TRAXXAS DRAG SLASH
Going From Wheels That Slip To Ones That Grip
The no prep drag racing scene is one of the latest trends in the RC hobby that I’ve been watching unfold. It started with people taking their every day RC cars and racing each other to see which one is the fastest. Then people took things to another level by making modifications and custom parts to make their vehicles faster. The next thing you know companies like Pro-line and Jconcepts started making bodies, tires and wheels for the scene and that’s where my interest peaked.
I kept seeing builds with awesome detail and cars that were going from point A to B in a real hurry. I finally decided to jump in the pool and built my own hot rod to have some fun with. After much deliberation, I decided to go with a Traxxas, PROTOFORM and Pro-line based ride and started out slow with a “stock” build. What I mean by that is that the car and parts are stock and off the shelf; anyone can buy it and put it together. To see just which parts I decided to use and how the build turned out, read on.
Slash Based
I knew that I wanted to base my project on a Traxxas Slash but I had to do a little research to figure out what base model to pick. Two must have items were a brushless system and a LOW-CG (low center of gravity) chassis. I looked at picking up a less expensive model and adding the must have items but that option acrtually ended up being more expensive.
In the end I went with the Traxxas Slash VXL with Onboard Audio (OBA) and Traxxas Stability Management (TSM); it has the LOW-CG chassis and comes with the fast brushless system that I was looking for at a slightly lower price than what I would have had to pay by getting everything separately. Having the sound of the OBA system would be cool but it’s pretty heavy and will be set aside for this build. The TSM system isn’t legal for rzacing but it will be nice to have while I’m getting used to a new driving style. Sure, these cars race in a straight line, but they don’t always go straight and if you crank on that steering wheel too much, you’re going to see a crash.
Slick Body
The bodies that are available for no prep drag racing are what drew me to it and I couldn’t wait to get one picked out and painted. There are a few bodies to choose from and my choice was the very slick Corvette C7 Pro Mod body from PROTOFORM. It’s going to be fast and man is it good looking. I am a fan of bodies with logos on them so that’s what I did for this one. I did some searching and found a photo of a race car from Rotak Racing with an Oakley logo and went with something similar for my body.
2s Lipo
There aren’t many rules in the no prep drag racing scene but one of the most important ones that they do have is that you can only run a 2S Lipo. It makes sense because they put out plenty of juice and they’re much lighter than higher voltage packs. Traxxas power systems are optimized for their batteries so that’s what I used for my build. In the chassis is a Traxxas 5000mah 2-cell Lipo.
Drag Rubber
Pro-line’s Hoosier Drag Slicks are on the back of my ride because they will provide the best grip for drag racing and they look amazing; I paired them with Pro-line’s Hoosier front tires. I stuck with Pro-line when choosing the wheels and went with their Drag Spec front and rear wheels.