Hot Bodies Cyclone D4

For the last few years eighth scale nitros, be they buggies or truggies, have been the most popular class in this hobby but jump back to the late eighties / early nineties and electric buggies ruled the day. Like a lot of things in life, what goes around, comes around and although I don’t think this will ever apply to Nobby’s barnet, there has been a real upturn in the tenth scale electric class in the last year. Yet whilst electric buggies may not be our forte, it’s definitely worth a moment to look at this revitalised class.

Build me up Scotty!

Right, it’s time to start building and upon opening the box you can’t help but stand back and admire the quality of the components, there’s no mistaking the fact that this is a top level bit of kit. There’re so few plastic parts in there you could be excused for thinking that it’s suddenly become a precious commodity (in which case expect the price of Tamiya kits to shoot up!).

Right, it’s time to start building and upon opening the box you can’t help but stand back and admire the quality of the components, there’s no mistaking the fact that this is a top level bit of kit. There’re so few plastic parts in there you could be excused for thinking that it’s suddenly become a precious commodity (in which case expect the price of Tamiya kits to shoot up!).

sealing the carbon fibre

Before I started the main build I followed the advice in the instructions and sealed the edges with CA glue! Sealing carbon fibre parts is not a new concept and it is quite a wise move as it protects the edges, stopping them from delaminating, it also makes it look better (always a vital thing to consider). It’s a simple process and involves putting a drop of thick CA glue on the edge and letting it run all the way round. Of course this can result in you sticking various parts of your hand to the carbon fibre but it adds to the fun!

kick up

Having a carbon chassis is not that common and one reason is that it’s difficult to create the front kick-up. Hot Bodies have overcome this with the D4 by having an aluminium bulkhead that bolts onto the chassis at a slight angle, giving you 7.5 degrees of kick up. Installing this brace along with the centre spur gear mount and rear hinge pin retainer are actually the first few stages of the build and all these components are machined from aluminium which is nicely finished in black. Indeed it made my day to see these parts in black as both Hot Bodies and HPI have a habit of making every aluminium part in their kits purple, which is nice to an extent but often becomes overkill and in my opinion can cheapen the look.

Sitting in the middle is an 80 tooth (48 pitch) spur gear and adjustable slipper clutch system which includes two long life slipper pads to protect the drive train from harsh landings. A point to mention here is that the instructions tell you to tighten this up completely then back it off one and a quarter turns when in reality it should read just a quarter turn. I discovered the truth of this misprint on the first run, fortunately the easy access centre mounts made it a breeze to adjust.

ball diffs

Ok, here’s why I’ve never been a fan of tenth scale kits… ball diffs! The front and rear ball diffs - which are identical - are made up from two steel out drives, the 39 tooth diff gear, 12 internal carbide balls, plus the main diff screw which has a further six balls, two washers and the spring tensioner. The instructions are pretty easy to follow and using a large amount of the supplied silicon grease helps to keep your balls in place. Be careful when you tighten the whole assembly up though as it’s very easy to over tighten it, which is exactly what I did, fortunately I asked the guys at Apex Models to check it over and they set it up correctly – I did say this was new territory for me!

The remaining parts for the front and rear sections go together very easily with the diff pinion gear attaching straight onto the purple MIP style CVD drive shafts. I was a little concerned to see both the crown gear and the diff pinion are made from plastic but only time will tell how well these hold up.