Lightning Pro II from Hot Bodies

[JasonB]

OK, I know you guys here can help me decide on this. The owners of my LHS highly recommend this buggy.

I am not new to RC, but I have never owned an 1/8 scale buggy, I have had numerous nitro vehicles, most of which have bored me after a few weeks, but the 1/8 buggy seems to be more appealing.


Basically I just want feedback from other owners of this buggy.


Thanks,
Jason

[Ryan with savage]

Hi,

I have one! In the Uk (where I am), where this is the cheapest of the "pro" spec buggies available.

I was in the market for a new buggy 3 months ago and considered the MBX5, MP 777 (and the SP1 version) and the Hyper 7 Pro and PBS versions as well. Looked at all of em in the flesh and racing.

One of these is winning our club championship and the lightning got a great write up in one of the Mags...

So seeing as my LHS stocks them AND has spares..and as i already had a competition engine/radio etc etc I bought one. For half the price of most of the others I got the Lightning2 and a whole load of spares.

To date I've done 4 meetings (of 4 heats) and 7 finals and I've broken..... one upper wishbone and a shock shaft.

My results have improved no end (I had a Storm Pro before) and a LOT of people at my club have commented how well it handles and have been stunned when I tell them what i paid for it.

If you can get spares from your LHS, I cannot recommend this buggy highly enough. I love mine. (The are now 5 at my club, mine was the 2nd one!)

[Hypedonrc]

I have one, and like it, but it is difficult to find parts for sometimes. Tower does an OK job, but even then alot of the parts are on back order.

[mikeburgin]

the lightning i think is the SACKER and if it is yeah i would buy one, i run mbx5 prospec, kyosho 777 and a sacker pro II, the sacker being half the price of the others and im happy with it. mine is the pro spec though, brought it as a thrasher and now actually preffere it to the others, NAHHH cant beat the mugen or 777 but for the price there a good buy

[gdc02]

how does the lightning handle compared to other brands ?
are there no problems at all with fragile components??
where can I order online in england ??

[Ryan with savage]

It depends on how you set up each individual car!! But the Lightning does handle extremely well straight away. Then you can fine tune from there.

For example I have enlarged the holes in the shock pistons to 1.5mm for more more rebound damping and less initial resistance (and changed shock oils) and its worked a treat.

For Online try www.apexmodels.co.uk or www.gmmodels.co.uk (Checkout the Gas turbine truck on this one too)

Oh and I've done another race meeting since my post above (4 heats and another 20min final) and still only broken a shock shaft and an upperwishbone.

So its a tough buggy!

[UltegraSTI]

i have a hyper, but there was 1 at the track this past wkend. the guy completely admits he doesnt know how to drive, tryin 2 learn (learnin w/a buggy, might b hard). but as many times as he crashed, it still kept goin and didnt break. its shows up in my miXXed bag video down below in the vid forum. i wanna get more buggy action at the next g2g, our big year-ender. i know of 2 that come 2 the track 2 this point.

when i heard about their price i was amazed too. thought it had 2 b junk or somethin (along lines of tower hobbies stuff), and who is this company anyway....but seeing as i've been outta this for 7yrs til last mth, much has changed. i'm impressed....good luck

-Ult

[ToRqUe]

I dont think u should buy this buggy. I ahd the Hot Bodies Tornado an i crash once an it took my a mounth to get all the parts fix it. There are alot more buggys out there.....explore your opitions...

[jon2]

These are mostly good posts. I think that it is clearly said that as good of a buggy this may be it may be hard to find parts to replace them if they do break. Availability should be a strong factor in your decision.

Good luck

Jon

[gdc02]

the lightning2 is a bit heavy , no
will a picco r7 go on it
so no poblems with the diffs then ?
which kyosho parts will mount onto it ?

[mikeburgin]

Parts are not an isue for them over here the a dime a dosen and bloody cheap compaired to the kyosho and Mugen, they do handle well out of the box aslong as you arent running on very bumpy ground, ive had to put lighter springs and drill out the shock holes in the rear to stop flipping in bad bumps, Like I said i aloso have the kyosho and the mugen, I think the Mugen is the best of the bunch followd closley by the kyosho, but thats my opinion, spose it depends on the individual and how you have the car setup, the only thing ive broken on my sacker(lightning) iv done a front C-cup and ive pulled the screws though the chassis on the strut(diff) braces, maybe they worked lose or maybe the chassis not strong enough who knows

[Ryan with savage]

Originally Posted by gdc02

the lightning2 is a bit heavy , no
will a picco r7 go on it
so no poblems with the diffs then ?
which kyosho parts will mount onto it ?

Heavy....only slightly....but this also stops the car launching.

Picco r7...probably

Diffs, no problem...never touched mine but diffs on any car wear out eventually

Kyosho parts?? Why?? They are more expensive and no stronger.

For the money, these things ARE unbeatable.

Pay double for the Kyosho or Mugen and you get a slightly better quality but
you don't get double the quality or double performance, the Lightning performs in my experience as well as, if not better.

[NJRC]

well I have never owned a buggy before and I just picked up the Pro 2 yesterday and dropped my Wasp 26 right in it. I couldn't resist the price the LHS was selling it for....$385.......hmmm?....is that a good price or no??
I looked at some other buggies before jumping on the Lightning Pro 2 and I really didn't want to spend a great deal of money for a high end buggy like the MBX5 or MP777's especially since I have never owned and driven a buggy before. I have seen my friend's Lightning run and he hasn't had any major issues. While I shopped around for a buggy in my price range and basically what I preffered which was not a RTR since I wanted to drop my own engine and electrics, the Lightning Pro 2 was the direction for me to go towards plus my LHS has available parts.

[mikeburgin]

Good choice, im not an RTR fan either, there normally the very base car, and not really ready to race, (my opinion so no one cry) normally if you buy a high end car you cant get it in RTR anyway, and thats what the lightening is just at a cheaper price, good buying !!!!!!!!

[Hypedonrc]

Yeah I'd say that is a good price. I paid $469 for mine, and think that is still the going price. You'll be happy with it I'm sure. It is a tough buggy, just a little hard to find parts for sometimes. Remember, Towerhobbies has, or can get parts, but if you keep it under control you shouldn't have much to worry about. The only reason I've had to go looking for parts is a failed fail safe sent it top speed into a tree, and demolished the front left side. Good luck.