The rear upper bulkheads don't appear to have the same holes as the 2026 kit version in that picture.

i would love a shaft drive car but that would almost be a step backwards.

That's right, but you cannot be sure that's the car he ran with as they always have multiple cars on their stand, one or two to run and one for pictures... That's an old habit... Remember the time where TRF drivers were using Yokomo arms and parts... Not a lot of pictures exist to show that...

The Xray team were running standard '16 cars (plus the various available upgrades) at the final ETS round. With a table for applying controlled additive it's pretty hard to hide the car you're running.

I'm not expecting anything radical. It would be great to see something different, but we've yet to see anything radical that is actually a step forwards. Xray won both TC classes in the ETS with standard cars, across a 6-round series on carpet and asphalt.

Occasionally a manufacturer creates something that works well for certain track conditions (like the A700 being good on high-grip carpet). But across the whole range of tracks and conditions, the standard TC platform still seems to be the winner.

You obviously have not seen the Schumacher cars, which have changed significantly from one generation to the next in the last few years.

But I find it funny how people still confuse "novelty" with new.

Tamiya is the least innovative of all manufacturers. They are doing novelty cars things with irrelevant product lines because it doesn't matter and they keep their fanboys happy by taking their money. At top level, nobody takes big risks (save for the soon to be released Serpent, which will be interesting to follow if it is going to be a trailblazer or another dead end). Just look at the TRF cars. The most bland cars on the market right now.

Not to mention the novelty you speak of is not that new either. Kawada has had more than three generations of top notch single belt, centralised chassies back 10-15 years ago. Others have done it even before that.

Then again, you have newcomers like Gizmo but these people have a long way to go before you can call their platform proven and they use a lot of already existing parts from other manufacturers (which seems to have become a burden for their supply chain as I predicted some time ago - but let's hope this is just a momentary hiccup and they move to 100% in-house production - no mean feat for a small company).

Even Awesomatix moved away from their initially over engineered cars aimed at capitalising on the superior efficiency of shaft drive simply because they found some problems can't be solved within the constraints of acceptable cost AND have the car competitive at the same time.

And you can also take a look at Capricorn who have a really nice car with innovative suspension holders and minimal footprint bulkheads.

As far as I see, the name of the game is symmetry, and I think Xray doesn't have much to do. Maybe do away with the battery tape slots.

Apart from that, everybody seems focused on minor tweaks, perhaps more to do with streamlining production and minimising costs, especially in the current economic climate.

Established companies like Xray, Tamiya and Yokomo have been iterating the same design for 15+ years now. Think about the countless hours of testing and engineering that have gone into making the cars as they are today. Cars that work well on every surface, from the highest grip carpet to dusty parking lots. None of these design decisions were an accident. They came about because of knowledge that was earned at great expense, sending drivers to every corner of the planet to test their cars in every condition imaginable. There's no way they're going to throw that all away and start fresh.

The only thing we've really seen happen is that some of the more radical designs have shown glimpses of being very competitive in specific conditions. It's possible that traditional sedans may be vulnerable to cars that are purpose built for a certain surface, or certain kinds of traction.

I don't think the on-road market is big enough for a company to justify two different platforms for different surfaces like you're seeing happen with off-road cars. So until that happens, your choices are going to be general purpose cars with safe designs that work everywhere, perhaps with some compromises, and specialty cars that work extremely well under a much smaller set of conditions, also with compromises.

Also consider that the companies making traditional sedans have the deepest pockets, and can afford to pay the best racers. Even if a smaller company did produce a superior car, we may not fully realize it since they can't afford the drivers to show what it's capable of at the highest level.

From China News T4'17 had new Chassis , Motor Mount & Servo Mount

No you can't be sure. But the fact photos exist of actual new/protype parts (the servo mount, and the shaved bulkheads on Bruno's car) gives a good indication of the level of development.

As for the last comment, that kind of proves the point. There were zero photos then, just as photos of TRF cars for the 6months before the 419X were virtually non existent.

But in this case, Xray are happy to have the cars photographed.

And as said, with control goop stations, it makes it bloody hard to hide anyway.

Hopefully he new chassis is still backward compatible!

The motor mount on the photo doesn't have the M3 nut and it looks like that the mount is bolted straight to the chassis.
The other thing what I noticed is that it looks like there is some space between the layshaft holder and the upper deck, without raising the upper deck.
But on the end we all can't know the changes to the production version. He is running probably many different incarnations of prototypes and only few will be used on the end.

Anyone have more images?

Hag berg has posted a pic of allegedly is the new '17 on his Facebook. As expected, very minor changes it seems.

Yep. Can't see servo or motor mount properly.

Interesting to see he has done like me and removed the carbon pieces from the battery retainers. I broke one of mine and actually like it better with just the alloy adjustable piece

Preview announced for August 24th by Xray at the worlds

Bumping this thread as it has the name correct, unlike the other one...