Oh dear. I've been bitten by the electric bug...
As regular visitors to this blog will know I started racing 2wd electrics late last year after a number of years of nitro abuse. Up to now the Magoo garage consisted of an Ansmann XPro and Team C TC02C. Now after months of drooling over the stunning looking Team Durango DEX 410 I've finally purchased one.
Actually I've gone for the lower spec (as significantly cheaper!) DEX410R. It does everything I need, and only needs a couple of hop-up to to increase reliability. Simon Crabb at RCLazy ordered one up for me, and with in 48 hours it was in stock, giving me all the excuse I needed to pop down to his most excellent seaside RC emporium. The only thing missing was an ice-cream.
'Serious About Racing' pretty much sums it up... this is a serious piece of kit!
The Durango appealed to me for a couple of reasons, upper-most the oil filled diffs. Many of the electric old school seem unconvinced by these, but with my 8th background and general dislike of ball-diffs I was sold. I also like the nice solid ally chassis and quality of engineering. Oh, and did I mention it's just about the sexiest car on the market?
Putting it together
The build was pretty straight forward over a couple of evenings. Take you're time and there's nothing particularly tricky in the build, just keep the thread-lock to hand, and make sure the main diff gears are well seated. The hardest part was getting the electrics in, there's not an awful lot of room available! My Fusion Pro ESC isn't the smallest on the market, but it's not the largest either. Even so I wound up fitting a Spektrum SR3500 receiver due to it's small size - and it is tiny! Getting all the wires in and away from moving parts was also fun, but some big old blobs of LazyGoo held everything where I needed it. Big thanks to Tony RC for the soldering skills (and excellent curry!).
Not much room in there. Note the micro Rx (and over long sensor cable!)
There were only a couple of issues encountered during the build. First being the ball cups. The Durango items are shocking, being so loose the pop off when any pressure is applied. Losi cups and HPI balls provide the answer to that one. Not major, but annoying on a car of this quality. The second was (hopefully) unique to my kit, the manufacturer having missed tapping one of the servos saver axles. A quick email to TD saw a replacement drop through the door in the post next day, so we're all good.
The only hop-ups fitted so far are some boots to cover the CVD's and the alloy front hinge pin brace (by all accounts an absolute must). When RCLazy get's them in stock a 'bling-red' Tresrey servo saver arm sill be fitted, as that another know weak spot. With my local shop being the new Tresrey importer for the UK, there may well be a few other red bits fitted to the over the next few months.
The shell is beautiful, and got a quick paint scheme shot onto it to replicate one of the PR cars from the US, and she was all ready for the track.
A quick paint job and she's ready for the track
The Shakedown
After racing at TORCH on Sunday I had enough time left to stick a couple of packs through the car to see how she went. I'm running a Fusion Pro ESC and 6.5T motor with 4500 30C cells, and after a good squeeze of the throttle I was blown away by the speed. There's no slack in the power, and at the top end the car's a missile, all be it a finely controlled one. Tyre choice for the dry astro was totally wrong, with yellow Schumacher mini-pins at either end providing way to much grip, and instant grip-roll on demand. The shocks were also a little on the heavy side, the team drivers seem to prefer slightly large holes in pistons so I'll be sorting that before it's first race outing.
Even with the set-up issues I can tell there's an awesome car lurking in my workshop now. After a couple packs and some big stacks there was no visible damage to the car, and everything was still working as expected. I'm definitely going to have to up my game to get the best out of this car.
Next move
Pretty simple really, better choice of tyres (blue mini-spikes I think), a shock rebuild with large shock holes and finding somewhere to sqeaze a PT in. Then race it as hard as I can. Watch this space!
Should be ready for TORCH in a couple of weeks time
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