Nitro is FAST - period. While electric MTs are great for crawling and climbing because of their low-end grunt, nitros are great for all out speed and crazy air. The Dominator sees weekly bash sessions, normally at a local BMX track and it repeatedly makes jumps that are over 10 feet high (see action pics for some proof!). Such regular abuse means that the truck needs to be beefed up for reliable running!

On several occasions, this Dominator has outlasted several of the other nitros bashing in the same track and one by-stander has properly commented "Wow! That truck is really built to JUMP!".

There's just something about roaming around the hills free-styling that is very liberating!

New Look, New Arsenal!

In the first pic you can take an overall look at the truck. The first thing to note is that the chassis is no longer blue. In fact, it is now a nice shade of TITANIUM. Smash and Bash Racing's Titanium chassis extends the Dominator to SuperMaxx dimensions and also stiffens up the truck (if that were possible - the stock chassis was already very tough). One advantage of running the longer chassis is that the additional space allows me to run a better fuel tank. The stock Dom fuel tank is prone to leaks and sometimes gets cracked because of it's proximity to other components. The tank shown in the pics is a Hyper7 tank - much better seal and better plastic quality too.

Changing the chassis changes the cars flight behaviour dramatically, so much so that when I first went bashing with the new chassis, I was crashing quite a bit. The stock Dom tends to require letting off the throttle slightly to keep the nose level in flight whereas with the new chassis, one can keep the throttle constant and it will soar beautifully.

In the third pic you can see the chassis. See the scratches? Cool thing about running a titanium chassis is that when you hit a rock, it sparks!

Powerplant

Here's a picture of the OFNA Hyper.21 8-port engine with the optional head. The 4-port Hyper.21 was an impressive unit but the 8-port takes performance to a whole new level. It isn't an expensive high-end engine, but it sure can put out some serious grunt when needed. These Hyper engines start strong and characteristicly run strong till the tank is empty.

The huge air filter is from Nuova Faor and it's hooked up to the carberator with a TRAXXAS exhaust coupler. The exhaust coupler makes a great filter connector for the Dominator as it allows the filter to clear all the other components around it.

The engine is hooked to an RB86 pipe which is a high torque, high speed pipe. It performs great but on the downside is that fuel economy drops... it's also a pretty soft pipe so crashes will dent the pipe.

Front Suspension

I run aluminum upper/lower front arms (and also the lower rear arm) together with CVAs on all 4 corners (note that to run the CVAs in the rear you will need a longer drive cup - part 30080). In the picture you can also see the titanium steering top brace; and if you look *really* carefully you can see that I've stacked 2 steering plates together for added durability.

The stock shocks are very good units, but off the really big jumps I had a problem of bending and breaking shock shafts. I went though several shafts every week. Finally I decided to upgrade to stronger shocks and got a set of KYOSHO 3.5mm shocks which were designed for use on their championship buggy the MP7.5. These shocks were costly but I've never broken another shock shaft again. In fact, I've snapped the 3mm steel screw mounting the shock to the tower and the shocks were still in perfect shape - top notch stuff.

Note the Titanium front shock tower from SMASH and BASH Racing. These are modified towers so they allow me to run the very long shocks both in front and in the rear (in stock form, the Dominator uses a shorter shock in the rear).

I also run ball bearings in my steering and have converted to turnbuckles and heavy duty Kyosho 6.8 ballends for steering duty. Cranking the wheels is a SANWA (Airtronics) ERG-VB servo that puts out a whopping 130oz of torque at high speeds.

Articulation?

lol! This is after all a MT site so here's the mandatory articulation shot. Not too bad for an independent suspension nitro truck. Some guys have mentioned that the flat chassis of the Dominator may reduce it's ability to go over rough terrain. While that is true, I must say that the ability is not reduced my that much. The good suspension setup and power of the truck still allows it to go over the rough stuff pretty well - although you shouldn't expect it to outdo a Clod or TXT.

Body Shell

Can you tell that it's still the stock bodyshell design? I've hacked up the body so that it has a more slammed look. Like I said, the Dominator really isn't an MT but a 4WD nitro racer... so here you can see it's starting to look like it! The lengthened wheelbase also allows the body to sit more nicely over the chassis without it looking too far forward.

The truck and all it's chassis components were color coordinated to mainly be black, blue or metal - other plastic parts were dyed black for this purpose - the IMEX bajas and chrome OFNA rims also accentuate the aggressive look nicely.

Performance
The Dominator in stock form is an awesome performer and certainly very durable. However, jumping a 5kg truck repeatedly and landing it from 10ft high jumps can take it's toll on chassis components. The beefed up suspension components allow this truck to do these with less chance of failure. The new engine gives the get go needed for me to get my fix. :) All this while maintaining the exceptional racing capabilities of the truck.

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