city park and a cul-de-sac

Set-up Notes: We tested the Kalahari bone stock with the exception of using a Hyperion to charge the battery pack (instead of the included wall charger).

Turning: The front end is well planted on the Kalahari, but it’s not as glued as the Vaterra Kemora. This is actually a good thing as the Kalahari corners more neutrally than the Kemora does. It doesn’t have the mechanical grip of the Kemora, so its corner speeds aren’t as high, but it easier to drive consistently around the corners.

Jumping: The 4wd system on the Kalahari aids greatly in making mid-air corrections, but the lack of damping in the shocks make take-offs and landings quite interesting. For example, if you hit a dirt jump with divots in the face you typically get kicked off the lip at a strange angle, typically requiring some mid-air correction to flatten out. When landing the suspension blows through its travel bottoming out hard. After bottoming out, the Kalahari has very little rebound damping, thus the truck tends to bounce a lot after hard landings.

Bumps/Whoops: The Kalahari does a lot of bouncing around in the rough stuff. While the springs are in the ballpark, the shock oil (water?) is way too thin, so the Kalahari blows through its suspension travel and has very little damping on the rebound side, resulting in a very bouncy ride in the rough.

On-Road: The Kalahari is a decent little pavement machine. It doesn’t traction roll and has more than enough ground clearance and suspension travel to soak up bumps and road joints.

We also got a chance to test the Kalahari on a carpet on-road track. On a prepped high bite carpet track the Kalahari would traction roll, but after taking a few laps to get adjusted you quickly learned to not yank on the wheel.

Grass: You would think the little 14th scale Kalahari would have no shot of driving in grass, but that is not the case. In short grass the Kalahari can manage its way just fine. But… hit a patch of tall grass and all the fun comes to a quick halt.

Tires: The tires on the Kalahari are slightly smaller in diameter (but are wider) than those found on the Vaterra Kemora. The tread pattern looked quite scale, but because of its larger and more rounded off lugs, and less surface pressure because of their additional width, the tires on the Kalahari provided less mechanical grip than the Kemora tires. The smaller diameter of the Kalahari tires also hurt the trucks ability to get around in grass and over larger rocks/clods.

On the up side, the reduced mechanical grip of the Kalahari tires made it easier to drive on high bite surfaces than the Kemora. Where the Kemora might bite hard going into a corner and start 3 wheeling, requiring immediate correction to keep from crashing, the Kalahari tended to stay flat, making it easier to drive.

Power: Our Kalahari had more power than the Kemora we just reviewed. The Kalahari had 2 mph more speed on top and had more yank off the bottom. Both of these Vaterra vehicles use an identical power system, so it was a bit odd that the Kalahari was noticeably faster. But… even though it was noticeably faster, it was still quite slow for a brushless vehicle. The power off the bottom was quite soft (after it cogged from a dead stop), followed by a brief but snappy mid-range, ending in a short winded top end. If you are true noob there is enough power to get you into trouble, but if you are an experienced hobbyist you’ll be looking to pop in a Lipo and get some real power kick’n.

Radio: We’ve gotten a lot of time in with the Spektrum DX2L lately and the more we use it the more we like it. For an RTR radio it’s about as good as it gets. Ergo’s are nice and range seemed better than previous Spektrum gear that we’ve used. The trigger is spot on for nearly everyone (fat finger guys found it tight), the wheel comes with foam, and the grip handle is quite comfortable. Also, the relationship between the wheel and trigger is light-years better than most RTR radios. Very nice. One final note about the radio, it does offer a low, medium, and high throttle setting allowing you to hand off the vehicle to a total newb and not worry about them going wide open into a curb.

Broken Parts: The Kalahari made it through our “normal” portion of testing without any breakage, so of course we had to step up our game. We ended up breaking two parts, the front bumper (part #VTR211009, $7) and one of the battery bar posts (part #VTR211002, $5). We broke both these parts on our first full speed slam straight into a cement block wall. But… I must add the ambient temp was only 23 degrees Fahrenheit. Cold days are tough on plastic parts no doubt.

Misc Notes:

The Kalahari came with a very nicely detailed body that obviously had a lot of work put into it. The wheels and tires also looked very scale. Mad props to the Vaterra crew for spending the extra time and money to put out a great looking vehicle.

Vaterra states that the Kalahari is “waterproof” and we would definitely agree with that statement. We drove the Kalahari in all sorts of water and nothing died. Some of the water we drove in was 6″ deep, more than enough to totally submerge all the electronics and running gear, and after proper post run maintenance our Kalahari shows no ill effects of being underwater.

The Kalahari comes with better than average body pins, but the holes in the body posts are too small, thus making them hard to put in. Also, the holes in the rear posts need to be rotated 90 degrees, the rear pins are even harder to put in because the rear wing gets in the way.

The Kalahari comes with exceptionally nice packaging and a model specific manual that is also quite well done. Someone at Vaterra spent a lot of time on these items and it shows.

Two extra spur gears in the box is a nice touch.

The stock servo saver is extremely soft but that’s a good thing for servo life. And… normally a super soft servo saver is bad for steering, but the Kalahari had plenty, so it wasn’t really an issue when driving.

Our Kalahari didn’t cog as badly as the Kemora we just reviewed, but it was still there and still quite nasty.

Best Mod Under $5: No doubt, thicker shock oil for the win. I highly recommend a much heavier weight all the way around.

Best Mod Over $5: A Lipo battery instantly livens up the Kalahari.

Summary:

Time To Bash: B The included wall charger isn’t that fast (just over an hour), but the Kalahari comes with everything you need to get going in the box.

Workability: B The 14th scale Vaterra platform is laid out well for wrenching and the hex hardware is nice.

Car Show Rating: B Nice scale looking body, wheels and tires.

Bash-A-Bility: B We had to go to the “extreme” portion of our testing to break the Kalahari. During the normal portion of our testing we slapped boards, tapped curbs, and hucked wood ramps to pavement for pack after pack with no breakage.

Fun Factor: C While the Vaterra is fun to bash with it would have scored much higher if it didn’t cog and had more yank behind the trigger.

Handling: C Incredibly thin shock oil holds back the Kalahari’s handling score. Also, while the tires on the Kalahari make it a more predictable turner than its brother car the Kemora, their smaller diameter and less aggressive tread hurt its handling in typical bash conditions like grass or loamy dirt.

Value: B Lets compare the Kalahari to its nearest “direct” competitor, the 16th scale brushed Slash. Both have similar wheelbases and widths, but the Slash is about $80 cheaper, doesn’t come with brushless (but has arguably a superior power system out of the box), doesn’t come with 2.4 GHz, and handles incredibly well. The Vaterra has incredible looks, takes a good beating, handles quite well, and is a Lipo battery away from having some serious power. We’d have to drive both back-to-back to clearly define a winner here, but as it stands we feel the Kalahari represents an above average value.

Parts Availability: C Parts are readily available on-line but it might be a while before most local hobby shops build up any stock. Both parts that we broke were in stock at A-Main and on Horizon’s site, but were not in stock at any of our local hobby shops.

BigSquid Rating: B- We liked the Kalahari and it proved itself to be a solid basher. It withstood our normal abuse, loved being driven in mud-holes, and handled quite well for a 14th scale machine. The included Spektrum transmitter is stylish and a joy to use. The downsides it has (under damped suspension, low power output and cogging) are fairly easily (and cheaply) solved.

25 days, 1 hour and 42 minutes until the cars roll off in Melbourne, “sigh”. It seems like it takes forever for the F1 season to get started.

The “big” story from Dallas last night (Saturday) was why rookie Honda/Geico rider Zach Bell was allowed to race after literally crashing his brain out in his qualifier. Bell’s crash in his qual was one of the worst crashes I’ve ever seen (massive face plant after a triple), and from my big-screen it looked like he was knocked unconscious. Yes, racing is important, but not as important as actually breathing, remembering your name, etc. Seeing crashes like that (and Bell’s other big crash in the main) makes me feel good that I’m only climbing drivers stands now days, not swing’n a leg over a 450.

And on to rc…

WireGate 2013 rages on, last week Jeff from Fantom sent out another response to the ROAR banning of Trinity D3.5 based 17.5 motors. It seems Fantom sent out a wire sample to an independent lab who used a Smart Scope MVP OGP and it was determined the diameter of the wire was .031556″ (.8015 mm). ROAR posted a now infamous pic showing they measured .84173 mm. One of the two doesn’t know how to measure the diameter of a piece of wire, and at this point it doesn’t really matter who, Trinity is the big winner here regardless of how thick the wire might or might not be. Congrats ROAR, the exposure you’ve given Trinity on this one is priceless.

In more rc news…

It seems a lot of consumers believe that the Champaign based behemoth Hobbico has “bought” HPI USA. We first “broke” the news a few weeks ago during one of our Google+ LIVE shows, but the news is that Hobbico/Great Planes is the exclusive distributor for HPI in North America, not that they own the entire HPI USA company. We’ve spoken to multiple Hobbico people at length (in person) on the subject and they assure us they did NOT buy HPI USA, they simply bought up their inventory and got exclusive distribution rights. It sounded like HPI USA was having some financial ills so Hobbico stepped in and bought their inventory to shore them back up. That is the official word right now folks, but we can expect to learn more on March 1st when the “official” PR goes out.

Also…

Last week we posted our BigSquidRC Transmitter Shootout #2. If you haven’t checked it out HERE is the link. We certainly dig shootouts as we feel they are the best way of truly finding out how a product stacks up. Who won? The Futaba? One of the Turnigy’s? The Spektrum? Hit the link!

We’ve been working on a Quadcopter Shootout for some time now. We grabbed the Traxxas, HeliMax and Ares quads and have been bashing them like escaped mental patients (all in the name of science of course, LOL). We finished up our testing at Slot and Wing Hobbies in Champaign Illinois on Saturday. Our categories were- 1. Price, 2. Looks, 3. Durability, 4. Payload, 5. Ease of Flying, 6. Run-time, and 7. Features. The quadcopter shootout goes up Tuesday February 26th, even if you are a surface guy you’ll have a blast reading this one.

Lastly…

Another big week here on BigSquidRC, we’ll be posting our review of the Vaterra Kalahari and TrakPower DPS power supply (plus another surprise review), we’ll be posting all sorts of cool rc news during the week, and of course we’ll be talk’n the rc smack on our BigSquidRC LIVE Google+ show at 9 pm CST on Wednesday night.

That’s it for this week guys, have a fantastic week and support your local hobby shops and bash spots when you can.

YOUR Cub Reporter

Vaterra made quite an impression when they introduced their entirely new line-up of vehicles at Nuremberg a couple of weeks ago. People went gaga over their uber scale looks and impressive specs. For our first Vaterra review we’ve been thrashing the heck out of the Kemora, a 14th scale rally car. Vaterra is a brand aimed right at bashers, what kind of first impression have they left on the BigSquidRC Bash Crew? Read on to find out…

From: Vaterra
Direct Link: Kemora Rally Car
Unboxing Pictures: Unboxing the Kemora

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: 1/14th
Length: 13.19 in
Width: 7.15 in
Wheelbase: 8.27 in
Motor: Dynamite Fuze 280 4500 kv brushless
Speed Controller: Dynamite Fuze brushless
Low Voltage Cut-off: Yes
Radio: Spektrum DX2L 2.4 GHz
Differential: Gear front and rear
Slipper Clutch: Yes
Driveshafts: Bones
Gear Ratio: 2.46:1
Shocks: Plastic body, oil filled
Servo Saver: At servo
Screws: Hex
Spur/Pinion Pitch: 0.5 MOD
Bearings: Full set
Tires: Gravel spec, foam inserts
Battery: Dynamite 6 cell 7.2v Ni-MH 1200 mah
Part Number: #VTR01000
Top Speed (measured by BSRC w/ 2S Lipo): 21 mph
Warranty: “… will be free from defects in materials and workmanship at the date of purchase.” Also note that the Dynamite Battery has a 1 year warranty.
Street Price: $289

Primary Competition: Traxxas 1/16th Rally

What’s Needed To Complete: Nothing, zero, nada. Absolutely everything you need is in the box.

Build Quality: The transmitter felt exceptionally nice for an RTR unit. The body on the Kemora was also exceptionally well done. Our pinion/spur mesh came slightly too loose (more on this later) and two of the velcro pieces that kept the under-tray in place were loose. Drivetrain was nice and free spinning, wheels were properly tightened, and we didn’t find any large pieces of flash on the plastic parts.

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

Test Venues: Dirtburners in St Louis Missouri, two different city parks, a backyard and a cul-de-sac.

Set-up Notes: We tested the car bone stock. We retained the EC3 connectors, but did not use the included wall charger, instead we opted for a Hyperion.

Turning: Excellent. No, the stock servo isn’t fast, but the front end is planted and goes where you want it to. On dirt the steering is really very good, on pavement it can be a bit much. Our noob driver was not overwhelmed by the potent steering and could generally put the car where he wanted to without too much over-correction. Handing the reins over to the pro-driver guy, well, he looked amazingly dialed with it (ok, so he’s that way with pretty much any car). The front end of the Kemora sticks well on almost any surface yet the rear end stays relatively well behaved.

Jumping: Better than expected. The low nose of the rally car often scrapes on take-off and the under damped shocks often bounce the car in a strange direction, but the 4wd system really helps with the mid-air corrections.

Bumps/Whoops: Hay wagon. The stock spring rates seem right on point but the shock oil is way too thin. The shocks simply blow through their travel too easily and rebound too quickly. This under-damping results in a ride that resembles a 9 year old kid after three Red Bulls on a trampoline (or a hay wagon in a rough field). Also, because this is a rally car, the nose often digs into bumps and ruts, effectively removing the suspension entirely from the equation. The good news here is shock oil is cheap, put in Dynamite 800cs all the way around.

On-Road: Fun but challenging. The Kemora has a lot of steering, combine that with a lot of body roll and good mechanical grip and you have a car that over responds to every steering input when driven on pavement. Is that horrible? It is a lot of fun, but makes it difficult to hit the exact line you are looking for. The Kemora doesn’t traction roll (at least not without aid of a pot-hole or crevice), and gets better than expected mechanical grip out of the tires. If anything, it probably drives a whole lot like the full scale car would.

Grass: Better than expected. We really didn’t expect the Kemora to be drivable in grass, but guess what, it manages just fine. No, it doesn’t ignore grass like an HPI 5B would, but you do not instantly get high-centered in the green stuff. In fact, on shorter grass the Kemora is actually quite fun to drive.

Tires: Very good. Nice scale tread that worked better than expected on all surfaces. Nice mechanical grip on pavement, enough edges to keep you going in the grass, and soft enough to get grip on a hard packed dirt surface. The foams were quite soft which helped gain traction in the fluff.

Power: Cogging off the low end to a nice mid range snap to a very mellow 21 mph top speed. Yes, the Kemora comes with a brushless system but the stock Ni-MH pack really holds it back. There is enough yank for a noob to be impressed, for example our resident noob Sam got himself into trouble several times by the power. But… if you are an experienced hobbyist you will be putting a Lipo in ASAP.

Radio: The included Spektrum DX2L is an exceptionally nice RTR radio. Ergo’s were very good, the trigger was spot on (except for those with exceptionally large/fat fingers), the grip was quite comfortable with a molded rubber area that matched up against the webbing of your hand, and the wheel was sport’n a foam donut. Rounded edges everywhere also helped make it extra comfy. The only thing we’d change would be a tackier foam on the wheel. Overall a very light and comfortable radio to use. Range also seemed better than other Spektrum units we’ve used, go figure, maybe they are finally getting that worked out.
Finally, the DS2L does have the ability to dial down the throttle (low, medium, high) so if you want to hand the radio over to a less experienced driver, and not worry too much about them going wide open into a wall, your set.

Broken Parts: The pinion/spur mesh on our Kemora came rather loose, but instead of tightening it we decided to run it and see if it would live. Well… it didn’t, it lasted about a pack. Thankfully 2 extra spurs are included with the car. Our review Kemora lived through the “normal” portion of our testing so we had to go into brutal mode. We ran the Kemora full speed into a railroad tie a half dozen times at full speed. This did break the plastic lower front bumper, but this wasn’t noticeable while driving. Next up was jumping the Kemora off the top of a 2 story house. On our first attempt the car accidentally rolled backwards and fell off the roof ripping a rear shock shaft out of its rod end. We shoved the shock shaft back in and it was back to game on. Next we jumped it off the 2kd story roof twice, both times landing at bad angles (like upside down) and did not break anything. The battery slid out of its tray on both jumps, but this didn’t keep it from driving. Overall- we attempted to destroy the Kemora, and while we did screw up a couple of parts it pretty much drives as well today as it did when it came out of the box. Impressive.

Misc Notes:

We didn’t test the waterproofing of the Kemora but for all you water hounds the Spektrum receiver that comes in the car is completely sealed. If you run in a lot of water (and use a Spektrum transmitter) you will want the receiver that comes in the Kemora.

We experienced a lot of cogging from the Kemora’s brushless system. Trying to get going from a dead stop was a nasty experience, and the cogging is very hard on all the electronics involved.

I can’t stress enough just how good looking the body on the Kemora is. It’s quite obvious the design team spent a lot of time on it, but even more surprising is how much time the assembly crew spends on each one. There are a lot of stickers on the outside of the body to give it a perfectly scale look, and those eat up a lot of extra time. The side view mirrors and rear spoiler are also very nicely done and took someone at the factory extra time to put on. The body was so good looking we really didn’t want to destroy it, and that’s mighty rare for us.

On that same note, even after some pretty sadistic abuse the body still looks amazingly good. The rear view mirrors and wing are still attached, and the body as a whole held up fairly well.

A very nicely done (and model specific) manual comes with the Kemora. Nice touch.

The servo saver is extremely soft. Normally this might hamper steering accuracy, but we didn’t notice it on the Kemora. Being able to get away with a soft servo saver is great news for the life of your steering servo.

The Kemora comes with 2 extra spur gears. Sweet.

The tires make a screeching sound on pavement like the real deal. It’s very cool to do donuts on pavement and have it sound like a full scaler.

There are a lot of RTR’s now days that come with horrible body clips that are too small, hurt your hands, and are generally a PITA. The body clips on the Kemora are nicely done. They are a decent size and bent at the end making them easier to install and remove. However… the holes in the body posts are too small, making it hard to put the pins in. Sigh.

Best Mod Under $5: Dynamite CS800 weight shock oil all the way around. This helps the Kemora handle to its potential instead of like a basketball.

Best Mod Over $5: A Lipo battery. The stock Ni-MH invites cogging and really softens the power of the Kemora, ditch it ASAP for a better battery.

Summary:

Time To Bash: B The included wall charger takes just over an hour to charge the included battery pack. The rest of the rig is ready to jam right out of the box. You can go very quickly from crack’n the box to hit’n the track with the Kemora.

Workability: B Hex screws and a well laid out chassis make the Kemora quite easy to wrench on.

Car Show Rating: A The Kemora drew rave reviews for it’s looks around the office. Vaterra is setting a new standard for how hobby grade rc cars should look.

Bash-A-Bility: B We beat the crap out of the Kemora and did break a couple of parts. Thankfully neither broken part kept us from actually driving the car.

Fun Factor: C We had a lot of fun bashing the Kemora, but the cogging and low power output hurt its fun factor score.

Handling: B The Kemora is a great turning machine, especially for a 4wd. The Kemora generally had good grip on all surfaces. It did not handle bumps well, invest in some heavier shock oil to calm it down in the rough.

Value: A The Kemora has the same price point as its closest competitor, the Traxxas 16th scale rally. They also share nearly the same wheelbase and width. The Traxxas comes with a superior power system, while the Kemora beats the Traxxas in handling and style. We haven’t done a head-to-head shootout, but so far we highly prefer the Kemora. The Traxxas comes set-up for drifting, the Kemora is set-up for everything else.

Parts Availability: C So we broke/ruined two parts during testing, a front bumper set (VTR211007- $6) and a shock shaft end (VTR213007- $5). Both are in stock at Horizon and on the A-Main Hobbies website. None of our local shops had the part in stock, but the entire Vaterra line was first announced a couple of weeks ago. Will parts support for Vaterra ever hit Traxxas levels? Nobody knows that answer for sure, but for it to score higher than a “C” it will need parts sitting on local dealers shelves in the future.

BigSquid Rating: B Did Vaterra impress us with their first car? Overall yes. The Kemora’s scale looks are exceptional. The Kemora drove quite well on a wide variety of bashing surfaces. The Kemora proved it can take a fairly sadistic beating and drive away from it. However, there were some new model blues- the cogging, poorly set gear mesh, soft brushless power, and under damped suspension. Is it worth the cash? If you want an epic looking rally car that is a solid basher (and is shock oil and a Lipo away from being great) then you should definitely add one to your rc garage.