Sworkz S104 EVO Review Part 2: The good, bad, and fast?
If you missed the initial review, you can find it HERE
So let me catch you up to speed a little. Since I wrote the initial review I have put some laps on this little car. I race 2 regional races, 6 club races, and some practice sessions. The tracks have ranged from hardpack dirt with dust to a sand clay mix.
On paper this car is perfect for me. I like the design, materials, and parts support for this little beast. When on dirt, I found some positives, negatives and issues.
Please keep this in mind as you read. I am an intermediate level driver not a professional. I believe that all cars are very subjective to the driver likes. What works for me, may not work for you.
Quality:
The overall quality of the car is very good. Everything fits like it supposed to. Sworkz has some pretty nice features. The esc tray is mounted on rubber o-rings. The center differential can be removed through the top due to the 2 piece center mount. 14mm hubs with 1:8 scale style wheel nuts. Due to this you have to run the Sworkz wheels, which honestly are very nice and inexpensive. The wing is plastic and very durable unlike lexan.
Jumping:
The car is a great jumper, but in stock form has a major issue. That wing that I like makes the fly through the air like a paper airplane folded by a 6 year old. You HAVE to either cut it way down, or use a standard lexan style wing. Once that is corrected it jumps very nice. It is a little more reactive to drivers inputs while in the air than other cars. If you like to whip it, this car will whip it good:) Landings are solid without bottoming hard.
Turning:
This car can turn! NOBODY will turn inside of you (unless you let them). This is also the car's biggest Achilles Heel. This car rotates… When you accelerate, when you brake, when you want to go straight, the back end wants to come around. You can cruise the car around the track with no issues. When you start pushing the car is when the rear gets loose. When asking around and looking online it seems that most people are modifying the rear upper top plate to get more flex. My car already had the modification and I didn’t want to remove any more material. This car would probably be fantastic on a carpet track, but on dirt it is a handful. You can have good lap times, but if you push the car it will be inconsistent. Side note: One of my pet peeves with any car is having to make chassis modifications to make it competitive.
Driving Feel:
You have to be on your game to drive this car fast. There is no relaxing while taking this car around the track. I tried a ton of setup changes. I tried different shocks. I tried unconventional oils weights. Reduced steering. I took advice from team drivers. I tried different tires. I tried everything I could. The only thing that was improved was straight line acceleration.
Breakage:
I can be hard on stuff when practicing. But this was a little excessive.
3 Lower front arms, 2 upper fronts, 1 rear arm, 2 carbon fiber front towers, 1 carbon fiber rear tower.
They did release an aluminum front tower and I immediately ditched the carbon front. The
carbon fiber that they use on the towers is super thick, but very breakable. Basicly 3 time the breakage in a third of the time that I had my last car. Cheap parts < Reliability
Final Thoughts:
I alway offer people the opportunity to drive my cars. A few thought that this was a fantastic car and liked the aggressive handling. Others felt that the car is really loose. I have more reasons for wanting this car to work for me then most. As a dealer I promote that I race what I sell. This car is a great fit for my shop, but unfortunately does not work for me. So with that being the case, I sold it down the road. The buyer already has one and wanted a second car. It works for him and might work for you. For me it wasn’t a good fit. Now I am back to a car that I really like but can’t be a dealer for.
Special thanks to Raul Garcia of Garcia Graphix for the help and advice for this car.