I’m going to just come out and say it. This was the FASTEST 2wd drive at the 2013 Clash race. Not only did it TQ, Dustin had the pace to win. If you watch A2, Dustin and the speed and then some. If you want proof watch the A2 race as the battle was epic! He came back from behind, put the sickest pass on Maifield and drove home to victory. Dustin just didn’t have a good A3 run and sometimes it is hard to have 3 almost flawless runs. Heck, it’s hard to have even 1 near flawless! So is the 22 2.0 good? Yes, I think the entire team is much happier with the performance of this car than they were with the 1.0. Let’s take a look at this newly revised ride.

Again thanks to the guys over at RedRC for doing an awesome job covering this great race. Please visit their site for more info and other RC related news! They get all the credit!

So the new TLR cab forward body takes function over form, but that is okay with me. I’d much rather care about performance and deal with a fugly shaped body b/c I can just cake it with stickers to hide the awkward looks. It bulges, it’s slanted, it’s finned….looks like TLR just added all the tech and I’m guess it works quite well since this is the first time Dustin is using a cab forward body on his TLR 22.

Interestingly enough, Dustin is running saddles stacked front to back with his ESC mounted in front of the pack with a compact servo for space. The new 2.0 version actually has a new molded battery strap with the ability to top mount the ESC but Dustin has chosen the old velcro straps instead. Perhaps the car is a tad more predictable with the ESC chassis mounted vs. on top of the battery?

Bottom view shows us the underside of the car with the TLR 22 logos and some ti screws for lighter weight. Looks pretty standard here.

The layout looks to be quite the tight fit. Not much room for anything else huh? Luckily for Dustin the Spektrum receiver’s are super tiny!

So here for the first time I noticed a huge difference in mid motor transmission design. The Kyosho RB6 in mid motor, the C4.2, TLR 22 mid all have 4 gear transmissions, however the TLR 22 has kind of a different layout. In the RB6 and C4.2, the extra gear is on top and ‘behind’ the diff gear allowing the motor to sit closer to the diff which creates more weight bias towards the rear of the car. Essentially the motor sits closer to the drive axles. Look at this pic for comparison. In the 22, the extra idler gear sits in front of the diff which forces the motor to sit more towards the center of the car. Now the big question is, which one is better? I would think the C4.2 and RB6 style is designed to give the car a tad more grip when things get slippery, but that’s just a thought. Evidently, the TLR 22 2.0 is a very fast car and is capable of ridiculous lap times regardless of the transmission layout. Hence the reason why Dustin TQ’d over Maifield’s C4.2! Can’t wait for this epic ride!

2WD Buggy A-1 Result
1.(2) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 14/5:00.833
2.(1) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:02.615
3.(6) Max Flurer – Team Associated – 14/5:15.928
4.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:18.730
5.(10)Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 14/5:22.084
6.(11)Justin Cranford – Team Durango – 14/5:24.312
7.(4) Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 13/5:00.269
8.(8) Leon McIntosh – Team Losi Racing – 13/5:04.595
9.(12)Paul Sinclair – X-Factory – 13/5:08.488
10.(5)Ryan Eckert – Kyosho – 13/5:08.541
11.(9)Paul Wynn – Team Associated – 13/5:09.745
12.(7) Jason Ruona – Team Associated – DNS

2WD Buggy A-2 Result
1.(1) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:00.392
2.(2) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 14/5:01.590
3.(5) Ryan Eckert – Kyosho – 14/5:15.697
4.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:19.612
5.(4) Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:20.485
6.(11)Justin Cranford – Team Durango – 13/5:12.166
7.(9) Paul Wynn – Team Associated – 13/5:14.028
8.(8) Leon McIntosh – Team Losi Racing – 13/5:15.319
9.(12)Paul Sinclair – X-Factory – 13/5:16.148
10.(6)Max Flurer – Team Associated – 5/2:14.751
11.(10)Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 3/1:27.469
12.(7)Jason Ruona – Team Associated – DNS

2WD Buggy A-3 Result
1.(2) Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 15/5:23.183
2.(1) Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:06.701
3.(3) JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:12.340
4.(4) Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 14/5:20.661
5.(10)Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 14/5:21.536
6.(6) Max Flurer – Team Associated – 14/5:24.259
7.(12)Paul Sinclair – X-Factory – 13/5:08.491
8.(8) Leon McIntosh – Team Losi Racing – 13/5:09.583
9.(5) Ryan Eckert – Kyosho – 13/5:09.993
10.(11)Justin Cranford – Team Durango – 12/5:03.762
11.(9)Paul Wynn – Team Associated – 9/3:44.566
12.(7)Jason Ruona – Team Associated – DNS

2WD Buggy Overall Result
1. Ryan Maifield – Team Associated – 200 pts
2. Dustin Evans – Team Losi Racing – 199
3. JR Mitch – Team Losi Racing – 195
4. Max Flurer – Team Associated – 193
5. Cody Hollis – Team Losi Racing – 193
6. Damion Borkowicz – Team Associated – 192
7. Ryan Eckert – Kyosho – 190
8. Justin Cranford – Team Durango – 190
9. Leon McIntosh – Team Losi Racing – 186
10.Paul Sinclair – X-Factory – 186
11.Paul Wynn – Team Associated – 184
12.Jason Ruona – Team Associated – 178