Hobao Hyper ST Pro

The smile on my face should say it all, no I haven’t just struck it lucky with the missus but rather finally found a truck that can handle my heavy hand and the urge to hit the jumps at wide open throttle! After four years of racing I should know better because this barbaric attitude has caused me no end of problems with reliability and I’ve battled to finish races, however having run the Hyper ST Pro for the last few months this has all changed as it copes very well with this Neanderthal man behind the wheel!

The RTR version was receiving great results and rave reviews, so I knew that I had to get my hands on the Pro version, because like most of the Hobao Pro Kits the parts are top class meaning you rarely need to upgrade anything. I personally know of two Hyper 7 Pro buggies that are three years old and still haven’t broken anything. My point being that when Hobao say Pro they mean top quality parts and reliability at a very affordable price compared to other kits.

THE BUILD

Your first surprise here is that the Hyper ST Pro is supplied in a complete kit form so there’s no 90% pre-built stuff going on but like a true Pro kit, you need to sit down and build it up from scratch. This is handy in some ways as HoBao do have a tendency to just put a dollop of grease in the diffs meaning you have to pull them all apart and add your own choice of oils before you get started!

The kit is very well organised for the build with all the relevant parts in the right places, no searching for parts and screws in 10 different packets just to put the front end together, no they were all in one bag as it should be. The same went for each stage of the build. For the price of this kit you will be shocked to find a fuel bottle, a tuned one piece pipe and thread lock to name but a few of the extras. The manual that comes with the kit is top class and very easy to understand too and I must point out (while I remember) that when you get to the engine mount assembly they have a bold warning and insist that you put a spacer on the top of the mounts. Don’t do this if you are going to use a starter box, it is only necessary for pull-starts, as the fly wheel will be too high for the starter box to reach.

Before starting the build I have to sadly admit that the first thing I did was take out all the hop-ups to check the quality. Twenty minutes later with drool hanging from my mouth I was still staring at them in disbelief as they just look so good. The only thing you could add to this kit would be rear ally hubs but they’re definitely not a necessity. The only milling on the chassis is under the engine, which I liked a lot as it adds to the strength and means all that dirt from racing has nowhere to hide or any grooves to stick into.

The kit itself went together with ease and not a single part had to be forced with all the plastics being top quality. And although the lower front and rear A-arm seem to be a little more flexible than other brands, don’t let this fool you though as they are very strong and the flex is actually a requirement for the handling so they don’t break. You will notice that the bottom of these A-arms aren’t flat but instead form a wide V, ensuring that when they make contact with the terrain only the middle of the arm is dragging rather than a whole flat arm.

On the Pro Version you get a Spyder diff for the centre which features six gears (rather than the normal four) plus the two planetary gears all wrapped up in an ally diff case that will last a lifetime if maintained properly. The Spyder diff comes pre-built with only a dab of grease and this should be changed to the diff oil of your choice, but due to the steel diff case having screws that go right through, it is a problem filling it up (as the oil comes straight out the bottom), so you need to either put a small dab of grease on all the holes at the bottom or buy the rubber spider diff tool that comes with the Hyper 8.5 buggy for a couple of quid.

The front and rear diffs are your normal standard diffs and go together very well. I’d suggest putting a 1mm shim on the ring’s gear side before you drop it in the gear box casing and you will have the perfect mesh with no messing around, unlike some other brands. The mesh on my ST Pro is still perfect after two MaxBashing races, two Truggy nationals, the two-day Apex GP, oh and the Truggy shoot out we did in the last issue.

Pro Parts
What you get over the RTR.

Universal drive shafts throughout
Spider Diff centre
Carbon radio tray
Carbon centre Diff Plate
Ally steering plate cover
CNC Ackermann plate
CNC hinge pin holders
CNC Shock tower
CNC Steering knuckles
CNC Chassis braces
CNC centre diff brace
Milled out lightened 17mm hexes with built-in dirt protector nuts
CNC clutch shoes
Vented lightened clutch bell


The gear boxes themselves are a work of art as they don’t get screwed into each other; instead you get bolts like K-Factory hinge pins that go right through with just enough thread on the end so that you can’t over-tighten it. They also have two lugs on the bottom of each half that sit in holes on the chassis, and this stops them pulling apart under the most extreme conditions.

The centre diff mount is a two-piece design which makes removing the centre diff a lot easier and is finished off with a lovely carbon fibre top plate. All the diff out drives are hardened and you get universal joint drive shafts throughout, making the completed drive train very smooth and free running.

The chassis braces are made up of three pieces, with an aluminium front and rear brace meeting up with the middle section which is a solid lump of ally that sits under the centre diff mount, forming one complete brace from the front to the rear. Let me say now, if you bend this chassis with these braces, then now is the time to give up bashing!

The shock towers are the nicest and thickest CNC towers I have seen on any kit and should never bend or break unless maybe you hit a brick wall at full speed. The shocks go together nicely and are the same throughout the Hyper ST range and you get completely captured hinge pins throughout the truck. The Pro kit also comes with a new six-spoke wheel design and a fresh “Dog Bone” design tyre tread with ribbing on the inside to minimise ballooning that then mount like buggy tyres, and best of all they actually work very well on a variety of surfaces.