Well, as some of you know my Savage was entered into a weekend of racing - including a 4 hour endurance race. I'll start off by saying that the truck racing was particularly interesting this weekend because the new Revo was making it's debut at our club. I joined the que of people who had lined up to see the truck in the flesh.
First of all, I have to say that in terms of design and quality, the Revo is a major step forwards compared to the Tmaxx. Everything is very well laid out and the chassis has a nice kind of symmetry that I found very appealing. The other thing of course is that everything is slung very low, so the truck has a much lower CoG when compared to most other MT's. To be honest, it's more like a Truggy than a MT. The underside of the truck looks to be quite exposed, far more so than a Savage and it concerned me that only some little plastic guards protected the servos. The brake was not protected at all. The UJ driveshafts looked quite burly. They are telescopic and booted for protection, made entirely of a nylon/plastic material.
The Revo was very eager to start up and the run in was complete after about 6 tankfuls of fuel. In that time the glow plug was replaced and the truck seemed to run well. Now it was time to race it!!!
At the meeting we had the usual assortment of Tmaxx's, Rustlers, Menaces, a (non operational!
) EK4, Savages etc. Besides my Savage, there was another highly modified Savage with a Werks Racing Picco P3 .26 engine - it was very punchy and popped wheelies all over the place. It also drank fuel at an alarming rate
Well, I'm afraid to say that 'out of the box', the RTR Revo just didn't cut it for racing on Grass
. It was over geared, and the fuel tank lid didn't seal. Fortunately, a Savage tank lid seal was used and the Revo ran much better. Compared to my Savage, coming out of the corner and onto the straight, my Savage was away well ahead of the Revo. My Savage was at full speed by about half way down the straight - the Revo was just about thinking about changing gear by the end of it
It was the same through the twisty parts - the Savage launches itself from turn to turn, where as the Revo was much softer. I imagine the Revo was easier to drive, but ultimately a fair bit slower around the Track. Over 5 minutes, I was lapping the Revo 2-3 times on a fairly large track - Savage 13 laps, Revo 10. That's about 7 seconds per lap.
To be fair my Savage isn't stock. It faired better against the other Savages. The Werks powered Savage was driven by our local nutter who drives like an absolute looney
. To be fair, his driving was of a far better standard than usual, so I imagine he's been practicing! Between these 2, it was very close with the Revo just gaining the advantage.
During the final, it was showdown time. My Savage pulled away and lapped the Revo 3 times - however, in the closing stages of the race, my Savage lost a wheel nut and the I was forced to finish the race on 3 wheels. The outcome was that I won by 2 laps - on 3 wheels
I'm probably one of the only people in the world at present that can claim to have beaten a Revo with a 3 wheeled Savage
At the end of Sunday's racing, I had another good look at the Revo. The bottom A arms look quite weedy, however, they are infact very durable for normal use. It took a few big tumbles, plus on certain occassions it took some serious 'abuse' from my Savage. Nothing broke. The truck's springs were waaay too soft and the shocks required some heavier shock oil. All things considered, the Revo out of box is still much better suited to racing than a either a Savage SS or Savage RTR .25
and I suspect that even for bashing, the Revo will not embarrass itself - even against Savages. It's definitely a durable truck too.
My main gripe is with the engine - it's better than the older Tmaxx 2.5 engine and seems to run reliably so far. But it's still soft compared to the big block engines we all know and love. Thank the lord that New Era are doing big block engine cradles. Yes! Just imagine a Revo with a Nova Rossi .28?
Hmmmmmm
