We finally got our hands on one of these to test them out. These machines are (were) commonly sold through Walmart or Sam's Club. It's kind of a hard one to rate because it has a lot of pros to it and some significant cons. Looks wise, it is a good looking machine. It is very well built with generally solid construction. The only indication of poor construction was the in the chain cover. It had broke from vibrations which is typically a sign of cheap metal but no other area of the buggy showed any sign of that. In fact, the fact that the chain cover was still there is somewhat impressive since a lot of them tend to fall off and are never seen again. None the less, a quick weld and it was back intact.
Performance wise, this is one of the machines that carry the awesome Howhitt GY6 which some say has a forged bottom end. I can't verify that myself but these are excellent running 150's with plenty of power. If you are doing trails, these are some good torque generating machines. One of the cons, however, is the internal gearing they use is pretty short. This is the same engine mill that comes on the Yerf SpyderBox and like that machine, the top end is limited because of the internal gearing to slightly less than 30mph so in a long race, you are going to get spanked by many others but the crossfire will tear up most in short trail riding.
This machine shines in the handling department. The a-arm design and the width of the front end make for a very stable machine at and speed. One of the better handling machines that we have ever tested. Big A+ for this. The general ride was pretty good but not as great as most of the other buggies. They didn't shine as being a problem though and in fact the long shocks on the front are pretty good. Just not a lot of dampening on the rears.
Despite the large size of the machine, cabin room is about the same as most other buggies. Very large guys may be a little cramped. The more-comfortable-than-others seats are adjustable on the drivers side and well suited for kids. This is a pretty big machine lengthwise too. The possibly downside to that would be that it may not be as nimble in tighter trails when you compare it to the more conventional shorter wheelbase machines. This also brings us to one of the major drawbacks to this machine....which may be a deal breaker for some: No reverse!
If you combine the long wheelbase with the no reverse, this could be a drag to deal with under certain riding conditions. You'll have to consider your environment.
One of the other downsides is the lack of front disk brakes. I can't say though that I found this to be a big problem. The rear disk brake setup is kind of unique compared to others. Instead of having a front mounted mastercylinder at the pedal, the pedal drives a rod that actuates a rear mounted mastercylinder. At any rate, the brakes were ok.
This buggy also has a parking brake and headlights however when we bought it, the headlights didn't work. We put new bulbs in them and they worked...then we rode it around the track and they didn't work again. Crossfire advertises these as "automatic" headlights. What that means is they run them off of their own circuit on the stator and there doesn't appear to be good voltage regulation on that circuit. Granted, maybe the 35w bulbs we used were to small which allowed an abundance of electricity or something. Don't know for sure.
Because of the extreme combination of pros and cons on this machine, I am going to rate this machine with a half-point which I have never done before. It is one of the best handling machines with excellent power however the lack of reverse is a heavy drawback to me.
Pros: Great handling, tons of power
Cons: No reverse!
Overall BuggyMasters Rating: 6.5 out of 10