Joe’s HPI Blitz January 2010 Update

I took my Blitz to the Pro Line Dirt Arena and for ease of use I swapped the standard radio transmitter and receiver for my Spektrum setup but the rest remained stock.
This was my first go at Off Road racing for years and to be honest I’m not that good at it!

So I headed for the Pro Line Dirt Arena in Bicester, I arrived to find my team-mate already setup and raring to go. So I popped in a 2 cell hard case lipo and took to the track for practice.
Initially the truck is quick with the 15t Motor installed however I did find that the standard servo had trouble keeping up with the twists and turns on offer at the PDA. I upped the steering rate on the handset which helped a little but put the servo at its full throw in both directions which is never really a good idea as it can over stress the servo. It helped a little but at speed it was still a bit of a handful, put the truck outside on mud dirt and grass and the servo will easily keep up.
Now I'll hold my hands firmly in the air and admit that I didn’t read the manual for the ESC (nor can i now find one) and I found that braking was practically non-existent but then I’m told 2wd vehicles don’t brake that well anyway and the standard ESC sets itself every time it turns on so I don’t think there’s any way to change it.

The kit tyres are Maxxis Trepador licensed copies and are fairly hard as you would expect from a RTR tyre. This also made for some inconsistent grip on the track as the surface was very hard compacted dirt meaning the tyres didn’t always hook up, but once again outside for general bashing there great!

I had three heats and a final for the nights racing and with each time I went out on the track I was learning more and more about how the truck handled. With tips from Blitz designer, Erik Shauver downloaded and printed off we made a few changes to the basic setup and headed out to race. Ok, it got a little frustrating when I kept rolling the truck after the tabletop but this is off road not carpet racing so a little bit less on the throttle and I solved that issue. I got into a rhythm slowly and felt so rewarded when I was able to put in consistent laps without rolling the truck. However the speed of the servo and the tyres not hooking up on the hard surface meant the infield chicane really became a drive over the track markers.
So to sum it up out of the box this truck is very capable of mixing it with the big boys even crippling an SC10 when the Blitz took to the air and landed on top of it! Be careful if the track is fairly technical you’ll have to take it a little slower, but with zero breakages throughout the night I’m very impressed even after hitting the wall a few times.
Now I plan the next assault which will see me remove the stock running gear adding a brushless system, a new high speed/torque servo and some better tyres.
Could I get hooked on off road? Judging by the smile on my face after racing, very possibly!!

Joe’s HPI Blitz Short Course Truck

• Car: HPI Blitz RTR
• Radio: KO Propo Vantage III Universe
• Receiver: Spektrum SR300
• Servo: Kit Stock
• ESC: Kit Stock
• Motor: Saturn 15t
• Batteries: 3250mah 2S Lipo

Setup

• Kit Stock with some tweaks to the shocks (lowered the ride height a little)

Option Parts Fitted

• None Yet!