The Lego 42065 RC Tracked Racer is a pretty cool set. You get remote control capabilities out of the box – all Power Functions components are there for some real RC fun. There were some previous RC Technic sets produced by Lego, but they had a much higher price tag.
Although the set is fun to play with by default, there’s always room for improvement with Lego 🙂 I really wanted to know how much I can push the limits of this vehicle. I quickly realized that I cannot have everything in one package – I can aim for climbing capabilities or for speed, as they require a different setup. I tried to keep the overall look and structure of the original version, only modified what I really had to to be able to fit the bigger motors. Finally I came up with quite a few versions, you can see most of them in the video:
The different incarnations you see are:
- 2 M motors with Lego PF AA battery box & IR reciever (stock version)
- 2 M motors with BuWizz
- 2 XL motors with Lego PF AA battery box & IR reciever
- 2 XL motors with BuWizz
- 2 Buggy motors (#5292) with BuWizz
- 4 Buggy motors with 2 BuWizz units
- 4 Buggy motors with 2 BuWizz units and 2 SBricks
I used two types of tracks on them. The first is the standard one, the second had rubber attachments (#24375) for additional grip. Based on my tests the rubber attachments did not add much to speed with the standard PF motors, but the improvement was noticeable with the Buggy motors (it was quite slippery without them at high speeds :)). As for the climbing tests, they clearly had an advantage, so they were used for all of those tests.
So which one is the ultimate version? The quickest is definitely the 2 Buggy motors + BuWizz combination, the top speed is around ~12 km/h versus the ~2,5 km/h of the stock version.
I had high hopes for the monster equipped with the 4 Buggy motors and 2 BuWizz units, but I quickly realized that with the current BuWizz application it’s almost impossible to control it – as you can see below I’m not the best at playing piano either, probably that’s the reason:
I’m sure the situation will improve when the application will be upgraded with the option to edit profiles and control multiple units on a single interface. That will help with the control, but I don’t think it’ll improve significantly the speed, so apparently Colin Chapman was right – less weight is better then more power 🙂
I tried to solve the current shortcomings of the BuWizz app with 2 SBricks, but apparently the high speed output of BuWizz cannot be used at the moment with the SBricks, so I could not test the full potential of this setup. It still looked very convincing 🙂
Regarding the climbing capabilities, the winner is the XL motors + BuWizz combination, beating an impressively steep ramp (around 50 degrees)! But I also have to mention that the “classic” Lego combination of the XL motors and the Lego Battery Box almost performed as well (around 48 degrees), so you only have to swap your M motors with XL ones and your racer will be ready to climb!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments, please also tell me if you’d like to see more pictures or videos about these mighty racers 🙂