LOL...Intech’s ER-12 2WD 1/10 Buggy.... Look familiar??

[K-Brewer]

Originally Posted by jimmy

If you buy this car - you are a bell end, basically.

[Danny Harrison]

Originally Posted by jimmy

If you buy this car - you are a bell end, basically.

PMSL

[hobbypros]

Originally Posted by HarlowS

lol I like this line ..... the design team have focussed on not following the trends and other designs, opting to design the car from the ground up

FYI. Neobuggy writes their own press releases and added that line. I have the original press release from Intech Racing, and that was not in there. So be careful when you read something on the internet, because it might now be 100% true.

[MattyBox]

Those who know me will know that I run the Intech Br6 nitro and E buggy's when the Br5 was first released people were saying the same thing, its an xray copy, yes it looked similar but was actually quite a bit different and then the Br6 came along which in my opinion is up there with any of the top brands and the build quality and wear rate is top notch. If you look at any 1/8 buggy you could say the same, is the agama based on a Losi, an s works on a mugen? The Br6 has the geometry of an agama, associated gearing, Losi hubs, kyosho engine mounting and Ackerman design, xray arms etc. You could say they have taken the best bits of the other brands and worked them in to their design.

The ER 12 does look like a Durango granted but if they have taken this as a platform and added designs from other brands to improve it then it should be a good performer. And if it is anywhere near as solid as the 1/8 cars then the plastics and wear rate should mean less cost replacing worn parts.

I am not up to speed with 1/10 to be honest but here is a list of parts included in the kit as standard so like the 1/8 I imagine it will be super competitive straight out the box.

The new ER-12 Pro Buggy from INTECH Racing raises the bar in the 2wd 1/10th scale buggy class. The ER-12 includes hundreds of dollars worth of high strength CNC Swiss 7075 Aluminum and light weight Carbon Fiber parts only available as aftermarket/option parts on all other brands of racing kits. INTECH Racing spared no expense to bring you the best 2wd racing kit right out of the box with out having to buy any hop-up parts to compete at the highest racing level - no RTR's here.

Features included:

Mid and Rear motor configurations with same 3 gear gearbox

CNC 7075 Aluminum hard anodized Chassis with 25' kick-up for a lower center of gravity and longer life

4mm Light weight carbon fiber graphite front & rear shock towers

Carbon Fiber ackerman steering plate for a precise zero slop steering rack

Carbon Fiber battery hold down strap

CNC Aluminum 12.5mm Big Bore threaded shocks with Bladders, CNC alum caps, CNC bottom caps, and CNC spring adjusting nuts

CNC 7075 Aluminum rear anti-squat and MM and RM toe suspension blocks

CNC Aluminum 12mm rear wheel hexes

CNC 7075 Aluminum Imperial size front axles

CNC Aluminum front inner camber link mounts

CNC Aluminum top gear shaft with dual slipper pad spur gear

CNC Aluminum rear chassis brace mount

CNC 7075 Aluminum rear axles

CNC 7075 Aluminum upper shock mounts

CNC Aluminum motor mount plate

CNC Aluminum Slipper Clutch plates

CNC Aluminum motor plate spacers

72mm Captured steel CVD's

Metal 4 Gear Differential for more durability and less maintenance

Ball Bearing steering bell cranks with CNC Aluminum top brace

Externally adjustable slipper clutch nut

Adjustable Caster from 15-35'

Adjustable Rear Toe from 1.5-4.5'

Adjustable wheel base from +/-11mm

Adjustable steering arms for forward or trailing +/-5mm

Adjustable battery location

Adjustable front & rear roll center

Front & Rear arm sweep for increased traction and lower center of gravity

Front chassis slot for weight additions when additional steering is needed

Plastic side guards to allow proper chassis flex for better traction and bump handling

Front and rear droop screw adjustments

Captured hinge pins throughout

Forward Cab body and high down-force lexan wing

87T Light weight spur gear

20T Steel top shaft gear

52T Diff gear

6x1.1mm, 6x1.2mm, and 6x1.3mm shock pistons

Light weight zero flex white front & rear wheels

Black alloy metric screws throughout

Metric ball bearings throughout

[mattr]

In summary, it's a 210 clone.

Maybe that's why durango have dropped their prices?

[dpackster1980]

Yep it's a 210 blinged up end of story to say otherwise is blatantly wrong. [

[watfordtrackwarrior]

problem is people will buy it coz its cheap then break it and start putting durango parts on it also the other way people putting the cheap cars parts on a proper durango the market will be flooded with loads of unidentifyable hybrid cars pushing second hand values down beyond the deepest depths of hell stay well clear in my opinion although would be a car i aint had and there aint many of those lol

[jimmy]

You can't justify this car! they even copied MY kit page for the car!!! Sadly they don't have fisheye or ultrawide lenses for closeups of some of the small parts to make them 'pop' out - but otherwise they've done a good job of copying a style I set.

[jimmy]

Compare this shite kit webpage for one of their cars here: http://www.intechracing.com/product_...rea=34&dcat=91


to the one for the 210 clone here http://www.intechracing.com/news_detail.asp?sn=96


Bit of a difference and strangely familiar feel to how they've done it. I'm surprised they had the skill to actually copy a kit page that well.

[TheReferee]

Originally Posted by jimmy

If you buy this car - you are a bell end, basically.

Could be waiting a while for the oople review then?

[Si Coe]

Given the price of genuine 210's right now, and the carbon and alloy heavy build of the Intech I can't see how this is going to be the cheaper car. And I suspect Intech know this too as the marketing focuses heavily on the level of spec.

So in essence this is an expensive imitation that claims to do it better.

Consequently I doubt we'll see many ER-12s with standard 210 parts - aftermarket 210 upgrades perhaps but not kit parts. But we might see a few 210's with ER-12 towers or shocks.

Also note this line
'Mid and Rear motor configurations with same 3 gear gearbox'
The patented part of the 210 is the 4 way gearbox design, which this car doesn't use. Its a 3 gear only.

[peetbee]

Originally Posted by Si Coe

Also note this line
'Mid and Rear motor configurations with same 3 gear gearbox'
The patented part of the 210 is the 4 way gearbox design, which this car doesn't use. Its a 3 gear only.

I was just going to comment on that, as the pictures confirm it.
As Durango patented their gearbox that would explain why this one has a new gearbox.
Mid motor with 3 gears? That'll work well!

Is it just me or has that shell been hit with the ugly stick?

[MattyBox]

Ok so we all agree it is based on a 210.

How much would it cost to get a 210 up to the spec of the Intech?

USA Intech team driver Gene Hickerson built the 2 buggy's together and said it is 50 - 60% different. He also took TQ and the win first time out, not sure how big the event was but its obviously got the pace.

Here is a snippet of his build

the buggy is much more different then I originally thought. The front end is the same geometry but with some differences like the steering arms can be set in 5 places (inline or trailing), but the rear end is completely different.

It is a whole new rear geometry. The CVD's are 72mm long - way longer then the DEX210. The rear hubs are non offset and can be moved forward or back 7mm rather then 4mm. The camber link location is totally different and the roll center is different. The rear susp blocks are wider. The rear chassis brace and body mount is different. The side chassis guards are way smaller. The chassis is different and about 4mm longer then the stock 210. The gear box is different

[Danosborne6661]

Features included:
Mid and Rear motor configurations with same 3 gear gearbox

Oh. That's suddently made the car pretty bollocks.

And if the car is completely different to the DEX210 which you are claiming Matty, I'm pretty sure people would just prefer to get the DEX210 at £95 as that is a proven race and euro winner. People would only want this if it was a cheaper version of the DEX210 but that seems unlikely given Durangos current prices.

[Origineelreclamebord]

@MattyBox: Yes it's different in places and rear geometry in particular, I understand, but the way the DEX210 is constructed is quite unique and they copied that to great extent

Taken even that the car will in practice prove to perform different than the DEX210, I'd rather support the company that released the car that inspired the copies. And let's face it, the fact that the DEX210 is being copied to such extent says something about the quality of it's design

[jimmy]

The fact a 'team driver' has to build both cars at the same time to tell the differences seems like a pretty desperate move to try and justify this thing. I called TD just in case they had some how licensed out the design before I came on to slate it.

[hobbypros]

They were not built at the same time. The DEX210 was built 1 month prior after he saw the first pictures of the ER-12 and it looked like it was based off the 210. So naturally he bought a similar buggy to build and race before the ER-12 was ready. He also bought a Losi 8 2.0 4 months before the Agama A8 was released to test that style also. And before that he bought a Kyosho SP2 before the CEN Matrix was released because they were similar.

I would think it would be smart for any pro driver to test the competition before getting their new ride. Especially if they are a close platform.

How else could they say what is different or better or worse and give an opinion at all on the subject?

[Si Coe]

Never seen a team driver say (officially) that their team car isn't as good as the opposition, or that it's a blatant copy of another car or anything similar at least not if they planned to keep their team drive./

[Garry]

Most things team drivers say = stuff to please the sponsors.

Wouldn't touch that Intech thing with a barge pole on basis of principle. They could win the next Worlds with it, but I wouldn't buy it as its a ripoff of the original design.

Whats likely to have happened here (in my opinion, it'll probably be proven wrong later lol) is that....

TD design a car, and go to a factory in the Far East to manufacture it. They do an agreement that the factory makes XYZ units for XYZ years, with the option to renew the deal incase the car proves unbeatable in Model Shops over a number of years (think AE B4/Thunder Tiger for example). When the deal reaches the end, TD may have decided not to renew the deal, and request one/all of the technical designs back. For whatever reason, the factory has looked at the success of 10th Off Road and thought ''we want a bit of that'' and boom, used the designs of the car they made to be sold under their own brand.

Now, Tamiya, Schumacher and HPI all have had this happen in the past with 100% clones of their own cars (manufactured 3rd party OEM then stolen as a new car), and legal action followed, so maybe the factories stealing designs like this have decided to change a couple of things to keep laywers off their backs (the gearbox on this car).

Its definitely unethical and definitely wrong.

[mattr]

That happens in a lot of industries. Change the design just enough to avoid immediate legal issues then flood the market. Hope you make enough money before the plug is pulled.

TBH copied toy cars is at one end of the spectrum, fake commercial aeroplane parts is a whole different kettle of fish!