The crew over at IMEX RC are a few of the most hardcore you’ll discover in rc. They’ve been supporting this business earlier than lots of our staffers have been even born, LOL, and we have now a sense they’ll nonetheless be round for a very long time to return. For the previous few weeks we’ve been driving and reviewing the IMEX 1/16 Bolt RTR Brushless Quick Course Truck. The Bolt is low on value level, however huge on options, so we put some packs by means of it to see if it’s value your hard-earned money. What are you ready for? Scroll on down for the great things!
From: IMEX RC
Direct Hyperlink: IMEX 1/16 Bolt SCT RTR
Evaluate By: Cubby
Footage By: T-Cash
Specs-
RTR or Equipment: RTR
Age: 14+
2wd or 4 wheel drive: 4 wheel drive
Shaft or Belt: Shaft
Electrical or Gasoline: Electrical
Scale: 1/16
Width (measured by BSRC): 7″
Wheelbase (measured by BSRC): 8.3″
Motor: 2,840kV brushless
Velocity Controller: 3S succesful, 30 amp brushless
Low Voltage Reduce-off: Sure
Radio: 2.4GHz
Differential: Entrance and rear gear diffs
Driveshafts: CVD entrance and rear
Shocks: Oil crammed, plastic our bodies, aluminum caps
Screws: Phillips
Battery: 2S LiPo with charger
Half Quantity: #19415
High Velocity (measured by BSRC on 2S inventory LiPo): 23 MPH
Avenue Value: $159
What’s In The Field- You get all the pieces you could run the truck contained in the field, apart from AA sized batteries for the transmitter. A 2S LiPo is provided, as is a charger for it. The truck comes fully pre-built and pre-painted, making it simple peasy to get operating.
Construct High quality- After cracking the field open and handing the truck across the room, we didn’t discover any fault with the development of the Bolt RTR.
Take a look at Drivers- When the IMEX Bolt confirmed up it appeared like all people wished a flip behind the wheel. Take a look at drivers included myself, T-$$$, Iron Mikeee, the RC Child, in addition to varied random folks that noticed us driving on the park.
Take a look at Venues- We spent practically all our testing time at Arnold Metropolis park in Arnold Missouri. There are actually lots of of acres to bash at there, with surfaces starting from pavement, to grime, to sand, to gravel.
Set-up Notes- Per the conventional for a Large Squid assessment, we ran the truck bone inventory on the included 2S LiPo battery. Whereas a charger is included, we opted to make use of the helpful dandy Hitec RDX2 Mini to have a bit extra management over the charging.
Turning: After we examined the IMEX 1/12 Exterminator just a few weeks in the past we discovered it dealt with rather well out of the field. The 1/16 Bolt got here with softer suspension settings than the Exterminator, which helped get extra traction on free surfaces, on the expense of on-road prowess. These softer settings brought on a little bit of traction rolling on pavement, and even at occasions, on larger chunk grime surfaces. The Bolt has a ton of steering proper out of the field, a lot in order that we instantly cranked down on the pre-load rings on the entrance suspension to assist stiffen it as much as a bit. After cranking the entrance pre-load and dialing down the steering D/R setting on the transmitter, we discovered the truck turned a lot better.
Leaping: For such a small truck, the Bolt jumped rather well. It doesn’t have a middle differential, so giving the truck a little bit of throttle or brake within the air positively helped the truck level-out within the air. The tender inventory suspension did a good job upon touchdown smaller jumps, however stiffer springs and heavier oil would take a few of the harshness out of larger landings.
Bumps/Whoops: As soon as once more, the considerably tender suspension did a stable job on smaller bumps, however heavier damping and stiffer springs would assist improve speeds and predictability on greater bumps.
On-Street: The Bolt is a little bit ripper and was a blast to fly round on pavement. Now, the inventory suspension is set-up way more for off-road, than on, however that didn’t preserve us from having a blast. The inventory suspension is tender for on-road, with the tender suspension leading to traction rolling when attempting to nook at velocity. In the event you plan solely to bash on pavement, we’d positively suggest going stiffer on each ends of the suspension.
Grass: The 1/sixteenth scaled Bolt may get round in brief grass, however was a tad too small for regular or taller grass. In the event you plan on doing most of your bashing on grass, we’d suggest one of many bigger RTRs from IMEX.
Tires: The inventory tires have a pleasant scale look and are molded in what we might name a medium onerous compound. The tires did an admirable job off-road and we fairly usable on-road. Sure, larger efficiency tires could be had, however for normal yard bashing, we thought they dealt with the job simply positive.
Energy: Is the Bolt fast? Sure, completely, even on the included 2S pack. We measured prime velocity at 23 mph, which isn’t an enormous quantity, however feels fast with the 1/sixteenth sized platform. Energy comes on tender proper off the underside, then is available in tremendous sturdy on the early mid-range. High finish energy is kind of sturdy, giving us greater than sufficient energy for all the conventional bashing we wished to do.
Radio: Nothing fancy right here, however we are going to say that we beloved the simple to regulate velocity management on the transmitter. This easy knob makes it tremendous simple to show the ability down for brand new drivers.
Damaged Components: We ran our Bolt pretty onerous and after slapping a curb at velocity, we managed to yank one of many screws out of the steering rack. We put in an extended bolt with a nut on the again and have been again to bashing shortly thereafter.
Misc Notes:
IMEX is a giant fan of utilizing Deans fashion plugs on their electronics, and we gotta say, we adore it! Now we have so many batteries and chargers across the workplace set-up for Deans, that getting a truck with them, simply makes our life simpler. Whereas XT60s try to dominate the connector market, we’re a lot good with Deans on something smaller than 1/eighth scale.
Our ambient temperatures through the take a look at interval have been HOT. Our coolest take a look at day was 85 levels Fahrenheit, whereas our hottest take a look at day was proper at 95. With such sizzling ambient temps, it’s onerous for any energy system to stay cool, particularly when sending it onerous. We stored a detailed eye on motor temps and stored our runs pretty quick on such sizzling days to maintain something from getting too sizzling.
The packaging the Bolt is available in, is fairly cool wanting. The inside field seems to be like an actual automotive storage, very neat!
LED lighting comes inventory and labored simply positive for us throughout our assessment interval.
Abstract: We drove the IMEX 1/6 Bolt RTR onerous and fairly frankly had a great deal of enjoyable with it. The Bolt was all the time able to bash, all we needed to do was cost up a pack and hit the park. With loads of brushless energy and a superb wanting SCT physique with scale detailing, we beloved our assessment time with the reasonably priced IMEX Bolt and suppose you’ll have a blast with it too!