Originally Posted by
JBerk
Thanks, that is one I have overlooked. I know I saw a few people running them last weekend. HB was my very first truggy back in the early 2000's(lightning) that got me into racing. I have run about all brands at one point or another as well. I was really looking into the XRAY as it is about the only brand I have never run and was impressed with the one I was looking at(plus Hudy steel!). I like the saddle pack design of them and the Kyosho, but the previous gen Mugen was my favorite over the mp9tki and eb48 back around 2014. I know a lot has changed since then. I guess I will just put my old Mugen back on the track and see if any of these new cars really stand out in certain areas while racing. Will check out that HB though and talk to the guys I saw running them!! Thanks!
Saddle packs is a deal breaker for me. Many years ago I ran into premature battery failure and starting experiencing low voltage cutoffs from one pack draining faster than the other. Long story short, all my battery woes went away after ditching saddle packs and I vowed never to go back to them. If you choose to run saddle packs, it's very important to rotate them (left.right) between every use, more info here:
https://www.smc-racing.com/index.php...egory&path=166
XRAY makes a quality car, however the main reason I stopped running my 2015'XB8E was because I kept snapping the pivot ball off the steering plate and could not remove the threaded end left in the plate making for a very expensive repair so I ditched the kit after it happened a 3rd time in 3 months. Perhaps they've improved this design with the 2022 release. I also went through a fair share of front upper arms and swore off pivot ball steering systems which tend to raise durability issues for me, experienced the same with the AE I ran prior to XRAY. Not saying I won't go back to pivot balls, but I've been having really good luck with c-hubs lately and will probably stick with them for a while.