Rlaarlo AK-917 Carbon roller build

General RC Information

I started with the Rlaarlo AK917 Carbon Roller. For anyone sitting on the fence about which roller to buy, don’t even hesitate: buy the carbon one. It already comes with most of the aluminum hop-ups installed and it’s a much nicer chassis. I later ordered the metal roller assuming it would be the same only without the carbon chassis, but was sadly mistaken and spent more upgrading it (including the center shaft bearing support) than the carbon roller would have cost in the first place. Live and learn…

Fitted with a new Max10 G2 140a sensored combo.
ProModeler DS490BLHV low-profile servo
Radiolink RC6GS V3 transmitter w/R7FG dual antenna gyro receiver. I mounted an aftermarket receiver box on the top carbon deck support and the body still fits fine.
Hogged out (drilled) light buckets w/3w LED’s
Brighter tail lights

Notes:

Super easy build, and was really nice on my wallet after so many 6s Arrma builds…
Very nice chassis for the money. I’m pretty impressed with this car.
Sensored HobbyWing system is fantastic, runs cool, is faster than a raped ape, and can crawl along the floor so slowly with no cogging whatsoever that it’s mind blowing.
Got rid of the nylon spur and am running the optional steel spur gears and pinions.
The stock lights were pretty pathetic, and I removed all of them and replaced them with individual 3-watt retina burners after drilling out the front buckets to fit them. I also put in better, brighter, red tail-lights. The new lighting is super bright coming and going, and a must if you’re ever driving at night. Note within this note: All of the factory Rlaarlo lights (headlights, tail lights, working blinkers, working brake lights, and exhaust tailpipe lights that light up on decel to mimic flames) are included with the carbon roller but they don’t function without the Rlaarlo light and model specific receiver and radio which I did not want. If you get their RTR version you get it all. I set up my lights with a receiver mounted light controller that works on channel 5 of my radio so I can switch them on and off from the transmitter.
The painted factory 917 body with integrated electric exhaust fan was removed.
I painted my own body, as I typically do.
Virtually any other 1/10 TC body could also work on this chassis and there are a ton of options, most of which are far more “scale” in appearance and much more realistic than what we can get for 1/8 or 1/7 on-road cars.
Many guys go to Mod-1 gears and motor mount mods to fit bigger cans, but that is in no way necessary for most. I’ve pushed 90 with this car as it is and could gear it for more, but on a 1/10 Touring Car chassis it’s scary fast already. I ended up gearing it back down a bit for parking lot bashing and it’s just simply a ton of fun.
If you really want to keep the budget down, a less expensive servo and non-sensored Rocket/Surpass ESC and motor would give you essentially the same performance for less than half the cost.

Everything considered, I think this car has a significantly higher fun-to-dollars ratio than any other build I can remember. This would be an outstanding entry level on-road car. A fun build and a groovy little car!