I was really eager to test the SBX-410 on a carpet track since I had a strong assumption that the kit was designed more for the high grip turf or carpet tracks than the slippery clay where I drove it last summer.  I started the indoor season basically with the same setup I had outdoors just to have a familiar starting point with the setup.   Track surface was the EOS carpet (used and worn out). At first I used old Dboots tires (from discount – dirty cheap) but mainly I run with Schumacher Cactus at rear and Cactus Fusion in the front combined with Schumacher’s medium inserts.

  • Ready for the track
  • On the EOS carpet
  • Basic track day gear

My first thought of the car after the first day was ”Oh boy, this car turns and  responses really  nicely on the track”.  Of course the outdoor setup had lots of roll on the corners but lowering the ride height made it much more steady on the corners.  The Dboots which I used at first had extreme bite on turns during the couple of first batteries but it smoothened down quickly and started actually be quite slippy after the tires started to wear. 

The second Thought of the car was that it does not lose its balance when the tires start wearing out. It does not generate massive over or under steer effect when the tires get worn. Of course it affects the driving and makes the car slower in corners but it is still easy to drive and the car keeps responding well.

Dboots are getting slippy but the handling stays great

The third Thought of the car was that it gets noisy if you do not maintain it properly.  Driving on the carpet collects quite a bit of dust and fibers on the cvd joints and after driving a while the joints are completely clogged and start start to make noise and vibrate.  Clogged cvds also  make the car less responsive.

  • Drive shaft maintenance
  • Before the pins are replaced
  • Pins replaced
  • Condition of the CVDs

The fourth Thought was that this car does not wear out tires easily. I would like to think that this is because the driving balance of the car is so great the tires get worn very evenly. Front and rear tires wear out about the same rate meaning that you do not end up buying for example  3 sets of front and 2 sets of rear tires in the same timeframe.  Tires tend to last long and when driving as a normal hobbyist it is more important that you can run all the tire’s lifetime  and throw them away when they are clearly worn out. The car stays responsive and good to drive through the tire’s lifetime.

  • Worn front tires
  • Worn rear tires
  • Overal condition of tires after numerous runs

Tinkering the setup

1st. During first track days I did minor adjustments to the setup of course.  I started by thickening the shock oils from 450 F&R  to 550 in the front and 500 at the rear.  This gave  a firmer grip to the track and made the car less off-roadish. 

2nd. For the diffs I ended up going back to the 10K -7K  setup which I had just changed to 7K-5K (outdoor testing).  At the same time I swapped the bigger shims inside the diff to thinner ones in the hope of getting the diffs run smoother but it became clear that also the smaller shims must be switched to thinner ones.  Original shims are 0.4mm which are quite thick, so switching to 0.3mm will make a big difference.

  • Rear diff
  • Front diff
  • Shim replacement

3rd. I swapped the springs to Team Associated Red (91835) in the front  and Blue (91840) at the rear.  I used these springs through the winter season and whenever the front tires got worn I just tilted the shocks inwards to gain a bit more grip.

4th. I moved the rear shocks to the front side of the suspension arms.  This alsomade the shocks tilt  a bit backwards from the top which made the rear very stable after landings and during acceleration. 

Rear shocks switched to the front side. Note the shock been tilted from th top

5th. Thicker sway bars.  I ended up using 1.6mm sway bars in front and at the rear. I did try a thicker one on front but I did not like how it felt like it made the car too understeering.

Durability  ”Bashproofness”, weakpoints or points to look after

While driving outdoors the car felt like it can handle every crash I managed to cause. Driving outdoors is more forgiving for your mistakes Switching to indoors and driving between hard walls and track splitters made me worry a little.  So here it goes, my list of the car’s weak points.

The 1st. weak point. During the first few days of driving I found the kit’s 1st. weak point The servosaver arm got split in half after hitting a wall after a corner table.  I tend to set my servosaver very tight which makes the steering very responsive but it causes stress to the steering parts  in crashes. The servosaver arm was the weakest, so it gave out.   I replaced it with an aluminum option part and the car was good to go again. Of course I ended up break three servosavers before I bought the aluminum one but sometimes it just takes a few goes before you understand the situation.

  • Splitted servosaver arm
  • Optional aluminum part

The 2nd. weak point was the front gearbox.  The design of the front shock tower mount is designed in such a way that a hard crash or collision will rip the mounting of the gearbox.  I ended up destroying two gearboxes in the same corner table. The only difference was that I switched the driving line inwards and when over cutting the corner I ended up flipping the car upside down and hit the landing’s structure (plywood) at the side.  I fixed this issue by designing a 3D printed support to be placed on top of the front deck.  This did the job and the gearbox started to last.

  • Designing and test assembly of the support
  • Support
  • Support is mounted with two screws
  • Mounted support and 3D printed shock tower for more adjustability

3rd.  After printing the 3D support for the gearbox the damage moved to the shock tower.  Here I must say that all three towers (including one glued one)  broke because of a reason (driver’s mistake).  Crashing in a corner at full throttle or landing sideways on a high-speed jump ending up in a barrel roll and hitting a wall. I can not blame the car for those.

  • Gearbox support seems to work
  • Glued shock tower after and before crashing

These three were the main weak points which I came across.  Twice I crashed with another driver and broke the lower shock mount  but I would say that it is somewhat ”normal” when you hit another car.

Conclusion

I like the car, I’m not going to deny it. Especially I like  the way it handles at indoor and outdoor tracks.  The setup changes you can make alter the car’s behaviour but you can not remove the overall feeling of it.  You can tune it to be more agressive on turning in or make it slower to respond but the basic feel of the car remains. It simply feels great and fits my style of driving.

Now that I have driven the car for a while I can also see where Corally has ”cut corners”, in order to push the manufacturing price down. The issues are really not that big of a deal and I might say that they are normal in the 1st generation of this kind of car. 

  • Pointing out that the servosaver has just so tiny ring of plastic from where it split it is no wonder that it breaks.
  • The gearboxe’s shock tower mounting rips from the point where the tower is mounted with a screw (the screw is just on the tilting point -> weak point). Both of these can be fixed and they are no longer an issue for me.  
  • The ”bulkiness” of the parts is clearly a result of that the designers have just not finished the parts’ designs. Meaning that that they would also look good. This of course does not affect the performance and capability of the car but looks and appearance is one big part of the product.

In the end I still stand behind the conclusion in my first post ”The  SBX-410 gives you a great value for your money”.   I also do not deny that I like the concept of this car and the manufacturer being the cheaper option between the four major players in 4wd market (AE, Losi, Xray, Yokomo).  All I hope is that Corally just does not cut this model off. It has been on the market for a while now and some of the optional parts are still unreleased. What worries me is that it has been totally quiet in the ”racing side” of Corally.  It really would be a shame if it was shut down.

Setup
I will include a setup sheet from the setup which I ended up using in the end. Download it here.

  • Top view of the chassis
  • Front view
  • Rear view
  • Tight battery tray lengthwise

Pros and Cons

+ The quality you get with the invested money

+ Handling

+ Has a great balance on how it feels to drive

+ Saves tires

+ Easy to maintain and service –> the basic stuff

+ Drivetrain materials. Diff gears, pinion and crown gear have no signs of wear with my driving, so material and machining seems to be well chosen.  

+ Good support for spares. Regular dealers and Corally as a manufacturer supports the owners well according to what I have followed in the different groups and forums

+&-   Not as many options for tuning. This kit is very easy to drive and it is forgiving but for more experienced drivers may want more adjustability which seems to be the trend on the market.Battery tray is not compatible to any shorty I tested on it.  It is always tight on length

– Servosver, Gearbox issues ->  maybe there will be updated parts in the future ?

– Rough diffs ->  Reshimming is definitely needed to make them run smooth.

– Driveshaft pins are soft and tend to wear -> aluminum center drive shafts pins are not replaceable. New pins do not stay in place.

– Tight body -> same as the build article.  Sometimes it is annoying that the body does not fit properly to the chassis mud guards.

You can find my post about driving outdoors HERE