Danny Lewis is the Handy Models sponsored race driver - here's his review of the new Hobao Truggy.

For many years Hobao has been the RC enthusiast’s point of entry into the Rallycross scene with the Hyper 7 and more recently the Hyper 8 range of buggies. These have had great success at both club and national level. However, over the past few years a new hybrid class of off road racing has emerged combining the best of rallycross with the best of monster trucks to create the new Truggy class.

Until recently most of the new Truggy cars have been built from taking a rallycross car and modifying it to handle the larger monster trucks wheels. Hobao, however, decided to custom make a brand new car taking developments and parts from both the Hyper 7 and Hyper 8 cars and mixing these with all new parts designed specifically for Truggy racing to create their recently released Hyper ST.

When I was first shown a picture of the new Hyper ST I instantly knew it was a car I wanted to test drive and from that moment, until its eventual arrival, the buzz around the car promised great things. When first batch of cars was shipped to the model shops lucky enough to get their hands on one the only model available was the Hyper ST RTR which comes complete with radio gear, servos and engine. The radio is the standard Hobao affair offering various adjustments and trims, the servos are a respectable 9kg steering servo and 6kg throttle/brake servo with the power being supplied by a Macstar 28 engine. The car itself borrows a few parts from the Hyper 7, most notably the radio and battery box, as well as a few parts from the Hyper 8. Apart from these the car is predominately new and looks to be a very robust and capable car. The tyres included look very up to most tasks and the 6 spoke white wheels are unique and set off the lines of the body shell very well. The body shell itself wraps around all the componets of the car and again is of a unique design that seems to have a love it or hate it following (I actually really like it!). 

The Hobao Hyper ST Truggy in Action

Once the car was built, which involved bolting on the wheels and various connections, it was time to break-in the engine. Once the engine break-in was performed by following the instructions in the manual it was time to start seeing if the car delivered as much as it promised.

The first impressions on the car were excellent, the handling was superb, the car was very rapid and it is more than capable of handling most terrains thrown at it. Performing various tight turns and jumps both on and off power the Hyper ST was starting to show what it was capable of. The base setup of the car is very good, the shocks provide great dampening and the differentials seem very well setup. You can tell that a lot of work has been put into making the car race worth out of the box.

I decided to see what the car was really made of and headed to the local race track to see how the car handled itself in stiff competition. Whilst the stock engine and servos are brilliant for general use and the new racer I wanted to see what the car was truly made of and so decided to add some upgraded parts to the car. I firstly fitted some KO Propo 2343 servos that are very fast and has bags of torque and also fitted a GO 21 5 Port engine to provide the power.

Overall the Hyper ST is a great truggy from beginner to expert and has a variety of option parts that will help the car progress with the drivers skills. Out of the box it has all that is needed to be great fun and win races. The price is right on the money and makes it cheaper than some of its less capable competitors. This car is highly recommended and I will be using my test car right the way through the 2007 season to see how it performs at top level. The wide variety of setup configurations means that the car can handle all surfaces and tracks asked of it and if you are looking for a competitive, fun and well priced car then the Hyper ST will deliver in bucket loads!!