Traxxas Bandit Racing
 

Just started racing Traxxas Slash 4×4 VXL. It gets around the track well on 50% power. Had to upgrade to aluminum shock caps. I'm inexperienced. How is the Traxxas Bandit for racing? Aluminum caps a must too? Any other suggestions for another buggy brand? Class requirements are 1/10 Buggy 2S LiPo max.

If you're planning on racing, the Bandit isn't really the buggy for you. I've never driven one, but I've seen plenty of rookies drive them. It seems too light in the nose. The design is really old. You'd be better off picking up a TLR or Associated buggy that's an older model. Even an AE B4 (about 10 years old) will be better than the bandit.

The one thing the Bandit has going for it is parts availability. Since Traxxas uses a lot of the same parts on different vehicles and they still sell the Bandit, you won't have any problems finding parts. The AE and Losi/TLR can sometimes end up with unavailable parts.

Depends on what classes your racing on. There are specific classes especially an oval racing that use the bandit platform as the base. Same with the slash platform. There aren't that many off road classes that's use the bandit platform as a base. You can race it in with the buggy class but you will be at a disadvantage of sorts, I how ever would not worried about it as most club racers struggle to get around they track. But driving a 2wd traxxas in most cases will make you better in the long run. As you will always be at a disadvantage and have to better educate yourself on tuning and sharping your driving skills then others drivers with newer models. But under stand there will be a time in which you will out grow the car/brand( excluding platform based classes) on higher competition levels.

Ps don't dive in to deep biting off more then what you can chew. The average life expectancy of a rc racer is 2-5 years. With most not making it a full year. Its very easy to over buy, get to many cars, spend to much on maintenance and upgrades, and then turn the hobby in to a second job, and kill all the fun. Experiencing driver burn-out.