Joe’s HPI Blitz – April/May 2010 Update

STOCK! = Boring – ok it may be perfect for the backyard basher but I have a huge competitive streak, it’s that large it has its own weather system – normally a stormy cloud if I don’t do well!

So the Blitz has been raced as she fell out of the box and yes she was fun but now to coin a phrase I needed pppoooowwwwwweeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! So out with the old stock brushed motor, speed controller and servo.

I added Logic RC’s Exceed 13.5t Brushless system, in hindsight I should have gone for the 10.5t but this system has been reliable and there have been no drive train issues since installing it. I also added a Savox steering servo which has beefed up the steering capability tenfold.

Installing the Exceed system was simple as the Blitz is very easy to work on and I soon had everything in place. However I did have to use a Losi 210mm sensor cable as the Exceed stock lead didn’t reach. The servo took all of five minutes to swap out and the servo horns for the HPI Servo and Savox matched perfectly so there was no need to change that. Lastly on the change sheet are a sweet set of Pro-Line beadlock wheels with M3 compound Bowtie SC tyres fitted to them.

I had used the tyres before with the stock setup and they really helped the truck hook up on the hard surface of the Pro-Line Dirt Arena, however when I fitted the front wheels the inner spokes rubbed on the C Hubs. I found a simple fix to this by moving the spacer washer on the front shafts to behind the hex drive rather than the inside of the uprights. This pushes the wheel out by a couple of millimetres but stops the rubbing. A quick and free fix!

Onto The Track!

So off to the PDA once more and I put the truck out in practice and hit the throttle, Instantly the front of the truck rose up and hit the first jump and effortlessly cleared to the next jump. Now to the first corner and I applied the brakes and the truck slowed almost to a halt I realised the brakes now worked rather than hit the brakes and wait for the truck to slow. So I made it round the first bend and applied full power down the straight, the speed was excellent and the tyres really worked well and gave a more consistent grip compared to the stock items. This coupled with the speed of the Savox Servo made the handling superb and sure footed. I could actually hit the same spot on the track rather than take a stab in the dark and see if I could make it.

The First Race

Out for the first race and I was able to mix it up with the top runners on the straights but I was losing out on the twisty sections and the jumps, I finished the race and headed back to the pits. Exceed have a programmer for the ESC which gives you 31 variable settings on the ESC there are 17 variables that you can set with the setup button on the ESC but for pure ease, luckily someone loaned me a programmer and I edited the power range to maximum!

Lets Race Again!

This time the truck really showed its teeth and bit into the track. It soon became easy to clear the double jump section with two smooth jumps but no matter what I still lost out on speed to the 10.5t and lower enabled trucks so I will address those issues later. For now I’m still learning my way around off-road racing so it can happily stay in situ, I also think I will upgrade my batteries as the 3250mah LiPos I’m using are getting pretty well beaten up and hitting the lipo cut off just after the race. I’m really happy with how the Blitz has been going, Short Course Racing really suits me and I’m enjoying the rough and tough body to body racing. Especially when you knock another truck clean off the track muuuuhahahahahahahahaha!

Toys Toys Toys…

A big delivery has been given to me with lots of shiny parts in it from HPI Racing, but that will all come in the next instalment!

 

For more information on the Blitz short course racer, check out the HIP Europe website at www.hpieurope.com