bitPimps.lixlink.com

sidewinder mentioned these a little while back:
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpFo ... =realdrive

i found these at my local kmart for aud$30, the only type available was the ferrari testarossa so that's the one i bought. i assume these are all the same under the shell though.

first thing i noticed was how superb the detail and finish is, even the prancing horse logo on the hood looks perfect.



the tyres are made from hard rubber very much like the stuff lego tyres are made from. they"re the type that completely wrap around the back of the rim so to remove them you'd need to cut them off or remove the wheels.
the wheels spin beautifully straight outta the box, no tweaking needed and are also excellently detailed.

the car is powered by 3 x LR-44 button cells and the tx uses 2 of the same. runtime on the car is quoted as 15 mins and the controller at 10 hours.

range is quoted as 1.5m but i managed to control it at a distance of 3m outside during (cloudy) daylight.

the controller is infra red and also shares the beautiful styling and is a comfortable size to use unlike the q-steer's.


under the shell which is held in place with a single screw reveals motor driven steering, an led (which lights up the headlights during forward or reverse) and a stubby hardwired motor which is under a plastic cover that clips on. the motor is the same diameter as a bit/zz motor but a couple of mm shorter. also under the motor cover are the gears which have a massively low ratio (4 stage reduction!).
the front end has a standard type sway bar which is soft enough to offer some working suspension.


under the chassis is the battery cover, an on/off switch and the steering adjuster. the shell is removed by first removing the screw then a rear section of the shell.



so, how does she run?

thanks to the low gear reduction the speed is way slow, even with the boost button depressed. you'd need to do some modification to the gearbox to get some speed out of it. but there's tons of torque on offer for the same reason.
steering on the other hand is precise, tight turning circle, snappy response and it tracks straight as a ruler.

so overall i'm really happy with it even with the slow speed. it's one of the most precise micros i've ever bought and the body detail is flawless. thumbs up realdrive!

Gunna cut it up into an off-roader...?

naaahh, getting lazy in my old age!

For us yanks, Thinkgeek.com has these same ponies on sale for $19.99(US).

I bought one and I agree 100% about the level of detail on these and for small desktop driving the speed is just right (plus the turbo for a little boost).

Here's another site that sells basically the whole line of realdrives, but they're a bit more money:
http://www.strapya-world.com/categories/2331_4165.html

Are the bodies plastic or metal? I was looking at the race cars, they do look very cool, I guess I'm going to have to break down and get one.

There's a small "slurry" of these currently on eBay; including a mighty fine looking GT-R done-up in war paint!

I wonder if it would be worth it to replace the IR board with a RF RX board from a bit. I've never tried IR so I guess I'm not sure about the draw-backs except day light interference and maybe florescent lighting indoors.

I might have to pick up one or two of these as soon as the government sends me some of that TARP money

Floyd

Those look nice!

sidewinder wrote:Are the bodies plastic or metal?

plastic.

Oh well, blows the idea of vacuforming some lighter lexan bodies...but I guess I still need to get at least one of these.