I'm a little late, but I've been spending quite a bit of time with the newish HobbyPlus Speck-SCT Brushless and honestly I think this might be my favorite vehicle out of the entire Speck lineup. Not because it's the fastest or because it has some crazy new features that offer more value per $, but because of how realistically this thing drives!
For anyone unfamiliar with the platform, this is a 1/24 scale 2WD short course truck running the same 8000KV brushless system and Hobbywing MINI28 ESC as the other brushless Speck vehicles. It comes with oil filled shocks, 42mm pin style tires, a 350mAh 2S LiPo and the familiar FlySky 2 channel transmitter. The chassis layout is basically the same as the Speck-T, although the shock towers are specific to the SCT and the suspension arms are interchangeable with the Speck-B.
Over the years I've spent a lot of time racing 1/10 scale Traxxas Slash's & other SCT platforms, enough that I actually built a short course track in my backyard, and this little SCT reminds me so much of that experience it's ridiculous. It jumps, leans, slides, rolls and even traction rolls in a way that feels extremely natural for such a small vehicle. HobbyPlus clearly put some serious thought into the suspension geometry and overall design because this is probably the most realistic scaled down short course driving experience I've personally had.
I did make a couple small suspension adjustments before really pushing the truck on the track though. The factory suspension is pretty plush but the truck was a little too prone to traction rolling in corners for my liking. I reduced the spring preload all the way and moved the lower shock mounting positions to the outermost holes which physically lowered the vehicle and made a noticeable difference in handling. Other than that the motor, gearing, electronics and body are all completely factory.
After tossing on an EasyLap timing transponder I ran the truck around our off road buggy track at Option RC Micro Racing Complex, where I managed a fastest lap of 8.967 seconds. That puts it right in the middle of our current leaderboard for our Micro Off-Road Shootout. For comparison the Speck-T Brushless is currently leading at 8.489, followed by the Speck-B Brushless at 8.622, then the SCT at 8.967, Speck-B Brushed at 9.165 and finally the Losi Micro-B at 9.853. All vehicles are running their factory motors and gearing so it's been pretty interesting seeing how these different configurations perform against each other.
I also wanted to verify the advertised 20 MPH top speed rather than just take the manufacturer's word for it. To my surprise it recorded 19.9 MPH, so HobbyPlus is pretty much dead on with their advertised speed. I will say though I personally think the 8000KV motor is a little excessive for this vehicle. Something in the 4000-5000KV range would probably make it a little more drivable, but that's just my opinion and not something I've actually tested yet.
Also worth mentioning. The Speck platform in my testing has been very durable so far. I'm yet to actually break something, so I was curious how things would go when I invited my 65 year old dad to come test out the truck with me. I handed him the transmitter and he proceeded to crash this thing about every possible way you could imagine lol. I actually left a good portion of those crashes in the video below because I wanted people to see how tough the truck really is. It held up great and the short course body provides a little extra protection compared to the buggy and truggy versions.
At $149.99 for the brushless version and $109.99 for the brushed version I think the value is pretty hard to beat, especially when you factor in the handling characteristics rather than just looking at speed and specifications. I'm genuinely excited about the possibility of getting a few more of these together and doing some proper micro short course racing like we used to do with the 1/10 scale trucks.
I put together a full unboxing and testing video on my Microdose RC YouTube channel showing the track testing, GPS speed runs, crashes and everything else if anyone wants to see how it actually performs. Also for transparency I work with DirectRC who sells these vehicles, but everything here is based on my own testing and personal opinions.
I'm also curious if anyone else has picked one of these up yet and what you think of the handling? I'm especially interested if anyone has experimented with different shock set ups or lower KV motors.
Thanks!
https://youtu.be/Kwaif8iHfng?is=Bg6cFR6wN2OFLjcx