drive train

Being a two wheel drive buggy, the drive train on the Baja is a relatively simple affair but with alloy gears and diff housing, it’s also very tough. Four spider gears sit in the middle of the differential and 1000 weight oil is supplied to fill it up with - thinner or thicker oil can be used here to change the handling characteristics. A 48 tooth diff gear surrounding the alloy diff case mates up to a 30 tooth idler gear that goes on to a 20 tooth drive gear mounted on the drive shaft, this gives an overall drive ratio of 8.382:1 just in case you wanted to know!

Transferring the power from the diff to the wheels are the new heavy duty dog-bone drive shafts which, as with the RTR Baja, are protected at each end by rubber booties that sit over the drive axles and keep dirt at bay.

The completed gear box sits on top of the aluminium plate in a frame of plastic struts that encase it and provide the mountings for the A-arms. There are aluminium braces back and front to keep the hinge pins for the lower arms in place, although the pins for the top arms run through holes in the plastic struts but these are held firmly in position by an upper aluminium brace that sandwiches the whole gearbox assembly and the double disk brake. It’s a tough design and a great platform for the shock tower to extend up from, in fact the only let down is the use of E-clips on all the hinge pins – I guess the idea of captured hinge pins hasn’t quite made it to the large scale arena yet.

With the high RPM clutch pre–installed, the 26cc Fuelie engine only needs the tuned pipe manifold, air filter and clutch bell attaching before it is bolted onto the rear section that attaches to the main chassis with four M6 screws. You now stumble on the only bit of purple aluminium in this kit (they just couldn’t resist it could they) which takes the form of a spacer that sits behind the 57 tooth spur gear so at least it can’t be seen!

shocking advancements

With the high RPM clutch pre–installed, the 26cc Fuelie engine only needs the tuned pipe manifold, air filter and clutch bell attaching before it is bolted onto the rear section that attaches to the main chassis with four M6 screws. You now stumble on the only bit of purple aluminium in this kit (they just couldn’t resist it could they) which takes the form of a spacer that sits behind the 57 tooth spur gear so at least it can’t be seen!

Before the shocks are fitted, the roll cage needs to be made up and the main part of the tuned pipe installed as both these parts fit under the rear shock tower brace. This brace is a new design for the SS and slightly lowers and kicks the top shock mounting position for better handling. It’s a good indication that R&D has gone into improving the handling as this brace on the original ready to run version was always seen as more of a support for the plastic shock towers.

With the beadlock wheels and tyres mounted up and the throttle linkages setup, it was time to add the piece de la resistance and a parting gift from Jim at Absolute Control, the custom sprayed body shell. This master piece has been a long time coming as I sent him a new clear shell last summer for use on a hopped-up Baja (that we ditched writing about this time to bring you this SS review). The spark plug and gear cog design was based on the artwork Jim had done on a full size trike that was shown in a custom bike show in the US. Amazingly in the time it’s taken to get this shell done and featured in the mag, it’s already been replicated by other US airbrush artists so it’s not quite the original design we were hoping for but it still looks damn good and is a testament to the talents we’ve lost as Jim moves on to paint bigger things (we’ve heard he’s set his sights on the Severn bridge!).