I have been running my Carisma GT14B out of the box and I would recommend doing the following:-
1. Get the hard servo saver spring
2. Get the aluminum hinge pin braces
3. Get stronger hinge pins as these do bend quite easily
That cures the weak points and it will be fine and reliable. I have also done the following but it is not necessary as it is great out of the box:-
Replaced ESC with Hobbywing EZRUN 25A V2 (I like the ability to fiddle with the settings
)
Changed front steering servo with Ino-Lab 261 servo
RCMI 800mah Lipo packs
Rear shock tower mounted on the front
GWS 380 Motor heatsink
Phat Body
Front CVD's
Schumacher Rallyblock tyres in yellow and white
Schumacher Mini pins in yellow
Aluminium slipper pads
14T and 16T 0.5MOD 2mm shaft pinions for larger tracks
In preparation to run the car tonight I decided to do a strip down for the first time ever as I have just been turning up and running it. I found that the gearboxes were not running very free so I adjusted the shimming and output drive cups so the gearboxes run nice and smooth and I think this will make a lot of difference.
I had a FTX Blaze prior to the Carisma and I found I got on and did better with the Carisma on the first time out.