Traxxas Funny Car unboxing and (pre)view
What you see above, is the Traxxas John Force Funny Car at around 1pm today. The cleanest it’ll ever look and it didn’t last long. What you see below is what happened 5 hours later or about 3 cycles on a 5000mah 3s lipo. From what I’m told, if you participate in the current drag racing scene, that’s about 3 weeks of running.
Luckily I’m use to having really nice and expensive bodies get trashed pretty quick (Mini-z autoscales) so it didn’t pain me too much that it ended up like this. Keeping this thing off its roof was difficult. I’d say 25-50% of it’s time was off the wheels and here is what the body has to show for it. I will say, it fits in well with the “High Milage” theme.
I dig the front latch system, just unclip the front (no body pin) and the body hinges up and then a notch holds it in place. At the hobby shop today, these Funny Cars look perfect side by side. One with the body up, and one with the body down.
Switching to the underside, you can see the motor system is all green and all Castle. The box and product pics up until now looked like it was going to be branded blue. Perhaps the next batch? The close-up of the screw is one of two that need to be removed to completely pull the body off. You can also see the notching system here.
With the body off, it is easier to get a closer look at the internals. Some familiar 1/16 items (shocks, servo) are seen. The initial battery clip was a little short to bolt down my 3s 5000mah lipo. I switched to the included clip that is taller and the battery fit fine with room to spare. Overall, the roll-cage replica chassis looks sweet!
The tires were a bit of a concern for before I bought it. When I first heard they were not fat tires but XO-1 wheels on a plastic rim I had concerns. Those concerns are gone. They are held on nice and tight. The seem doesn’t distract and it looks plenty scale. The car just looks great sitting their on those meat hooks. Pulling the wheels off we expose the rear end a little more. A nice single cover to access the pinion and motor mount.
Unfortunately, the car sits idle awaiting parts. It took a heavy beating today. 2wd makes for some difficult stops and I took a few high speeds “stops” into the curb at the end of the parking lot. The front bumper did it’s job. It got tore up a little and the front plastic chassis got knocked apart. Loosing the screws and reinstalling them and they were back in shape. No breakage. The nasty crashes where the spinouts and rear ending curbs. Crash #5 or #6 ended up popping out the turnbuckle on the wheelie bar. Somewhere in there I scuffed the wire going to the motor, and the deathblow was a final 40-50 mph rear end crash. I hadn’t fixed the wheelie bar so the rear end clearly took a heavier hit. I gave the car some throttle and clearly got some blend-tec action. I pulled the cover off and was greeted by about 1/2 tsb of plastic dust and a cracked motor mount. Overall, the car is durable and I look forward to completing the review.
Until then, check out the beefy rear end and the video unboxing at HobbyTown USA in Orland Park, IL. Be sure to watch the end. I race Nick in his Traxxas Courtney Force Funny Car and it gets a little ugly. Until the review, be sure to check out the technical info on Traxxas’s website.
