CEN Racing's New Short Course Truck

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Alright folks, here is the quick version of the action on Sunday.


Stay tuned for the longer video when we visit one of the backyard tracks in SoCal for a complete shakedown.
 
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Seemed bit front weighted (maybe bad english :) ) at beginnig of video but jumped nicely at end of video. If price really is that reasonable its going to be my next 5th scale. I really want 4wd.....
 
cool vids looks like it handles well and jumps good to, would like to see it race a 5t round that track that would be interesting.
 
Oh Poo,now I'll have to buy one of those too! I'm meant to be getting shut of most of my collection and I'm just building it back up! tee-hee.:)
J.
 
Here are my thoughts on the Matrix5

Short Course Truck - Looks realistic with the body style and scale wheels.

Engine - 30cc of unkown origin, not a Zenoah or CY. I did not do a teardown to check what the engine was comprised of as far as piston and crank sizes.

Air filter - can style filter used on several other large scales, such as the Firehammer

Tires - made for the scale look for the basher. Racers will want to upgrade to race proven tires by using FG adpaters and aftermarket wheels.

Wheels - scale looking with square drive. Glued tires, no beadlocks. Worn tires will probably need to repalce as a glued set.

Body - very good looking, made of PVC. No damage during filming and we were abusing it. Be sure to tape and shoo-glue it before use.

Radio - Radio is a 2 channel FM, made by Skyion. Has 10 channels as a plus. Should work with the Killer RC kill switch made for 2 channel radios.

Servos - comes with throttle/brake and one 1/4 scale steering servo. The chassis has accomodations for a second steering servo.

Drive System - FS drive gears made of plastic. CVDs for the asles.

Chassis - Aluminum, flat with a slight bend on the sides for strength. I will be adding some more bend on mine to stiffen it more.

Shocks - aluminum threaded, oil filled. Not sure what they consider oil, but it was too thin for this track. Recommend a 40 or 50 weight to get better handling and less bounceability.

Screws - Mixture of Phillips head and allen machine screws and plastite screws. Not sure of the longevety of Plastite screws, make sure you check after a few runs.

Factory assembly - Made in China, needs a full pre-run checklist with a bottle of loctite and wrenches.

General Specs:
Length: 750mm / 29.5inch
Height: 330mm / 13 inch
Width: 450mm / 17.7 inch
Wheel Base: 520mm / 20.5inch
Weight: 15kg / 33 lbs
Tire Diameter: 150 x 60
Gear Ratio: 7.68: 1


Long Term Testing - We will continue to long term test this truck at a backyard track in SoCal over the next few weeks. Set-up and testing will continue until we feel confortable to do another video showing it racing against other 4x4s and large scale trucks.
 
$750.00 to UK=£500.00 approx.Then spend £150.00 on suspension,30cc mill???CY/Zen/CZ??
Import tax,£50.00ish,post=£70.00ish.......Hmm,I'll wait till they come to the UK.
Nice truck,poop suspension.
J
 
MCRIPPPer said:
looks like a pretty cool truck. it needs some suspension tweaks for sure tho. that thing was nose diving alot. i think it needs some bigger shocks too :D
Click to expand...
Set up is key on Large Scales. Until we finesse the shock oil, we won't be sure.

q-man said:
Seemed bit front weighted (maybe bad english :) ) at beginnig of video but jumped nicely at end of video. If price really is that reasonable its going to be my next 5th scale. I really want 4wd.....
Click to expand...
The track was ruined from the day before, and handling was rough until the started watering the track. By then, it was getting too late for me and I had to get back driving to Arizona for 5 hours.

pablo said:
cool vids looks like it handles well and jumps good to, would like to see it race a 5t round that track that would be interesting.
Click to expand...
My son had his 5T on the track at the same time, but it was set up for racing Bajacross. It would not be a fair comparison for $749 versus a $3500 Baja that was tuned and running excellent for a 2nd palce finish.
 
couple of things I don't understand, who is CEN and can we speak to someone from them with questions? I don't mean to sound rude but to say 30cc engine from unknown origin really isnt acceptable, to me it looks great and I think it has allot of room to become something really big but the FS trucks say 30cc and we all know its anything but! people have removed and measure bore and stroke and their just not 30cc.

as for the suspension yes they look very soft but like you said baja5 this is a case of tuning and im sure youll get it right very soon. as for nose diving thats easily fixed with some throttle in the air, allot of people said at the start the 5B were hard to jump, just pin the throttle back and you can get em to land rear wheels first.
 
CEN has been around for quite a while. have some pretty decent rigs.
i always thought they could do a great job if they set out to do so. Though I was hoping they would of done a full CEN designed 1/5, this looks like it could be a pretty nice rig with some attention and some mod parts.

i suppose the MCD metal gears will replace the stock plastic gears?
also many of the general upgrade parts for various rigs can work, ie FG, MCD, ect??

thanx for the detailed pics on pg 3. shows alot. wondering if i ll be able to see this at one of my states LHSs.

how soon till its released?
 
The metal gears from MCD shoudl work fine. The drivetrain is a clone of MCD. I am not familiar enough with the Suspension to tell if its a clone of MCD.
 
I love the look of that truck.

I think that for the price it will be prety decent, and if the upgrade options flow in then it should be able to hold it's own. Lets face it most FG owners change out their shocks or springs to tune it, so mustn't grumble too much that the CEN truck bounces a bit on it's first BajaCross outing.


As for the engine, if you read up on other engine choice threads (including the 60cc engine) you'll find that you choose the engine based on the torque curve that you want, then gear to give you the acceleration profile and top speed. So if it isn't actualy 30cc it doesn't matter, providing that the torque curve and gearing give you the performance that you want. (though granted you may feel a bit diddled that they lied on the box)
 
sperera,

Thanks for your interest! CEN Racing has been an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) for the hobby industry for over 30 years. CEN Racing has taken the knowledge gained and began to produce their own vehicles about 10 years ago. Until now CEN Racing has generally stayed within the 1/10 and 1/8th scale nitro market.

5th scale is a new market for us and we are excited to be a part of it. After seeing the market potential with this product we may consider producing a ground up 1/5th scale. We would most likely stick with 4wd. ; ) Nearly ALL of our products have and always will be 4wd with a few exceptions.

The engine that we are using is not a known brand as of yet. We have tested many different versions and have found an extremely stable and reliable engine.

In the video, the truck may look a bit front heavy for a few reasons. The engine has not fully broken in yet, so the rpms were low in the beginning. The track was extremely bumpy due to the race they had that weekend, and the suspension as "Baja5" said, was a bit soft. = ) That was also my first couple laps on the layout... hehe. Certainly room for improvement via suspension setup.

We are very confident about this product, as our first shipment has nearly been depleated and shipped out with great results from our customers. There is about 50 left in the warehouse since I checked this morning...with another container on the way.

Hope I answered most of your questions / and don't' hesitate to ask more!

Street Price: $749-$800 RTR Painted and Decaled Body Part # 5007

Street Price: $725-$775 RTR with Clear body Part #5009
 
Andrew, can you point me to any Michigan Dealers that may have one instock that i can go see?
 
Timmahh,

Give the following shops a call they may have one in stock.

House of Hobbies
Moskegan, Michigan
231-759-4555

Larry's performance RC
Steerling Heights, Michigan
586-997-4840

I'm not sure where your located exactly but Discount America in Monroe, Wisconsin has been doing well the this product. Their # is 608-325-4502 ask for Ryan.

Hope this helps! ; )
 
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