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Hitting the shelves back in 2008, the Traxxas Slash is by far one of the most popular short course trucks on the market today. It’s great looking, durable and has a ton of aftermarket support, all for a price tag of under $250! Even on the track, a mildly-modified Slash has been known to hold its own over some of the more dedicated racing trucks. That being said, the question arose: what if I took a stock Traxxas Slash and built a true race truck out of it? I’m not talking about a chassis and some tires, but a full-blown truck with suspension upgrades, electronics and some serious tuning! Well, I built such a monster and after recording some lap times between a box-stock Slash and a full-build truck, you’re going to be surprised by the outcome!
THE LOCATION
The testing was done at OCRC Raceway in Huntington Beach, California. I’ve run at this track many times with my Slash (when the first one appeared in the industry) and have quite a bit of wheel time with it. I thought it was only fitting to do the test here. To get a baseline reading, I checked the posted lap times on the wall from the pre-vious night’s race. Stock SC trucks were averaging 23.9 seconds a lap with a fast lap of 22.8 seconds. Open SC trucks (or Modified SC) were averaging 22.4 seconds a lap with a fast last lap of 21.1 seconds. These would be the times I’d be shooting for with the stock and modified Slash. To keep it simple and accurate, I used an AMB transponder mounted in the same location on both trucks.
THE STOCK SLASH
Once at the track, I pulled the brand new Slash out of its cardboard confines and immediately started charging the included 7-cell NiMh pack. During the charging process I gave the Slash a quick once-over to make sure everything was in order. Once charged, the battery went in and the Slash hit the track. Handling was as I remembered it, pretty quick, lots of body roll but still very good traction. The brushed motor was peppy enough with the 7-cell pack to clear all the jumps with ease. Run times were near the 10 minute mark at full race speed. To make sure I got a good feel for the stock Slash, I ran three battery packs through it before moving on to the modified Slash.
THE MODIFIED SLASH
I didn’t hold back when it came time to build the modified Slash. For starters, I gave a call over to Steve at Team STRC. A few months ago I had a chance to run his Slash LCG conversion kit and it was stellar! I knew that this chassis had to be included in the build. To handle the suspension duties, Pro-Line’s ProTrac Suspension Kit and Power Stroke Shocks were bolted to this chassis, as was a full set of their Split Six Wheels and Bow Fighter tires. To keep the power systems somewhat equal, mojo was provided by Tekin’s RS ESC and 17.5 motor. Reedy 5000mAh 7.4V LiPo packs were used to provide the juice. Finally, to make sure people noticed it, I had Pro-Lines Chevy Silverado body done up with some sick paint by Larry over at Kustom RC Graphics. On the track, the modified Slash certainly didn’t disappoint, setting some fast lap times on the first battery. As with the stock Slash, I ran three batteries through the modified truck and recorded the times. I was quite surprised by the outcome!
RESULTS
As I mentioned before, the stock SC trucks (running brushless 17.5 motors, LiPo packs and race tires) were setting lap times around 23.9 seconds. The stock Slash, running a brushed motor, 7-cell pack, stock tires and NO tuning, was putting in times of 24.2 with a fast lap of 23.0. Not far off the pace at all…in fact, if you were to throw on a set of race tires you might be right in the mix. Pretty impressive for a truck that was pulled right out of the box. But wait…you want impressive? Check this out. The modified Slash threw down some serious laps! Average lap times were around 22.5 seconds with a fast lap of 21.1! Uh, ya, that’s almost two seconds a lap faster than the stock Slash and, after a five-minute race, would have put me TQ in the stock SC truck class! Want even more impressive? Those modified Slash lap times would have qualified me third in the Open SC truck—with a 17.5 motor!
THE FINAL WORD
The lap times recorded tell the tale, but don’t necessarily tell the whole story. Sure, they were fast and proved that a Traxxas Slash can keep up with those race-bred SC’s, but there are a few other factors you need to consider. Traffic, for instance, always plays a big role in lap times. In addition, practice laps can sometimes be easier than running consistent fast laps during a race. Either way, the point is, just because it’s a Slash and not some high-end super truck, don’t think it can’t perform in a big way. I’m impressed with how fast it was, so much so that I’ll be setting my other SC’s aside for a couple races to see if I can pull off a podium with it!
LINKS
Traxxas, traxxas.com (949) 544-7500
Team STRC, teamstrc.com
Tekin, teamtekin.com (208) 634-5559
Reedy, distributed by Team Associated teamassociated.com, (949) 544-7500
Futaba, futaba-rc.com, (217) 398-8970
Pro-Line, prolineracing.com, (800) 899-7223
OCRC Raceway, ocrcraceway.com, (714) 892-6699
Kustom RC Graphics, kustomrcgraphics.com, (352) 286-5019
