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Sand Viper

This model is an XB Expert Build version. Unforseen in my collection, it was so low priced that the radio equipment and the electronic speed controller alone merely represent 70% of the total price. I'm weak, I couldn't resist
This is a pretty well designed basic 2WD buggy that can become a pure racer after a solid hop up treatment. But this one will remain more or less stock.

My Sand Viper is on the left, the "kit" version is on the right. Differences are: the kit comes with ball bearings all around (plastic bearings on mine), metallic propeller shafts (plastic) and hydraulic dampers (friction).

For the moment, I will only ball race it and give it hydraulic dampers after a first "out of the box" run. In fact, and it's quite deceiving for a Tamiya, you have to give the dampers some oil drops right out of the box. But there's only thick grease for the gearbox in the box, which is useless to make the suspension work. Which means that this model can't run right out of the box unless you drive it softly in your appartment. This model targets beginners who will necessarily be disappointed by the buggy behavior and may bring it back right away. Very disappointing though, unless mine suffered a production "bug".

The Sand Viper family

The Sand Viper chassis is the DT-02 that was launched with the Super Fighter G.

58340 - Super Fighter G 58374 - Sand Viper

58344 - Desert Gator 58401 - Neo Falcon

There is also a special version of the DT-02 chassis, the limited edition DT-02 MS (kit 49475). It comes with almost any possible option that allow very precise setups to adjust the chassis behavior to the track and the pilot.

	Aluminium dampers (53926)	Shafts (53791)
	Ball Differential (53863)	Turnbuckles (53828 + 53942)
	Motor Heat Sink (53831)	Reinforced Savo Saver (51000)

Only missing the front and rear anti-roll bars (53829). With all these hop ups, the chassis should definitely behave better as long as the pilot has the skills to notice.

Enhancements

After a second run, I finally received the parts to hop up this buggy.
ball bearings:
You need 14 type 1150 bearings to fully ballrace the chassis. This requires to disassemble the gearbox and the rear drivetrain but this takes about on hour to complete.
hydraulic dampers:
You need 50519 units at the front and 50520 units at the rear. The manual shows you should use the 2 hole pistonat the front and at the rear. After some tests, the good choice is to use the 2 hole piston for the front dampers and to add the biggest spacer. At the rear, I advise you use the 1 hole piston, stiff springs and to add the 3 spacers so the damper is a little bit stiffer than shown on the manual. This setup makes the front drivetrain soft enought and reduces the rear drivetrain from sitting down so often. Apart from that, I chose to replace screws fixing the dampers with ball connectors: I'm not sure whether it is an enhancement, but I prefer the look.
the motor and the electronic speed controler:
This chassis deserves a better motor than the stock 540 Mabuchi. After some hesitation on installing a Sport Tuned motor and keeping the TEU-101BK speedo, I finally chose to install a 23 turns Super Stock BZ motor (53930) withe the new TEU-302BK speed controler (45028). This one is rated to 23 turns motors on Tamiya sites, but rated 17 turns by Tamiya German agent. This difference in specifications is quite surprising. Anyway, the 302BK setup is as easy to do as the 101BK's: well, it is exactly the same procedure

Photos of all this:

14 type 1150 ball bearings

Front dampers

Rear dampers

Super Stock BZ motor

TEU-302BK speed controler

The TEU-302BK box with 17 turns limit

TamiyaUSA site screenshot

The TEU-302BK speed controler is not a new product but it is still unavailable in several countries (France for example). It is meant to be better than the TEU-101BK that Tamiya includes with almost all its models. The 101BK deals with motors up to the Sport Tuned with is rated 27 turns everywhere but in Europe where is it rated 23 turns. So far, I could not find the slightest information on either how to differentiate them nor to confirm that difference. For sure, a Super Stock BZ motor (23 turns) will make the TEU-101BK cut after a few minutes of intensive use. So the limit of the 101BK is over 23 turns.

It would be very surprising that Tamiya would produce a speed controler which limit would be "only" 23 turns because the difference with the 101BK would be too small. Nevertheless, this is what is rated on official Tamiya sites such as the american subsidiary. I don't believe Tamiya would produce a speedo with specifications changing depending on the market where it is sold: so the 17 turns limit announced by the German agent seems logical. What is not logical at all is that the information is not the same depending on sources.

First run

Update 04/08/11: since the publication of this article, my Sand Viper had several runs even if it is not the model I prefer to drive.

From its original state, I made a few changes, the first one being to mount a SuperStock BZ motor. The very dry and gripless track where I run it turned it into a missile out of control. Even if the rear wheels could transfer most of the power to the ground (as long as the spikes resisted), the front wheels were useless. To solve this, I changed the tires for those of the Dark Impact, front and rear but this revealed to be no solution. Only one conclusion to this: the SuperStock BZ motor delivers too much power for this very low grip track.

So I chose to revert to less power by installing a Sport Tuned motor and to transfer the SuperStock BZ into my Dark Impact. Performances dropped but I recovered control over my Sand Viper, even if it still keeps a certain oversteer behavior.

The handling is still very good, without any surprise and reliability is there: despite of several severe driving mistakes, my Sand Viper is very reliable, solid and maintenance free. Very similar to my Dark Impact, the pleasure to drive it is in finding good trajectories, brake and throttle points with the final goal of going as fast as possible.

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First publication: october 29, 2008 Last modified: august 04, 2011

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