Ultra lx-1e
 

My friend has been nagging me to try the ultra lx-1e ever since he got one. admittedly, he's doing quite well at the track, so when tower sent me a $60 off coupon, i had to try it.

So i paid $165 for it total and got free shipping. i got it in 4 days. Nice! :yes:

I have an old motorcross track about 20 min from my house, and i was there thursday with my buddies to give it a good old fashioned ass whippin.....
it was alot more durable than i thought it was gonna be.

the ultra has hardened diffs now, which was really needed as an upgrade from the nitro version. they took 5S on a 2200 geared 51/17. i was impressed.

i found myself on the far side of the track launching some huge air without anything breaking on a whole 5000mah pack.

about the only thing i did was replace was the stock tires with crimefighters and then at that point, it was glued to the track.

the only thing i'm gonna do for sure is get another body. the white one they provide is baby puke white. yuck. :lol:

So if any of you are looking for a GOOD economical buggy for your kids or just to bash with, this is a great buggy to start with.

for the price, it's a GREAT deal.


here are some pics :

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...et/lx1e001.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...et/lx1e002.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...et/lx1e003.jpg

A friend of mine and me both have them. pretty tough here is a pic of me getting some big air.
We hit the ramps like this all the time.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/9...cn0216l.th.jpg

holy shit, Phil, that's some HUGE air! :surprised: i might be going back to the track tonight and i'll take my camera this time. Awsome pic man! :yes:

Nice. If it takes a beating like that, I might have to look into one.

Is there a truggy version perchance?..

Does look like a great deal for such a cheap vehicle- woukdnt be so bothered about breaking it when its that cheap... :yes:

Thanks for the review, I have been looking for a good one just to bash with as I just can't cut totally loose with my 8ight.

funny you should ask. there's no truggy, but they have 2" wheel extensions that make it as wide as most truggies. i put a set on and it 's just a hair wider than my e-maxxs. i'm gonna test them out at the track tonight on some badlands. i'll let you know how they fair. :yes:

once you go buggy, you never go back. :lol::rofl:

Thats what buggies are pretty well known for, drive-ability and toughness.


Just pay attention the the diff gears. The ring gears tend to be a little on the weak side.

I have to say this thing is GREAT for the price. my dad had been beating this thing since his birthday and its been taking CCneu 2650 on 4-5s and going strong. He hit this rock at about 45 and blew the front shock shaft, Front shock tower in half and diff bulkhead apart but no arms broken or bent pins. Cheap Fix. lol Yes Great bashing Buggy.

Thing bashes just as well as my 8ight...

How is it working with the TRX connectors... everything else I have is using those now and I've been considering them for my 8ight-E. Looks good, I looked at those a while back. Hard to beat 165 shipped!

works great with the trx connectors. i use them for everything, even on my tekin rs pro on my sedan

Surprised at how inexpensive these are, im gonna have to get one... do they come with a pinion?

if i remember right, i think it came with a 15t.

after almost a week of very hard bashing, this is still going strong....no broken parts yet. very impressive considering the sizes of some of these jumps.

i think i need some thicker shock oil though....it feels a little bouncy on the medium weight springs with 40wt oil on 4S. i might try 50 or 55wt tomorrow.

OK Dwight you are BAD influence.

So I have a Lx-1E on the way and some parts to convert my 8ight to a street machine. (See one justifies the other :rofl:)

One thing I did wonder is if you have found a better replacement body. The Ofna clear stock one is expensive as hell for a buggy body close to 40 bucks plus shipping from Nitrohouse.com

http://www.nitrohouse.com/catalog/pr...ducts_id=21454

So any suggestions would be appreciated as I am with you the stock all white shell is a little homely looking. In the immortal works of Al Czervik (Rodney Dangerfiled) from Caddyshack "it is so ugly I bet you get a bowl of soup with it."

there are several replacement bodies you can use. here's the list i have so far:

9.5 violater
ravager
ultra lx comp
jammin x1cr
kyosho mp777
mbx body



on a side note...i was out with a buddy of mine last night, ramping the shit out of this thing. i can't believe how far and high this thing can fly without any damage at all.


I'm back to the track this morning, and this time i'm taking my camera that have batteries charged. :rofl: i'll post pics later today.

BTW...i see you're from VA, 76Bentley...so am i. which part? I'm from the Northern Va. area. we regularly have 30-40 of us running every saturaday night in Fair Lakes, and we reciently found an old motorcross track that had been abandoned near LakeRidge that is an amazing place to bash.

Hey Dwight a fellow Virginian huh, I am in Roanoke. Beautiful area, we are in a valley, so lots of good places. You can go almost to any park and have some interesting geography to run a RC. Oddly enough getting a flat spot large enough after I set my 8ight up might be a problem though...ha ha ha.

Thanks for the review on the LX-1E again, after I have it set up with radio and servo I will only have about 325 in it which is a far cry from what goes into a race level buggy. I can't wait to let it rip. And thanks for for the buggy body list, I am no rattle can Picasso, but I can do better than that all white body.

I did wonder about your thoughts on the Matrix Carbon Fiber chassis and shock towers for the 8ight to cut weight? I am kicking around that idea, kind of like a buggy mated with a Xray T3

Look forward to the pictures

i tend to stay away from all things carbon fiber on 1/8 stuff. the reason is because imo, you're just sacrificing weight for strength.... and with vehicles sooo incredibly overpowered to begin with, we need every ounce of durability we can get.

here's the old motorcross track i've been talking about...my friend Ronnie is driving his LX-1 that he got after seeing mine.

this is just a section of the track:

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/track003.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/track004.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/track005.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/track007.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/track008.jpg


http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/track010.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/track009.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/track013.jpg

it goes over several acres.... through woods and there's parts we've only just seen. i'll try to get better pics tomorrow with some video. at some points, i think we got over 30ft of air on some of these jumps. it's a blast to drive. :yes:

That place is amazing. :yes:

How could all that work have been done then abandoned? That is awesome though. If that place was near me, I wouldn't have a single RC that was working, ha ha ha

Thanks for the pics, I will be watching for the others.

i got a sort of history lesson on the track yesterday...apparently, people have been working on the track, on and off for about the last 25-30 years. a friend of mine has a buddy that lives near there and he said that they used to use it as a bmx and motorcross track in the early 80's and it was a really popular spot to go and have fun before cheap cable, video games and the internet took over our youth.

he said interest in it started to dwindle in the 90's and fewer and fewer people kept it up, and now only a few weekend warriors go there regularly to keep it looking decent.

it's raining pretty hard today, but as soon as it dries, i'll take some video.

Wow, nice track. I'm jealous.

I really like the looks of it..

i'm charging some packs now and if the track is dry, i'll come home with some video.

Got my LX-1e out of the box tonight and I am really really shocked at the quality for the money. I have owned X-Ray, Losi, Mugen, and Associated, they are all top notch there is no doubt. However for someone like me who just wants to mess around their neighborhood, I think this is the way to go. I can't wait to get it set up and ready for a run. I even have to some what take back what I said about the body, mine arrived painted a decent pearl white, wasn't really expecting that. I am going to swap out the tires and wheels and I am going with a black proline wing, but still I am thrilled. Thanks again for the recommendation.

For the basher there is nothing wrong with the ultra line. My first buggy was a MBX, and it was converted to electric, then modded to a gtp, then I sold it. If ofna would make a hyper based on road car for cheap it would be great, the hyper line has very sturdy driveline.

glad you like it. i just bought another LX-one yesterday because i got these huge ofna wheel adapters and want to convert it to sort of a truggy. i wanna see if the new hardend diffs can withstand the kinda jumps i have at the track with the truggy wheels.

i'll post pics this afternoon.

the diff gears are holding up on this with 6 cells
 

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/s...zypower009.jpg AND THEN YOU MOVE UP IN THE WORLD http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/s...HYPER9E014.jpg
FOR THE PRICE IT'S A GOOD LITTLE BUGGY. OFNA COMES THROW AGAIN

For those interested, I noticed that Towerhobbies dropped the price $10 down to $189. Not a bad deal and I wonder how they would compare on the track.

mine's still holding up great. here's a new pic of it.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g.../yryfhv020.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g.../yryfhv021.jpg

the only mods from the way i started it was i'm using thicker center diff fluid now and i've switched from the mmm to the rx8.

the mmm i sent off to castle this morning. it was a great esc, but i think my last 40ft jump might have broken something as all i could get was the dreaded blinking led. :lol:

Wow! And it already was so damn cheap, now even cheaper.


And I would also like to know how they compare to other vehicles like a 8ight, RC8 on a track. Does somebody got another buggy, and can test them both on a track? I'm very curious about the laptimes

i've got and have raced a few other buggies. right now, i race a losi 8ight 2.0.

the big differences:with most adjustments being as close as possible.

1. 8ight is lighter, imo it jumps better
2. the 8ight corners like it's on rails, the lx-1 has a bit of understeer.
3. the 8ight has threaded shocks, and imo they are a better shock overall.
4. the aluminum on the 8ight is a much higher quality
5. the 8ight imo is much more stable on bumpy tracks.


that being said, that's the same driver driving 2 different cars. i've seen my buddies' lx-one-e walk all over 8ights and RC8's at the track, but he's been racing since he could walk. most 1/8 buggies are over-engineered nowadays, and if you want something to be competitive, the lx-one will be. .it's just not as high a quality as the other buggies.

I've been thinking about picking one up as well. Ofna stuff is usually pretty nice quality. My LHS has 1 in stock, if he can match Tower's price like he usually does, I may get it. I think the new 1800kv 1512 CC motor on 5s would do it good!

Thank you for your reply! This sounds good to me, as I'm not a big racer (mostly basher), but sometimes I just want to race with other people and then I only have 2WD vehicles or a 4WD MT, which isn't fair for me lol.

I'll have to finish my E-LST, and my Marder, after that I'll buy a LX-one probably. Many thanks for your reply Dwight! :yes:

update:

it's still all in 1 piece! :lol:

a couple of things i've done to make it stronger, and or issues that came up.

i'm a big jump guy. the bigger, the better. that being said, i need my buggy to be next to bullet proof.

here were some issues that came up on huge jumps...(ie: 25ft vertical and above)

issue #1. the motor mount has the motor a little under 1/4" off of the chassis. when it lands on big jumps, seeing as there is no rear support for the motor, it rips the threads inside the front endbell where it screws to the mount.

solution : i made a rear motor cradle like my 8ights have. in this case i bought some 1 1/2" pvc pipe and cut off a ring and then notched it (like an e-maxx spring retainer clip) so it would pop over the motor. it gives awsome support.

pic:

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/nfgfg007.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/nfgfg009.jpg

issue #2 i keep stripping the stock servo horns that are made of plastic.

solution: i got an aluminum servo horn.(not in pic yet :lol: )

issue #3: i kept breaking the rear arm holder.

solution: after i broke it twice in one day, i replaced it with the thicker front arm holder. (imo it worked better than the ofna rear mount.) it sets the rear toe in to zero degrees, but it didn't effect the offroad handling that i could see. i still had awsome traction

issue #4: i wanted to protect the front and rear a little more. i think the rear mount holder broke because i needed some sort of bumper back there for when i landed a little awkward.

solution: i got the TBR front and rear bumper kit. there things are the SHIT!!! i have them on my basher 8ight and on my jatos and they can take some huge abuse. i highly recommend them.

http://www.t-bone-racing.com/catalog/i313.html

issue #5 stripped the stock spur

solution: got the aluminum replacement.

after that, i took the buggy up to the jumps last night and set forth some huge air to see if my mods held up. they all worked pretty freakin' sweet.

here's some new pics:

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/nfgfg001.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/nfgfg005.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...t/nfgfg004.jpg

PEACE! :party:

You said this, all it shows in the email, and I just had to come see the big air pics. WHaa Whaa WHAAAAA only pics of the bumpers. Something you've never heard, I want to see some vids :D
Looks good though. Thanks for the updating. Can you try to find any other weak points, I'm planning on ordering one for myself , soon.

will do asheck :lol: i'm hoping to get up to the track today. i'm charging batteries as i'm writing this.

last night, i was bashing on a 6S because my 4S packs were all low and i ended up doing a double back flip. i didn't land well, but nothing broke.

:yipi:

as far as any other weak points, i've beaten the shit out of this thing for more than a month, and this was all i could find. i'll keep my eyes peeled though. :yes:

btw..get some more videos of your slashmaxx up!!!!!! that thing is freakin' sweet.

This thing is sounding tough as nails. Good deal. I can't wait to see one in a good bashing scenario.

A couple ?'s on flight characteristics :) Do the smaller tires still give good control in the air? Does it take alot more effort to correct in the air, causing more on throttle landings?

I've been thinking the Maxxslash might be ready for some skatepark action
< like that :D

i hope i'm reading your questions right. are you asking if buggies are harder to jump that the mt's and truggies?
i think... and have pretty much always thought that buggies jump better than MT's and truggies so i might not be the best person to ask that question.

however, that being said, the escs i use gives you a huge range of programming ability. i tend to have a very agressive throttle and less brakes, but i don't normally have to do alot of in air correction unless i'm doing a 40ft jump or something like that. hope that helps.

Cool, thanks for the info. Sounds like I'll order the front arm mount, and aluminum spur from the start, then go from there if I manage to break it.