Well I got to drive my Xi lastnight and while the race outcome was less than ideal (I will cover that more later, lol!), the car blew me away.
I was astonished to find that it was actually more nimble than my XL was. I have a permanent track I drive on so it allows me to get a good comparison to the differences between the chassis. Being a longer chassis I expected it to be lazy and unstable in the chicane. Big NOPE there!
It was actually faster to respond off center than my XL was and blasted through the chicane with ease. It actually felt more stable going through the chicane than my XL did.
I KNEW having the battery in a TRUE inline configuration was going to be good...but it blew me away at how stable and nimble this car is.
The racing outcome was less than ideal, and not due to the performance of the car. In fact, I got to give the new front end a gnarly bearing blaster test. LOL! So here I am, 1min into the race and was leading it with a good margin from the tone. Was clean the whole way and getting deeply in the zone. Made it through the infield and came onto the short straight in front of the drivers stand approaching the bus turn. For starters, anyone watching that race got to see how I enter that turn....full wick and strapped. Because you see my steering servo decided it was done turning and never even tried to respond to my input. As ballistic as a 17.5 blinky can be....I covered the 15ft distance from corner entry to the wall and hit it with such velocity that my car actually rebounded back about 12ft! Race done for the night.
Got back to the pits, my servo was completely frozen, still powered and 'working' as you could apply torque to the wheels by hand and hear the servo responding with the usual 'binding' buzz. Just did not respond in any way to steering input. Somehow I toasted that one. BUT, the only thing I did to my car....bound up the rear pod ofcourse and stripped my spur gear due to the motor slipping in the mount. Didn't blow out front bearings!!!
Love this car and can't wait to get some more time with it tomorrow and Donny's!