@BriansRCStuff Yeah. It's a shame. I would say the FTX Vantage, Carnage, and Zorro are all just old dated design models. The newer stuff they've released seems generally better. FTX doesn't make them as far as i know, it's just another rebrand and re-sell I believe, bit like that Laegendary Thunder...

@hectortheerector Thanks for your comment. I think some of the later /new FTX releases have been more durable for sure. The Rokatan is similar to the Apache and Crossbow i think? which are just better built quality models with more modern chassis and tougher plastics. The Zorro, Vantage and Carnage are old dated designs with flimsy thin arms and toothpick driveshafts and axles. I still have fun with it, just took me a while to figure out what it was good for.

@BriansRCStuff Tough to call it really. The 3s Armma Range of that era is decent and well proven, but the plastic gears and driveshafts are a weak point. Both my Big Rock and Vorteks run upgraded steel gears and shafts. Apart from that, they are pretty much tanks. Everything breaks if you smash into things hard enough. The MJX belongs to my Girlfriend, I picked it out for her, it's a great car at a great price. Its well equipped too! Steel gears and 4s ready. Super flexible plastics too, so it just bends and doesnt break stuff. Suspension travel is a little lacking, but can be improved with different shocks. The MJX center differential is a bonus, and certainly an advantage over my Vorteks. They are well matched cars, we like them both.

@@salatitofu2695 United Kingdom

Modifications are in the description 👍

​@@TheSpeedySpot thanks, av just read it. Am just wondering because I have ftx rokatan and runs 3s but was thinking about upping it to 4s. With maverick quantum r flux esc and moto as I have one there that's going to be upgraded to 6s. So spare parts to use. Don't no if the rokatan will take the extra power. Lol. Only one way to find out.

@SpeedrunTnRC Thanks, the speed challenge Runs until end of December. There's still time 👍

@jinesd1 thanks my friend! 🤛

@SpeedrunTnRC Fun and addictive hobby isn't it? Just keep wanting more speed haha

@@TheSpeedySpot I recently broke my neck on my zx14 thrill seeking. I shifted to these my heart gets thumping when I do a pass! A lot safer to expensive though if you let it be! I’m over 10g in 6 months already lol

@SpeedrunTnRC thank you for the sub!

@BagDouken thanks man, bit gutting especially with winter fast approaching.

@@TheSpeedySpot well I’ve still got That 3665 Hobbywing floating about of you need it My vantage parts should come tomorrow and then that’s back up and running after it crashes into my leg 😂

I wrote about that a bit in my description above, but basically they are both accurate. The variance I think was to do with refresh rate, they both have a 1hz refresh (once per second) so it's easy to see how the speeds could vary within that 1second if you are still accelerating. As long as you reach and hold your max speed for at least one second, Both GPS should record/read the same top speed. The variance we saw in my video was basically not having enough road space to hold max speed long enough to capture the result. By comparison, the more expensive SkyRC GSM020 has a refresh rate of 5hz (5 times per second)

@@TheSpeedySpot you do have a really tricky spot to run there. I wish the M3 had a quicker refresh rate for sure! Thanks

@BriansRCStuff Great result with the bandit. I think it's hard to say what speed was gained, as I just run out of road really. I think 130mph could have been possible with more space. It was a strong motor! But yeah like you say, the lower resistance from the thicker wires should help deliver slightly more voltage. I wish X-Team would put thicker gauge wires in, especially their 3665-3674 motor range, where it's needed. Their 40mm diameter motors are fine, and come with 10 gauge. I used the X-Team 4092 motor in my big rock, it's a beast!

@BriansRCStuff I probably had less than 20 passes on this motor. You'll see in an earlier video I melted the stock 14 gauge motor wires (almost had a fire) and so upgraded to 10gauge. I was quite surprised to see it had failed, as the crash didn't look that bad, but I guess the lack of suspension could cause the landing to be quite a shock on the motor. I'm not too upset, I did get to hit 110mph on 3s and 127mph on 4s with it, giving me new PBs. Fortunately these Xteam motors aren't too expensive to replace.

@@TheSpeedySpot kzbin.info/www/bejne/epu2iHxmh99qaM0si=JGVW8bKWu6VhZr4b&t=83

@DieselRC87 thank you for your comment 🙏 yeah it's been a struggle to find somewhere to run with enough space. I'm not giving up though, I will keep looking as I know I'm going to need that extra room to progress and get faster. Thanks for the encouragement 💪

@ClintCalebCameras Foam tyres are the way to go for high speed runs. Rubber tyres expand/ balloon, making the car too unstable. Belted rubber tyres are an improvement, but foam is the best in my opinion.

@micron3268 Thanks! I've had it up to 127mph so far, but ran out of road. Still searching for a better location.

In hindsight, maybe this wasn't the best way to start a speed run challenge. I guess I shouldn't have set a speed? Maybe I have put people off, as there's been very little interest? Or maybe just no one cares about fast cheap little rcs?😂 To be fair this is the type of car I'd expect owners buy as their first RC, Or for a child. So speed running probably isn't of interest to them. I didnt plan to do a speed challenge , I was just trying to build a silly fast 16889 😂 but once it got faster, I thought I'd try and make something for people to get involved in too. I thought people would be going for it and posting triple figure speeds. I dont think my 74mph is unbeatable🤔 Maybe it's the wrong car for a speed challenge. Oh well, I'll leave it open and see if I get some entries.

@@TheSpeedySpot Yeah, I have the same line of thinking. Sadly, I think the number of folks that are into speedrunning 1/16th scale budget RC cars is pretty small. For sure there are some and there are some hard core speed runners that could have a lot of fun with something like this if they were aware of it, but drawing them in could be tricky. Most of the folks that would likely consider participating probably have a stockish truck that might hit 35 or 40 mph and think it is really quick. Heck, like 3 months ago before I realized how I could shoehorn a bigger pinion gear in the truck I thought I had pretty much maxed it out at 56.9 mph running 100mm foam tires (it was a challenge). If I saw some a$$hole running theirs at 74 mph and being like, come and play... I would be like.... WTF man.🤣🤣🤣 I will never get close to those kinds of speeds so I am not going to even attempt it! I am not worthy to even hold this guys jock strap..... I think if it was setup with no real expectation there would have been some more interest. That being said, I was really hoping a few really skilled guys with deep pockets would join, 3d print some new shock mounts and lower the sh*t out of it, put a stupid fast revving Castle motor in it, put it in a wind tunnel and make some custom aero, totally cut up the chassis and run like a 30t pinion along with a smaller spur gear and crack 100 mph. I thought about doing a 3s speedrun challenge for the Traxxas Bandit to see what folks could do with it but as I already had mine over 100 mph on 3s I didn't think I would get many takers.... and the ones that went much faster would probably have done stuff to it I couldn't afford to do.... and make me salty.... so I decided not to proceed.😁

@@TheSpeedySpot and by a$$hole I mean that in the most humors playing kind of way.... not personally.

Yeah, I agree. Shame really. It's still early days i suppse, only been open a week or so. Just need one or two entries to start the ball rolling and maybe that will be an incentive for others to join. If it doesn't take off, so be it. It's only a bit of fun. I'm looking forward to taking part in bargainbashersrc speed challenge though now 🙂 can't wait to see the other entries and to push each other to higher speeds along the way! Theres some really fast guys out there. This will be my first ever entry on a rc speed challenge, so I'm just happy to take part in something.

Haha no offence taken 🤣 I see your point.

Sorry I didn’t see this sooner

Wow! You got this set up very well, I’ve definitely never seen a 16889 clone go that quickly! Nicely done!!

@BargainBashersRc I'm looking forward to seeing the other entries to your speed challenge, I'm expecting to see a few Rlaarlo ROG1 in the 1/16 class! Those things are very fast straight out of the box and easily modified.

@@TheSpeedySpot from what I have hear I think most entries will be HBX or Hyper Go based. However I’m certainly curious to see what everyone enters

@BargainBashersRc I realised after posting, the ROG 1 is actually marketed as a 1/14th scale anyway. So I assume they will be in a different class in your speed challenge.

@dcrc_adventures thanks! 61mph is fast with these tiny cars! Ive watched your videos. Hope to see you participating in the challenge. Remember to link your video in the comments.

@scottk7795 thanks! As you may know, The FTX Tracer version comes with plastic gears. My car has been fitted with the complete metal (steel) driveline from the HBX 16889A In my experience, The rear diffential output pinion is the weakest link.

@BriansRCStuff Excellent, the xteam motors are good value, i run them in all my speed cars. (I buy mine though 🤣) To make things interesting and try and generate more participants, I have added a Speed Run challenge to the description. It would be awesome to get more people taking part and really see what we can get out of these little cars. Maybe you can spread the word on your channel too and help get this going ! 🤛

@BriansRCStuff thanks Brian, yeah thats the same Aliexpress foam tyres from before. 2x 850mah 3s batteries in parallel this time. I also tried larger tyres again (80mm foams) but it was wobbling out of control, and I only managed 60mph. It's more stable on the smaller wheels.

I'm not sure why it was so unstable without the wing. It does have a lot of steering slop though, and no suspension. Adding weight on the nose didn't help unfortunately. Sorry about the undisclosed motor, just wanted to keep something to myself. At least for now. As we are gearing limited on this platform, we have to experiment with motors and tyre size instead. I'm going to try again for sure, with some different batteries and tyre's. Have you tested your larger wheels on your 16890? It's definitely fun experimenting and seeing what each car setup does, no matter what rc car it is. Thanks for following along 👍