HPI's Ultimate Baja Experience
by Greg Vogel                                                                    PAGE THREE                   BACK

As the trip went on, we swapped back and forth between being the driver and passenger. When I was up, I was a bit nervous because I'd never ran anything like this before. When Shawn drove, he felt a little more comfortable behind the wheel as he'd experienced the trip before. In the beginning, my heart was pounding, but as I headed through the terrain, jumps, bumps and turns at speeds on the edge, I got into a zone where I could concentrate on what was ahead of me and keep the car under control. Driving was amazing and very addictive.

DRIVING THE BAJA 5B RC CAR

The trip spanned three days, hauling through the desert with a few random pit stops and breaks for lunch. Besides chowing down on some great food, lunch breaks meant much more for us RC enthusiasts - it was the time were we experienced the Baja 5B.

I pulled the transmitter from Akira’s hands...why should he have all the fun?! He laughed at my excitement and gave me just a little advice, “go for it, it can take it”.

I grabbed a handful of throttle and sent the buggy down the road. A roost of dirt shed from each rear wheel and a small dust cloud hovered from its path, just like the full-scale buggies we were driving. The engine wound up and gave off a throaty exhaust sound unlike the nitro engines we’re used to hearing. It had a lot of grunt and has some exciting top end power. I kept throttling the buggy back and fourth, and then got a little more daring. As it reached higher speeds, I started some counter-steering maneuvers. The rear started to sway back and forth, but I couldn’t get the buggy out of control. I wanted it to spin out, but it seemed to laugh at me while maintaining control; very impressive.

This big buggy loves the brakes to tighten up a corner. At full throttle, the buggy pushed and threw the coolest wake of sand off of the front tires. With the throttle in mid range, the front bit a little more and turned tighter, but to really blast through the corners, you need to use the brake. I’d charge hard into my makeshift corner, tap the brakes and the rear would pivot right around, a hair of counter-steer to straighten the car and I'd be ready for what was next.

Jumping was a blast and took a short time to get used to. It was amazing how this buggy acted like the full-scale buggies we'd just drove. If you keep the throttle clamped, the nose will actually drop as goes off a jump—not a lot—but just so the front wheels lande first instead of the buggy landing flat on all fours.

The scary part is that when landing like this, the car can get squirrily. At one point, I traction rolled it. My eyes opened wide when I sent the buggy flipping. As it landed on its roof, I was about to apologize to Akira, but he looked at me and said “No worries, it can take it” and he ran over to put the rubber back on the ground. After a few more jumps, I figured out that if I just let off a little before the jump, then gunned the throttle, it would help lift the nose up off the jump and the buggy would sail level through the air.

FOOD, NO PHONE, GAS, AND LODGING