My girlfriend got me this kit for Christmas and I finally got the time to build the other day. Like a previous commenter said, the whole control arm portion of the instructions was completely wrong. The entire build took me 2 hours. The control arms alone took an hour after figuring out the directions didn’t match the actual wood piece cut outs. So I just figured it out on my own. I also realized there were different versions of instructions or parts that were labeled wrong? So I didn’t see I had the front and rear diffs reversed until putting the frame together. Got the kit built and it’s really cool to drive. Such an awesome gift. Highly recommend, take the instructions with a grain of salt and try to build without using them for the control arm portion. I just wish the company would straighten out the issues that myself and other reviewers had to make it right. Also the rear body cover snapped on the one side when the directions tell you to gently bend the wood. You can’t bend it at all without it snapping

Bearings different sizes. One fit the others did not. Wood out of tolerance. Nothing lines up. Had to bore and tap some screws myself. At some point, it just became funny. Like, can we get this shit to work at all? Leave the bearings out, bend the wood, cut away at stuff. Just absolute junk. It would have been a few laughs if it didn't cost so much

ps use a clothes stemer to bend the caling they did what they could to make it easyer but a stemer well let you tie a knot with it.

got it for Christmas . my kit was missing the instruction manual but they were very quick to send me the pdf . had know problem putting it togather.Howevery I did change some things to i mprove it. like real hydraulic shocks that set me back twelve bucks some hard rock maple to beef up the holds points longer screws for them and a rubber like bumper to give it some more protection.ive bought many rc cars in my day but ive never seen a dc motor run like this thing can run. o say it is fast is not doinf it justice. well send pics.soon.thinks for the great products.Terry R Smith

I got this kit for my birthday and have started the build. The first issue was at step 1 on building the control arms. If you follow the directions, you will not get there because they are wrong. If you read pictures you can build the arms but reverse the names on the pictures not from what is shown for upper and lower control arms. Laser cut pieces are easy to separate and go together very well. suggest you use a high-quality wood glue for strength. Looking forward to completing the build, but this is all I have found so far.

Well I'll tell you something. If you like to put things together. If you like racing a little car that goes fast. If you like just screaming around a parking lot showing off a creation that you built from a kit. This car is the car for you. Fast furiously fun. I take it with me to work and use it when I'm waiting for my clients well they are inside, I'm outside in the parking lot or on the street. Either way I am having a blast on my break time. If you want an amazing shelf queen. I have actually thought about staining this car to make it look even cooler although it doesn't need help. Customer service with this company is second to none. Elizabeth was the lady who helped me One day when I was out racing and bashing which I suggest you don't do unless you have the time and the patience and the money to invest in parts. But I was talking about having a good time in the parking lot and I am screaming around corners and I'm jumping off curbs and jumping over speed bumps and just having a blast until I hit some salt on the ground which looked cool as heck as the salt flu but then the car hit the pavement It shot off like a rocket right into the curb. Broke two A-frames upper and lower bent the arm for steering or tie rod end however you want to call it. Ended my fun for now but like I said customer service this company amazing I called looking for parts because I had misplaced my stuff in the move. And now they're sending me parts to fix my car. I don't know how to send pictures on here. But once it's all together I'm sure it's going to be beautiful again as it was before. So thank you man crates for selling such a fun product. Thank you Elizabeth for being a great customer service agent. And thank you man creates shipping department and all the rest for building such a fun rc car. Love it love it love it.

I wrote another review and mentioned a missing screw for steering linkage. Resolved that, some tweaks to the tightness of steering mechanism itself and it tracked straight right out the gate, no tweaking the rod lengths needed. One thing I did notice is the rear shocks and springs aren't strong enough it seems. A slight bump in spring rate is needed as it tends to lean hard into the right rear, also, two more wood washers and slightly longer through bolts for the upper rear shock mounts as the rear suspension sometimes snags up on the spring coils. Do those things to give the springs some clearance to the suspension arms and it would be complete.

Beyond that, this thing moves like a striped ape...gravel, grass, sand, it eats it alive and won't quit..
Tough too...I flipped it in a hard full speed turn on grass and it cartwheels. I cringed imagining the spare parts I was about to have to find...there wasn't a crack...not a single one, even in the spoiler.
So, if you are mechanically inclined, know how to build strong for rc, then this thing will hold up just fine.
Those that have had problems, my suggestion, recheck things, and call the help line if needed.
This thing hauls tail, spits gravel and will do donuts all battery long.
I'm about to try a higher capacity 1800 mah pack in it just for kicks.

My kit was short one screw for the steering linkage, also rear gearbox was labeled as front and front as rear. Local hobby store has screws so headed there Tuesday to get a replacement. Other than some confusion on the instructions, a little common sense and looking ahead a few pages helps to figure it out. But ut would be nice if each screw type had a couple of extras like was done with the binding posts ESPECIALLY the motor mounting screws as the heads stripped halfway in...out came the needle nose to get them the rest of the way. Kit screwdriver tip is soft so use a good screwdriver..preferably with a magnetic tip. Friends got me and another friend both kits and took bets on who would finish first...never bet against an avid RC'er...lol

The suspension on this car is fantastic. The instructions are not, but if you're mechanically inclined and check all the photos in the kit, you should do okay. There are some parts (which were thankfully supplied) for the front axle to wheel connection that are not shown or described in the instructions that are essential. Make sure to line up all the holes when you're asked to double a few pieces and keep any glue out of the holes so shafts can pass through later in the build. My kit had no front bumper and a few small wooden clips missing but not essential. Not a deal breaker. I posted a pic at Mancrates FB site.

Seen a guy on a rc group I'm in post one of these so I had to check it out. It's freaking awesome! Assembly instructions are hit and miss but easy enough to figure out. Can tell if it really goes 30 mph cuz steering gets out of control. But I think that's a quick fix. All in all this thing is sweet and I hope man crate offers replacement parts on hand for awhile, I'm sure I'll wreak it a few times lol

Seen a guy on a rc group I'm in post one of these so I had to check it out. It's freaking awesome! Assembly instructions are hit and miss but easy enough to figure out. Can tell if it really goes 30 mph cuz steering gets out of control. But I think that's a quick fix. All in all this thing is sweet and I hope man crate offers replacement parts on hand for awhile, I'm sure I'll wreak it a few times lol

Girlfriend bought this for me a week ago it arrive very fast. As someone who is street smart and not book smart the instructions were 8/10
On the clear motor mount where the gear goes through has a piece of plastic on one side of the gear and it tells you to remove the bearing. when doing so I noticed it was wearing on the plastic on both the gear and the motor mount so I took the gear out ground the little nub off of the gear that it tells you to put into the motor mount and I put the bearing back in the motor mount like the instructions told me to remove and it holds that driveshaft a lot more sturdy..
All in all I have to say I write this product a 10 out of 10 just for the simple fact that there's so many things that could make this a shitty product but it's not... it's a great product if you build it right . I recommend building it without glue to make sure all of your pieces go together good. Then what you do so test drive it like I did. Then I disassemble the whole car and I put wood glue on it and I clamped it together and that thing is as strong as any other RC car great product man crates

Besides the comments that have already been made concerning the directions being wrong for the control arms I only have one more negative comment and then I'll get onto the good stuff. I thought the directions were very hard to follow at times and the pictures weren't clear enough to make up for the text, however if you have some patience you'll be able to figure them out. It's part of the fun to be challenged a bit right? I really enjoyed the build and the car when finished runs great and so much fun. The four-wheel drive feature enables this car to go almost everywhere. I would recommend this RC car to anyone who enjoys modeling and DYI projects.

I got this as a gift from my wife. Overall, it is a good kit, and it was fun to work on. The main problem is the instruction manual, which should be way more detailed. There should not be parts where the readers have to figure out by themselves. Also, many parts are wrong and may be outdated and doesn't match the parts provided.

I got this as a birthday gift from my father. My son and I built it over a few weeks.

First, the directions are less than ideal, some of the parts were missing, and many parts are different than shown in the pictures. It took a lot of assembling, and disassembly multiple times to get parts to fit right and work properly.

In the first test drive one of the wheels flew off and some tiny parts went missing. I contact customer service and they currently have replacement parts in route to my home to fix it. I was able to rig up temporary replacements in the mean time to keep enjoying it with my son.

Problem 2. Parts keep coming loose. The suspension screws keep backing out constantly. I have to disassemble the front and rear of the car after every test to tighten them. Next step is some loctite. Thankfully there are extras because I have already lost 2.

This thing is insanely fast.... too fast. If anyone has ever driven a modified Pontiac Fierro or a turbo MR2 you will know what "snap-oversteer" is. This makes an MR2 look stable in corners. Every time you lift off the throttle in a turn this thing loses the back end and tumbles. I have so many broken parts now after driving it 4 times that it is partially wood and partially zip ties.

Overall I enjoy it. I still have to get the front alignment right because it was way off from the box. I would recommend it but don't go more than half throttle.

All the photos, even on the web site, are mirror-images!
Had to disassemble a few things before figuring it out...
Also, the motor mount is wrong, flip the two mounting pieces away from the slot, broke mine but used a wire to hold it down, drilling through the base and twisting the ends underneath. Leave the bearing in the plastic housing, it is good where it is.
It looks like there have been some changes, but yes it is fast.

Super cool idea loved the gift ran great for 2 sessions then the plastic gear stripped. The electric motor and the plastic gear only over lap about 5% so figured it was bound to happen. Need either a metal gear or better spacing for the electric motor. I just unscrewed the motor from mount and put spacers on the motor side. Allowed the gears to engage more. Still not 100% but posting it so they can address this issue for the future

I enjoyed building the RC Car. Yes the instructions were limited but a photo tells a lot. All the wooden pieces were cut through and I finished the car. I does go about 30 mph. One problem, the gear stripped out. I noticed that while building the car, the motor and dive gear did NOT line up 1 for 1. After driving the car for a few hours, the gear stripped. Fortunately, my daughter who bought the car for me called the company and they sent me a few parts (but no gear). My daughter called again and the company sent me an entire new replacement kit, car and all. I am currently building the new car and I am making a few modifications to the motor and drive gears so that the alignment is much better. QC is great on both car kits.

My wife got me this as a bday gift. I love Man Crates and have been very impressed with others she has got me. This car didn't disappoint, but I had a few issues.
The instructions could be more clear, but seeing how its a MAN crate, I figured it out. Jokes aside, I did get frustrated amd had to redo a couple things because it was clear. Also, adjusting the steering (mine pulls to the right and I haven't been able to fix it yet) is very hard. Could use some extra instructions like an "if this (issue), then that (solution)" book. It makes weird noise when I turn, I'm not sure if the wheels are supposed to move the way they do, etc. Some reassurance that these things are normal (or arent) would be nice.
Lastly, a could of my pieces on the wood sheets weren't laser cut all the way and needed some cutting to remove.
Overall, I'm satisfied, but there is room for improvement to make this even better!

I got this for my husband's birthday and he LOVED it! We have a 3 year old little boy who asks him everyday if he's done building it. I know they'll love playing with this together for a long time. The only thing is that my husband complained that the instructions aren't very detailed and he's already had to take a few parts apart to rebuild. Other than that, it's a great gift!!

I was so excited for this build when my wife had this delivered to me at work for Valentines Day. My excitement quickly subsided after the first 30 minutes into the build. The instructions are really poor, and many aspects are incorrect. Yet, with my background in engineering and mechanics, I figured we would press on. The final straw came 3 hours later, with the missing upper shock mount screws and during the assembly of the gear housing to the base. After sorting out the incorrect images again in the instructions, I proceeded to start the screws into the housing. I knew it felt a bit tight, yet proceeded, and sure enough, just 3 threads in and the screw broke - "Really!?" I exclaimed. At this time, out of frustration and disappointment, I have shelved this kit. I am sure I will eventually pull it back down, shop for additional materials, break out my tools and complete this build correctly.
Overall, I have had many of the Man Crates products, all with good results and enjoyment. This one however, is another promising idea, it just missed the mark in so many ways.

If you can make it to the end of the build, you end up with a very cool and fast RC car (abrupt full throttles w/ max acceleration will flip). That said, the instructions are atrocious on so many levels. As someone already pointed out, the first steps of building the control arms contradicts itself in the text vs the pictures. There are numerous errors past that though. Blatant omission of necessary steps (front wheel driveshaft assembly using the metal pin for example), steps that are irrelevant/wrong, parts referenced that aren't included (snake hood wedge for example), pictures showing old parts that don't help with seemingly revised parts included. Had the instructions not been written by a child, this would have easily been a 5 star product.

There are pieces missing, holes for things are the wrong size, screws are too small for the holes, instructions are wrong, pieces are mislabeled, and the list goes on.

However, with that said, my husband is very resourceful and he can easily figure it out enough to make things work.
So does it work? Yes.
Did he enjoy the build even with all the frustration? Yes.
He rates it at 3 stars due to all the issues, but says if the issues get fixed it would easily be a 5 star review.

Very frustrating build. Sure I made mistakes and had to break it down and redo a number of times. But Step 4 calls for 3x10 mm screws - none and none listed in the Components section. Same with the Motor Mount Screws. No Clip 6 for the body assembly. This is just sloppy. The good news is the motor runs, the car moves and the steering responds. Most of the screws were just not right for the application. Silly that the slots for the velcro to hold the battery are narrower than the width of the velcro. Come on guys, you had one job! But as a build, what should have been fun was a constant frustration. I am trying to figure out how to over come the Clip 6 issue however.

Video and written instructions are poorly mated. In the video assembly some of the parts where left out. In the written assembly it is difficult to comprehend and the pics are not that clear. It took way too many hours to assemble. Which caused a lot of aggravation. Also wish the gears were made of metal. Other than that it is a great gift.
It is fast. Learn to drive before racing.