AdrianM

iTrader: (4)

Why? Everything Apple and Samsung makes as well as just about every electronic device in your house is made in China. The China as well as Singapore, Malaysia, So. Korea and Vietnam all can turn out high precision parts. You just have to pay a little more and conduct regular QA checks. Everyone that does business with the far East is pretty good at doing this by now.

Pictures of Xray alloy parts and boxes on pallets from a friend on a scouting trip in China a couple years ago.

Serpenteer

I see.

You forgot to add to your list that Team Drivers, R&D and support cost money. Prototypes, trial and error and many other stuff are included in the price tag we pay.

If I was XRAY, I'd be pissed to see my complete car being produced by someone else.

I don't think it matters much. By September, we'll see a 2014 T4 car.

Out of the budget cars, being Spec R, ARC10 and this, I'd probably get this.

defcone

iTrader: (15)

Having bought both spec r and cso products, I highly doubt they manufacture products for Xray lol.

PitNamedGordie

iTrader: (8)

Xray manufactures their own parts...

AdrianM

iTrader: (4)

Thanks for clearing this up. I see this facility went on line in 2007. The pics I saw of parts in China were before that. If I recall they were T2 alloy parts. I just assumed nothing had changed. My mistake.

RC MARKET

iTrader: (12)

CSO released Option Parts Center Layshaft Clamp

SH

iTrader: (20)

The pictures you seen or claim to have seen may have been pallets off loaded from a container for the local distributor.

Hudy/Xray have not manufactured outside of slovakia ever.

B.C.Ninja

OK well enough China Bashing for the meantime eh, anyway there have been a lot of countries in the world that have no trouble hitting China up for money when they are broke, including the US. So back on topic, is there anyone out there that has this kit and can give potential buyers a bit of a run down on build quality and handling etc, it has a very attractive price tag and to be honest is another step in the right direction to keep the local clubs blossoming with new drivers.

duckman996

iTrader: (14)

Got to see one first hand today. it was a lot better then I was expecting. Steering rack has some slop in it but can be fixed with a little time with it (CA glue on bearing races should fix that up). Handling wise the car is pretty stable until I cracked a chub with a tough hit. car seemed pretty decent. Was a fellow racers in the area. For the money, not a bad car at all. I would upgrade some parts for mod racing but for blinky 17.5.... might be good enough. Fit and finish was not Xray or Serpent quality but not a dogs beakfast either.

Team_Krusty

iTrader: (3)

Thanks rc market, the car arrived yesterday and I began assembly today.

First impressions were good. Fit and finish of the kit appears very good for the money. No worse than a number of more expensive kits I have built. Instructions are rubbish so you'll want to have some experience building kits or get some help if you are new to building rc cars.

Anyway here is a bit on the build.

Diff/spool is 1st and the feel of the rear diff is very smooth. Kit comes with 1000wt (according to the bottle) oil and fingers crossed it doesn't leak The spool was not fully threaded to secure the outdrives but that was easily fixed with a drill bit.

The build sequence is a little different from previous kits (top deck is on before you start mounting arms and steering mechanism) but I follow the the very limited instructions anyway. Note the instructions are a bit blury and the diagrams unclear in black and white and overall appear nothing more than a low quality photocopy. Building experience will get you through but will be tough for a beginner.

I finish the diff, spool, bulkheads and front end and everything has a very nice fit. The arms are nice and free and I don't have any slop in my steering like the previous comment. Struck a problem when I got to building the rear end though.

Mounted the rear arms but they were a touch tight. Quick light sanding and they are very free with no play. Went to mount the cvd's in the uprights and hit a snag... My kit has no rear uprights.....

I haven't looked at the low profile shocks yet as I figured I'd stop there but hopefully everything is there. The low profile shocks look very small in the bag.

Even with the missing rear uprights (which I'll advise cso about and see if something else fits in the mean time) I'd still give the kit a 7/10 considering cost. Would have loved to give it a run and then provide u all with a complete review but that can't happen without all the bits lol. For a very early production kit though things look good.

Simple things I'd work on if I was cso:
- higher quality detailed instructions. The price point for this kit is great for beginners. The instructions however are useless for a beginner.
- number the bags to simplify the build
- quality control to ensure kits are complete.

So assuming my missing bits are not the norm and allowing for the fact I haven't put the car on the track yet I'm still impressed with what I got for $300 including shipping.

Regards,

Simon

mjw

I finished the build on mine last night and will be hitting the track tomorrow. It went together easy enough and compared to the Corally RDX, Phi '08, and Phi '09 cars I just sold, it isn't far off for build quality. I've seen just as much slop in a Tamiya 417. The finish may not be smooth on all the aluminum pieces, but it fit together really good. I had to ream out a couple arms so the hinge pins went in smooth, but that took all of 2 minutes. The biggest complaint I'd have with this kit would be the manual. It's mostly just made up of parts lists and exploded views. If I'd never taken a touring car apart before then I would have been lost many times. The Xray T4 manual does make a good addition to this manual with it's hints and tips.

When I take mine out tomorrow there should be 2 more on the track as well, both much better drivers than me. We'll be running then in Touring 17.5 Blinky.

Mike

Team_Krusty

iTrader: (3)

Decided to finish most of the build (shocks etc) this morning regardless of the missing rear uprights. Again very impressed with the quality. The pistons needed a light sand around the edge to get them nice and smooth in the shock body but they built really well and I had consistent rebound without even trying. Hardest bit for me was building small low profile shocks with my big clumsy hands lol.

I'll dig through some friends spares to get the car running as it looks like either xray or Sakura rear uprights are identical.

Having built a few kits that use this type of arm/pin design (ie serpent), I wouldn't bother reaming out the arms like Mike has done. It probably wont hurt but may create extra movement in the arm. The arm rotation should come from the pins/balls in the blocks, not the arm around the pin.

Regards,

Simon

duckman996

iTrader: (14)

A real test would include a modified motor..... see you tmrw

Martin

429racer

iTrader: (19)

Please keep us informed on your opinions and thoughts.

mjw

I'd break anything with a modified motor.

Mike