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  #21  
Old 13-11-2012
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Dudders Dudders is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Conrad View Post
how competitive
It won't be, at all BUT it will be a starter car.

What do you want, budget starter car or somethnig comptitive?

Complete different area's.
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  #22  
Old 06-01-2013
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Andy-j.smith6 Andy-j.smith6 is offline
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Thought i would add my experiences.

Bought a brushed vantage probably about 5-6 months ago. I bought it for my 5 year old son, to start racing with.

Overall it has been excellent value for money. It was perfect for him to get going and importantly not too much of an outlay if he got bored after a couple of weeks.

Couple of things to bear in mind if thinking about buying to race. You only get a slow charger with the car, so you will need to budget for a basic fast charger. Also you will beed another battery, but tgese are pretty cheap too, about £15'ish for a 3000mAh pack. Other than that you are ready to go.

As he has improved a lot and still loves going. In terms of upgrades, i have done a few things, more recently as he gets better and better. I have put my spare servo in as its a bit quicker than the standard one. Recently i put in a new esc and uprated brushed motor, still quite cheap stuff.

Probably the most impressive thing has been its robustness. After a few months of racing most weeks (indoor on carpet) we have replaced one prop shaft that bent, £2.90, 2 bent shock shafts, £9 for a pair of ready built shocks and springs.

I have thought about at what point i might upgrade him to a more comoetition based car, but to be honest his ability has not exceeded the car yet. I also think i would probaly be paying out more in spares through breakages.

Anyway if anyone has any questions, let me know.
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  #23  
Old 12-05-2013
Chrissy Boy Chrissy Boy is offline
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I am giving some serious thought to getting back into the hobby after what is now approaching 25 years away, to be honest I am torn between getting something second hand from a name I remember from back in the day, Associated, Schumacher, Kyosho etc or going down the cheaper initial outlay route, FTX. Basically my concern would be availability of spares. I am under no illusions as to what to expect, two decades out is a long long time so I would put myself firmly in the club racer group, but if I start to improve then maybe shoving a few hop ups on and some better radio gear etc is the way to go, or is this just a false economy? after all the top end boys in any club throw quite a lot of money at it and I am coming in completely from scratch. Thank you in advance for any advice, Chris. PS, I would be going the 4wd route.
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  #24  
Old 12-05-2013
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Andy-j.smith6 Andy-j.smith6 is offline
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Feel free to ignore my advice, but I have been in a similar boat.

I raced cars as a teenager and did ok, Club B/A final. Came back to sport 2/3 years ago and actuaooy got a 1/8 nitro buggy (as i always wanted one aswithid). Bought Losi 8 (decent competition buggy) second hand pkus most of the gear. Didn't want to buy new in case i didn't stick at it. It was a good decision and all wentvwell.

Got rid of the 1/8 and swapped it for a secind hand Team Associated b44. Main reason for swapping was so I could go racing with my little boy. I got him the FTX Vantage rtr and its been amazing value, had no problem with parts, thay are readily available online and very cheap, much cheaper than the B44.

Having said that, if you reasonably competant then I would recommend you spend some more money and get a second hand race set up. The vantage is perfect for a novice or young driver, but if you are half decent and buy the best value brushed version it won't be long before you will replace the servo, motor and esc.

The brushless set up is better, but if you are at that price then if it were me i would get the team durango dex 210 rtr, which is selling for £169 at the mo.

Anyway I've bored you enough. Give me a shout if you have any questions
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  #25  
Old 13-05-2013
diago999 diago999 is offline
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Hi Chris,

I'm basically a noob but I got a brushless vantage for Christmas and that's what has gotten me into racing, don't get me wrong its a decent car, however some parts do have a tenability to break quite easily, like gearbox casing and the front chassis plate, which is highly annoying as its a farce to repair,

It will go round a track quite well, definitely need sway bars, they make a huge improvement and some better tires as the stock ones are solely for bashing,

so on the face of it the brushless setup looks pretty good value for money, but I will list some things I have noticed,
the charger is pants, takes like 6 hours to charge the standard 2700mAh battery,
the 2.4 system is fine, but very basic, (if you are getting more into club racing you'd be looking to update this anyway)
the steering servo needs updating instantly if you are to compete with it,
brushless system is unsensored (if you've driven a sensored system its highly unlikely you will ever go back to sensor-less)

since then I have bought a tlr 22, I know it is 2wd, but the thing is undestructable, the only thing I have broken is a rear wing, and that was because I spent more time on it than the wheels for a practice session.

I would argue that if you are getting back into it, you are better off to get yourself a buggy that can stand up to a proper beating (as I race 2wd now I dont have much knowledge of the strongest 4wd buggies) , with some semi decent electronics (just turned down to start with) and go from there, instead of buying the brushless vantage because I'm pretty sure you will grow out of it quite quickly.

there have been some pretty good deals in the forsale section which included literally everything you would need charger ect, and for the slightly extra money you get a much better car, much better electronics and many spares and tyres than you do witha new vantage

just my 2 pence
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  #26  
Old 14-05-2013
Chrissy Boy Chrissy Boy is offline
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Thanks guys, appreciate the advice and think I will probably go the second hand route.
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  #27  
Old 18-05-2013
Chrissy Boy Chrissy Boy is offline
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Just out of curiosity, is the Vantage Pro worth looking at? Does anyone here run one or know what they go like at club level? Many thanks, Chris.
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  #28  
Old 07-11-2013
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rcqmen rcqmen is offline
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Hobbyking has it too...

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...uggy_KIT_.html

only the dish rims rubs against the hubs.( alu hex upgrade??)

Big bore shocks have mucho droop..( spacers )

But alot of fun for the value!!!
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  #29  
Old 12-11-2013
mr. ed mr. ed is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrissy Boy View Post
Just out of curiosity, is the Vantage Pro worth looking at? Does anyone here run one or know what they go like at club level? Many thanks, Chris.
I saw the ad in RCCI and took a look at their website also. It does look good on pics but I can't say I have ever seen one in the flesh.
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  #30  
Old 17-11-2013
Chrissy Boy Chrissy Boy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rcqmen View Post
Hobbyking has it too...

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...uggy_KIT_.html

only the dish rims rubs against the hubs.( alu hex upgrade??)

Big bore shocks have mucho droop..( spacers )

But alot of fun for the value!!!
Hang on, forgive me for being daft here but are the Vantage and the Vandal one and the same then?
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  #31  
Old 19-02-2014
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Bluestreak Bluestreak is offline
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Anyone know if the losi big bore springs fit on the Vantage shocks??
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  #32  
Old 24-02-2018
benzine benzine is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dudders View Post
It won't be, at all BUT it will be a starter car.

What do you want, budget starter car or somethnig comptitive?

Complete different area's.
This is completely correct. .
I bought the vantage buggy off eBay for 99 quid or something about 2 years ago now on an impulse buy..complete with 2.4ght controller etc. My local 1/8th nitro buggy race track closed down.. so I wanted something neighbourhood friendly ..so i went electric for the 1st time ever.
My opinion on the vantage is that it is an excellent introductory car to any budding rc enthusiast. ..It's strong. .easy to fix and a seriously good introduction car ....It handles well and is easily upgradable when the drivers skills requires it ..upgrade the brushed motor. .The speed controller. .The maH batteries. Alloy.hop up parts are cheap aswell..

My verdict is ..

Pro's

This buggy is cheap to buy ..
Cheap to repair
Cheap to upgrade ..better motor. .better esp..faster steering servo + antiroll bars etc..
But don't go brushless with it ..If you need/can handle brushless ..then buy a competitive roller ..or don't even look at this post lol
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