The Blast TC is part of LRP's growing range of S10 electric vehicles which includes the S10 BX buggy, TX truggy and MT monster truck. The TC is the first on-road car but shares many construction details with his "dirty" siblings. The Blast TC is based on a one-piece composite plastic chassis plate that houses the front and rear gearbox, the aluminum/plastic suspension holders as well as the blue anodized aluminum motor holder and of course the full line of LRP electronics. The chassis plate sports openings for the motor and battery, something that was often criticized with the off-road cars but on the TC they help letting cool air circulate around the battery and motor to keep them at reasonable operating temperatures.
Overview
The drive train consists of a front and rear gear differential and a central driveshaft to connect both. The differentials sport sealing to allow for the use of differential oils to adjust the action of the diffs. Different from the off-road line of S10 cars the TC does not sport a slipper clutch which isn't necessary for on-road cars (and often forbidden in many race series). Ball bearings throughout the drivetrain help reduce friction losses and therefore help gain better acceleration, more top-speed and longer runtime per battery pack compared to cars with plastic or brass bushings.
Drive from the differentials to the wheels is taken care of by front universal and rear dogbone driveshafts. The universals up front make for an efficient power supply to the wheels as they have less tendency to vibrate at large steering angles.
On the outer edges of the chassis the sturdy suspension parts are located. Held in place by a combination of aluminum and plastic braces they should withstand most crashes on the track as they feature thick webbings plus the FF (front-front) and RR (rear-rear) aluminum braces prevent breakage of the often highly stressed parts.
Easy-to-adjust turnbuckles with left/right thread for the upper wishbones not only add that 'competition' touch to the car but also help to make camber changes a breeze as by a simple turn with a suitable spanner you can adjust the lenght of the turnbuckles (and therefore the overall camber of the tyres).
Part of the suspension package are large-volume oil-filled shock absorbers with threaded plastic shock bodies and upper/lower aluminum caps. The shocks are much shorter versions of the buggy/truck parts and work flawlessly. Spring pre-load is adjustable via large knurled nuts and springs with other spring rates are available to adjust the suspension to your likings.
The S10 Blast TC package is completed by a set of soft pre-glued tyres on white multi-spoke rims, a sleek, pre-painted touring car shell and the comprehensive Ready-to-run package in form of a 2-channel radio set, 3kg-of-torque steering servo, a 7.2V/1600mAh NiMH stick battery pack and a 240V wall charger. The only thing missing to get the TC running are 8 AA-size batteries for the transmitter. Dry cells are ok for the start but it is highly recommended to buy a set of proper rechargeable cells and a suitable charger as the wall charger only works with the supplied 7.2V power pack.
Track Test
The testing of LRP's S10 Blast TC took place on a freezing cold day in February but the lively yet rock solid handling warmed our fingers within minutes. The soft semi-slick tyres that came without the TC proofed the ideal choice for the slightly dusty conditions of the test track making the S10 understeer slightly in fast corners with no signs of oversteer on heavy braking or when coming out of sharp corners. On the workbench we had the feeling that the damper set-up is a bit on the hard side making the chassis lack side bite but this wasn't the case as the Blast was a blast to drive. Of course the closed can stock motor wasn't a real challenge for the suspension and chassis set-up and we can imagine that the S10 Blast TC is capable of handle much stronger motor and battery set-up than the parts that come with the kit.
As the TC behaved flawlessly and despite the very cold ambient temperatures we started play with the suspension set-up a little bit ending up only reducing the front right height a bit down to 4mm with the rear being at 4.5mm. This reduced the initial understeer a bit making the S10 even more precise entering turns. The 1600mAh NiMH "Wild Pack" allowed for runtimes in the 15 minutes range without putting much stress on the motor as the low temperatures of the closed can motor showed. Speed was exceptional and fast enough for beginners and even sanctioned club-level racing should make a lot of fun with these cars. If you are looking for an even more exciting ride LRP offers various brushed and brushless motors and speedo as well as more powerful NiMH and LiPo batteries to bring the S10 Blast TC up to competition-level speeds.
In Detail
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Transmitter Although the transmitter is quite a basic 2-channel 27MHz AM radio it offers a good amount of parameters to adjust. Steering and throttle trim as well as servo reverse can be found on any modern transmitter but having adjustable steering and throttle EPA (End Point Adjustment) is a nice touch as this way you can set the end points (under full steering, throttle or brake throw). This saves the steering servo from harm due to overload. For the (electronic) throttle and brakes (read: the speed controller) EPA settings only make sense for the brakes as you can adjust the radio to prevent the brakes from locking up. |
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Battery compartment The S10 Blast TC chassis accepts conventional NiMH racing packs as well as LiPo packs up to a length of 144mm, a width of 48mm and a height of 25mm. This means you can use modern hardcase LiPo as well as shrink-wrapped "soft pack" batteries. The battery posts offer three different holes to adjust the height of the retaining bar which is also has retaining lugs for old school NiMH straight packs. |
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Ready-to-run package Available as Non-RTR (Ready-to-Run) and RTR car our S10 Blast TC RTR came with a 27MHz 2-channel radio, a 240V wall charger with a charging current of 350mAh (equals roughly 4.5h of charging time), LRP AI Runner Reverse speed controller, installed 3kg (of torque) standard servo and a 1600mAh LRP Wildpack 1600 NiMH battery pack. The only thing you need to do in order to get the TC going is to mount the controller via the supplied doublesided tape, charge the racing pack and source 8 AA batteries for the transmitter. |
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Technical data LRP S10 Blast TC - Lenght: 361mm - Width: 188mm - Wheelbase: 261 - 264mm - Weight: 1600g |
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Likes & Dislikes + Reasonably priced + Good specifications + Fast enough for beginners + Strong suspension components - Build quality (see Tips & Tricks section) - Would be nice to see a LiPo-ready speed controller |
Tips & Tricks
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Speedo mounting/LiPo-bility Before applying the supplied double-sided tape to the speedo wipe both the bottom of the speedo case and the area of the chassis where the speedo attaches with denatured alcohol to remove any fingerprints or dust that could hinder the tape from sticking properly. We would also advise to use additional tape as the small strip that comes with the kit could be a bit larger to be frank. And speaking of the speedo. Unfortunately the Ai Runner Reverse speed controller does not sport a LiPo cut-off function to avoid Lithium-Polymere batteries from becoming deep discharged. This is no problem with the stock NiMH battery but if you like to use on of LRP's (or any other manufacturers) LiPo packs you need a LiPo guard such as LRP's 2in1 LiPo Guard #45050. |
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Antenna hole The antenna hole in the body shell was not properly drilled on our example. We used a body reamer to enlarge the hole up to the needed 5mm or so to make sure you can stick the antenna tube and rubber protection grommet through it easily. |
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Gearbox outdrive During our pre-tracktest check we noticed that the grub screw of the rear gearbox outdrive was not tightened down correctly. It not even had thread-lock on it showing that someone forgot to do it during assembly. We therefore unscrewed the grub screw, applied a drop of TL and reassembled both making sure the outdrive is pushed fully against the spur gear adapter. The remainder of the car was build according to LRP's high standards but we strongly suggest to make sure all metal-to-metal fixings are secured correctly. Same applies to all other screws and bolts of course as you don't want screws or nuts to come loose during a run. |
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Screws We heard reports of S10 Blast BX, TX and MT owners that some of the screw sizes are a bit on the "short side" (positively spoken). We checked several parts of the chassis like the fixings for the upper camber rods, upper and lower shock screws etc. and indeed some of them could be a bit longer as they not go through the (shock tower) material the whole way. This isn't a problem with an on-road car as we found out during our test session but if you want to make your Blast TC bullet proof replace the shock retaining screws, the inner and outer camberlink and the shock tower mounting screws (the ones that go into the gear boxes) with longer ones. |
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