It’s been awhile since we’ve seen HPI product steadily rolling by means of the doorways of US interest outlets, however fortunately that’s beginning to change. One of their early comeback autos is the Audi e-tron Vision GT Supercar, a ridiculously fast-looking 1/10 scale Touring Car mounted on their Sport 3 chassis. Sitting on the bench, on the ground, within the driveway or at the back of your Honda, this factor seems to be prefer it’s able to do 100mph. Easily.
We obtained our fingers on one among these new releases to discover and put it by means of the paces. As we’ve been main followers of HPI through the years, there was some pleasure to get one among their autos again out and hitting the pavement!
Product: HPI Sport 3 Flux Audi e-tron Vision GT Supercar
Website: www.hpiracing.com
Purchase: https://bit.ly/3KEbMMM
Part #: HPI160202
Scale: 1/10 Scale
Price: $374.99
Build Type: RTR
Recommended For: Speedy Audi lovers and people who like to draw consideration.
What’s Included
Being an RTR, all the conventional gadgets are included within the field – automobile, radio gear (put in), super-fast Flux system (additionally put in) and a few extra paperwork and stickers.
What’s Needed
• 2-3S LiPo Battery
• LiPo Charger
• 4 AA Batteries
Main Features
1. This first identifier of this lovely experience is, in fact, the beautiful Audi e-tron Vision GT physique set. It is a multi-piece physique that has a principal half and a separate rear insert. The insert permits HPI to create a great-looking duplicate with every kind of louvers and indents. Its smooth look is accentuated by decrease bodywork – entrance valance, aspect skirts and rear valance – in addition to a big swept wing off the rear deck. Molded entrance and rear inserts, aspect mirrors and a gentle pink/white/black colour scheme (very CompetitionX) wrap up the look, one which may be very snazzy but delicate. We suppose HPI hit the nail on the top with this factor – it’s fairly unhealthy ass!
2. Keeping the Audi caught to the bottom are a set of formally licensed Audi Sport duplicate wheels wrapped in grippy, semi-slick rubber tires. While the wheels undoubtedly have a novel look to them, they’re really a set of fifteen52 wheels with the Audi Sport ‘cap’ slipped into them. A pleasant contact and a good way to each give the wheels a brand new look AND disguise the middle wheel nut! The tires, though un-branded, look actually good as properly and have a shallow sample, including as a lot rubber to the bottom as potential. Their low-profile look additionally helps decrease tire squirm whereas making high-speed passes, one thing the Audi likes to do.
3. The chassis is predicated on HPI’s Sport 3 setup, a plastic tub with a totally sealed drivetrain to assist hold any particles out. the format is customary – electronics on the correct, battery on the left. A single strap retains the battery in place with the tray being adjustable for various battery sizes. A multi-piece heart backbone runs the size of the automobile, overlaying the entrance and rear diff enter outdrives in addition to the spur and pinion gear. HPI has additionally taken the additional step to make gear modifications simpler – as a substitute of eradicating all the higher items, you may entry the gearing by means of a decrease panel situated on the underside of the chassis – 6 screws and growth, you’re in.
4. The suspension makes use of a double-wishbone system with fastened hyperlinks for entrance and rear camber and toe. The decrease arms are good and thick with each droop and shock angle changes. Ball stud changes are additionally accessible, nonetheless adjustable turnbuckles could be a steered improve to take full benefit of those tuning choices. The shocks are oil-filled items with threaded our bodies, a pleasant efficiency half proper out of the field. A dual-bellcrank steering system and full ball bearings spherical out the usual components checklist.
5. The 1:1 Audi e-tron is a triple-motor, 600kW (815hp) tremendous light-weight race automobile that’s able to a 0-60 time of roughly 2.5 seconds. HPI, wanting to duplicate extra than simply the look, stuffed their highly effective Flux brushless system into their scaled down Audi e-tron. The Flux system is sort of stout, permitting energy from both a 2S or 3S LiPo pack to be delivered to the 4000kV brushless motor. This, with non-compulsory gearing, can push this Vision GT to over 70mph – proper out of the field! We suppose that is simply achievable seeing as we hit 65mph in inventory type! We will, in fact, be seeing simply how briskly we are able to get the Sport 3 to go. Of course.
Performance
The park throughout the road from the CompetitionX compound was the location of the preliminary testing. However, earlier than we get to the great things, let’s get to a fast down-and-dirty overview.
During the primary shakedown run, we seen a number of issues that we felt had been going to trigger points as soon as we began performing some full-speed passes. Those could be:
1) The rear diffuser (linked to the physique) would hold up on the again of the chassis inflicting it to rub and scrap on the bottom.
2) The chassis saved bottoming out and we couldn’t increase the experience peak. We wanted to examine the shocks to see what was stopping this.
3) The steering was wandering alot, so we would have liked to deal with the servo saver to take away this.
All of those, aside from eradicating the limiters within the shocks, had been simple fixes. To see what we did to treatment each, watch the video above and scroll to the 6:36 timestamp.
Now that we obtained that out of the way in which, let’s chat about how the Audi e-tron Vision GT supercar ran after our mods!
Speed
The first preliminary runs with a 2S pack had been enjoyable however, as everyone knows, extra energy means extra velocity means ‘more funner’. Adding the 3S pack actually introduced the Audi alive and, after the modifications to maximise efficiency, the Sport 3 simply dealt with the almost-70mph speeds. Now, if almost-70mph isn’t your factor, you may improve to the High Speed Gear Set, for about $20, which provides you a 53T spur and 44T pinion. That’s going to be our subsequent improve for positive!
Handling
Prior to our mods, we’d need to say the dealing with was a bit on the sketchy aspect. On any sort of uneven floor, each the physique and chassis would backside out fairly simply. Once modded, you could possibly nonetheless hear it contact down on rougher surfaces however it didn’t upset the automobile practically as unhealthy. Once on a smoother floor, although, the Audi was a pleasure to drive – very steady with a great steadiness of steering and grip – so long as you drove it inside its limits. If we pushed the automobile (on 3S), it will exhibit some oversteer or understeer however, for essentially the most half, it was a steady automobile to drive.
Suspension
Again, as soon as we made our mods to the Audi, it was a enjoyable automobile to drive. The suspension works properly on each clean and tough surfaces (when you choose that chassis up off the bottom), with the oil-filled shocks doing an incredible job of absorbing any irregularities. Now, one draw back is the dearth of changes on account of fastened hyperlinks however, with an improve to turnbuckles, this automobile may very well be tuned for higher efficiency. This is one thing we’ll be doing sooner or later as properly.
Durability
We don’t actually like to check the sturdiness of automobiles. We determine when you merely drive your automobile usually (and never attempt to soar a home), it ought to final you a very long time. Well, as a result of horrible dealing with earlier than our mods (and our first velocity run AFTER our mods), we had loads of possibilities to check out the energy of the HPI components. We are glad to say, although, that the primary chassis stood as much as some critical abuse. Our solely actual challenge was the ESC releasing from the chassis (a straightforward re-tape repair). The physique, nonetheless, didn’t honest as properly. Lots of scratches, a torn rear diffuser and a pair of lacking headlight ‘grilles’, the physique is already prepared for alternative. While we love the look of the Audi, we’ve additionally obtained our eye on the brand new Ford Mach-E 1400 physique set… Decisions, selections.
Gallery
Final Thoughts
First off, we’re extraordinarily glad to see HPI again within the RC sport. They’ve been sorely missed in each the bash and racer communities.
That being stated, we’re additionally glad to see them nonetheless dropping body-oddities on the Sport 3 Flux chassis just like the Audi e-tron Vision GT (for one). This automobile, with a pair simple mods, will definitely deliver a smile to your face as you blast by at over 60mph in RTR type. Add a much bigger battery, a gear change and that smile will get expotentially greater because the speeds get sooner.
We don’t suppose this automobile is ideal (thus the unlucky low rating within the Performance division above), however it undoubtedly has potential. And it seems to be tremendous cool. And it’s fairly quick. Just be ready to tweak it a bit for max efficiency!