Originally posted by jasoncsc
My experience with the 710 in 2 weeks....
Yes the car is definitely a "glass car". Parts breaks easily! I went through 3 rear shock tower, lost 2 dogbones, 3 one way drive cups, 2 pivot balls, not to mention repair time and cost.....All committed while the body suffer only minor rub marks!
Of specially weak point is the front steering block, one minor rub on the side and the whole thing just pop out of the pivot balls, and there goes your dogbone, front one-way drive cup, and sometimes the pivot ball. Even if you can salvage the parts from the track it takes time to re-install them, and once after the steering block pop out of the pivot balls then it will keep poping because it seems that the sttering block was weaken.
The rear shock tower is another crazilly weak point. One day I went through 2 rear shock towers.
Some might say that its my driving that leads to breakage as seen in my car, but here at the local track a lot of 710 owners are seen walking on the track finding missing parts.... 3 friends of mine have the FW05, and they are just learning to drive, so their cars are bumping, and sometimes flying, all over the track, but the FW is much more durable. Also, the Serpent parts, even though now price seems lower than before, is still too high. e.g. the cost of one lower a-arm of the 710 can buy a tree of FW front A-Arms, not to mention that Serpent parts are sold in pieces, and left and right parts are not interchangeable!
In addition, the screw holes on the plastic parts seems to strip easily. 2-3 times tighting-retighting and its highly possible that the hole would wear out. I did not use excessive force.
While I don't mind paying for a premium for a better car, my experience with the 710 makes me a laughing topic amongst my friends. The 710, not only its easily broken, but also its hard to setup and drive. My friends with the FW05 and Mugen are newbies, and they just setup according to the manual. I've driven their cars and wow what a difference they are in driving compared to my Serpent! Even some friends who are A-main Serpent drivers, who tried my friend's FW, and they comment that the car is so easy to drive that he just keep on driving until we pry his hands out of the tranny! The only good about my 710 is on the straight, but that is mainly because of my Max 5 port, not the car!
I don't mind to put flame on this topic, and all this experience is just my personal experience, but I am very disappointed about my 710......Today, finally I call a quit, take out the engines and electrics from the 710, and sold the chassis. I am going to put them into a FW05.
How do you break 3 shock towers in 1 day? My 710 has flipped over at least 15 times and each time would be 5-6 flips, nothing busted at all. Not trying to bash but did you install or tighten what needs to be done that would cause you to break so much in a single day? I think it does have to do with your driving skills but yes, the car is pretty fragile. Havent had any pivot balls strip or get loose yet, even due to some guy who hit me with his 1/8th scale car that sent my car going full speed into a wall. Im sure any car that went as fast as mine will suffer as much as the 710 at those speeds. Not eveyone will enjoy their cars 100%. Anyways have fun with your FW05R
