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When I was a kid I got my first R/C car. By kid standards it was fast, nimble, cool looking or as I call them the 3 most important attributes. To my parents, the most important attributes of the toy were that it would be fun for me, keep me busy for a while and that it wouldn’t easily break. As an adult, now I look back on those first R/C vehicles and they met some of those attributes but not many. As with most technology, R/C Vehicles have come a long way since the 1980’s. Did I just age myself…?
We here at Torqued Magazine got the chance to get our hands on the Bezgar HP161S R/C truck. This truck was released earlier this year and wowzah it is something the kid version of myself would have developed cartoon style bulging eyeballs when I saw it. This truck has a brushless motor which is a huge step up from its predecessor the HP161, which has a brushed motor. The HP161S is a 1/16th scale sized speed queen. And we call it speed queen for good reason.
I’m not a kid anymore, I’m more of a kid in an adult body if anything. But I find myself still looking for the same attributes in products that I did when I was a kid. Is it fast, is it nimble and is it cool looking? But now being an adult I’ve also added the same attributes my parents did into the products they got me. Is it fun, will it keep me busy with entertainment, and is it quality built?
How about we apply these attributes to the HP161S and see how it lives up to these expectations, shall we?
Let’s begin with Fast, aka speed. I mean it’s probably the number one question anyone gets asked when they buy an R/C vehicle, “How fast does it go?” As a kid the 5 mph top speed of my R/C’s felt lightning fast. I’m happy to say the kid in us adults will get this same feeling when driving the HP161S truck. Bezgar has an advertised top speed for this machine at 42 mph. And I can attest after many high speed runs on flat surfaces this machine does in fact run at these advertised speeds. I mean when I first charged it and put it on the road the speed scared me for a bit. It took my brain a minute to catch up that something this size can blow by me like the wind. That brushless motor is all it’s cracked up to be without a doubt.
And here we go with kid attribute #2. NIMBLE:
This Bezgar truck comes with a remote control that you can use to trim the servo for the turning ability of the truck. It really helps out if it happens to pull to one side or doesn’t turn as tight as you would like it to. In our case the truck was lined up perfectly right out the box. She flew straight and true like an arrow. The HP161S also comes with 4 oil filled shock absorbers and these things work like you would not believe. Taking tight turns with this machine at top speed should probably flip it. But the handles are like butter. Thanks to those shock absorbers and independent suspension setup of the truck. It handles bumps and jumps with little effort. I was pleasantly surprised by how nimble the truck was at slow speeds and high speeds as well.
#3 Cool looking:
Ok we have to be real here. Good looks get the looks. As a kid and as an adult, I am drawn to good looking products. It is just human nature to want something cool looking. I know the younger version of myself would love the HP161S. The truck body is lime green (one of my favorite colors) with various colors as well to break up the color scheme. It’s just beautiful. The adult me loves it so I know the kid me would too. It has oversized tires that give it that speed buggy/ monster truck look. It has a wheelie bar for crying out loud. And it’s a fully functioning wheelie bar. Believe me with the quick get up and go of this truck you’ll get tons of use out of the wheelie bar. Did I mention it has a full functioning LED light bar on the front? Well it does. You can control the light bar with the remote control as well. That’s just downright cool. The rims/wheels for the tires are super slick ten spoked style. It’s total eye candy. So yes this beast passes the Cool looking factor 100%.
And on to the Adult desired attributes
#4 Is it Fun?
Is the HP161S fun? Hmm, does a wheelieing, jumping, 42mph speed demon of a R/C truck sound fun? Of course it’s fun. From the first charge to the most recent charge of the battery, we’ve loved every minute of it. This truck brings out the inner kid in all of us. We ran this thing through grass, dirt, sand, water, and soon snow. And it handles every terrain like a boss. It just has so much get up and go that it’s bonkers and the tires are so well built with a great tread pattern on them that it handles all surfaces with ease. Oh and hey guess what? It is 4 wheel drive. Yep you read that right. It puts the power down to all four wheels perfectly making it go go and go again. We even had the opportunity to put Bezgar’s new sand paddles on it and wow. It goes up and down the dune like a mad man. It’s so much fun I can’t even express it in words that make sense hahah.
#5 Will it keep me busy
Yes, simple enough it will keep you busy. We have yet to run this truck until it runs out of battery from the charge prior to taking it out. The battery is advertised to handle 20 minutes of bashing time. And believe me you get fun out of every minute. The battery is a 3S 11.1 V 1050mAh, which charges quickly in our eyes and gives a good amount of playing time. The transmitter is a 2.4 ghz that uses 2 AA batteries. I’d like to add that the foam around the transmitter’s wheel that controls the steering is superb. It just feels comfortable in the hand when you’re running the truck through multiple changes of direction. And if you need more play time, additional batteries can be purchased for $39.99 which is a steal of a deal.
#6 Will it easily break?
I can tell you this my R/C’s when I was a kid didn’t go 42 mph, and they sure didn’t launch 10 feet into the air like this truck does. And I can 100% tell you this is crazy well built from the ground up. It has a reinforced chassis that handled everything we threw at it. Have you ever heard of bashing? If not here’s a quick explanation. Bashing is where you take the R/C vehicle and jump it, slam it, crash it, into and off of most anything. We jumped this truck at least 30 times off of a high speed ramp that sent it no less than 10 feet into the air. It landed many of those jumps on its back. It tumbled a flipped and yet it kept going. We managed to only break one part after our total abuse of this machine. That part being the plastic pillar that holds the body onto the chassis. That’s it, one plastic piece that we easily found a replacement part for on the Bezgar site. And it did not in any way affect the performance of the vehicle while we drove it around with the broken piece still attached. I honestly can’t explain how much we bashed this machine and it’s just going and asking for more.
This isn’t your childhood R/C vehicle. This is a machine that is so fun it takes you back to your childhood, all while being a fantastic, well built, speedster. Oh and not to mention the Bezgar HP161S has to be the best value R/C out there. It’s currently on sale right now for $159.99. Which is literally unheard of in the Adult R/C vehicle world. Believe us when we tell you that you will love this truck. It has produced some great times for us and we know it will continue to in the future.
Here’s a list of specifications for this truck direct from Bezgar.
- Equipped with a 3S 11.1V 25C modular battery, this RC truck can reach a maximum speed of 42 mph.
- Boasting a 2845 4200kv brushless motor for increased torque and improved power-handling capabilities.
- Four oil-filled metal shocks provide support to the wheels for tackling tough terrains.
- A newly upgraded full-metal drivetrain guarantees more stable performance.
- With a dual throttle speed option, RC hobbyists can choose the 100% average speed between the 70% slow speed
- Size 12.2 x 8.7×5.1 inches
- Weight 2.35 pound
