ITJeff

Hey all, I have been into R/C cars, trucks, boats, and even a couple planes since I was a teenager. About 12 years ago, I was even into 1/10th touring car racing. I have had several car kits laying around only getting the occasional use until recently. This past winter I picked up a Losi mini rock crawler, but now that the nicer weather is here I have pulled out my older cars.

The one I am concentrating on right now is my Traxxas Bandit. To give you an idea of how old this buggy is, it had an MSC and the Traxxas Stinger 20T motor in it. I have changed out the MSC for an ESC that I had in my old touring car, but so far I still have the Stinger motor in. My plan is to slowly get back into racing by running in a local point series that has a 1/10th 2wd open class.

I want to do some upgrades, but I need to keep my investment low for the time being. I have already purchased a new peak charger, a couple 6-cell NiMH packs (plus I still have some useable packs), and 2 more frequency sets since I seem to have lost the ones I used to use for racing. I am considering at least picking up a new motor, but am not sure what turn motor I should go for. Most people will say I should go the brushless route, but I am not going to invest that much in this old buggy.

Should I just see how it does with the 20T in it for now, or should I maybe go with something like the Titan 12T from Traxxas? Keep in mind I have no experience with offroad racing, and it has been an extremely long time since I have had any R/C racing experience.

haganracing77

iTrader: (18)

I know you said you didnt want to go brushless, but castle has their SCT system for 119 for ESC and MOTOR, i have it in my late model and absolutely love it. It has link so you can hook up to your computer and tune it!

haganracing77

iTrader: (18)

becuase if its an open off road class, then you wont want that 12t titan, i ran them in my 2wd STOCK classes, but you wont want it in a open class

TWRC

iTrader: (14)

Yea, as he said you wont want to run either the 20t stinger or 12t titan. Brushless is the way to go if your gonna be racing open class. Is there a stock class near you that you can run once or twice just to check out the competition? Novak and castle creations both make great systems. Castle's mamba is completely ballistic off the wall speed but is a good deal pricier. Novaks are also great and they give you options for many different escs and turn levels of motors

ITJeff

The racing I am probably starting out in is actually a free point series being run by a local shop/track to help try to get the interest in electric offroad racing back. Another track near me runs a sportsman class that I might try to run in as well. I am not expecting to be competitive in the beginning, but before really investing a bunch of money I just want to be able to get out there and put my driving skills to the test. This decision is also to please the wife who doesn't want me to buy a new car or truck until I am absolutely sure that I want to continue racing.

ITJeff

Here is a picture of my Bandit. You can see my old HPI touring car with an Acura RSX body in the background.

rapscallion

iTrader: (2)

might as well just run it exactly as it is for the first few outings...of course, whether you can race it will depend on the track regulations, but more than likely there will be a category that will allow it - though you probably won't be competitive with regard to equipment capability...

the urging from everyone to run out and buy an expensive castle creations or similar brushless set-up is understandable, as they are thinking about what it takes to compete with the other cars on the track....but from what you've written, it sounds like you're more interested in testing yourself at the moment, which doesn't require anything more than what you already have...

good luck

ITJeff

It is definitely going to be more of a "racing against myself" than being competitive overall at first. Of course once I get the chance to get the buggy out on the track for some practice/testing, I might find I need to justify spending the money on a brushless setup to the wife.

kaiser

iTrader: (2)

lots of good track's in your neck of the woods. you'll know what you want pretty quickly after a few races. there's people who run bandits in the sportsmans class up in winsted, pretty fun class actually, all kinds of wacky cars out there at the same time. thats how i got back into racing after a 17 year hiatus.

def save your money until you know what you want. they way it's setup now is just fine for sportsman. most of the people running in that class can't keep it on the track anyway. slow is fast!

ITJeff

Just took a breather from work and was running the buggy around one of the parking lots for about 10 minutes or so. Obviously it wasn't race conditions, but from the feel of the motor, I think I have some a lot of room left in gearing for more speed. I was able to do some pretty hefty burnouts in any sand that I found. I'll post the short video clips I got with my phone of that.

+ YouTube Video

token

not to be a but
But why do you want to buy old out dated stuff? You can find great deal on current stuff.

Larrydewalt17

You can pick up a 19t brushed venom pretty cheap i have one in my rustler and can keep up with the 13.5 brushless guys

ITJeff

I swapped my Speedworks Caliber motor into the buggy and hit a local track that was very dry. With my worn out tires, it was near impossible to control it in the turns.

bigben1165

iTrader: (9)

welcome back