Official top speed: how fast they really go

[Tyco Bandit King]

Ive been thinking about tracking the speeds of all the tyco, nikko, radio shack etc for a long time and now I will be checking and posting all the speeds of every car/truck i can. I used the gps on my iphone 4s as well as my bushnell radar. I will break down all the details of recording methods as well as car preparations to give an idea of where the speeds come from.

GPS: takes a longer time to record speeds and slows some cars down slightly but also seems to be slow by a few mph. An actual gps would probably be more acurate, will have to pick one up and check speeds again.

Bushnell radar: shows instant and very accurate speeds in your hand but also can read a higher speed if not held right or if the car makes a sudden movement at speed. Most accurate and consistant reading so far.

HC means it is hobby converted and faster than stock

All 9.6v tests were done using a 1600mah nimh pack

Top speeds:

19mph: twin turbo lamborghini 9.6v
19mph: nikko road thunder truck 9.6v
18mph: wild thing 9.6v
18mph: hijacker 9.6v
18mph: radio shack 550 enforcer HC 11.1v
17mph: blaster 9.6v
17mph: outlaw truck HC 7.2v
17mph: hammer 9.6v
16mph: nikko thor w/ 9.6v
16mph: turbo bandit 9.6v
15mph: nikko flashback 9.6v
15mph: new bright dodge ram 4wd HC 11.1v
14mph: new bright f150 2wd HC 11.1v


Lamborghini twin turbo: ran 19mph on radar but i think it might of been able to break 20mph if the road was a little smoother.

Road thunder: read lots of 18-21mph passes but it read the most at 19mph on radar. I think with a better charge it could hit 20mph

Wild thing: made lots of 22mph passes and runs very fast but most accurate speed was right at 18mph. I think it can go faster with more passes and a better charge.

Hijacker: read up to 22mph but got the perfect run in at 18mph. The battery could have been better charged.

Enforcer: only read 14mph on gps but consistantly ran 18mph on radar. It has an extreme amount of torque using a 19t pinion and with higher gearing could easily hit 40mph. It wheelies in high and low gear.

Hammer: made lots of 16mph passes and some 18-19mph but most consistant at 17mph on radar. Forgot how much fun this truck is to drive.

Blaster: read 21-22mph most everytime but it jumps around a lot and throws off the reading. On a perfect run it read 17mph.

Outlaw: ran flat out against the bandit and seemed to have a slight edge. I saw speeds of 19 and 21mph on radar but average of 17mph which seems about right

Thor: Using radar was tested on a 9.6v after using the pack to test the lambo and flash back. It runs about the same on the 8.4v pack fully charged. Stock is about 14mph, 8.4v is 16mph and 9.6v should be 17mph+.

Bandit: had almost full charged battery and couldnt ever get a reading over 10mph with the gps app but ran an average of 16mph with the radar gun. Some passes read up to 20mph but 16mph is right on

Flashback: using radar tested it with the same 9.6v after the lambo so i dont think it was full speed but it made consistant 15mph passes. Should go 16mph+ on a full charge.

New bright 4wd: would not read well with the gps but ran 15mph everytime with the radar gun. Made a 16mph pass but almost all 15mph. Short gears and weak stock motors limit top speed but allow long run times and give it tons of torque at any speed. Any hobby motor would greatly increase top speed.

New bright 2wd: would not read well with gps and interfered too much. Ran lots of 14mph passes on the radar but having the battery mounted inside didnt pickup as well as the 4wd with the battery mounted on the front bumper. High and low are very short geared and the weak stock motor limits the top speed but the battery lasts forever and it can walk through tall grass with little effort. Any hobby motor would make it much faster.

[poptart]

Awesome man good research, look toward to seeing more,btw which outlaw truck running 7.2v?

[Tyco Bandit King]

Its the outlaw that is originally a 7.2v 6aa and has the motor in the back. I converted it to a hobby car and now it takes a 7.2v pack instead and is sooo much faster with hobby electronics even running stock voltage. I will radar a stock one too. I wanna say its 11mph

Im gonna try to radar some more cars tonight and tomorrow like the twin turbo lamborghini, nikko flashback and some others

[jeffescortlx]

Cool thread!

[Tyco Bandit King]

I took the twin turbo lambo out today and the battery was about half charged. It made a few 16mph passes and it still wasnt up to top speed. I think with a full charge and more running room it should go 18mph, will make an official post soon.

[friedchickenfuelsme]

We are definitely spoiled by brushless power now. Took the nikko brat out and its as fast as its supposed to go but I remember it being a lot faster. Now 16 miles per hour is what I run in reverse with my stampede. Can't wait to get that raider though but I remember very well that it was probably 2 or so mph slower than the brat probably due to the smaller tires and same gear ratio.

[Tyco Bandit King]

Yeah now you can make anything fast with a brushless setup. Ive run 74mph with a small brick on my stampede to keep the nose down and my vxl monster racer will go 81mph. As much fun as it is to do highway speeds with an rc car im still a big nostalgic fan of stock old cars and enjoy them the most as they originally came.

If you wanna make the raider faster using stock parts you can swap a flashback rear axle in it or just the motor. Im gonna radar it this weekend along with a bunch of other cars to see how fast they really are. The flashback will go at least 16mph.

Im thinking about starting a thread of nothing but videos of all the fastest cars going head to head in top speed runs and drag races

[friedchickenfuelsme]

That would be cool. I like making videos of every vintage car I get weather I ebay them or not so sometimes its nice to see them just run but speed runs would be a bonus. I love chasing the brushless cars with the real car down the highway. The old cars are best left alone unless of course you have duplicates. I want my nikkos to be bone stock since that's what they were when I ran them back on the day. Even though back in the day I would have easily chosen brushless or nitro over my toys but now I would choose my older 16 mph cars over my brushless speed machines . If you think about it what's so much fun about going 65 mph? Has to be in a straight line and its going too fast to enjoy anyway. I use mine to impress ppl but when I'm not I'm running my older cars.

[Tyco Bandit King]

Yeah I know what you mean, if I dont have a duplicate car I wont modify it unless it has problems or was just plain slow to begin with. All my cars that I have modified I have at least one other in mint stock form.

Flying across a baseball diamond or dirt field sideways at over 40mph can be really fun as watching it go light speed in a straight line but to me it brings back memories driving them in stock form and I appreciate that much more than just hauling ass. Some cars had a lot of potential to be awesome with just a little boost of power. To me its just fun having your old favorite cars go as fast as you used to want them to go but never thought possible, thats why I like modifying my cars. Because im such a nostalgic for this generation of cars im gonna be comparing them the way they ran when they were new and now we will be able to see what they actually did run. Ive always wanted to know what speeds they really did run and which comparable cars were faster than the other.

I charged a bunch of my 9.6v packs yesterday and im gonna run and record as many cars as I can tonight and im goin to try to run the lambo, flashback, road thunder and a few others. They are probably the fastest of the pack
and next im gonna run the 9.6v blaster, wild thing, eliminator and hi jacker. I will try to keep this list mostly about stock cars and when its built up high enough I will do a side by side list stock vs modified.

[friedchickenfuelsme]

Yeah I remember when I thought my radio shack flame thrower 2 went 30 mph. Looking at it running I didn't realize that I could have run faster than the car but as such a small scale it looks fast. Only rc car I had that I would have modified if I could was my Thor. That thing was so under powered its like the gear ratio was too big for the motors and it didn't seem like it was able to hit top speed. That truck would have been better with slower speed and more power. I always thought the gear ratio was off since it always seemed like its struggling to propel itself but then again probably just under powered motors.

[Tyco Bandit King]

Hahaha yeah i know exactly what you mean. I remember drooling over the thor when it was in the case at toys r us. When i was finally able to get one 10 years back i was sooo dissapointed the first time i drove it and it had no power. I always thought it should of had much lower gearing and it never actually would hit top speed lol. However with an 8.4v down hill i swear it will go 17mph+. Now im gonna have to add it to the radar list

Thats why i took the similar extreme machine/hercules chassis and modified it with 4:1 gear reduction units. Bone stock and it was a total monster in any height of grass or hill climb. Now its a hobby car but only because it started goin reverse when i hit forward.

[Tyco Bandit King]

Ive added the hammer this morning, gonna try to radar the wild thing, blaster, fast traxx, eliminator and hi-jacker

[Tyco Bandit King]

Road thunder, blaster and hijacker tested today

[Tyco Bandit King]

I got this truck out of the box for its second time and is soo clean i had to take some
Pics. It ran a healthy 19mph.

[friedchickenfuelsme]

Wow gorgous!