These are pictures of my modified Traxxas. Really, the only modification that would affect the speed is the metal props. I tried hotter motors but the speed increase did not warrant the reduced run time. In these pictures the boat is running off of a 7 cell pack. 6 cell packs give slightly less speed and slightly more run time. It's worth using 7 cell packs, even in stock form.
From dead stop, this boat shows little cavitation and gets up on plane quickly.
The boat at speed gives off an impressive wake.
The prop angle is adjustable. Here they are adjusted in to try to pick up the hull. The hull is pretty heavy so it still runs wet.
The turning radius is very tight but when you crank it over, the u-joints on the driveline begin to bind reducing speed greatly. Gentle turns will return the best speed.
It's tough to get good pictures of the boat when it's running flat out! I wish this one was in better focus.
All in all this is a pretty good boat. It's too heavy to be a good racing candidate but it sure is a lot of fun and can be made to go fairly fast.
8/26/02 Update:
Rummaging around amongst my boats, I stumbled across my Villain. It's been a while since I ran this boat so I decided to go sail it. I forgot about all of the neat features of this boat, especially the oiling system. All I did to prep it for running was squeeze the oil bottle. Maintenance could not be easier.
These pictures show the boat running off of 2 tired 6 cell nicad packs.
For some reason, the outdrive appears to be set at the wrong angle and is pushing the front of the boat too high. I didn't bring any tools with me so I could not adjust it. Even with the poor angle of the boat, it still was plenty fast.
The movie to the right shows the Traxxas Villain with modified propellers running off of two 7 cell packs.
