Most of us in the office have our favourite brand of RC kit, Nobby for example will quite happily flatten you to get his hands of the latest offering from Team Losi, Neil loves anything expensive and fortunately for us, Jonny likes Smartech! As for myself, I’ve always held a soft spot for Traxxas kits, mainly because the T-Maxx rekindled my interest in RC six years ago but also because their models, specifically their monster trucks, always impress me.

I was certainly grinning like a Cheshire cat (do they really grin?) when we first got our hands on the Revo over two years ago. Traxxas had pulled another innovative design out of the bag and produced a strong, fast and nimble truck that performed well out on a race track or up the common. But of course most things can be improved on, especially when you lock a bunch of engineers in a room with lots of fancy equipment and tell them to make it better. This is only me speculating but I suspect that’s exactly what Traxxas did in order to present to us the new Revo 3.3.

WHAT'S NEW WITH THE REVO 3.3?

The Revo 3.3 hasn’t exactly had a major overhaul; in fact at first glance you might struggle to notice much difference at all. If however it were sat next to the original 2.5 version, things would become more obvious and you’d have to be half cut not to notice it’s longer, a whole 30mm longer in fact. You’d probably also spot the shiny split spoke wheels and new graphics on the shell which is available in several different colours, we opted for black but I know people who think the yellow version is great, proving there’s no accounting for taste! In truth the bulk of the development has gone into the new TRX3.3 engine which comes with this new version of the Revo. Traxxas have always made good, if not slightly different engines, they’re a company (like ourselves) that prefer to innovate rather than imitate and surprised everyone when they launched the original Revo with a small block engine (2.5cc or 0.15ci), but the power of the TRX2.5R combined with the design of the Revo meant it could easily out perform monster trucks with much bigger engines.

With this new version, Traxxas have still resisted the urge to slap a big block engine in there, although they have got about as close as a shave with a cut throat razor can get to it. The 3.3 represents its size in cubic centimetres (cc), this equates to .20 cubic inches (ci) and a standard big block engine is classed at .21ci or larger. You may be wondering why they didn’t just drop a .21ci engine in there and unfortunately I can’t give you an official answer to that. But looking at it logically, it would be a lot easier for Traxxas to further develop an engine they already know, than create a brand new one. It also means they’re enhancing an already good product and this reassures quality and also keeps costs down which would then be reflected in the end price to us. Several years ago, it was all about having a big or small block monster truck but this debate subsided when the original Revo proved it could out run them and if the TRX2.5R engine turned heads, surely the new 3.3 version will have you performing a scene out of the Exorcist!

INSIDE THE REVO'S TRX 3.3 ENGINE

Traxxas claim the TRX3.3 engine offers nearly 50% more horse power than the 2.5R and will propel the Revo to over 45mph. It comes with their power tune cooling head which moulds perfectly into the engine’s crank case and really looks like it’s part of the engine rather than a bolt on attachment and like the 2.5R it comes with a slide carb, rear exhaust output and the Traxxas EZ-Start system bolted onto the back of it.

The EZ-Start system has to be one of the simplest ways to get a nitro engine started. It includes a hand held unit which takes a 7.2V stick pack (not supplied) and attached to the back of the engine is an electric motor and sealed running gears which crank the engine over, the wires for the motor along with an earth and power lead running to the glow plug are fed to a socket which you plug the Easy start unit into. There’s no poking starter shafts into the back of the engine, you don’t even need a glow start for the plug. By inserting the Start unit, it sends power to the glow plug and cranks the engine over all at the push of the button, the starter unit even has LEDs which will light up if the engine is flooded or the glow plug has failed.

In reality, most experienced RC owners ditch the easy start system in favour of a traditional pull start or sealed back plate and starter box, I’ll probably do the same soon but kept things as they came in order to review this truck fairly. The main reason for losing the EZ-start system is to shed weight, the onboard electric motor, plastic housing and gears all add up if you want to trim you truck down for best possible power to weight ratio. If this isn’t a concern of yours I would still strongly recommended getting a separate glow starter and don’t use the blue wire feeding power to the glow plug as it really sucks power from your stick pack and without having to sustain this extra drain, one 7.2V stick pack will easily last the course of a good day’s bashing.