There is debate on the scale of this truck. The body alone is 1:10 scale, but if you go by the size of the entire truck it's about 1:8 because the tires are so big.
The truck is more of a hybrid, traxxas didn't intend for it to only be a rock crawler, and the truck is a lot faster than a rock crawler too. Plus if u would see that rock crawlers tend to do better with thinner tires than fat ones like the summit come stock with, another reason why traxxas didn't want it to only be a rock crawler. The thing does great in mud.
mta people who are tinking on buying a 1/16 summit - the 1/16 is a good little beast great foe people who have a limited amount of surfaces such as you live in an astate with only tarmak but the vxl misses 1 big thing that the 1/8 summit is well known for, locking diffs. SO if u have lots of mud, rocks, bumpy dirt and the money i would strongly suggest 1/8 summit but for smaller rocks and mud ect... 1/16 but dont get me wrong 1/16 can do almost all that the 1/8 can but nowhere near as good. :)
