It was about this time I decided to take it outside for a spot of breaking the engine in, my Losi spin starter equipped with a fully charged 7.2 volt battery pack was inserted into the engine’s backplate and it fired into life in no time. It also cut straight out several times due to the over-rich setting of the LSN which I adjusted accordingly just to allow me to apply some revs. The manual tells me to give it three tanks at a gentle pace in order to wake the engine up nice and slowly, or alternatively park it facing a wall and allow just two tanks at idle. Having seen the size of the fuel tank I presumed two tanks at idle would take up to a week, so I plumped for the driving it gently method. Unfortunately I had a bit of an audience for this and received comments like “It’s not very fast is it”, I managed to control the urge to squeeze the throttle open and show them just what it could do and merely reassured them it would improve in time and with a little patience. The rich settings made the fuel spew through the engine in a much quicker time than I’d envisaged and some power tuning could now begin. Happily for me the audience had waited with me and soon saw for themselves that this LST2 was indeed able to shoot up and down my road at a most rapid pace, climb up and over curbs like they were not there and basically impress the hell out of them, a man and his dog even offered to buy it off me!

RELEASE THE HOUND
It was soon obvious that the road was simply not big enough for this brute, so we went for a drive to a nice open field in order to allow the LST2 to really stretch its legs. Now I’ve had the great luck to have driven virtually all the new models in the off-road RC market for the last few years, but I’ve only driven the original LST once before on the MaxBashing track and I thought it was good then, but I was really pleased to see the LST2 take my breath away with its performance on the flat, the engine seems to have as much punch in it as Lennox Lewis! Now you may think that this big engine would be a gas guzzler, consuming enough fuel to warrant a party of Greenpeace representatives to camp outside your house protesting, but you’d be wrong as the huge 220cc tank gives immense runtimes when tuning is complete and fuel consumption belies its size. I quit while the going was good though as an opportunity arose that allowed me to visit the astro turf track at EMORC for a winter race, so with my truck all prepped and race ready we headed off home smiling. On arrival at the Essex track I smiled to myself as it was a particularly cold day, which was very similar to the condition the truck had been tuned to. Most conversations were on what would be the best tyre choice, whereas I had no choice but to run with the stock items, one less thing to worry about then.

I needn’t have worried either as once on the track the ATX racing tyres proved inspirational in all but the slippiest of corners, gaining enough grip to power wheelie with heavy throttle application. The mega shocks permitted the body of the truck to roll whilst keeping the entire tread pattern firmly on the track powering forward, tackling the jumps may not be quite the right phrase for this truck, getting it to notice they were there was more like it! I’ve always loved clearing the trebles at the rear of the EMORC track and the LST2 gobbled them up with style, not only clearing them, but jumping right passed them by some way. The bumpers also earned their stripes as I careered around, sometimes landing right on its nose only for it to bounce right up and carry on racing, this thing seems as strong as Mariusz Pudzianowski (World’s strongest man 2005 and built like a brick out-house) with the punishment it took. My fingers were so cold I didn’t have the level of control I wanted (well that’s my excuse) and one of the steering servos packed in due to water damage as I ploughed through the puddles on the track which slowed the steering response time dramatically. But it will break if you try hard enough, or like me accidentally slide into a wall! Not having both servos working meant it wouldn’t turn as hard as I wanted it to at the speed I was driving and as I dived under the crossover, I clipped the supporting wall which ripped a front wheel hub from one piece to two. No more racing for me today.

ONE ISN'T ENOUGH
How can I sum up this LST2? Big truck, big engine, big shocks, big wheels, big attitude, it’s all that and a bag of chips. This really is stiff competition for the all conquering Savage, I believe the original LST has handed over the baton to its successor safe in the knowledge that the battle for the title “King of the Monsters” is once again game on! The breakages weren’t really the truck’s fault, the servo died due to water intake from driving through a big puddle, the hub broke due to slamming into a wall, the rear wing ripped of due to not paying enough attention in gymnastics classes (especially in landing somersaults). But what power, what performance, what great handling, what enjoyment, what a big smile on my face… and what a truck!

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