It’s when we get to the clutch things start to take a turn for the worse. Here it has two aluminium shoes with a long spring wrapped around them, it’s not an original idea and I’ve seen its kind before, I didn’t think much of it back then and so far nothing has changed my opinion of this style of clutch because the spring is prone to failures. Taking up the bite from the clutch is of course the clutch bell, and one major plus side of this bell is that you’ll never strip the teeth from it because it already has as many teeth as an old man nicknamed “Gummy”… none! Instead of using a conventional bell, R&D man saw fit to have an extra portion of metal added to the end and then put a slot into it, how’s this going to transfer the drive to the gearbox I hear you cry, with a tiny dog bone of course you non believers. I can’t think why this hasn’t been done before!

It’s when we get to the clutch things start to take a turn for the worse. Here it has two aluminium shoes with a long spring wrapped around them, it’s not an original idea and I’ve seen its kind before, I didn’t think much of it back then and so far nothing has changed my opinion of this style of clutch because the spring is prone to failures. Taking up the bite from the clutch is of course the clutch bell, and one major plus side of this bell is that you’ll never strip the teeth from it because it already has as many teeth as an old man nicknamed “Gummy”… none! Instead of using a conventional bell, R&D man saw fit to have an extra portion of metal added to the end and then put a slot into it, how’s this going to transfer the drive to the gearbox I hear you cry, with a tiny dog bone of course you non believers. I can’t think why this hasn’t been done before!

The difference being that most truggies today have an extended chassis and the Nitrage is no different here, but any excess space is left at the rear as designers consider balance and handling skills, but the Nitrage doesn’t seem to care about this and takes up the slack in the middle of the truck, hence the big gap between the engine and where the drive kicks in. Talking of balance, the Nitrage only has a rear brake disc, nothing at all on the front as that’s another optional extra along with sway bars, so we’ll have to see how that improves or detracts from the handling side of things, or mid air control.

R&D man wasn’t finished yet though, the chassis itself is what’s called “a pioneering feature in its class” because it is a press moulded deck. Shaped specifically so it doesn’t need full length side guards, it has front mud guards and a pipe protector instead. So in a not so transvestite way, the sides of the 3mm thick chassis have a ridge, or flange if you will that runs from front to back for a stronger platform so an upper deck isn’t required.

This also means there isn’t a radio tray as such; the throttle servo is bolted to a side portion of the gearbox and the steering servo is attached to the front chassis brace, which is vast and part of the bulkhead itself that then retains the upper hinge pin holders for the upper A-arms and also envelopes the steering posts. The rest of the steering assembly is more or less conventional, except that the massive space taken up by the front chassis brace means the non adjustable almost solid lump of plastic steering bellcrank has to face outwards rather than the other way as per normal… oh and it’s huge so doesn’t appear to have a great deal of steering throw.

That’s about it change-wise, although who could resist putting on some massively oversized C-hubs? So large actually that if the truck had any more steering throw they’d touch the lower A-arms. The shocks seem normal, coil over oil filled dampers with aluminium caps, threaded bodies and an adjuster albeit there is no mention of what grade of oil is in them, so it could be scentless fish juice for all we know in this era of change. The shock towers are all but recognisable as normal features too, they’re only 3mm thick but the mightiness is restored in the monster of a front bumper, and it would have a monster bumper because it’s not really a truggy after all is it, it’s a freaky low centre of gravity monster truck wanabee.