What's in the box
The kit comes int he same cute, half-faux-leather box that Castle's ESCs and kits come in, but the boxes are wrapped in the HPI Flux Warp sleeve design. Inside you get the motor and the ESC carefully packed in foam inserts, along with a HPI information leaflet explaining how to calibrate the ESC and enable the LiPo cutoff via the stick. It's the usual HPI instructions in a bazillion languages
Flux Motiv ESC
The ESC is as impressive as ever you'd expect from a Castle Creations-based product. As I expected, it offers a full range of features offered on the Sidewinder, it even uses the same Castle firmware version. With the CastleLink connected up to my computer all is identical to probramming any Castle ESC with the exception that the splash screen in the CastleLink program is the HPI Flux MOTIV logo. It's so great to be able to own a HPI endorsed ESC and know it's made to such a great standard, and will offer you the power and control you need, wether you are just bashing around or are on the race track.
The trademark versatility of the Sidewinder ESC also allows Brushed Reversing and High Power brushed motors to be used on the ESC. This is good news for folks who can get HPI parts in territories where Sidewinders are unavailable, such as the UK.
Flux Warp 5700kV Motor
The supplied motor is also a Castle Creations unit, one of their 5700kV car motors. A typically no-nonsense plain metal sleeved Castle design, finished in black rather than the customary Castle Creations green usually found on these units, it is otherwise the same. Offering 3 alternative mounting positions (and possibly a choice of threads?) on the front plate, this thing ought to fit most applications, HPI and otherwise.
Performance
As you would expect with any Brushless configuration speed is excellent and battery runtime is also hugely improved. In my application runtime a par with a 19T Brushed motor. The combination of more speed for longer is a winner every time. In my particular setup, a Wheely King with long wheelbase and widened wheel track, even geared down at 14T/96T at the motor, the speed is still way in excess of anything I've had from my brushed setups. While this isn't such a surprise, It still took a bit of getting used to! Control is good, and with customizable braking and throttle control on the Motiv the system offers excellent acceleration and, as importantly for such a fast rig, breaking control. My only minor concern is that the motor cogs very badly at low speed, and needs almost 20% throttle to run smoothly. I half-expected this from such a speed oriented brushless system and it doesn't tend to effect my truck's on-the-ground performance.
On the Wheely King
I installed the full Flux Warp system in the Wheely King and man, it's insane. I geared the WK right the way down to 15T Pinion on 96T Spur, which is the lowest gearing HPI sell the parts to do (I had the new HPI parts on hand as I bought them to gear the WK down for crawling). It's so fast it's almost silly, but it does still handle okay. The reversed chassis and longer, wider wheelbase means no stupid flips and wheelies. Even so I get the feeling it may be a little too much for the stock Wheely King transmission and axle gears. It is very noticeable that when dropping from full-reverse to 0-throttle there is a nasty 'snap' noise that comes through the transmission, that sounds like a gear skipping. Metal gearbox gears and HD pinion & rings are already on order, and when I rebuild the axles I will pay close attention to getting the diffs shimmed up correctly.
Conclusion
This package is affordable, powerful and, thanks to it's Castle Creations origins, it's a very versatile and customizable system. There are better systems on the market in the UK, such as the Losi Excelorin or Castle Mamba Max, the former of which is available sensored for extra performance, but both are more expensive. If you want an entry level brushless system and a really good ESC that's computer programmable you could do a lot worse.
