Venom's NEW 2wd buggy at the ROAR Nats!

0 Aug. 13, 2011, 3:16 p.m.

Main Photo: Venom's NEW 2wd buggy at the ROAR Nats!

08/13/2011
By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com

Amongst all of the racing, and new products spotted at this weekend's ROAR Offroad Electric Nationals, one new prototype that has really grabbed our attention is the all-new Venom 2wd buggy!

Taylor Petersen is behind the wheel of the new buggy, proving that this is a truly race-inspired car. We took some time with lead engineer and good friend from down under, Andrew Bolton, for the inside scoop on the new buggy!

LRC: Thanks for taking a few minutes to chat about the new buggy! How long has it been in development?

ANDREW: We started around March this year and have had the kits were running now for about 5 weeks. We have just been tweaking the plastics and still working on that at this time. Just trying to get the right mix of strength and durability into the parts takes some time. It's our first Pro kit so it's still a very steep learning curve. We have really dedicated guys putting in the hours and making this buggy better step by step. Rick, Dylan and Taylor have already been able to put together tons of data to improve the kit so big thanks to them!

LRC: Is this it's first official race?

ANDREW: Yeah this is the first race we have run the buggy, some earlier testing had been done but only very limited.

LRC: Does venom plan to offer more race cars in the future?

ANDREW: I would say yes as this was a test for us to see if we could manufacture a platform that would be able to compete with what's currently on the market. So far it's going in the right direction so we will be looking to other platforms after this. 4WD Short Course is pretty interesting and popular at the moment and seems to be only growing.

LRC: What are the goals behind the new buggy?

ANDREW: Well I would say partly due to the fact most of us in the company come from a racing background and really enjoy the racing and the design and development of RC cars, I guess it's in our blood. So we have established ourselves pretty well outside of racing with many products and it seemed like a good time to start developing in this direction. We have some really talented guys in the company and want to develop that more and let them experiment in the race market. Were just starting out more or less so have a lot to learn, but that is half the fun.

It also helps us build up more cred with the race guys out there and change some of the perceptions that we do not do race level products. Our batteries for one, are as good as anything else out there, most of the battery companies only have a narrow selection of factories to use and we share the same factories. We just do not at this time have a huge team of guys winning with our batteries so they are not taken as seriously as others. We do think having race kits that offer true racing performance will also elevate our other products into the eye of the racers as well.

LRC: What are some of the main features of the new buggy?

ANDREW: The main key features are:

Rear / mid motor position
Ti turnbuckles
Carbon battery brace
Big bore shocks
Metric and imperial front axles to run
Both Tamiya and AE wheels fit
Optional carbon shock towers
Other options released soon.

LRC: When can we expect to see the official release of the buggy?

ANDREW: We are hoping to have the buggy available in late October or early November/

LRC: Thank you Andrew, and we wish you guys the best of luck with new products!

We have tested several Venom battery packs of our own, and will be featuring an upcoming test of the VMX450 soon! Venom currently offers a wide-range of products that range from economy and "basher" products, to very serious race products (such as their ROAR approved LiPO packs and Gambler SC) that we personally use in our very own race equipment! We look forward to seeing more from Venom, and expect to see some good results with the new 2wd buggy!

Check out their full line of products at www.venom-rc.com!