Tuesday, July 30, 2013

HPI Vorza First Few Runs


Holy crap this thing is fasssst! Point of reference, I haven't had a fast RC before, only rock crawlers.

My first run was on a 6S Nano-Tech battery and stock gears. It was very twitchy and hard to control. I agree with the masses that the stock tires aren't sufficient. especially with the stock gears. Check out the video in the side bar to see how my first outing went. spoiler alert, I broke it.

I quickly ordered a new set of gears 21/46. Since this thing is so damn fast as it is I was hesitant to put faster gears in it. However, it was a great idea. With the faster gears I can put the power down much better.

The next step is to get the Castle Link to set up the ESC. One of the things I want to do is raise the LVC.
I also have other plans that include:
- New tires, everyone seems to like the Proline Badlands
- Fan for the motor
- Shock/Spring upgrades, it bottoms out on small jumps with the stock compliment
- New body
- Swap TX/RX with my DX3E
- Aluminum servo horn
- Possibly better servo

I really want to get a handle on the heat this thing produces. The battery, motor, and center diff get pretty warm running in regular summer temps. I'm thinking about getting a temperature alarm system and maybe find a good way to vent some of the heat from under the body. Not sure if that's even a good idea.

Overall I'm having the most fun I've had playing with RC.

Video from my first bash with the Vorza


Sunday, July 21, 2013

HPI Vorza Flux HP

I'm pretty excited about this one. I have a HPI Vorza on order.




As far as I know the Vorza has been around since at least 2009. Since then lots of people have complained out how heavy it is and that it's not suitable for competition. I can't speak for HPI, but the marketing material I've seen never suggests that the Vorza is anything other than a basher.

Once I get it and get it tuned, I would like to take it to a track for fun, but I have no plans at all to race it formally.

The Vorza seems to have a small audience. I'm guessing the basher community prefers monster trucks and not buggys for bashing. The reason I prefer the buggy over the monster trucks is because I like the semi-scale appearance of the Vorza and the mechanics of the buggy style RC. To me buggies are the perfect mix of on-road, track, and off-road. That gives me more option for running it in my opinion.

With that small audience comes way less option part support. My understanding is the best most basic way to improve the performance for the Vorza is a slammin battery (Turnigy 6S) and gearing (from HPI).

Hopefully HPI and others will have replacement parts available for a while. It would suck to buy something, break a major part that you can't replace.

My upgrade plans for the Vorza include:
20T Pinion
46T Spur
Turnigy 6S 3.3ah
Pro-Line Badlands
remove stock decals and re-paint the body
Maybe paint the wheels

I'll eventually get a set of road tires since I live around a lot of asphalt.

I'll post pics once I get it tuned up and running!