Driving Impressions – Indoor clay track

Finally we took both Atomik Brian Deegan cars to The Compound. The Compound is an indoor clay offroad track in Sayre PA. For size comparison, here are the two Atomik Brian Deegan cars sitting next to a Losi Mini Eight and a  Team Associated RC18.

The tires are slightly taller on the Short Course Truck than they are on the Rally. This alters the final drive ratio slightly, and gives the SCT A slightly higher top speed.

The truck has an aggressive tread pattern which was right at home on loose dirt and gravel, whereas the Rally car has more of a street car style tread pattern. We found the Rally tires worked much better than we expected on the clay at The Compound. It also worked extremely well on pavement.

Aside from body mounts and tires, the two chassis are identical.

Here is some video of Team Soup driver Jarrod Goedel and his son Mason having some fun with the Atomik cars on the track at The Compound.

So how did the two Atomik Brian Deegan 1/18 cars rate?

Value	At the time of this writing, both of these vehicles are selling for $100. For as much fun as they are, and waterproof to boot, that is an exceptional value.
Appearance	While both vehicles are modeled after the full size vehicles that Brian Deegan runs, the Rally car looks a little funky. The short course truck looks good. The Rally doesn’t look bad, its just that the proportions look a little off.
Performance	Out of the box, with the included Nimh pack, these two were clocked at around 18-20 mph.Decent speed for such a small car. The steering is a bit twitchy though, and the radio does not have a dual rate adjustment. With the smaller tires, these also had a hard time in even short grass. They were at home in the dirt, or on pavement.
Durability	I’ve crashed these over and over and over. The bumper area on the Rally car is cracked from hitting the faces of jumps, and from crashing into walls. But that’s it, nothing else has broken on these cars even after some serious abuse.
Would I buy again?	Not only would I buy these again, but I would buy a fleet of them, and start my own class at the local track. These things are so much fun to drive, and at this price are a bargain.

Overall I give the Atomik Brian Deegan Mini short course truck and Rally car a 4.5 out of 5 Spoons

A 4 wheel drive platform, for $100, that comes with everything you need short of AA’s for the radio. 2.4 ghz system that has plenty of range, realistic performance and looks. These mini Brian Deegan cars are most definitely a home run. And if you’re interested in upgrading your car, Atomik offers a full line of  hop ups.