I finally got around to finishing up my build. Here are some thoughts purely from the standpoint of the build and the features the car has compared to the dex210 I've ran for the last 3 years:
Things I like:
-Transverse shorty battery layout. This is not an option on the 210 so I custom machined my own chassis for the 210 to do it. This battery layout is superior on dirt when running mid motor.
-The stock 78t spur helps get the motor further towards the back of the car compared to the typical 87t spur I'm used to seeing come with a kit (although I'll probably go even smaller on the spur to get the motor even further back)
-Stock 3 gear transmission. This keeps the car flatter and gives a more consistent and predictable driving feel when going from on to off power and vice versa.
-Long front arms. Every buggy based on the RC10 geometry (lots of them out there) have equal length arms front and rear. With the short VLA options, the 22 is now the same way. I personally think this is more of a design flaw, as has been pointed out by FredSwain. Because of the front kickup on a car, the front arms will experience more angular deflection than the rear arms given the same vertical wheel travel. This affects the roll center characteristics as the front RC will change faster than the rear RC for the same wheel travel. Cars with longer front arms fix this imbalance in RC change.
-Shocks. As others have said, they're pretty good, although I don't like everything about them. I'll get to that in the "Things I Don't Like" list.
-61mm wheel available. I've been dying to try these new style wheels since they came out, but they are completely unsupported on the 210.
-Pre-Cut body. I love this.
Things I don't like:
-No droop screws. The dex210 has external droop screws that are a huge convenience for setting up droop on the car. You don't have to tear the entire shock apart to change droop. Speaking of tearing the shocks apart...
-E-Clips. It's 2015. E-Clips must go. I don't think I can put into words how much I despise E-Clips. I mean, TLR eliminated E-Clips everywhere else on the car, why did they stop at the shocks? Was it an oversight? Laziness? I don't know. But building these shocks (and re-building as well) was a total pain in the ass because of these E-Clips. In typical E-Clip fashion, one shot off while I was trying to put it on and I had to spend about 5 minutes searching my floor before I found it. Why am I so riled up about this? Because on the Durango shocks I got used to for the past three years there are no E-Clips on the shock shaft. There is a washer that supports the piston from below and a button head screw that holds the piston in place from the top as shown below:
This is a superior design for two reason. 1) no frustrating E-Clips to deal with. 2) When you have to screw the shaft into the rod end, you can use a hex key to screw the shaft into the rod end rather than risk marring the shock shaft with pliers (which I ended up doing because the threads were so tight on the rod end).
-No inserts for steering axle adjustment or caster. Another thing I liked from the 210 that is absent on this car. I could use inserts to go from inline axles to 4mm traling in 1mm incriments. I could also go from 20° to 35° caster in 5° increments with inserts.
-Every pivot point on the suspension is different. Front inner: set screw holding the pins in place from the middle of the bulkhead. Front outer: shoulder screws. Rear inner: hinge pins held in place by the pivot blocks. Rear Outer: threaded hinge pin with nuts on each side. Is a little consistency too much to ask for here? I can't see a benefit other than complexity for the sake of complexity.
-Referencing screws in the assembly drawings by the TLR part number rather than their size. Really just a nit-picky thing that bugged me during the build.
-Why on Earth does the manual show the installation of the front body post when they give you velcro to hold the body in place? I built the car with the front body post, realized the velcro was in the kit, then had to take the front end off the car to remove the front body post. It's extra work that I would have liked to avoided.
Other notes/observations
-Weight. With a standard shorty, full size servo, Hobbywing v2.1 ESC, and 61mm wheels/tires my car weighs in at 1567g. I've seen some people in this thread claim close to/sub 1500g using standard electronics. I personally think they're full of it until they post pictures showing otherwise.
-Weight distribution. The car doesn't have as much rear weight bias as I initially hoped it might. As pictured below with my electronics layout, the car has a 62.9% weight bias. My 210 really felt good when I got it up to about 64% which I achieved with a transverse shorty layout and a 30g brass toe block.
-As others have noted, the front suspension binds a little. I'm not worried about it now as I expect it may free up after some track time.
-It looks like it wouldn't be too hard to make a carbon fiber chassis to bring down the weight.
Reading over what I have written, I sound more critical of the car than what I initially thought I was going to write. However, I am still pleased with the car for one reason: support. The durango had no local parts support, very little aftermarket support, their own silly hex size, and no hexes in the front. I got fed up with race day ending crashes because I broke an obscure part I didn't carry a spare of, and of the huge limitation 14mm hexes and no front hex imposed on wheel/tire choice. It's easy to bum a buddy's set to try before you buy if you have 12mm. I bought this car for the support it has, I just wish some of the design features were as well thought out as the dex210.
I plan on getting the car to the track tomorrow evening with the stock setup. I have no doubt the car will live up to the hype at that point and I'll probably forget about all the other things I don't like.