Recently AtomicMods added the Duratrax Vendetta to our already huge product catalog. Seeing the little Duratrax Vendetta reminded me of a 1/8 scale buggy.
The resemblance was so uncanny, that I just had to have one to race with.
Here in Houston, HIRCR holds indoor "off-road" Racing every other Saturday. I put off-road in quotations since the track is actually RCP. Combined with a
series of modular jumps and obstacles HIRCR's layouts are usually fairly tight, technical and fast.
Usually there are 2 classes raced at HIRCR: Sportsman and Expert. Both categories allow the use of any 1:18 buggy or truck or truggy as well as open electronics.
Typically there is a good mix of XRAY M18T's, Vendetta ST's and RC18's in several varieties. The Vendetta ST's usually excell when the tracks have washboard
sections where the RC18's are better on the high speed sections and corners. The M18T's seem to have a good balance of the two, with longer suspension travel
than the Associated cars, but shorter A-Arms than the Vendetta ST.
My intention was to try and see if I could find a better handling, lighter car. The Vendetta Buggy covered these aspects on paper and by looking at it I saw
many features which I was looking for. For starters, the Vendetta has really long supsension arms combined with very long stroke shocks. This leads to having
a car which can ride low to the ground, and at the same time have lots of supsension travel.
From the second I threw the Vendetta down on the ground, I knew I had found the right buggy for me. The suspension soaked up washboards almost as well as the
Vendetta ST and the car cornered as quick as an RC18. THe added advantage of this car was its jumping prowess. The Vendetta jumped long and flat, and in case
I overjumped any of the obstacles (intentionally or unintentionally) the car never bottomed out.
From the start of qualifying, the Vendetta and I were on another level. I easily set top qualifying honors by about two-and-a-half laps. The Vendetta allowed
me to pass people in the air while jumping longer and flatter. I was able to go tighter in the majority of sections over the other cars, making it easy
to overtake the other vehicles on the inside of corners.
In the A main, the story was pretty much the same. Although this time, luck was not with me. Leading most of the race into the last minute, I made a bobble
going over a large table top and tumble off the track. It was not a very strong hit, but I fell from RCP to a hard floor surface. This caused my front left
knuckle to snap at the bottom. The Universal shaft also went with it as well as my A-main victory.
Having the collision was important though, it showed me the weaknesses of the car, which I immediately tackled. The front knuckles of the Vendetta buggy are
weak. A good thing is that Duratrax does offer their stress tech guarantee though.(If you break any parts the first year, they will replace them free!) Having
learned how easily the knuckle snapped, I decided not to take up Duratrax on their offer and opted instead for Atomic's Aluminum front Knuckles. These are
cool because they actually have a captured ball that screws into the knuckle instead of having the ball end machined onto it like the Duratrax aluminum ones.
In order to bullet proof my Vendetta I upgraded the drivetrain as well. I upgraded the differentials to Atomic's super smooth aluminum ball differentials and
installed steel universal shafts in the front end of my car coupled with aluminum ones in the rear. The aluminum differentials are also much lighter than the
stock gear diffs and do a much better job at transferring power to the wheels.
By addressing the weaknesses of the buggy, I am sure the next time I go to the track I'll be able to capitalize on my A main victory. Even if I flip over and
over again.