HPI RS32 Purchase...

[MarkM]

OK then...some dubious pics, don't hassle me about the photography, I admit I'm horrible at it:

The goods



Unpackaging - the little 2.4 gig RX/ESC...Hmmm


More unpackaging



Charging the battery - a 4.8v NiMH pack, charger takes 6 AA's Because the pack is 4.8v, a 2S LiPO mod may be out of the question unless the electronics can handle the added voltage...who knows, maybe it can but I won't be trying it soon until I get some kind of thumbs up from HPI.



The 2.4Gig TX, RX and servo...at this point I realized this is sort of a kit...I tried binding my Spectrum radio to the RX BTW - no go.



Putting the horn and steering pin on the servo - hardware is tiny phillips head screws - think micro T sized hardware. They give you a "ultra precision" screw driver. I highly recommend using a good jewelers set of screw drivers, I partially stripped screw heads with the screw driver provided - surprised?



Disassembled chassis so as to install RX, servo and battery pack. It goes together pretty easily but the rear pod spring is a bit tedious...



Finished...



Impressions/Comments

The body is nice looking but the body mounting system fubar - they give a fork like tool to wedge between the sides of the body and the rear of the chassis - basically it's a female dog to remove and reinstall the body, it may get better with time. -1

Just in passing, the motor leads are not hypalon wire but pretty stiff stranded - I fully expect a solder joint to fail at the motor and the stiff wire may effect rear pod action which is basically suspended by an H joiner at the bottom and a pod spring setup on top - think Mini Z.

They give you tiny set screws that screw into holes in the chassis to adjust front spring tension on the front suspension - pretty clever. Haven't messed with them yet.

Has a rear adjustable diff by removing the wheel cover on the diff side which exposes a nylon nut that holds the wheel against the diff - tighten or loosen to adjust - no data yet on this, not enough runtime.

The front wheels are held on with more tiny phillips screws but attach to cute little wheel hexes. I noticed one of my front wheels is binding a bit compared to the other ones and this will need to be investigated/tweaked.

Tires are ubber sticky silicone like meats - picks up basement floor dust like nobodies business BUT might be awesome on carpet.

Driving Impression (one run so far)...Fairly zippy but scale like speed, run time was about five minutes full charge for first charge, I will use a peak charger from here on out. Turning is crisp but I noticed I was having problems getting it to center. I would get it adjusted and then it seemed to veer off to one side again. May be junk on my floor or may be the sticky front wheel mentioned above. Tough to say at this point till I get more run time etc.

Tends to whip around tail-wise when releasing the throttle like a Micro-T. To combat this initially, I adjusted my throttle trim for a little forward bias but it seems if you do this you loose reverse at the TX. A diff adjustment may help this along with some simple break in time.

Over all with just one run and some quirks I still really have high hopes for this product and enjoyed the first spin. Personally, I think it's going to be a blast on carpet. I plan on setting up my make-shift carpet track in the next few days, getting to know this thing better, tweak and peak and then report back. I've followed this whole thing for about 18 months and was really jazzed to hear that HPI released it here in the states. At $99.00 bucks retail and what I have seen so far, I really like it. Quality over all is pretty good but probably not equal to say, a di nano. At the current price point however, I'm happy with what I see so far but time well tell...