Duratrax Raze Reveiw

Duratrax has been around for quite some time now, and they have released many buggies, truck's, and 1/10th scale's, but I think one of the best of all is their latest buggy, the Duratrax raze. The Raze is an entry level buggy, and for the price I believe it is probably one of the best. There is alot of hate talk about duratrax on alot of forums, and popular RC sites, but I believe that they are begining to make a big comeback. Take a look at the Raze's spec's.

Vehicle-
Length: 18.5" (470mm)
Width: 11.7" (298mm)
Height: 7.7" (195mm)
Weight: 7.7 lbs (3.5kg) approx.
Wheelbase: 12.5" (317mm)

Front Tread: 10.1" (258mm)
Rear Tread: 10.6 (270mm) wheels on-center side-to-side
Front Track: 11.5" (292mm)
Rear Track: 12" (304mm) outer edges of wheels
Ground Clearance: 1.8" (45mm)

Body-
Length: 14" (355mm)
Width: 8.5" (216mm)
Height: 4.25" (108mm)

Photo's of the Raze:

The raze which is a well equiped buggy at a WHOPPING $280 dollars, has been one of my favorite vehicles I have ever owned. Out of the box, the raze looks great, and comes with everything you need to get started, other than some 20%-30% nitro. You get a glo-ignitor, a fuel bottle, and all the other accories needed to get in action.

Although its no Pro-Spec buggy, the raze definately can do some serious good on the track. Several racers at our local track have rigged up their raze's to the max, including putting Nova-Rossi engines in them, and two hundred dollars worth of servo's, and on our small track, they seem to keep up with the big buck buggies pretty good. I know that once I threw an axial .28 Spec 1s and a one peice pipe onto my Raze, it flew like an eagle!

Duratrax offers tons of upgrades for the raze that really make it rock solid, and I had most of them. The most important upgrades I would recomend are the aluminum chassis braces, aluminum servo tray and posts, and also the aluminum steering knuckles, for the ones that came on the older version of the raze broke very easily. Other than that, no matter how hard I hit anything, my raze got back up, and shook it off. The entire year and a half I had my raze, I only bent one thing, and that was my right hingepin, from catching a green power box at full speed. If you are worried about the buggy being fragile for its price, think again!

Break-in: Breaking in my Raze was BY FAR the easiest out of any car I have ever owned. I set it on my home made wood block for break in, opened the idle about 1/8th a turn, and it breezed through each tank, with no heat problems, and no bog-outs. I did about 4 tanks on the stand, and about another 4 on the ground. The Supertigre .27 is a good engine if your going to just bash, but for racing you will probably either want to get yourself a real good low-end pipe, or a new engine all together. If you get an older version of the raze, you will want to get yourself some new servo's almost immediately, my blew out doing small jumps off my X-factor ramp in my front yard. The newest version of the raze comes from the factory with metal geared servo's, which is a real nice addition from duratrax.

What Duratrax has to say:

A bigger blast of buggy power – right out of the box!

Engineered for exceptional speed and durability, the Raze gives you MORE buggy for your money — a bullet-proof design plus a powerful engine and high-quality FM radio.

With the Raze's easy-handling 4-wheel drive, you'll be able to go faster, turn sharper, and stop on a dime. This machine lets YOU call the shots...whether you're running for fun or racing!

Overall, I truely believe that the Duratrax raze is a GREAT buggy for anyone looking for a good quality car, at a cheap price. I loved my raze to death, and still to this day regret selling it. Although, there is another one sitting in my garage right now, that one day will be as nice as my previous one! Here are some pictures of what my raze looked like before I sold it.

Duratrax's Webiste: http://www.duratrax.com/