The Team Durango DNX408 was ready for its first public outing at the NEO 2010 event. With the car 95% production ready, only the radio tray was still being tested at NEO 2010.
With some late nights and early mornings behind the Team Durango crew, Gerd, Hupo, Adam and Mirko made their way to the venue on Thursday ready for the grueling four day event. After a brief get-together and a “once over” the buggies, it was off to Telford for some fast food finery before the important business began.

The NEO2010 Event
“The team was still very happy with the car’s performance throughout the event”
The hype about the car was massive and within minutes of the cars being on the table in the pitting area, cameras were flashing and questions were being asked about the hottest car in pit lane. With a clean sheet of set-up paper the team worked through some basic set-ups improving the car in each run to quickly narrow down a good starting point. With a base setup to start from each driver then turned to tuning the car to their driving style and the lap times dropped as the drivers got used to their cars. The car’s balance was good from the off and its poise in the air was there for all to see, its durability on the tough Neo track was also shown as practice day went by without any issues.

The finals themselves didn’t go to plan. Mirko broke while leading his final after coming down hard on a trackmarking peg, Gerd was unsighted on the rostrum and broke before his final started. Adam, whilst in third place in his 1/4 final, got hit from the side cutting his fuel line and Hupo’s engine ran out of tune in his 1/4 final causing him to retire early.

Despite the bad run of luck in the finals the team was still very happy with the car’s performance throughout the event. With more tuning options like springs, pistons and roll bars to come, the performance level of the car will only get better. The durability of the platform over the event was excellent and with the small improvements already logged down to be completed before the next stage of testing the team are confident that the car will be the ‘one to watch’ over the next year.

Source: Team Durango Blog
Photos: NeoBuggy.net

About the author

When the racing and the competition starts to become work, sit back and relax a little. Step away from the gear. Take stock in the reasons that put you on this path of podium. And remember what got you started in this unbelievable industry we call R/C. Brian "Juice" Brower – Juiced RC