Vajra
Model Number: 58497
Released
Q3 2011
Drive
4WD Centre Diff
Chassis Description
Double deck carbon fibre
Body Type
Clear Polycarb
Motor
GT-Tuned (25T)
Original Price
MSRP $812
Wheel Base
275mm
Scale
1/10
The main chassis platform is a 15mm longer wheelbase version of the basic chassis of Item 58489 Avante (2011) and is matched with 100mm diameter V-pattern block tires.
The truck uses a new 2.0mm thick carbon fiber lower & upper deck.
Its longer wheelbase (275mm) provides increased stability during high-speed off-road driving.
The aluminum and metal trailing arm suspension from the Avante has been replaced with durable plastic suspension, as seen in the Vanquish kit (item 58076), for the Vajra.
Specs and Features
1/10 scale R/C assembly kit.
Shaft-driven 4WD chassis features chassis layout with longitudinally mounted motor & battery pack.
2.0mm thick carbon fiber double-deck
2.0mm carbon plate steering rack with ball bearings
4-wheel double wishbone suspension is equipped with aluminum front knuckles and durable resin/plastic suspension arms.
Universal drive shafts (re-buildable)
Aluminum wheel hex hubs (clamp type)
Front and rear oiled-filled CVA shock units are secured to durable 3.5mm thick carbon fiber damper stays.
Newly designed front & rear ball differentials included. Center unit is a locked direct type as opposed to the center ball diff unit seen in the Avante.
Comes equipped with front & rear V-pattern block tires (Width/Diameter: 50/110mm).
5-spoke chrome plated wheels
26 Ball Bearings included
Front and rear bumper guards
Item 53779 GT-Tuned Motor (25T) included.
Comes with polycarbonate truck body shell (Modified Super Levant body).
Reviews
Lostwave
NOTE about above.... The only other issue I had is the instructions has a misprint on which parts to use for the bottom of the shocks. If you put the part in that the instructions ask you to, the shocks are too long causing your dogbones to fall out. I noticed this happening and put on the shorter shock bottoms which worked like a charm. Later I noticed a 3x5 card in the bottom of the box that mentioned the exact same issue, saying there was an error in the instructions.
Lostwave
I do not know why this kit gets a bad rap. Building it was awesome. Fully ballraced, balldiffs, tons of carbon fiber. Not a huge fan of the look of it... which is why it will make a great basher. Or maybe I will find some smaller classic wheels and body to put on it instead. Although, while cutting out the body and looking at it, it has grown on me. This is the first modern kit I have ever built (aside from my RC10 GT which was so long ago, its not modern).
First thing you will notice when you open the box is no blisters, no boxes in the box, just all the stuff you need packed in there.
Second thing you will notice as you are building, is the A-Bag is not just random screws, its everything you need for the first 10 steps. Makes it much easier to find he screws you are looking for... but makes the build a little different as usually, I dump all the screw bags into different containers and part of the process is digging through the container looking for the part you need. The new way everything is right there. The A-Bag has about 40 different types of items, not to mention gears, bearings and metal parts. Unlike say... the hotshot which has 7 different items in its A-Screw bag. Not sure if I like the new way or not, half the fun was digging through the pile of screws. But it definitely did make it go much quicker. I built this thing in less time than I built my Re-re HotShot recently. And this model is much more complicated. The second thing you will notice is the gorgeous carbon fiber parts. I haven't seen the re-re avanti, but this looks great.
Overall the build went well. I did have a few issues. First, a few times I dropped the tiny little ball bearings for the thrust bearings in the ball diffs. They didn't give you any spares, so I had to crawl around on the floor with a magnet to find them. That took more time than actually building the ball diffs. There should definitely be a few extras of these tiny balls. The larger balls for the ball diff did have quite a few spares, I don't know why they didn't include them for the thrust bearings. There were also a few steps that should have been two separate steps. For example step 14 has you put in the chassis spacer stands, as well as grease and put in the drive gear. I put in the drive gear first, but then you can't put in the spacers because they screw in from the bottom. So I had to put the greasy drive gear on a rag turn over the chassis and put in the spacers. Then I had to clean the lint off the drive gear and put it back it. Would have been nice if this was 2 separate steps so I wouldn't have made that mistake. There were a few other things like that.
I really enjoyed building this kit. Looking forward to running it!
For such an expensive kit, not sure why it didn't come with a ESC.