Asuga Baja 5B, 5T, Rovan, King Motor - Gassers or Brushless

[Horatio]

Nitro/gassers not really my thing but how nice this setup looks has me drooling Elliot boots sworkz that exhaust looks beautiful & buggy looks badass too

View attachment 8123

View attachment 8124

The Sworkz cars are truly outstanding. The finish on that Reds engine and exhaust is rather special too.

I feel the same about Nitro/Gassers as I always used to. To me, they are the pinnacle classes in RC racing. There was a time when they were also the fastest classes.

Brushless rigs are insanely fast and things have changed so much during the last 15 years. There is still a healthy interest in nitro for hardcore racing, but I think brushless RTRs have made extreme high performance cars more accessible. Nitro cars for this market are virtually non-existent.

Large scale Gassers still have and maintain a healthy following in RTR, thanks to similar levels of ease to operate plus a great aftermarket for upgrades.

There is something refreshingly straight forward in taking a big RC car to nice spot, armed with just a can of fuel, a transmitter and then getting to run for 40 minutes or more. Nice!

I love my Xray XT8 nitro Truggy too. It's razor sharp and responsive. It's very light at 9.2lb, but with a .28 8 port Italian engine - it's got grunt, too.

There's something to be said for the more mechanical, very clean design - no straps, plugs, wires etc. No programming. No driver aids. No gyros.

In the UK, they are set to ban the sale of internal combustion powered cars by 2030. The way it's going, they'll ban the burning of fuel for recreational purposes.

So I feel the need to make up for it in advance!

 

[AngrySection8]

I'm a huge nitro fan, just bought 4 gallons a month back for this summer and these 1:5 gassers are very enjoyable as well. I own 2-3x more electric than engine equipped machines and although they are impressive in performance I personally just don't get as much enjoyment from them.

 

[AngrySection8]

My 1:5 buggy is basically 99% complete, just waiting on different wheel nuts, servo brace, venturi and air filter. This last week I've added a race ported esp 32cc top end, walbro 1191 carb, aluminum front braces and tossed a muffler on the pipe to take a little sharpness out of the exhaust tone. Won't be long and I'll finally get to try this one out.

 

[Horatio]

The IRC shocks I recently fitted are strong and unlikely to ever leak, but I felt it was important to rebuild them with springs that are more suited to the weight of my Baja.

The IRC spring retainers were not the type with slots in them, so the only way to remove the springs is with a rebuild.

I stood the shocks up and removed the upper shock cap, then carefully removed the preload collar so I could slide the spring off upwards.

With the spring out of the way, the cap and preload collar could be replaced and the shock end carefully unscrewed from the shock shaft, by gripping the shaft on the flats just above the shock end and unwinding it with a rod through the ball end.

With this out of the way, the spring retainers can be removed and the shock re-assembled with the slotted spring retainers.

The shocks have handy bleed screws, so the dampers were checked for consistency prior to fitting the springs and put back on the car.

The replacement springs all round were Soft (2.5mm) Progressive Rate springs.

These seemed significantly firmer at the front than the rear, so no preload was required at the front, whilst at the rear, some preload needed to be added.

As the sun came out and dried out the lawns, once I cut the grass, I gave the Baja a little blast around. It didn't disappoint!

The steering works positively, even within the confined space I was running - but the balance of the car is exactly where it should be for hard paved areas. Where it will shine is off road, where the thicker shafts and bullet proof seals will inspire confidence over challenging surfaces.

So it's going to get dirty.