Essential Tools: Fastrax 614 & 618 Changeable Driver Set Review

There are several tools that every RC Car owner should have in their tool kit and indeed carry with them when they take their RC Car or Truck to the track or go bashing, such as the industry standard Tamiya Box Spanner, a set of pliers, cable ties and of course, a selection of screwdrivers and hex wrenches/drivers. Hauling that little lot around with you as well as your car, batteries, transmitter and your lunch though and you can soon end up looking like you’re going on a 6 month vacation!

I’d recently been on the lookout for a new set of hex drivers myself as my old ones were getting a little tired and worn out. The bits would never seem to be a proper fit in the hex screws anymore and my screwdrivers seem to travel better my DIY toolbox and my RC toolbox with alarming regularity, so I started to hunt around for a dedicated set for my RC Tool Kit.

Enter the Fastrax FAST614 and FAST618 Changeable Driver Sets!

I had a good browse of my favourite RC online stores and stumbled across a listing on eBay from RC-Bitz.com for the Fastrax FAST 614 – 7 Piece Driver set which contains 7 popular hex drivers and screwdrivers all in one! One handle – seven drivers! Perfect!

The handle in of the tool in the picture looked a little too plastic for my liking, but for the price, a bit less than £20 for the 7 Piece set, it seemed like a good gamble and to be honest it’s one that paid off. Comparable sets of separate drivers

The hollow handle is actually precision machined aluminium handle and it houses 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm and 3mm hex bits, along with two Phillips sizes and a slotted bit which fit all popular makes of modern RC car including Tamiya and Ansmann. The only exception I’ve found so far is the odd Hex screw on a couple of my Traxxas cars which are imperial sized.

To use the tool, simply select the driver you want and slide into the handle end where a pre-installed magnet keeps the bit securely in place. Pop the handle cap containing the other drivers back into the handle for safe keeping.

The drivers are held in place very securely by the magnet giving you confidence in the tool as you work, plus the plastic cap holding the other attachments keeps a very tight grip of the unused drivers, reducing the risk of you losing them.

Fastrax currently offer versions of this tool:

• FAST614 – 7 Piece Driver Set – 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm and 3mm hex wrench bits, two Phillips and a slotted screwdriver bit
• FAST618 – 4 Piece Driver Set – 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm and 3mm hex Wrench bits

Our Verdict?

Top marks all round. A superb tool that gets an incredible amount of use. The quality of the workmanship is excellent and the handle is comfortable to hold and easy to grip for stubborn screws. No more hunting round for separate hex wrenches when working on my cars. You can pretty much build an entire Tamiya RC car kit with this tool, a box spanner and a set of pliers! The bits are perhaps a little tight in the plastic cap and I find you have to remove the outer ones to be able to get the one that’s right in the centre but if you put the most often used bits in the outside holes you’ll save a little huffing and puffing

Fantastic service to from Martin at RC-Bitz.com.

Where can I get one?

Erm… If you haven’t guessed by now, any Fastrax stockist, but I’d personally recommend RC-Bitz.com.

More Essential Reading...