HPI E10 Review
The HPI is a bit of a strange animal, it comes in both drift and race flavors, and while I'm normally against anything that doesn't specialize, this is a special kit non-the-less. The E10 is targeted at people who couldn't be bothered to spend time modifying their existing RC car, or trying to get a touring car to drift, without breaking the bank.
Now what really fascinated me about this kit is the front mounted motor, this is the ideal place to put the weight of the car when you want to drift, but hold the press as this can be shifted to the back, for a more race tuned setup. The difference is staggering as I'm sure you can imagine, other than that it's a 4WD shaft driven chassis which is pretty much the status quo.
The kit comes with a digital AM transmitter ( 27 MHz ), a receiver, reversible esc (reverse will only slow you down, not like brakes :P ), a sports tuned 27 turn motor, a 1500 mah Ni-Cd battery pack and a battery charger. So it really is a ready to race kit in every respect, you'll still need 8x AA's and to charge the battery pack, but that's it. The chassis is fully upgradeable
The E10 comes standard with T-Drift tires, I have had some experience with these Slick, super hard, plastic-type drift tires and one thing I can tell you is that they will last *almost* forever, they have a little more traction than what I'm used to, but not nearly like the traction you get from Tamiya drift tires. Mind you traction is not a bad thing, and as so many things in RC this really boils down to personal preference.
My first impressions of the E10 were pretty much as I expected, standard plastic tub chassis, limited setup changes can be made, and there are no oil shocks, which is a pity. What I thought was a little strange was that HPI decided not to fit a rear spool differential (locked rear diff), which most people including myself think is critical to a drift setup. The shocks were very soft and I remember thinking that I'd have to tweak them a little to get the most out of the car.
Once I got charged up and took her out for a test drive none of the above applied, she is a beautiful drifter by anyone's standards, so smooth you would swear you had training wheels on. The shocks, rear diff and other plastic bits didn't upset the balance of the chassis at all. The limited setup options don't matter, I can't think why anyone would want to change the out-the-box setup at all. Okay well us RC people like to pimp our rides so I guess I can think of a few reasons.
Don't let the entry level price tag scare you off, this is an awesome little car and the price is more than right. I'd recommend this to anyone wanting to get into drifting in a hurry.
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