HPI’s Gives a Look “Under the Hood” of their Venture FJ Cruiser

One vehicle that has been generating some great interest, specifically among the RC crawling and trail rig community, has been a new offshoot of HPI, Venture. Their first entry into the trail scene looks like a stout competitor to the Axial SCX10 and Vaterra Ascender, and we haven’t truly seen what this new entry looks like…until now.

Posting a teaser shot on their Facebook page, the chassis details of the Venture FJ Cruiser have become much clearer. At a distance, this vehicle looks like one of the two aforementioned scale off-road rigs. With a c-channel frame rail design, rock sliders, beefy bumper setup, what appear to be oil-filled, adjustable shocks, and a shaft-driven design. The largest differentiator is the motor placement, with the FJ Cruiser’s power plant mounted at the front of the chassis, similar to a 1:1 scale vehicle. This change in placement adds an additional shaft off of the motor, connecting it to the transmission.

It remains to be seen what overall effect this motor placement will have, but I like seeing companies taking a different approach to their vehicle and chassis construction. Let’s not forget that the main brand behind Venture, HPI, has been in the radio-controlled business for a while. They’ve learned a thing or two along the way and I’m excited to see more from them in the scale/trail side of the hobby.

Get more information on the Venture FJ Cruiser at Venture’s Facebook page.

Image credit: HPI/Venture