HPI Savage XL

First things first and let’s tackle this one head on right now, size is important and if you’ve been told otherwise it’s because she had sympathy for you, after all more is more. And on this basis no testosterone filled male would baulk at the chance of shouting from the rooftops to proclaim “I have a whopper!” – To some people, this is a new feeling. Only when the gathered crowd strip you naked for proof you realise you should’ve possibly made it a little bit clearer you were actually talking about your new HPI Savage XL… bit late now, three of the four ladies present have feinted and the other has a big smile on her face.

There’s no shying away from the fact that this is one large Savage, or Xtra Large I should say, it’s immense. This is a truck that sat down at a posh restaurant and declared “I’ll have all the pies please” and once they were gone, it had a few tubs of ice cream too… with the obligatory Diet Coke of course. HPI haven’t just let their monster gorge away though, no, they’ve ensured it put hours in at the gym to improve its physique, grow some muscles and become more powerful. Only when it is ready will it be allowed to leave and find its way in life, only when it passes the final test of strength and courage will it follow the way of the monster, at that time I don’t know what happens, I’m making it all up as I go along, HPI designed it to be bigger; it didn’t go to the gym at all!

what's new?

So back to business, the big question straight away is what’s different? Well if I dismiss the two worded memo from the Department of the Bleedin Obvious which was “It’s bigger”, there’re actually a fair few things to mention, some good and some not. You can’t help but notice the new GT Gigante body shell, it’s pre-painted with a black front and further enhanced by a sort of tribal design before it brightens up with a bright orange back end (if you don’t like the orange there’s also a blue version). There’s something else that’s just as noticeable, and that’s the massive 17mm hexed wheels and tyres! They call the tyres Terra Pins and they go to help the overall look to be somewhat Terra-fying. They stand seven inches tall once wrapped around a standard Savage eight-hole wheel and are made of a tough compound for a low wear rate; apparently they’re good on grass and loose dirt while the chevron pattern in the centre helps with stability on the harder surfaces. The oversized sidewalls will help absorb some of those big air moments too, which is handy as that’s what it’s got to look forward to, HPI bill this as the toughest Savage yet (they always say that) so it’s only fair I give it a thorough bashing.

Sticking its head out of the rear bed of the GT Gigante is the new ABC construction K.59 Big Block Roto Start engine (.36ci). The 3.75HP it chucks out gives credence to the “most powerful Savage” statement, it’s got a 9.5mm gob on it to feed the air and fuel mixture through the composite carburettor onto the SG-type crankshaft before reaching the six-port liner where it’ll pump it up to a top end RPM of 39,500! I’ve gotta say it looks really nice, the big cooling head is finished with a sweet gun metal colour but boldly shouts through the engraving on top that it has Big Block Power.

Helping things along, it has a curved manifold header coupled to a shiny two-chamber aluminium tuned pipe to expel its gasses. To get the power channelled through to the drive train, it has to have a long life three-shoe aluminium clutch setup. With the help of a vented heavy duty 16 toothed clutch bell, a machined steel 52t spur gear and an extra tough slipper clutch, the power disappears into the unseen. No need to worry though as inside the black transmission case are metal three-speed gears, fully adjustable and tough enough to cope with the raw thump that’s coming its way.

This is also still a Savage X, so the quick release top to the transmission is still in effect for simple access to your gears. Still no disappointment as we follow the line along, the dog bones are new and extra thick, they’ve grown in both diameter and also have larger ends. Luckily these big boys slot right into the new and obviously larger, thicker diff drive cups made from machined steel, HPI promise these will be happy to deal with all the power the K.59 can throw at it. The machined steel is an ongoing theme as it continues with the crown and pinion gears in the differential being made from it, the diff case itself has the usual hardened four-spider gear arrangement inside, is made of alloy and the housing it nestles in has extra webbing to hold everything snugly in place no matter what.