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Up until now, the choices for 1/7-scale on-road bodies have been pretty limited (and pretty expensive). KillerBody RC has taken advantage of that gaping hole and released a full line-up of bodies for this genre with models like the Alfa Romeo 8C and the Corvette GT2. Now you may be asking yourself how common 1/7-scale cars are. Well, not very common unless, of course, you own one of Traxxas’ stellar XO-1 Super Cars. While the XO-1 body looks a bit like a Ferrari, it’s designed to be a bit more on the generic side. How awesome would it be to actually have a 100 mph Alfa or Corvette? Well, I’m about to tell ya…
THE FACTS
SCALE: 1/7
TYPE: Pre-cut, painted and stickered body shell
ATTACHMENTS: Rear wing, side mirrors and windshield wipers
LIGHTING: Front and rear light buckets, pre-wired with control box
WHEELBASE: 402mm
THE GOODS
Since I did the review on the XO-1 a while back, I was the lucky recipient to receive one of the Corvette GT2 bodies wrapped in the Compuware racing livery. Pulling it out of the box, I was excited to see that the detail was pretty amazing. The decals were in full color and proportionally correct. There were side mirrors, a rear wing and side exhaust already attached to the body. This killer body also had light buckets installed complete with LEDs, wires and a lighting control unit.
Everything looked great until it came to the installation. This is a universal fit body, meaning that it is designed with a certain wheelbase in mind but some massaging may be required to fit your application. Laying it on top of my XO-1, the wheelbase was spot on … that’s probably the hardest ‘fix’ to mask if you have to make modifications to the body. Looking over the rest of the install, I made a short list of things that would need to be done in order to make the Corvette fit the XO-1 chassis just right. First, I would need to drill the body mount holes. That was pretty easy to do since the body is so large, but I found that when I marked the holes, the front mounts were just barely overlapping the front light buckets and the rears mounts were right where the rear wing is attached. The front was easy … just trim the light bucket a bit and I was golden. The rears, however, required me to relocate the rear wing back a bit. This was also easy since the rear of the body (where I relocated the wing) was already dimpled; I just had to punch some holes and mount the wing. Once the body was on, I noticed a little interference with the front foam bumper as well as the lower lip of the body’s front spoiler. A little more trimming and those two issues were solved. Moving to the rear, I found that the rear of the Corvette body was hitting the XO-1’s rear diffuser. A little bit more trimming and the final problem was solved. Finally, I had to adjust the actual body posts up one hole to get the ‘Vette to sit properly. KillerBody sells an aftermarket body post set made especially for the XO-1 that replaces the stock posts with heavy duty ones.
TESTING
I charged up the LiPos in the XO-1 and took it out for a quick jaunt. I started slow, getting a feel for how the XO-1’s handling would be affected by the Corvette body. Steering was good and it felt pretty stable. What really set if off was the realistic body, livery and glowing lights. It really gave the XO-1 a completely new attitude. Everything was going great until I started building some speed (right around 35-40 mph), at which point I noticed a rubbing sound under the body. I pulled it over and found that the front tires were hitting the light buckets. The buckets are pretty deep to accept the LED and wiring and, at speed, the body was being forced down, causing it to rub on the wheels. A bit of an issue if you want to run with the lights on, but it does say one thing for sure … this body creates a TON of downforce. I didn’t have anything to fix this problem while out at the photo shoot, but a little creative re-routing would certainly fix this problem.
WRAP UP
If you’re bored with the stock XO-1 body (in original form or custom-painted), take a look at KillerBody RC. Any of the 1/7-scale bodies will fit the XO-1 (or potentially any other 1/7-scale car) with minimal work. The finished result will have you and all your friends drooling over your ride. You might say this has made my XO-1 a “Killer” ride!
LINKS
KillerBody RC KillerBodyRC.com, sales@suntradeltd.com
