The Jumbo Shrimp AKA Cen ME16 review

[dadgummit]

I was in my LHS Sunday and saw that they had the CEN ME16 for only $140 (They are like $200 everywhere else). I had seen these in RC Car action and thought it would be interesting to look into these. And besides any mini that takes regular 1/10 gear has to be a fun car to hopup.

My first impressions were Damn this thing is heavy. Ready to run it sits at about 4.5 pounds (probably less with lipo). On the other hand everything is overbuilt. The a-arms are pretty thick. All metal gears in the diffs and tranny, steel dog-bones etc. I guess this is a factory electric conversion of the MG16 series of trucks that come with a 2.5 cc power-plant so you know they are built to take some punishment.

As with many RTR’s the included electronics are totally worthless with one exception. The included radio is actually pretty good, it is a digital AM radio with an LCD screen. It has everything from trim to EPA and ABS.

The motor, esc, servo and battery are total junk. But that is the beauty for me and probably many other people on this board. I have a Z590 metal gear servo that over doubles the torque of the stock servo still sitting in the Spektrum box. I have a Mamba Max 5700 kv motor that I removed from my FLM rusty when I decided to upgrade to a Fiegao 7L. I have the 1/10 Sidewinder speed control that I removed from my CRT.5 when I upgraded that to a Neu 1509 and MM ESC. And I know that everyone has a bunch of old stick packs laying around as they converted to lipo. This baby is going to be using 4 GP3300’s purchased from Radio Shack a few years ago. So the electrical upgrades were all free!!

This thing does look big especially when compared to a M18T but it is a little smaller than the CRT.5. Probably closer to 1/14 scale but who cares.



I guess these things come in 3 flavors, a Car version, a monster truck version and the Rally car version. I chose the Rally version which is identical to the MT except for the body and wheels. I know I am going to hear differently but I think the body on the rally car is pretty cool and it is not another stadium truck. Please proline no more crowd pleasers!!

Here is a look under the hood: You will see a MM ESC because I have to dig the sidewinder out of my garage and I wanted to drive this today.





I tried this guy out in the alley behind my garage and it RIPS!!! Really fast and the drive train has no trouble with the power at all though with all of the metal gears it is loud. I even did the reverse to full forward throttle thing to make it wheelie and not so much as a hick up. It handles well too, the center of gravity is really low so it does not flip over when you turn too sharp though it will never be a racer as it is totally focused on bashing and durability.

Next upgrades are going to be shocks (they take 90mm shocks like the fronts on stampedes and rustlers) turnbuckles to replace the upper arms and 5x11x4 bearings for the wheel hubs (Bushings!! awwww come on!!).

Well my charger beeped so it is time to go out and beat on this guy again…