LET IT RIP
Before we hit the track there’s the obligatory engine break in. The instructions talk you through this and offer you two ways to do it. Either three tanks driving around with rich settings, or two tanks ticking over. I did a combination of both with two tanks at idle and a further three tanks running gently, leaning it out a bit as I went and by the sixth tank, all was good so we were ready for some action!

I took the Muggy to the NovaRossi Raceway in Southend, it’s an excellent track for these winter months with its astro-turf surface and it has enough jumps to keep us satisfied. I’ve also done a few races there recently driving the Kyosho ST-R truggy and even qualified for the A final with an eight lap heat in my last outing, so with this experience under my belt it gave me a good base to see how well the Muggy performed. Rain the previous night meant we were faced with a damp track surface so spiked tyres were going to required. Fortunately with my 17mm hexes installed I had a range of wheels and tyres at my disposal and while most prefer Pro-line Mulchers or Panther Meat Grinders in these conditions, I went with my favourite XTM Grinders.

The final parts of “buggy” on the Muggy are the aluminium chassis braces and steering bell crank. It’s great to see buggy-style steering on here, as a lack of steering was one of the only downsides to the LST2, and this set-up should more than overcome this problem, especially with the dual steering servos!

A PLEASING EXPERIENCE
A few of the crew were having a bit of a laugh at the Muggy before the racing started. I promised to drive over them in retaliation because the Muggy is certainly a lot bigger than the normal truggy. With three rounds of heats, I set about getting a feel for the truck and the first thing I noticed was how much steering it had! It was tucking into the corners and hairpins very well and regardless of its size, felt more nimble than the ST-R.

It cruised round the track beautifully, taking the jumps in its stride; in fact it breezed over them and didn’t even struggle on the awful array of jumps along the back straight at this track. These cause a problem for a lot of racers as there’s no rhythm to them, I was getting it right about half the time driving the Muggy, but it did go wrong, the supple suspension soaked things up so well it didn’t go quite as pear shaped. The disadvantage here was the truck’s heavier weight which meant there wasn’t enough power to clear the double in the middle as I normally would. Down the main straight though it certainly had enough power to keep up with the best of them and once the revs were up, the biggest of jumps were easy to clear - to the annoyance of race control, sorry guys but I had to find out what this truck was made of!

AT THE END OF THE DAY
At the end of the heats, I hadn’t done quite as well as I have in the past, but I did change quite a few people’s opinions with comments like “that looked really planted out there” and “it was going well”. With only six laps from my beat heat, I started the B final from sixth place, and I finished in the same position! Unfortunately I made the make the mistake of switching to Bowtie tyres for the final but the track hadn’t dried out as much as I thought it had, so it slid about all over the place! I’m sure that with more track time I could become really dialled with this truck and improve on my lap times because I didn’t tweak my set-up and with hindsight I think it would have benefited from a slightly thinner centre diff oil and backing off the front sway bars.

BASH AWAY
If a kit survives the rigours of a race day you know it’s got to be reasonably tough but for a true test there’s nothing quite like a good old bashing session and this is exactly what we did to get this months pictures. After traipsing across the woods and blagging a lift from the Army we ended up at a huge pit. With various 20ft drop offs and loads of jumps back out again, it felt like a bashing mecca. Slipping the 20mm hexes and stock wheels back on, I let the Muggy take on this awesome terrain and it certainly didn’t disappoint, leaping in and out of the pit with pure grace. When I missed a jump and stuffed it head first into the sides, it just took it on the chin! The Muggy was in fact the only kit reviewed this month that left the pit still working (although I did abuse the Hellfire SS slightly more than I should have).

FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m certainly very pleasantly surprised by the Muggy and have come to the conclusion that my initial worries over what it’s meant to be, don’t really matter. What’s important is that the Muggy will take on the racetrack and still be an awesome bashing machine. The 427 engine didn’t miss a beat the whole time we ran it and has the power to deliver some blistering top speeds. It would seem to offer the best of both worlds and should be a top choice for anyone who wants a good tough basher and might fancy taking on the race track as well.

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