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| HPI Savage X 4.6 |
Average Rating: 10 |
Sep 8, 2007
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Reviewed By:
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Join Date: Dec 31, 1969
Location:
Total Reviews:
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Rating: 10 out of 10
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I spent about three weeks trying to decide what to buy, a T-Maxx 3.3 or a Savage X 4.6. I got one of the first T-Maxx 2.5's that came out about a year and a half ago for my dad, and I never liked the EZ Start system, and the engine was always sooo finecky with factors such as temp., humidity, and so on. The 2.5 really liked to everheat too, very easily(I blame this on the small, tight cooling head). So with all this in mind, I spent $440 on a Savage X(vs. about $360 for a T-Maxx 2.5, or $500 for a new 3.3 T-Maxx.). When I first opened the box, I was immedietely impressed with design of the truck. All frame and suspension members are triangulated and gussetted. Overall, the truck was built tough, and had many steel or aluminum parts, where as the T-Maxx had nothin but plastic crap. The instructions and details of the Savage paled in comparison with Traxxas though. One thing Traxxas is good with is the exploded views, parts lists, all the stuff. But HPI didn't skimp either though, just not as detailed as Traxxas. There was a lot of spare and option parts included with the Savage. One of which was the Roto Starter. Not worth its weight. I started my engine with an electic drill. Don't waste your time with the rotostart. The first tank of gas was spent blipping the throttle, because the thing just would not idle. The factory settings were thrown out of the door for me. I wound up 1 turn lean on both the high and low speed needles just to maintain running, and the thing ran so rich and cool I could hold the head while it was running. I ran two more tanks with these settings, and the truck wouldn't get past 1/4 throttle, even when floored, it was so rich. After three tanks, I started to lean it out. After another halfway easy tank, I went for performance. And holy crap!! I got my performance. Keep in mind, I still had it running really rich, just lean enough to get SOME kind of power out of it. I got it up to about 15 mph, stabbed the throttle, and BAM!! Before I knew what happenned, the truck was on its lid. I about crapped my pants. The rest of that tank was spent basically doing wheelies. Uphill, level ground, even DOWNHILL. Stopped, rolling, 10 mph, didn't matter, pulling the trigger = flipping clean over. I tried some high speed passes on the next tank, but I had it too rich yet, and it wouldn't rev high enough to hit second. So I lowered the shift point, preferring to do this than lean out the engine, due to the engine still being fresh, and probly hit about 40 mph. I know this truck could do 45 mph or more, but that will come later, I'm still doing wheelies. I didn't get to do much jumping, but the truck did get a little air time off a rock pile, and flipped about 3 or 4 times after landing. I just ran over and flipped the truck back on its wheels and it just kept going. My dad got his T-Maxx out, and we were both playing around. A few times I ran his truck over, just to remind him whose got the bigger truck. haha. We had a drag race too. His T-Maxx won, for one reason though: I couldn't keep the Savage's front end down, kept wanting to flip over. After awhile, it just got to a point where the truck would almost flip over whenever I hit the gas, no matter how fast I was going. The torque is just brutally awesome. We did get one decent race in though. I think my Savage would be faster off the line than the T-Maxx, assuming I keep the back tires from passing the front. In our race, I gave my dad a head start, and I really had slowly roll into the gas. We wound up me loosing, but I was catchin him. And later I figured out that my truck still wasn't hitting 2nd gear. My dad's T-Maxx wasn't running as good as it could have though, overheating, as usual. If my dad's T-Maxx was running good as it can sometimes, it and my Savage would probly be dead nuts even in a drag race. The T-Maxx is definitely more nimble than the Savage though, with tighter turning and overall lighter weight. This is not to say the Savage is a hog in the corners though.
All in all, buy a Savage. Accept nothing else. Oh, and by the way, the day I did all of this in, it was 90 Degrees F outside, and the humidity was absolutely killer(100%), which explains why I had my engine tuned so lean compared to the factory settings. |
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• Great Engine, once broken in anyway
• Kick ass body and tires
• Wheelies galore
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• Needs all metal gears in tranny(Has some)
• Roto Start sucks, but electric drill works great.
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