niznai

Tamiya's part backup is basically shit everywhere outside america and Japan, and yes, I have been to all these paces and visited the hobby shops.

And yes, I agree, there's little that can measure against the Xray in durability.

And I think they're one of the more innovative companies having created above all their own style of car which is instantly recognisable amongst others.

oldenuff

iTrader: (2)

hi guys, durability and ease of use are the reasons i run Xray, but more should be done in the initial package to make them 'premium' ,Xray markets this car as a luxury touring car yet it comes out of the box missing the go faster bits and with some substandard parts like the weak plastic spool outdrives,?. I will continue to use xray regardless but refuse to pay premium price for a car that is not quite there until you spend even more to make it in my opinion the best all round 1/10 tc. If money wasn't an issue it would be easy, but money is tight enough so i will continue buying used t4 rollers and parts from overseas ( china ) to stretch my dollar further, but if all the upgrades came in a new package only slightly above current price i would be tempted, this is what i would like to see..... but i wont be holding my breath!
cheers
oldenuff

chasingthepack

i hear the same story over and over regarding dcj's/ecs and tbh i wouldnt want them as kit items,they are too weak for the average racer,i now use spec r dcj shafts that hold up better than the xray ecs's
after the ecs there is nothing more needed in a kit imho

the ars is a fad that will go away again imo

oldenuff

iTrader: (2)

hi guys, Ecs are a near essential item for racers using the front spool which is most people, everyone upgrades them which is true, why are they not included? i have found the genuine ecs to be quite durable not perfect but better then some other cheaper options, also for spool people the quality of the plastic out drive cups is poor, why not the steel outdrives as standard?, these are 2 upgrades which are essential but the cost of these is about 1/5th to 1/4 of a full kit!, on top of this the rear hard coat shafts are good but not as good as the spring steel shafts which only cost a little extra but to buy separate is a decent chunk of cash , i have broken 2 hardcoat shafts ( one during a race )and not 1 spring steel shafts to date ( touch wood ). i know this is where they make there money but these 3 upgrades are closing in on a third of the price of a full kit! but it doesn't end there... little things like the front bumper brace while not necessary are annoying to feel u should get but when everyone else is what do you do ? same goes with low friction belts and ceramic bearings ( i refuse to go ceramic to much $). I know this is a 'luxury' car and the best in my humble opinion,
but why cant it be greater from the beginning and not having to spend way to much to make the car how it should be in the first place, i am not the only one who thinks this way and for good reason, there is only so much u can milk the cow before u run out of ...
this thread is all about what we would like to see from a new kit.
This is my vote and i am sticking to it.
This is only an opinion so don't crucify me.
so Xray please release a premium, luxury car without the catch
cheers
oldenuff

niznai

The thing with Xray is that they do use some premium materials, like aircraft grade aluminium, spring steel, and perhaps better plastics. These are not cheap. I don't think DCJ driveshafts cost that much to manufacture, but they certainly aren't cheap. If you look around, pretty much all OEM parts are at similar price points. The problem might be that some parts are over engineered in a way that isn't really necessary whilst under engineered in a way that is important (perhaps spring steel is not really necessary for driveshafts, but thicker pins are - just an example). On the other hand the durability comes from using these higher grade materials, so I guess we're right back at the beginning. To compare with Tamiya, their aluminium tie rod links are so soft they'll bend if you sneeze at them, hinge pin end balls I found have burrs from manufacturing and suspension hinge pin holders (and everything else alloy) are a very soft aluminium, not a harder alloy. Xray at the very least has (or used to have) a tough coating on the parts (I'll admit they seem to have slipped the occasional run of the mill alloy/coating every now and then). Cost/price is king and if anyone can save a penny, they will.

theproffesor

iTrader: (66)

VBC Dynamics D06. Aluminum chassis and stock chassis, dcj's, extra tuning parts in the box. All for the same price a stock x-ray. Dont get me wrong x-ray is great. Very durable, easy to tune and work on, and a much better distribution network than most. Xray is starting to get to an odd spot. While being a great car, they are in a precarious price point. Just a bit more expensive than ae, vbc, and some others, but a little cheaper, but not quite awesomeatix caliber. They should iether offer more in a kit for about the same price, come down on price, or step it up and build the next awesomatix. With there following of super loyal customers, (some almost as diehard as apple fans) I think they could should go the awesomatix route and make a $700 car.

porsche928gs

You are so wrong. If anything this is the feature on the bd7 2014 everybody wants to copy. The motor mount on this car makes the chassis flex evenly. I'm not sure what is the problem with the guys bd7 2014 at your track but is not the design of the car, must be setup.

thecaptain

iTrader: (177)

Well trying to keep up on who wins what races. It does look like timaya has a better asphalt car than xray. However the xray is much better on carpet (at least higher bite carpet). If you know the car you can make it go fast with enough time. However I do believe that yokomo is in the mix as well, I think I've read them doing well on both carpet and asphalt (same as xray). Back onto the original thread topic, I think it would be nice to see some new ideas instead of some rebadged ones. Granted the manufacturers are copying each others ideas because they work well, but we essentially have been racing on the same platform since the tc5 era. Im not saying that its the same car, however what I am saying is that you can take a tc5 and run within a few .1's of say the t4'14. However the ability to drive more consistently is a big difference between the two, as well as being to set one up easier. Both of those would go to the xray. So yes the t4'14 is faster easier to set up and more consistent to drive than a tc5 but the design of the bulkheads,shock towers, top deck, chassis, is practically the same design that is refined. Lets see some innovation like the next floating servo mount, or the next battery tabs. The newest thing would be aluminum chassis, which I could be mistaken but xray did that and everyone else copied that. Things that others see are better and need to copy to stay at the peak of their game. Granted the aluminum chasiss isnt always a must however if used properly it can make your car faster. Lets see something new and innovative, that will change the r/c industry. Not extremely difficult to set up like an awesomatix but with sweet new designs like the awesomatix.

aussierevo

iTrader: (14)

Having raced the car for 6hrs on the weekend in an enduro race, I'd like to see a quick release or 1 screw diff changeover, be able to change pinions for stock and 21.5T blinky classes without having to remove the top deck and a way to tighten the belts without having to remove bulkheads etc.

other then that not one broken part, shocks/diff/outdrives did not miss a beat.

Qatmix

I managed 24hrs with a stock TT01 (with bearings) with no issues before

Dcj's are expected for a top kit, if you run a spool they help a lot. I would hope they come with the next kit as otherwise you need to add £40 to the kit price just to have expected race spec

PACaSteel

Just a few little quibbles to an excellent package:

+1 on a more accessible gear change. The current design takes a little too long to adjust the ratio on the fly between heats. Simply making a 88 or 84 tooth spur gear would go a long way to making me happy since I could run smaller pinion gears ( which apparently what the car is designed around ) and have better access than the big pinion gives me.

A better access to the Ft arm mounting balls for ARB. With the ball buried inside the arm it's one place I have difficulty getting at to free up the ball and socket. My suspension is free everywhere else but ball/cup friction here binds up consistent ARB load transfer. I end up spending up to an hour popping this thing on and off to try to resize the cup for a proper fit without binding.

Oddly enough, I'd like an optional weaker camber turn buckle specifically designed to fail. The front suspension is designed like a tank but you can still dent a tank with a big enough hammer. When I do happen to preform high speed crash testing on my Ft end, the failure point is usually deep and well concealed. If I bend a hinge pin, pop the top off a dog ear or crack a suspension part it might be difficult to find without a full tear down and offers me a wide variety of parts I need to spare. With a specific part design to fail first and is easy to inspect or change I would always have a quick check and easy fix for a hard hit with the peace of mind that if it's still straight and true,the rest of the suspension likely survived the hit as well

niznai

The camber link won't break in most situations simply because the strongest hits are from the front of the car, not the side. Suspension arm, hinge pin, hub and carrier take the brunt. You can break the tie rod though.

grippgoat

iTrader: (8)

Actually, Awesomatix started the current aluminum chassis trend.

-Mike

thecaptain

iTrader: (177)

Oh my bad but still a new innovation would be great.

PACaSteel

I discovered the hard bumper and graphite top bumper mount for head long charges into the boards. Recently I've been practicing side strikes for creative points. I want to master those before I try the more advanced backing in for rear end destruction

Never underestimate the combination of raw speed and bad reflexes