The kit was purchased as a chassis only Streetspec version, requiring the addition of the engine/exhaust and all the radio equipment to finish. My only previous experience with an R/C car was about 12 years ago and that was a Schumacher Club 10 electric buggy, so the foray into 200mm Nitro Touring cars has been a steep learning curve; However, I don't think that I could have picked a better car.

The build was relatively straight forward with the manual being clear and concise using excellent CAD drawings and only minor errors relating to screw sizes, these were quickly resolved. The plastic mouldings are very good quality, all fitting without any modification and proving to be very strong. The engine of choice was the NovaMega SX12-RE, both servos are Futaba, S3004's along with a Ko Propo KR297-FZ receiver and fail safe device. The installation of the receiver proved to be the biggest headache, there clearly isn't enough space between the fuel tank and middle drive belt to mount the receiver comfortably, initially I thought that I was suffering radio interferance but later realised that the drive belt rubbing against the receiver was causing high frequency vibration and radio glitching. In order to protect the receiver from dust and moisture it is necessary to mount it in a rubber balloon, this really does cause problems if you need to complete a crystal change, this is the one area of the car that I feel needs to be improved.

When first running the car I encountered terrible problems trying to start it, at the time I put it down to my inexperience, badly adjusted jetting and a tight engine, following weeks of frustration the problem was eventually traced to a faulty starter box motor, this was replaced and problem solved. The first major mishap occured while trying out some linkage adjustments in the street, the throttle linkage popped off the carb slide allowing the car to shoot off

straight into the curb at half throttle, this resulted in a bent chassis in 3 places, both spur gears damaged, a broken fuel tank lug and broken top bumper plate, these were replaced and at the same time the left and right alloy chassis braces went on. The throttle linkage is now secured with a small 'O' ring to the carb slide!

The bearings have been replaced with high quality, low friction blue seal versions all round. A front adjustable anti-roll bar has been installed with the alloy levers, the fixed rear anti-roll bar is not very practical to quickly install or disconnect when trackside, so is soon to be replaced with the latest adjustable version when it is available, but this will have to be modified to offer a lighter action. The pro drive shafts and axles have been installed for longer life and lighter weight, it's a shame that Serpent or any of the after market suppliers don't offer CVD's to fit, although the drive train has proved to be very robust. I am still waiting for the modification to the Ball Diff to be released, apparently this will enable easier trackside adjustment of the diff action similar to the FPS Diff but lighter, I shall run with the standard diff until this is released, hopefully it should be a lot lighter than the standard diff which will not only help to reduce the weight of the car but also the rotating mass, this should allow the car to accelerate quicker.

The carbon shock towers have been installed front and rear to offer a greater choice of shock positions, I'm still using the composite shock bodies because I cannot see any benefit in using the heavier alloy option parts. The externally adjustable Serpent shocks are excellent, meaning you don't have to strip the shocks to change damping rates. The adjustment proved a little vague on the original shocks and eventually I stripped one of the piston threads, the pistons and shafts have now been replaced with the new keyed type which have a more positive action when making adjustments. I have modified the shock caps by drilling a 2mm vent hole through to the diaphragm, this has smoothed out the shock stroke throughout its travel, before doing this I found that no matter how well you bled the shocks, when pushed in fully they would spring back slightly because the trapped air behind the diaphragm was being compressed.

I've installed the new LC gearbox and Centax II clutch, the gearbox is 11 grams lighter than the original but this is offset slightly by the addition of the aluminium carrier for the layshaft pulley, however there is still a significant reduction in rotating mass which will allow the car to accelerate harder. The gearbox bearings have been beefed up which will aid reliability, although I never experienced a failure with the original flanged bearings! The spur gears are now colour coded to identify the number of teeth, the old gears actually had the number moulded on the side which I felt was slightly better. The spur gears are now retained on the carriers by 3 small screws, the heads seem quite soft so if you don't use the correct size crosshead screwdriver you could damage the head, especially as the screws are quite tight initially. In use the gearbox seems smoother than the original without such a pronounced dip in the engine note as the car changes gear, this means the acceleration is more linear which will also aid driveability in slippery conditions. The Centax clutch as developed by Serpent and copied by everyone else has now been updated with the Centax II, this clutch is fully adjustable so you can alter the engagement point, this is a valuable tuning aid when you require either more punch or driveability depending on the track conditions. When assembling the clutch you will need a good vernier caliper, this is for measuring the thickness of the shims and thrust bearing races, one race is 5.2mm the other is 5.0mm if you have these the wrong way round you will destroy the thrust bearing very quickly. The shims are used for spacing the clutch on the engine shaft and setting end float, again careful measurement is required to get this right. In use the clutch is smooth and the adjustments are quite pronounced, unfortunately you still have to remove the bell housing to make adjustments which means you have to remove the gearbox as well, just make sure that you recheck the end float after any adjustments.

Development has now stopped on this car with the announcement of the new Serpent S710 which will be my next purchase finances permitting; However, having recently received the Hudy tyre truer I shall be venturing into the Foam class so the Impulse will live on either in the Scale Rubber class or Foam class depending how the S710 performs on rubber tyres.