Hobao Hyper 9.5 GL review – from a user point of view

by | Sep 14, 2009 | RC Buggies

Last time I wrote about the Hobao Hyper 9  I was waiting the 9.5 arrival. It did arrived and I managed to put a gallon on it on practice plus a weekend competition. The competition didn’t go that well but it wasn’t the cars fault, just did practice and qualifications having to leave afterwards.

But lets go to what matters, how’s the Hyper 9.5 GL behaving and what are the new features?

Hyper 9.5 GL has some big improvements on its predecessor the Hyper 9 here’s a list:

  1. 4mm thick + 4mm longer rear lightweight chassis
  2. CNC Front chassis brace
  3. CNC Rear chassis brace
  4. Spider diff (front 5000, center 3000, rear 1000)
  5. 20 Degree engine mount
  6. CNC Coordinator mount
  7. 17mm (20mm) Big Bore shock set
  8. White spring set
  9. CNC one piece shock top cap set
  10. Fiber brake disc set up
  11. Front +2mm wheel hubs
  12. Rear +4mm wheel hubs
  13. Rear 3mm stabilizer
  14. Dust proof wheel nuts
  15. Proline 9024 tires

In my opinion on this list of upgrades from the hyper 9 to the 9.5 the really important ones are:

  1. 4mm thick + 4mm longer rear lightweight chassis
  2. CNC Front chassis brace
  3. CNC Rear chassis brace
  4. 17mm (20mm) Big Bore shock set
  5. White spring set
  6. Dust proof wheel nuts

With the new chassis and braces I’ve been damaging lot less parts than I had with the Hyper 9, specially the center dogbones and plastics, the new shocks are also great in handling as the new springs. The dust proof wheel nuts aren’t just a fancy upgrade they do help a lot preventing dust inside the nuts making it faster to replace or upgrade parts on the track.

About all the other improvements they work really well the brakes are much better, tiny springs where added to the brake pads this makes the brake free as soon as you hit the accelerator. The differential as better too, although I didn’t complain on the previous ones.

What I didn’t enjoy that much and reverted to the setting of the hyper 9 was the engine mount, I like the 25 degrees engine mount better, in my opinion the car handles better, but maybe it’s just me that I’m used to the older mount.

About the handling, what can I say, I loved the car before can’t deny it, but now I love it even more (my wife will kill me for saying this) but the handling in curve is better with the new chassis, the life cycle of parts is improved, I ran the gallon and the track weekend with almost no maintaince other than changing shock springs for tunning, and some minor setups (specially on the brakes). I’ve also noticed that with the with the white springs I can go faster on the corners without rolling. I also enjoy the gray ones for tracks that doesn’t have that many jumps.

What more can I say about the car, not much, just a little comparison I’ve been driving an HotBodies D8 and a Kyosho MP9 and compared to the D8 I like the Hyper 9 much more but compared to the Kyosho… well the Kyosho is a really nice car too, it’s fast and small like the Hyper, they both fly well and turn well in the long run I think the Hyper may have some advantage in what matters to shocks and turning speed, in accelaration they both perform very well but i think with the kyosho you can accelerate a bit sooner existing the corners, but this is just a thought, didn’t do an extensive test.

I’m more experienced with the hyper and it shows on lap times, but with the Kyosho I’m a second and a half slower, maybe due to the lack of habit driving it, with the D8 well… I’m three and a half seconds slower…and I’m equally used to it as I am with the Kyosho MP9.

In conclusion I think the Hyper 9.5 GL a great evolution on the hyper, it’s not that cheap nor it’s a car free of trouble, but is one of the best RC cars out there at least that I’ve drove, on the bottom end I really dislike the access to electronics as you have to take out the break linkage to change battery or do something else in the box, but well perfection doesn’t exist 😉

Cheers,

Pedro Oliveira


Hobao Hyper 9 review

by | Aug 19, 2009 | Daily life, RC Buggies

This week I’ve been working on my Hyper 9, changed some parts from the weekend at the track and today I am in the mood to write a little review about the car.I’ve been running it for 3-4 months now about every weekend so my experience with the setups is growing, I’m more at ease with the car and finally I can write about the experience I’ve had with the car.

First of all this was what I read about it before I bought it;

The positive:

  • Handles great
  • It’s fast on the corners
  • Jumps as no other
  • Well balanced
  • Tough

The negative:

  • The front harms break constantly
  • The differentials leak
  • The wing breaks
  • The rear break makes it harder to tune the car
  • The chassis is too soft

About the positive things I’ve nothing to add or talk about they are true and I love the car, about the negatives well some of those didn’t happen to me at all or when they did it was my fault. First my differentials never leaked, but i use to rebuild them every gallon of nitro spent, the plastics are ok and my wind never broke till now (and it have heavy back landings on the wing).  The front harms broke one time but it was my fault, when I was driving on one straight full throttle two of my friends chocked in middle air in front of me so I got distracted hitting the paddock protection while running full speed.  Just broke my front right upper and lower arm, but this was when the car was going at close to max. speed. Apart from that Also broke the front diff case, but once again it was my fault, I’ve lost control of the car (battery got loose) and it hit the fence.

Another very positive thing about this car, the shocks, they perform very well, never had to rebuild them for bad functioning just because wanted to change oil density.

Apart from those problems I’ve enjoyed every moment of it.

Now the things I think hobao didn’t do right in this car:

  1. The chassis is way too flexible, so flexible that when you have bad landing on a jump you damage your center dog bones. (I’ve bought the new 4mm chassis)
  2. The aluminum dog bones are way to fragile. (buy the upgrade in stell, you’ll add a few grams)
  3. The position of the rear brake is way too bad, not because of the brake itself but because of the linkage, if you need to change your battery or do something on electronics you need the get the break linkage out.
  4. The plastic stretchers are very very flexible. (buy the aluminum ones)
  5. The original tires are crap.
  6. The package should include an extra set of shock springs.

Hyper 9 Orange painting

These days a new version of the hyper 9 was realeased the Hyper 9.5 GL, I did buy the upgrade parts and I’m waiting to assemble it. I hope that in a month or two I can write about the Hyper 9.5 and give it a very positive review.

In the end with the Hyper 9 I’m a happy guy, if it wasn’t for the break linkage I would give it a 9/10 or even a 10/10, but in the end an 8 is a very good mark for the first version of the car, I hope it will get better when the upgrade kit is installed.

I had a hard time getting used to the car as the turning capabilites and amount of traccion on the read are huge and I took a while to get used to it, lost some time setting the car up, putting the right density silicone oils in the differentials and so on.

Usually my setup with this car is 3000-4000-1000 but after getting used… it runs like a charm and flies like super man.

Cheers,

Pedro Oliveira

PS – Updated on the Hobao Hyper 9.5 / Hyper 9 GL review here https://www.linux-geex.com/?p=189

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