1/8 E buggy characteristics by make/model? pros/cons
06-02-2014, 09:09 PM
#16
You'll likely go try a few different brands before you find the one you really like. I had more than my fair share of "3 race cars"
Tekno: really good rotation everywhere. Jumps well. Sometimes a little twitchy on a blown out track. Shocks were sub par quality, sticktion was the biggest problem mostly. Not a very plush car. Limited tuning.
Mugen: Good ground game. But I hated it's shocks with a passion. Just couldn't make it work for me. Fragile arms. Excellent gears and drives. Crazy huge tuning changes had little effect on how the car handled.
Kyosho: Big and heavy feeling. Worked fine everywhere, but never felt "cutting edge". Olde school safe bet. Excellent shocks. I'm not sure I liked it's suspension travel on the ones I tested. But I'll bet I can fix that. Body looks like an up-side down kitchen sink.
AE & Losi: Not going there anymore. They eat parts.
Hotbodies: Haven't got my hands on their new car.
JQ: Kyo copy. Nothing wrong with that. Goofy lack of CVD's.
Serpent: I hated owning that car. It's fast everywhere, but never goes exactly where I wanted it to. I was always chasing the car and track conditions. Always fighting it, as it went for tight to loose, then tight again, 3 or four times per lap. It was like driving 2wd buggy, where you're just trying to survive and make a clean lap, not really racing anyone. Excellent, almost Xray, parts quality. I think this car had a nasty rear weight bias, and like the poster above said, I don't think that's for sportsman level racers like us.
Xray: My current ride. Most durable and adjustable car I've owned. Really sensitive to tire choice though. Also sensitive to setup changes. (It's easy to screw it up) Best shocks I've tried yet. But I would convert an XB8 to electric rather than buy an Xb9 at this point. Most complete kit as well. I think I changed the servo arms to Hitec plastic arms, everything else is stock.
Tekno: really good rotation everywhere. Jumps well. Sometimes a little twitchy on a blown out track. Shocks were sub par quality, sticktion was the biggest problem mostly. Not a very plush car. Limited tuning.
Mugen: Good ground game. But I hated it's shocks with a passion. Just couldn't make it work for me. Fragile arms. Excellent gears and drives. Crazy huge tuning changes had little effect on how the car handled.
Kyosho: Big and heavy feeling. Worked fine everywhere, but never felt "cutting edge". Olde school safe bet. Excellent shocks. I'm not sure I liked it's suspension travel on the ones I tested. But I'll bet I can fix that. Body looks like an up-side down kitchen sink.
AE & Losi: Not going there anymore. They eat parts.
Hotbodies: Haven't got my hands on their new car.
JQ: Kyo copy. Nothing wrong with that. Goofy lack of CVD's.
Serpent: I hated owning that car. It's fast everywhere, but never goes exactly where I wanted it to. I was always chasing the car and track conditions. Always fighting it, as it went for tight to loose, then tight again, 3 or four times per lap. It was like driving 2wd buggy, where you're just trying to survive and make a clean lap, not really racing anyone. Excellent, almost Xray, parts quality. I think this car had a nasty rear weight bias, and like the poster above said, I don't think that's for sportsman level racers like us.
Xray: My current ride. Most durable and adjustable car I've owned. Really sensitive to tire choice though. Also sensitive to setup changes. (It's easy to screw it up) Best shocks I've tried yet. But I would convert an XB8 to electric rather than buy an Xb9 at this point. Most complete kit as well. I think I changed the servo arms to Hitec plastic arms, everything else is stock.
Not sure what you mean about hateing the Mugen shocks ? Grated im going to rebuild my . Oh yea i agree with you on the Front lower arms being fragile if you case a jump or land nosediving or hit a pipe. I had one of them break two times oddly enough the one arm i did not boil in hot water broke the one i did boil never broke on me during a race.
So yea you got to make sure your line up to jumps right and land better with the Mugens.
The Tekno well i never driven one but have heard many say its to twichy and hard to drive in stock setup . I have the sc410 which has the same twichyness and to much steering and to much fishtailing with a stock setupi found . Not many Teknos ive seen this season at the tracks i been to ethier compared to before.
06-02-2014, 09:21 PM
#17
Mugen MBX6 ECO : PROS: Fast and smooth jumps good , tons of travel up and down, steering is about the smoothest you will get with pillow balls. Big changes on them are not super noticeble most of the time constant. It likes to be driven hard but not to hard ive noticed. Likes a decent amount of droop and ride height.
Cons: Fragile lower Front arms which i highly remmend boiling them in hot water . Pillow balls get dirty and notchy if you dont use some kind of dry lub on them. Using dish wheels makes it hard to adjust the camber so i would get a pair of spoke rims to set the camber . Likes to somewhat understeer but can be fixed with tuning.
Losi and Associated : Well ive own both of them one a buggy and truggy and one a truggy . One its drivetrain and plastics wear to fast and lower quality but tough and easy to drive but lacks steering.
The other has much better quality drivetrain and plastics a little better , has a good amount of steering . Strong, jumps good.
But the Mugens and others quality is way better more money for parts but less to pay because of good wear .
Cons: Fragile lower Front arms which i highly remmend boiling them in hot water . Pillow balls get dirty and notchy if you dont use some kind of dry lub on them. Using dish wheels makes it hard to adjust the camber so i would get a pair of spoke rims to set the camber . Likes to somewhat understeer but can be fixed with tuning.
Losi and Associated : Well ive own both of them one a buggy and truggy and one a truggy . One its drivetrain and plastics wear to fast and lower quality but tough and easy to drive but lacks steering.
The other has much better quality drivetrain and plastics a little better , has a good amount of steering . Strong, jumps good.
But the Mugens and others quality is way better more money for parts but less to pay because of good wear .
Last edited by tc5 man; 06-02-2014 at 09:34 PM.
06-03-2014, 03:18 PM
#18
Not sure why all the negative reviews on the Serpent 811Be 2.0 buggy. The latest setups make the car more stable, predictable, drivable than ever, while still having tons of steering. Even for an average driver like me, the car is crazy fast and easy to drive. The old 1.0, yeah, was kinda twitchy, but the new car can hardly be compared to the old, no more than a losi 3.0 should be be compared to a 2.0. Great chassis layout, great side to side balance. Definitely a buggy worth checking out.
06-04-2014, 01:39 PM
#20
Not sure why all the negative reviews on the Serpent 811Be 2.0 buggy. The latest setups make the car more stable, predictable, drivable than ever, while still having tons of steering. Even for an average driver like me, the car is crazy fast and easy to drive. The old 1.0, yeah, was kinda twitchy, but the new car can hardly be compared to the old, no more than a losi 3.0 should be be compared to a 2.0. Great chassis layout, great side to side balance. Definitely a buggy worth checking out.
the cobra 2.0 is indeed very good
06-04-2014, 02:01 PM
#21
Great thread!! 2 pages and no bashing! Thanks for the input and honest, well explained characteristics. Gives us club racers an idea of what to expect. Keep it up!
06-04-2014, 07:54 PM
#23
Serpent: I hated owning that car. It's fast everywhere, but never goes exactly where I wanted it to. I was always chasing the car and track conditions. Always fighting it, as it went for tight to loose, then tight again, 3 or four times per lap. It was like driving 2wd buggy, where you're just trying to survive and make a clean lap, not really racing anyone. Excellent, almost Xray, parts quality. I think this car had a nasty rear weight bias, and like the poster above said, I don't think that's for sportsman level racers like us.
06-04-2014, 08:06 PM
#24
Tech Adept
iTrader: (18)
Not sure why all the negative reviews on the Serpent 811Be 2.0 buggy. The latest setups make the car more stable, predictable, drivable than ever, while still having tons of steering. Even for an average driver like me, the car is crazy fast and easy to drive. The old 1.0, yeah, was kinda twitchy, but the new car can hardly be compared to the old, no more than a losi 3.0 should be be compared to a 2.0. Great chassis layout, great side to side balance. Definitely a buggy worth checking out.
06-04-2014, 09:05 PM
#25
Cool very informative even I learned something new
ool very informative even I learned something new
06-04-2014, 09:11 PM
#26
Pulse_ how would you compare the MBX6 Eco to the MP9E quality and wear wise? I really want to try a Kyosho but it's going to be hard to convince myself it's that much higher in quality than the MBX6.
06-05-2014, 04:06 AM
#27
I could not have said this better myself.
I am going to be a little bais to the serpent being it the cars I have stuck with the last 2 years of me getting back in racing, but the xray xb8, xb9 are great cars and drive very well and can take a beating. I personally nerver liked my Losi 2.0 but that is just me. For me going from Losi to serpent was a night and day difference I was able to get the car to do alot more and the car wanted to drive itself and was more forgiving.
In the end it really comes down to you and how you drive. I would suggest heading to your local track and see if anyone will let you drive their car.
I am going to be a little bais to the serpent being it the cars I have stuck with the last 2 years of me getting back in racing, but the xray xb8, xb9 are great cars and drive very well and can take a beating. I personally nerver liked my Losi 2.0 but that is just me. For me going from Losi to serpent was a night and day difference I was able to get the car to do alot more and the car wanted to drive itself and was more forgiving.
In the end it really comes down to you and how you drive. I would suggest heading to your local track and see if anyone will let you drive their car.
06-05-2014, 04:40 AM
#28
both are excellent buggies for the people looking for a forgiving car, the XB9E can also be considered one of them
in the end it depends what driver you are.. if you crash often and drive on very abrasive terrain I'd say go for a Serpent/ Mugen/ Xray rather than the Kyosho
if you're smooth and driving on normal tracks Kyosho would be my choice
the thing is the K car is very mature compared to most e-buggies out there, the level of detail is very good.. comparable to what losi did with the 3.0E in terms of "purpose built for electric", only downside is the small battery tray..and pricetag of course
the most purpose built of them all is the tekno EB48, but it's not as versatile as a Kyosho, to me a tekno is best suited for typical US tracks with jumps (it's an excellent jumper), smooth surface and grip
Last edited by Pulse_; 06-05-2014 at 04:50 AM.
06-05-2014, 05:03 AM
#29
Tech Rookie
and guys what you think about the mugen mbx6r with tekno conversation?
Becaouse I have two option, I can buy mugen mbx6r nitro with novarossi engine, but i don't wanna race with nitro if i buy this I use the nitro engine somethimes just for fun, i put the tekno kit..
Or i can buy new durango 408 this is just the kit but brand new.
The price is same. but the mugen is used, the durango is new.
what you suggest me guys.
I'm really new with e buggys.
or I find this:
Kyosho Inferno MP9e TKI RTR, this myab 430euro. This is good for the start my electric race carrier?
What you think guy about this rtr?
Becaouse I have two option, I can buy mugen mbx6r nitro with novarossi engine, but i don't wanna race with nitro if i buy this I use the nitro engine somethimes just for fun, i put the tekno kit..
Or i can buy new durango 408 this is just the kit but brand new.
The price is same. but the mugen is used, the durango is new.
what you suggest me guys.
I'm really new with e buggys.
or I find this:
Kyosho Inferno MP9e TKI RTR, this myab 430euro. This is good for the start my electric race carrier?
What you think guy about this rtr?
Last edited by matyko; 06-05-2014 at 06:41 AM.
06-05-2014, 09:06 AM
#30
I have bought a few used buggys and truggys.....all have turned out excellent.
Thing I like is that you usually get extra parts and a lot of upgrades have already been done. Downside is seized/broken/worn parts but if its a good seller and you get a good price on it, a few dollars and some time invested gets you an excellent running RC.
Thing I like is that you usually get extra parts and a lot of upgrades have already been done. Downside is seized/broken/worn parts but if its a good seller and you get a good price on it, a few dollars and some time invested gets you an excellent running RC.