My Lightning Stadium 10 - RC-Monster Forums

Sower · 03:07 PM

I'm actually posting this thread for GorillaMaxx, but anyone is welcome to comment or offer input. He's considering a Lightning Stadium 10 and asked me to give him the low down on it. Here's what I said to him, along with some attached photos. Hope you all enjoy!

Well, I hope this will be helpful for you. I guess I'll start by saying I was looking for a 1/10 scale nitro vehicle to convert to brushless that had 4wd. It really wasn't tough to go to the Hot Bodies Lightning 10 once I found out it existed.

It's got a front and rear diff, and a center slipper clutch. You do have the opportunity to do brakes too. That's how it comes at least. Ok, now for the pros and cons:

Negatives:
The stock tire rubber sucks really bad. Horrible traction.
Body posts break fairly easily
Tail on stock body break off pretty easy
Not many alternative bodies available
Not many hop ups available
Have to order parts
No center diff

Positives:
Snake Eyes tires are excellent replacement - 100% difference!
Body posts (and other parts) are pretty cheap
Hop ups not really needed - truck can take a beating
I can order parts at local HobbyTown USA and they get here in a couple days
Adjustable suspension
Great balance and center of gravity
Basically a great truck all around.

As for racing with other 1/10 stadiums . . . it will depend on the guys you race. They let me with no problem here. My truck is heavier, and I'm not as good of a driver yet so it's no big deal. Everywhere is different though. As far as speed goes, I haven't tested that officially. I'm running a 10t pinion on it which doesn't get the top speeds. I also have a 12t and 14t. I would say I could pretty easily hit 40-45mph with the right gearing, but it's totally unnecessary. Gets the motor too hot too. My track speeds are just shy of 40 if not a little over with the 10t pinion. I will say this about the speed . . . I seriously can keep up with the 1/8 scale buggies when my driving is on. It can be a very fast truck.

Check the photos of it that are attached. They are a little older, so they don't have the newer tires, but you should get the idea. I hope that helps - let me know if you have any other questions about it. Are you planning on running it electric or nitro?

Take care,
Rob

neweuser · 12.20.2006, 04:05 PM

Very nice, it looks real durable.

Sower · 12.20.2006, 04:07 PM

Thanks, it is. I've beaten on it pretty good and no problems. The least durable part is the body posts, so that's not bad. I'll try to get more photos up soon.

GorillaMaxx360 · 12.20.2006, 05:36 PM

Thanks this helps a ton. One question though how fast was it when you got it(when it was gas). I want to know becasue eventhough i love Brushless i need a gas powered stadium to race with so has does it perform and handle while in gas form. Thanks for the thread

Sower · 12.20.2006, 05:39 PM

Well, I won't be able to answer that very well. I ran it for about 10 minutes as a nitro. It seemed to be fine, but I had nothing to compare it to. All I can say is that if you have a decent motor powering the drivetrain, this thing is great. As with a lot of things . . . it will depend on the motor you get.

Sorry, but I'm just not as up to speed on the nitro motor that comes stock. Anyone else have input there?

Sower · 12.20.2006, 05:41 PM

Here, this might help . . . it's a video of a stock nitro Lightning Stadium 10 taking some jumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ccNTLsLJ_k

GorillaMaxx360 · 12.20.2006, 05:47 PM

cool how does it handle on road compared to other cars in its class and if you had to guess what top speed would you place on this car knowing know how fast your brushless one goes.

Sower · 12.20.2006, 05:50 PM

On road? We don't race these on road, only off road. So I don't know really.

And as for top speed, I never had the chance to run a straight line with it so I'm not much help there either. Sorry bro, I seem to be striking out. :002:

GorillaMaxx360 · 12.20.2006, 06:06 PM

thats cool but can you say your brushless combo is faster or slower and buy how much faster or slower

Sower · 12.21.2006, 01:08 PM

Uh . . . way faster. Instant accelleration and better top speed. Don't get me wrong, the nitro was great - it just can't compare to this brushless system. Heck, I have (2) 3100mah Polyquest lipos that can dump almost 100 amps in a burst. That's a ton of power.

Like I said, with the right driver this thing can hang with the 1/8 scale nitro buggies at our local track. Obviously we don't have Adam Drake racing locally or anything, but you get the idea.

Why don't you just go with a brushless system against them? Won't they allow electric to compete with nitro? In the 1/8 scale they will a lot of times. I would go that route if at all possible if I were you. If you can, I would go with the lower KV motor from CC - not the 5700. I'll explain if you want to know.

GorillaMaxx360 · 12.21.2006, 07:05 PM

i can race with them yes but i figure if i can get a jato to race with them for 400 and i will spend about as much on bl and a car to put it in it would be cheaper to go nitro(i also want a nitro car). But i did know i can race with gas because i will be racing my emaxx Bl with the nitro revos and t-maxxes. I guess i never realy thiught about it but it is a good i dea your right.

coolhandcountry · 12.21.2006, 08:47 PM

Cool. It should kick some nitro butt.

Sower · 12.22.2006, 02:17 PM

Yeah, if you're looking at the dollars, nitro might be more economical. I'm not totally sure though. Let's look at it.

If you bought the Lightning 10 new it would be about $300. Then you would have the expense of the fuel, glow plugs, and all that stuff. Not to mention the ongoing expenses for maintenance. Eventually you would need to replace the motor and/or pipe. So for a safe initial investment, let's say you can get going in nitro for $400.

If you bought one new, and parted it out on ebay you would have a rolling chassis for about $200 to be safe. Then you have the Mamba Max ystem for $200, and then batteries for say $100 (depending on what you get). So you might be in the $500 range. But you wouldn't have any other maintenance costs after that too. For me it was worth the performance and all the other stuff. Not to mention as coolhandcountry mentioned . . . . it kicks some nitro butt. :027:

jhautz · 06.05.2007, 03:48 AM

Old thread I know...

Sower? You ran the MM 5700 in this on 3 cell lipo? Was that enough motor? I was thinking about doing one of these, only the GT10 version. Exactly the same only bigger tires and 8 shocks instead of 4. I was wondering of the mamba motor was enough. I am thinking about doing one of these and using an old Quark 80B and a Feigao 9L I have sitting here doing nothing. For batteries I was thinking 4s1p A123 cuz I have that already too. If the MM combo was enough I might just do that route though. Not sure about any of it yet. Just starting to think it through.

Was the MM system enough or did it get hot. At 4.5lbs stock RTR and then converting and adding batteries and such I'm thinking it will probably be a 5-6lb truck. Thats getting a little on the fat side for a short can motor in my mind, but I haven't had a mamba motor yet so I don't really know.

I know its been a while since you got rid of this, but anything you can remember would be great. Thanks.

UltimateHobbies.com has these things for under $200 now and free shipping. Hard to go wrong with that. I couldn't resist. I will probably goof around with it as a nitro for a while just to see if I like it before I put the effort into converting it, but I'm thinking about it already.

I think that HB just missed the mark with this little bugger. If they would have gone the extra mile and put the center dif in it and offered a few hop up parts and done some advertising they could have done what the CRT.5 is doing now. They were a year earlier but just missed a few details that would have made this a really killer little truck. When they first came out they were like $450. Now for $189 RTR its almost worth it just to get it to run nitro on those damp days you don't want to run the electrics.

Id be interested to hear any other thoughts on this truck anyone else has also.

Sower · 06.05.2007, 09:52 AM

Yeah, I ran the MM 5700 system in it on 3s. I actually had 2 3100 3s packs so it was like a 6200! I little overkill on run time, but it was great. The motor did get a little hot, but I think if you ran the lower KV MM, you might be ok. Besides, the lower KV motor can take the 4s whereas the 5700 can't.

Nice truck, but I totally agree with you. They could have done so much more with it if they went a little further and took the project more seriously. The GT10 is a better version in my opinion due to the additional shocks. I would also say that the stock tires on the LS10 were horrible. I ended up getting some Proline Snake Eyes and they were a huge difference.

If I were to do another one of these, I would probably still use the MM esc, but go to a slightly bigger motor due to the heat I experienced with the 5700. The lower KV might work, but I wouldn't want to test it.

Can't believe they're that cheap now - that's a great value. The durability of the truck was great, and it's a lot of fun. Too bad they didn't go the extra mile though. Good luck, and let me know how it goes!