We showed you Italtrading's EZ-Power "The Rally Legends" 1/10 scale electric rally cars for the first time some weeks ago and now we received the Lancia Stratos kit for review.
Overview
The cars come with a large variety of 1970's and 1980's classic bodyshells in the form of the Lancia Stratos, 037, HF Integrale and a Fiat 131 Abarth. All sport full RTR specifications with radio, charger, batter and more. We are here to find out if the cars have more to offer than scale looks.
The Rally Legends come in a nice and tidy package containing the factory assembled chassis, pre-painted and decorated bodyshell, the 2.4GHz radio system, 7.2V 3000mAh NiMH battery and even a 240V AC charger with up to 2.0 Ampere of charging current.
The chassis underneath the body is a 4WD plastic tub with shaft drive and one or the other competition inspired detail. The tub itself is of a three piece design with centre piece and front and rear lower plates making it cheap and easy to replace broken parts in the unlikely event of destroying these during use. The differential boxes are separate mouldings and independent from the lower front and rear plates – something that is not so common for entry-level cars but often associated with high-end racing cars.
The two piece diff boxes house allow for a fast and easy access to the ball differentials by unscrewing only around six screws per gear box, although this is not necessary as the diffs are externally adjustable using a 2.0mm hex driver.
The differentials feature plastic crown and nut gears, 12 differential balls and internal ball bearings for smooth operation and long life. They are lubricated with a reasonable amount of differential grease and come pre-adjusted so no further action is needed your side. Light plastic outdrives are standard, reducing the rotating mass of the drivetrain. The outdrives even feature aluminium "diff saver" rings to prevent them from becoming widened or damaged during a run. The outdrives as well as the input shaft use ball bearings to reduce friction and make for an efficient and super smooth drive train compared to ones that use plastic or brass bushings.
The lower wishbones attach to the chassis via plastic suspension holders. The sport all needed toe-in and kick-up angles. The holders are secured to the chassis using screws and therefore allow for further adjustments if needed (you need to make yourself some shims from Lexan or use thin metal shims but that really is competition stuff and only for experts!). The (upper) camber and steering links sport easy-to-adjust steel turnbuckles with left/right thread that are adjustable in length using a suitable wrench (or some pliers if you want to destroy the black coating). The plastic ball ends on both sides have an opening so you can easily insert a 2mm hex driver to screw the ball studs in and out (to alter the suspension settings for example).
Hanging from the outer parts of the wishbones are the steering knuckles and the rear wheel carriers. They are mounted using suspension pints that are retained in the wishbones using grub screws doing away with the need of using fiddly E-clips. Again a technique that is more associated with competition-style chassis rather than an entry-level car.
Drive from the differentials to the wheel axles is taken care of by two universal shafts at the front and a simple dogbone construction in the rear. The wheel axles run in ball bearings and the wheel hexes sport cool fake brake discs.
The front and rear shock towers are made from the same plastic as the chassis and look bullet proof. They sport multiple location holes for the shock absorbers and the camber links to allow you to adjust the suspension setting to you liking and also according to the track conditions making the chassis suitable for both flat on-road and mild off-road tracks. The shock absorbers have plain plastic housings, the tension of the front and rear springs (harder springs in the front and softer in the rear) is adjustable using plastic clips.
Track Test
For the first part of the test we run the Rally Legend on an asphalt surface to test its on-road abilities. The "gravel" stage will follow at a later date when we head back to our off-road track again. We left the "M+S" tyres on to see how the car performs with the stock tyres on. As the cars come ready-to-run in preparation for the test there was nothing much to do as to insert eight charged AA-size batteries into the transmitter and to charge up the supplied 3000mAh NiMH battery with the included charger. To speed things up we used the 1.8A charging current setting equalling a charging time of around 90 minutes to fully charge the battery pack.
When we first hit the throttle we were pleased to see that the Lancia swiftly took of with a very good acceleration and speed given that the car is powered by conventional NiMH batteries and a somewhat old-fashioned brushed "can" motor. The settings of the transmitter's steering trim needed a few clicks to the right to have the Rally Legend heading away on a straight line. When steering into the first corner we noticed a slight tendency to oversteer which may be caused by the fact that we set the rear ride height 1mm higher compared to the front. With equal height front and rear or even a 1mm higher front we achieved a much more user-friendly driving although drifting the Lancia around corners is a huuuuge fun even with the off-road tyres on!
The runtime with the 3000mAh pack is around 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the type of track you run on and of course your driving style. Constant drifting needs a lot of power shortening the usable driving time a bit but with a car like that, who wants to go slow or use it like the average touring car? If you want more power or runtime, pick up a good quality LiPo battery pack and a LiPo cut-off module and off you go with even more tyre burning fun!
This review isn't over yet. Check back soon for the second part of the thrash test: "The Gravel Stage"!
In Detail
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Transmitter The radio system that comes with the Rally Legends cars is definitely one of the best you can find on a Ready-to-run kit, given the cars only cost around 200 Euro. The 3 channel transmitter and receiver are of 2.4GHz type ant therefore make for hassle-free operation as you do not have to care about frequencies, crystals etc. Simply switch on the transmitter and drive. The transmitter features 15 model memory, adjustable EPA (End Point Adjustment), ABS (Anti-lock Brakes), EXP (Exponential) and of course Servo Reverse to change the servo's direction if you wish to use the radio in other kits also (and need to change the servo direction). The 3rd channel is usable as switch channel for gearboxes, lights etc. The transmitter looks and feels good with its steering wheel sponge and also the fake brake disc and calliper within the steering wheel. The 2.4GHz radio also features a build-in adjustable failsafe function to slow the car down in the unlikely event of signal loss. |
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Electronics The Rally Legends come ready-to-run with an installed brushed speed controller suitable to handle motors with more than 20 Turns such as the supplied brushed "can-type" motor. Italtrading claims the speedo is also usable with LiPo batteries although we guess the controller does not feature a low-voltage cut-off as it is needed to protect LiPos from become discharged to a too low voltage level. The build-in 5V/1A BEC system powers the standard-size 3kg-of-torque steering servo that is fast and powerful enough to do the task of throwing the Lancia Stratos from corner to corner. |
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Optional Drift Tyres & Wheels Available for all cars are optional drift tyres and wheels that sport the specific rims for each of the cars and also hard plastic tyres that allow the cars to be driven at rally-style angles around the corners. The of course are for show purposes only but it's a really cool show we can tell you! |
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Things you need The only things you need to the the car running are 8 AA-size Mignon batteries for the transmitter in the form of rechargeable or dry cell batteries. |
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Technical data EZ-Power The Rally Legends - Lenght: 440mm - Width: 206mm - Wheelbase: 259mm - Height: 135mm - Weight: 1500g - Motor: EZ-Power Can-type 540-size |
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Likes & Dislikes + Good specifications + Good build quality + Highly adjustable suspension + Nice body shell - Speed controller without LiPo (low-voltage) cut-off |
Links:
Italtrading
