JASON YU

Vintage has been the contemporary look for the past few years now. Much of today’s “look” features the distressed, “I’ve had this for years” guise. T-shirts are produced with faded graphics or worn and tattered edges, jeans are pre-worn and stressed; some even include holes, and several other articles of clothing have brought back the look of particular eras. In the automotive world, car manufacturers have revamped old muscle cars like the Dodge Challenger, the Chevy Camaro and the Ford Mustang.

The current fascination with things old isn’t just a fluke, either. It’s crossed over into several other markets as well. In the music industry, vintage-looking, weathered guitars have caught on, the furniture industry continues to mark up and sell vintage-style furniture, and now, the RC industry offers vintage car bodies. It’s not a new concept, but HPI has really hit the nail on the head with their new Cup Racers. Brand new “old” cars blanket their newest electric touring car chassis. The look is extraordinary, the detail is exquisite, and the performance? Let’s just say there’s nothing vintage about it.

KIT FEATURES
On a scale of 1 to 10. The Cup Racer is what HPI refers to as the “True Ten” scale, where every detail is exactly as it would be on the real thing. This attention to detail really shows in each one of the bodies’ scale realism. Just take a look at the Datsun 510 body, the 240Z body, or the Toyota Levin body, and you’ll see the passion and the amount of effort that the HPI designers really put into producing these cars and making them accurate. Every body line, every curve and every nuance is faithfully reproduced in easily the most realistic on-road body ever made. For a very long time, Tamiya has been the only company to offer this kind of extensive detail. Now, there are two.

Mini RS4 2.0? Look closely, because the chassis is nothing to scoff at, either. The Cup Racer is cleverly laid out and full of tuning options. Those who remember the Mini RS4 will recall just how cute it looked. (I know, I know, the word “cute” isn’t allowed in this hobby. But whether you agree or not, the car was cute.) Fortunately, the Cup Racer is nothing like the old Mini. In fact, the new chassis is designed specifically to be its own car, not a scaled down version of the 1/10-scale car. The suspension, driveline and chassis layout were completely designed from the ground up, making the Cup Racer an all-new platform for HPI. About the only thing the new car shares with the old Mini are the bodies. Oh, and the body clips. Those are important. Let’s get into detail.

The Cup Racer incorporates a dual deck 2.5mm Fiberglass chassis, which sandwiches only a few electronic parts: servo, motor and battery. Both front and rear gearboxes are bolted at opposing ends of the chassis and sealed to keep debris out of the metal diff gears. There’s an interesting setup, also. The front diff is a sealed bevel gear differential, and the rear is an adjustable ball diff. It’s perfect since rear diffs are what’s adjusted most often between the two. Other cool features in the chassis are the CV axles, lightweight aluminum driveshaft, full ball bearings and tons of tuning options.

Option 2. The Cup Racer’s front suspension can be set up in two completely different configurations. Depending on your preference, the suspension can be set up in either a lay down shock, cantilever-style suspension, or it can be set up in the standard upright-style suspension. Fortunately, HPI had sent us several cars, so we can test the different setups possible with the chassis.

Assault and battery. The car’s battery acceptance is somewhat limited given the size of the car. However, it will take just about any size 2S LiPo, some smaller capacity 3S cells and NiMH packs, either side-by-side or stick packs. The kit includes several battery mounts that will accommodate the appropriate pack. The curved retainer will only accept stick packs and smaller capacity 2S LiPo packs such as the Orion Race Spec 3400 pack.

Make an adjustment. Want to talk about adjustability? The Cup Racer has a lot of it! Nearly every aspect of the suspension is adjustable, from camber, caster, front and rear toe, track width, wheelbase, anti-squat, roll center, kick-up, Ackerman and a ton of other adjustments throughout the suspension. It’s ridiculous how much can be tuned on this little car. But that’s not all that’s adjustable. The car’s adjustability spans all the way to making the body fit properly. HPI includes seven pairs of mounting posts and locations on the chassis. That’s 14 different posts to use on the car! Fourteen! Keep in mind that the body only needs four to keep it in place. I think it’s safe to say that you’ll have plenty of options here.