Before hitting the track we busted out our Bushnell radar gun and clocked the truck at a reasonable 21 MPH top speed. With a lipo or gearing change you can probably get it to go faster without spending a lot. For a beginner I wouldn’t want it to go much faster.

So.. track time! Being this truck package is more geared towards newer people to the hobby, we thought.. what better way to review it than to hand the remote to a kid and get his feedback??

Meet Mason Goedel, Team Soup driver, Jarodd Goedel‘s son. He’s young, but he’s no slouch on the track. He recently qualified into the A Main at the Pro Series in 2WD Short Course class. He’s constantly in the head of the pack in the Sportsman class @ CRC during the Outdoor Season, and runs the Pro-Lite class indoors.

A closeup shot of that nice looking body!

The next few pics are action shots of Mason wheeling it around the track.

He made about 2 laps before hitting the big “Woody” kicker jump on the track and after a hard landing it wouldn’t go anywhere. I thought the motor had moved but upon closer inspection the U-Joint popped out from the outdrive. It was a quick fix and it didn’t happen again for the remainder of the run.

A shot of the “Woody” jump. Trucks catch serious hang time off this thing. I’ve seen over-excited buggy drivers hit it and get eye level with the driver’s stand!

Oops.

Coming thru the Daytona corner.

Here you can see the suspension is a bit soft. The tire rubbed on the body a little bit. Spring spacers should help with the ride height and prevent that.

More big air.

Coming through the double doubles on the front stretch.

Overall, when talking to Mason after his run he seemed to like it. Compared to his truck it is a lot slower. The slow speed allows it to handle pretty good though, which is perfect for new and young drivers. It bottomed out relatively easy, and felt stiff on the track (a tire & shock oil change, and some spacers to raise the ride height would help in that dept). He thought it handled ok though, and it was easy to drive.

Value	@ a street price of $169, with everything in the box, this is a great value. Especially given that it has a 2.4ghz radio by Spektrum (in comparison to the older ECX models that included a sub-par AM system.
Appearance	The ECX Torment is a sharp looking truck. The body is really cool and I think it has a lot of personality. It looks the same as any other Short Course truck as far as overall appearance goes, so I can’t give it any points for originality.
Performance	Out of the box, it’s pretty slow. We topped ours out at 21 MPH in short grass/dirt. It might be a smidge faster on the pavement. We wanted to test it in the environment that I think it would get run in though. Again, for a beginner, this speed is about perfect though.
Durability	We popped the U-Joint in one of the driveshaft without much time on it. I thought it was a sure sign of things to come later in our run, but it seemed to hold up the rest of the day. ECX parts are super flexible so they flex instead of breaking on impact. Even if you do break something though, parts are relatively cheap and readily available online or in most hobby shops.
Would I buy again?	Being this was a review vehicle and not something I bought personally, this doesn’t really apply but I will answer it anyway. For myself? I would probably not buy one. For my daughter? I would totally buy this for her so that she could come to the track with me. It’s well under $200, it gives me something to bond with her over, and she’s outside not watching Looney Tunes. Win Win? I think so.

Overall, I give it a 4 out of 5.

For an entry level truck, this seems like a very good package. Wall charger, AA’s, Spektrum radio, battery, everything in one box for well under $200. That’s a deal to me. In comparison, a Traxxas Slash is $45 more at the time of this writing (on AMainHobbies.com), and it doesn’t come with AA’s, a battery or charger, and has a AM radio with it. Granted the slash is a little faster out of the box probably, but this is by far the better deal.

The Torment is on the slow side, but it has some potential. It would be a great option for a kid getting into r/c.

We’ll end with a video of Mason running the truck:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM_xleTjuCI[/youtube]