With the new rear arms in place, we shift our focus to the stock electronics. One of the things we all hated about the stock electronics was the inconsistency of the VXL 3S speed control. It was tough to lay down consistent power in any of the trucks. So…I took that out first.

With the VXL outta the way, that got me thinking. How much of the problem is the ESC, and how much is the motor? Well, one way to find out. I installed a Castle Mamba Max Pro ESC.

I knew that by changing the ESC alone, I wasn’t going to gain any speed. There were two ways I could have extracted a little more speed out of the stock VXL motor. One would have been gearing. Going up to a 15T pinion crossed my mind. But then I started digging into the Castlelink programming of the MMP.

On the first screen, I set the Lipo cutoff, Brake% and Drag Brake%

On the Advanced page I decided to increase the timing on the stock motor. Being unsensored, the highest it would let me go was to 20 degrees. So that’s what I did.

And that completes the modifications I made for Stage II of the SSC Slash 4×4 project. So, on to the good part….how did these upgrades perform compared to the truck in its shootout form? One way to find out. We hit the track!

Driving Impressions

It was hard for me to believe when I first experienced it, but these minor changes made a huge impact on how this truck performed.

For one thing I had a lot more top end speed. I was almost able to keep pace with the faster 4 pole equipped trucks. Not quite though, which tells me I’ve reached the end of the stock motor’s capability. I came off the track after the heats at 147-150 degrees on the motor with an ambient temperature in the mid 80’s. With these higher temperatures, you could feel the motor mount working. The SSC motor mount is designed to help dissipate heat by using the chassis plate as a heatsink. You feel this happening when you pick up the truck after your run. The chassis is quite warm. If I had tried to both change gearing and bump timing, I would have overheated the motor. That being said, if I want this truck to go any faster I need to upgrade the motor. More on that in a later update.

When I first hit the track for initial testing of the Stage II upgrades, the truck was exhibiting a bit of a loose rear on power out of corners, it would also get loose if I was too hard on the brakes entering a corner. To tune for this, I slid the battery back approx 1/2″. The SSC has two sets of slots with which you can tune battery position. I slid the battery back to the rear most adjustment on the front set of slots.

On the handling front, you could really feel the difference with the longer wheelbase. But it had a benefit that I did not expect. Off power turning actually increased with the longer wheelbase, which defies logic. If you’ve ever driven a longer wheelbase full size car, you know you have to take wider turns. I put scales on all 4 corners again, thinking perhaps moving the rear wheels back would have put more weight on the front wheels, thus adding off power steering. It was nearly identical to the standard wheelbase weights. No additional weight was being transferred to the front wheels. The truck has also now developed an on power “push”, meaning coming out of corners on power, I had less steering. I think more than anything the longer wheelbase is making the shocks work harder, in that there is more weight transfer front to back now than there was before. Under acceleration, I experienced more rear end squat then I did in the shootout configuration. The truck also had more nose dive under braking than it did before. As such, I feel it is time to upgrade the shocks. Also, I’ll need a stiffer spring in the rear for sure. More on that in a later update.

Time for some hard numbers. Yes, the truck felt faster with just an ESC change and the long wheelbase arms. But the clocks don’t lie. Was I actually faster? Here again is my top 5 laps average time in the shootout configuration

And here is my top 5 laps average with the Stage II upgrades

That’s right. I dropped .95 seconds off my top 5 average with just an ESC change, and the SSC Extend-a-Base arms. Why?

Consistency. With this ESC, I was able to lay down the power in a more consistent fashion.  When I needed to ease into the throttle out of a turn, I could ease into the throttle. With the stock VXL ESC, it was very herky jerky. As far as handling goes, the extend-a-base arms gave me more off power steering, which meant I had to use the brakes less to get around corners. I could get back on the throttle sooner.

I know what’s on everyone’s mind. Where is he going next with this project? Well, the Stage III parts are on order, and should be here by mid week. It might shock you when you see it, so come on back next week when I post the results from the Stage III upgrades. I’ll try to get video for that as well.

I don’t have a catchy name for this project. Thoughts on a cool one? I’m open to ideas. 🙂