Through the years I have tried racing on tarmac, sand and gravel with everything from buggies to trucks and monster trucks. I have tried 2WD and 4WD vehicles powered by gasoline, brushed and brushless motors. All has been great fun and I have always enjoyed the great selection and thereby the versatility of this hobby.
A few years back I bought a Traxxas E-revo brushless car. My main purpose was to have something that was the “ultimate bashing vehicle” to be used in gravel pits. I had a long list of requirements:
- It should be durable and capable of taking a solid beating when landing after big jumps
- Spare parts should be readily available and not overly expensive
- It should be 4WD in order for it to climb the big gravel piles and still make it to the top
- It should come with a decent transmitter and not need a heap of up-grades before being ready to race
- It should be fairly powerful but still have enough runtime to do bashing for at around 20 minutes on one set of batteries
Before the purchase I did a lot of research and found that all the boxes seemed to be ticked.
I had the car for around 12 months and drove it extensively over that timespan. Never have I put a car through so much and still had a car that just kept on going. Most of the time it was used in the gravel pit but I also tried it out on a 1/8 scale track and on tarmac only changing the tires to suit the surface. It stood out most when doing bashing on gravel but was aways a solid performer on other surfaces
But most importantly… I can’t recall I having had so much fun with as with the Traxxas E-Revo Brushless Edition. It is just THAT good and therefore I went along and bought one again after being away from RC cars for 2-3 years. A thing worth mentioning is that the car has had a few good upgrades in that timespan – the ESC has been made waterproof which was as a bit of a painpoint in the previous version and now it also features pretty solid telemetry if the transmitter is coupled with a smartphone using the Traxxas Link app via bluetooth. I have briefly tried out the telemetry and it seems to work well giving data such as speed, battery voltage, temperature and RPM.
As you can see from the pictures below I have bought the Traxxas Rustler VXL for my son who is 7 years old and I am also building a Losi 5ive-T brushless car that I plan to finish over the coming 4-6 weeks (waiting for parts to arrive from multiple hobby shops).
So all in all – this vehicle comes with the best of recommendations from my side and I look forward to having as much fun again with it as I did in the past!
Short but good review. As i have had a few rc cars over the years (all nitro) i gave up rc cars for a while ago. Now i want to start again. But nitro seems a little bit to much of a hassle. Electric cars a way better nowadays so this one seems a good car to begin my electric rc adventure with!!
Hi rcfan
glad you found it to be useful.
With the development over recent years with electric I would not consider nitro. If yo choose an E-revo you will have loads of fun but there are of course tons of other great rc cars out there.
Drive safely 😉
Love my Rustler vxl, but considering a Erevo BE or x maxx. Your thoughts between the two? I just like bashing around the house.
Hi Bill
I have not tried the X-Maxx myself but I have tried monster trucks from several other brands of similar proportions and design and my guess would be that the E-revo is a much more flexible car that you can bash, drive on a track or even on tarmac if you put the right tires on it. It is much more a “drivers car” and more an all-rounder with better handling. It is by no means a hardcore track car or built with tarmac racing in mind – but it can do a bit of everything and do it well. On top of that it is SUPER durable but I guess that would also be the case for the X-Maxx.
The X-Maxx on the would be great for bashing but horrible on a track or tarmac.
The above is just my 5 cent. Hope you can use it for whatever choice of car you end up with.
Drive safely 🙂
I agree, the E-Revo is a great all around and flexible car. I recently got into an impromptu race with several Losi 5ive T cars on our local 5th scale community course. I accidentally got run over by two of them at the beginning, then caught up and passed them all. I still have enough juice to do some giant jumps at the bash spot before I had to change lipos.
However, I don’t recommend that truck on 6S unless you upgrade most of the driveline. I specifically built mine off a brushed version, choosing to optimize it for 4S running. A Leopard 4065 2700kv motor with a Hobbywing 120a ESC and Proline Badland tires has turned it into a track and bash weapon of choice for me.
I have many RC cars, but the E-Revo consistently impresses me and never fails to put a smile on my face.
Hi Gerry,
I fully agree that 4S is the sweetspot with the E-revo. In my opinion there is absolutely no need for more umph and 6S is only going to put so much strain on the driveline and everything else that it’ll end up wrecking the car.
Thanks for sharing your view.
I baffled how no one mentioned the top speed thisthis has!?! That’s one of the most important features.
So, how fast can I get this delivered to my house?