“Luxury” touring? Most high-end touring-car kits are billed as “high-performance,” or “competition,” or “racing,” but the luxury touring concept is something new, and so far, the exclusive domain of XRAY and its first kit, the T1. But don’t look for any Corinthian leather seats or a landau top; for XRAY, “luxury” means the T1 is designed to be completely and easily adjustable, built with only the finest materials and manufactured with exacting precision and includes bonus items that truly are luxuries like a glossy, full-color manual, comprehensive and lavishly illustrated tuning guide and membership in an online VIP club, complete with impressive card and a member number. Is a ticket to the winners’ circle included, too?

KIT FEATURES • Chassis. When you open the T1’s box, you are greeted by an assembled chassis. You’ll have to take it apart to finish building the car, but it’s a nice presentation and shows off the heart of the T1. The graphite main chassis is slotted to accept 3 cells on the right side, and five slots are available on the right to help tune the T1’s weight distribution by moving the left trio of cells fore and aft. Both the main chassis and the slim upper deck are precisely cut and are joined by 5mm, hard-coated T6 duralumin bulkheads via countersunk screws. The upper deck is keyed to reliefs in the bulkheads, and three screws in each bulkhead hold them on the main chassis. The setup is rock-solid, and because of the precisely machined flat bottoms on the bulkheads, the keyed upper deck and the centering effect of the countersunk hardware, the T1 shouldn’t take a tweak easily. XRAY’s trademark battery hold-down system is my favorite chassis feature. Graphite straps swing on ball pivots to capture the pack, and knurled thumbscrews cinch the straps down against the cells. Here’s the real beauty of the system: the thumb screws are fixed to the graphite straps, so there are no loose parts to roll off your bench or otherwise disappear, and the hardware you need to secure the pack is always right where you need it—because it never leaves the car. A foam front bumper is included, and it’s supported from below by a structural plastic bumper on the lower chassis plate and a graphite support plate on top.

• Drive train.

Dual-belt drive trains are nothing new, but the T1 might have the best 2-belt system in touring. Let’s start with the diffs. Of course, ball differentials are used. The outdrives are light-weight aluminum that’s hard-coated for extra strength and wear resistance. Building the diffs is simple because XRAY assembles the thrust bearings and installs them in the outdrives, where they are secured by C-clips. When it’s time to rebuild the T1’s diffs, the thrust bearings won’t fall apart as soon as you remove the diff screw. The diff screw itself is made of spring steel and has a hole bored through the head instead of a slot or a hex. The hole lines up with a hole in the outdrive in which the screw is installed, and that allows an Allen wrench to be passed through the outdrive and diff screw to hold the components for diff adjustments; just turn the wheel opposite the diff screw to adjust the differential.

The diff’s internal parts are unique. Instead of thin, stamped-out diff rings, the XRAY rings are machined and very thick. Combined with the included carbide diff balls (12 per diff), the T1’s diffs operate with silky precision even when socked down tightly. They should maintain that feel longer than other diffs thanks to the snap-on pulley flanges that incorporate labyrinth seals to keep grit and carpet fuzz out of the diff balls and rings. The flanges fit very closely to the outdrives (but don’t rub), making it tough for nasty stuff to enter.

Like other 2-belt tourers’, the T1 drive train is spun by a spur gear and layshaft that are mounted over the motor, but the XRAY car is separated from the pack by its less obvious details. Instead of a solid shaft, the T1 shaft is hollow spring steel made for XRAY by Hudy. In addition to saving weight, hollow construction increases the diameter of the shaft. This allows a larger one-way bearing to be fitted to the front belt pulley, which is stronger than a smaller-diameter bearing. The T1’s one-way is also adjustable: by tightening a plastic nut against the pulley, it can be set for any amount of slip from complete lock-up (for full-time 4WD); or back it away from the pulley for free-spinning one-way action. A Kimbrough spur gear is included and is attached to an aluminum flange that is pressed onto the layshaft. This further reduces weight by eliminating the thick shoulder required to support a crosspin, and the parts spin absolutely true.

Even the T1’s drive axles are trick. The shafts are made of spring steel (by Hudy, as are all of the T1’s spring-steel parts) and use plastic pads (much like Schumacher’s Blade design) to reduce wear on the aluminum outdrives. The universal joints are incorporated into 10mm-diameter, hard-coated aluminum stub axles that have integrated hex hubs. There aren’t any plastic hubs or crosspins to lose, and because the hubs are machined with the axle, there’s no runout.

The only thing XRAY seems to have left out is a belt-tensioning system; there’s a “belt tensioner set” listed as an option, but I would expect any competition touring car, and especially a luxury touring car, to include a front belt tensioner at the very least.

• Suspension and steering.

XRAY specs a mono-crank steering system for the T1. The bellcrank pivots on ball bearings that fit into plastic cups that are pressed into the upper and lower chassis decks, and a cam-type servo-saver is built into the system. Surprisingly, the spring tension on the servo-saver is not adjustable, but it is stiff. Spring-steel turnbuckles reach out to the front wheels, and even the short link that joins the steering servo to the bellcrank is a turnbuckle. XRAY didn’t skimp on the servo mounts, either; plastic mounts would have been just fine, but the T1’s aluminum mounts are a nice touch.

Pivot-ball suspension continues to gain popularity, and XRAY makes good use of the technology for the T1. The broad strokes of the suspension are the same as other pivot ball designs’; the steering hubs each have one upper and one lower ball, and the rear hub carriers each have two lower balls and an upper camber link (a spring-steel turnbuckle, to be exact). But, once again, it’s the details that matter. All the parts are beautifully made and finished. The pivot balls are machined and polished and fit the plastic retainer pads and aluminum retainers precisely. The plastic steering hubs and rear hub carriers have very clean threads that make it easy to install the retainers straight for a free movement of the parts without slop.

The T1 suspension arms incorporate droop screws and use captured hinge pins. The rear arms can be slid fore and aft on their hinge pins to adjust wheelbase in a 9mm range, and clip-on spacers are provided to hold the setting. To prevent wheelbase changes from altering rear camber, the inboard camber-link pivots telescope to compensate for wheelbase settings. In a similar fashion, the front upper arms can be slid back and forth to set caster between 0.6 degree and 11.5 degrees, and clip-on spacers hold the adjustment.

For total tuneability, the T1 can be purchased with a one-way front diff in addition to the standard front and rear ball diffs. This is the T1’s layshaft assembly. The large-diameter shaft is made of very hard spring steel, so the one-way bearing (hidden inside the pulley with the wide shoulder) can grab it without brinneling the shaft. To reduce weight, the shaft is hollow. The ribbed nut and Belleville washers adjust tension on the one-way to control its action. It can be set for full-time 4WD or left completely free for fast tracks—or anywhere in between. The Kimbrough spur gear is standard equipment.
	The compact universals feature large-diameter, hard-coated aluminum stub axles with integrated hex hubs. The dogbones are made of spring steel and use padded drive pins for long wear on the hard-coated aluminum diff outdrives.
	The manual is in full color, and the 31-page setup book is a fantastic guide to touring car tuning. The VIP card and Certificate of Authenticity get you access to Team X-NET at www.teamxray.com and the XRAY VIP Room at www.myTSN.com (the Serpent site).

Hinge-pin angle can also be changed to alter front arm kick-up (“anti-dive”) and rear anti-squat settings. There are two positions for the forward hinge-pin mount on each bulkhead: the lower position yields zero degrees of kick-up or anti-squat, and the upper position changes the setting to 3 degrees. Naturally, camber is easily adjusted via the rear turnbuckles or by changing the depth of the front pivot balls, and rear toe can also be altered in any amount.

• Body, wheels and tires

. XRAY leaves body selection up to you but does supply trick body mounts. Steel pins are pressed into the holes at the height your body choice requires, then pivoting “feet” snap over the pins. Foam donuts pad the feet and prevent the body from chattering. I tested it with a Protoform Chrysler 300M shell painted by LaDoug Graffix. Tire and insert choices are left to the builder, but wheels are supplied. They’re one-piece, white, 6-spokers with zero offset, and I set them up with Pro-Line H13 rubber and Jaco medium inserts

BUILDING & SETUP TIPS

The T1 is a genuine pleasure to build. All the parts fit together perfectly, and the materials are first-rate. Excellent instructions help, too; the very well-thought-out, full-color, computer-illustrated manual includes full-size parts legends, exploded views of each assembly and ample written instructions. But there’s always a little something to add after building a kit, so here goes...


BUY A CALIPER. You can put the T1 together without a digital caliper, but you’ll have a much better build if you invest in one. For setting the depth of the pivot balls and shock-mounting studs, adjusting the offset of the rear camber pivots, setting ride height and dialing in many of the T1’s other adjustments, a digital caliper is indispensable.


LAYSHAFT ASSEMBLY. The spacer that fits between the bearing in the bulkhead and the one-way pulley has a thin lip on one side; the lip should face the bearing.


ONE-WAY ADJUSTMENT-NUT INSTALLATION. The nut is threaded on tightly to prevent it from loosening, but it’s easy to confuse “tight” and “cross-threaded.” If you swipe the layshaft threads with a little soap before you install the nut, it will be easier to thread, but the nut will still grab tightly enough to hold its adjustment.


HINGE-PIN SETSCREWS. When installing the setscrews that fit in the arms over the hinge pins, just tighten them until they’re flush with the top of the arm. Much tighter than that, and you may strip the hole in the arm.


SHOCK ASSEMBLY. The instructions say that you should carefully note the orientation of the piston halves shown in the illustration, but they don’t point out exactly what it is about their orientation that you need to note. Make certain the “tooth” on the upper piston half fits into one of the four detents on the lower piston half. It doesn’t matter which one; you can adjust it later. But resist the temptation to try out the external-adjustability feature before you’ve filled the shocks with fluid; the pistons need the lubricating effect of the fluid to operate properly.

PERFORMANCE

Unsurprisingly, the T1 was rocket-quick off the line with 10-double power, and it had no trouble lighting up all four H13 tires from a standing start. Even with the tires breaking traction, the T1 launched straight and didn’t require any steering corrections. As the battery pack lost its just-peaked edge and the tires heated up, the T1 gained traction and began to show its true handling tendencies. As set up according to the manual and with the one-way system set for full-time 4WD, the XRAY turned in predictably with mild understeer that was easily overcome by easing off the throttle; and judging by its equal cornering radiuses when turning left or right on power, the T1 showed no tweak. I don’t mind a little understeer, but with so many available tuning possibilities, there’s no reason not to try to get a slightly more aggressive feel into the car. I reached for the one-way adjustment first and dialed it out so the front pulley would freewheel. The car felt “freed up” when I eased off the throttle, and it did turn in harder, but it still pushed slightly through the turns on power. Braking suffered, since the front wheels simply freewheeled, and it was all too easy to lock up the rear wheels and spin the car. As a compromise, I tightened up the one-way to what felt like “half tight,” and that gave the T1 much more controllable braking and still helped with turn-in.

I decided to try a damping change next: I popped off the front lower shock eyelets to access the external damping adjustment. I had all four shocks set for maximum damping, so I backed out the front shocks one “click.” Now the T1 had almost no push, and on entering a corner too hot, it slid wide but the direction in which its nose was pointing didn’t change. I returned to the pit table, took another “click” out of all four shocks to make the suspension more active, and then went back out. Both ends of the car now stuck better, so it took more speed to break the tires loose, but the T1 maintained a predictable slide that let me know when the limits of traction had been exceeded—not bad for about 10 minutes’ worth of testing and not a single trip to the toolbox.

I was satisfied with the way the XRAY was handling, so I concentrated on getting packs through the car. Somewhere during the third pack, it occurred to me that I hadn’t even thought about the belts, which feel a bit loose when new and are sure to stretch with use. The belts were indeed floppy-loose, but they didn’t skip. I’d still like to see a tensioner included with the T1, but I’m glad the car doesn’t absolutely need one to run properly.

My test track was laid out with lumber, and the XRAY shrugged off the broadside taps most of us encounter occasionally (some of us more often than others) when trying to get through the woodwork quickly. The T1 didn’t take a tweak even during some pretty good whacks, but when I was distracted by an onlooker’s questions, I took my eyes off the car and really drilled it. Somewhere between “How fast does it go?” and “What does it cost?,” I drove the T1 directly into the boards, wide open. Ouch. The front wheels pointed at the odd angles usually associated with broken suspension arms, and only one steered; it didn’t look good. I removed the body (after popping the nose back out) and expected the worst, but there wasn’t any catastrophic breakage. The left tie rod had popped off, and the servo horn slipped on its output shaft. After I had popped the ball cup back on and reinstalled the servo horn, the only indication that the car had been crashed so hard was the wrinkled Chrysler bodywork and a little play in the left steering hub, which was fixed with a twist of the hub’s pivot-ball retainers. You can’t beat that.

Hard-coated aluminum outdrives, thick micro-finish steel diff rings, carbide balls and labyrinth-seal flanges make a smooth set of diffs. The thrust bearings are factory installed and secured by a snap ring, so you won’t have to worry about losing the tiny thrust balls whenever you take the diff apart.
This is how the T1 chassis rolls out of the box. You’ll have to pull it apart to build the kit, though.

Above left: XRAY doesn’t include these trick chassis weights with the T1, but they’re too cool not to show. The bar weights fit in the center of the chassis, just behind the bellcranks. Above Right: this shot illustrates the T1’s highly adjustable wheelbase. In addition to the setscrews, clip-on spacers hold the setting you prefer. Left: adjusting the diffs is as simple as slipping a wrench through the outdrive and turning the opposite wheel.

THE VERDICT

Is anyone really surprised that the T1 works well? After all, XRAY didn’t skimp on any of the materials or features, and just look at the thing. Exactly how well the T1 will hold up on a racetrack against the other cars in the pro touring category remains to be seen, but you won’t have to wait long; we’re testing 11 of the best machines in a super shootout for the next issue. But until then, the XRAY T1 feels as fast as anything else I’ve driven; it has enough tuning features to go fast on any surface, and its easy adjustment makes using those features a pleasure instead of a pain. And if you’re not up to speed with touring tuning, the T1’s included setup manual will turn you into a road scholar. If you want your T1 to be a “luxury” car, I say put a Cadillac body on it; to me, the T1 is nothing less than a no- compromise real race car.

Above left: Boing! The T1’s rear shocks look a little off-roady, but once the droop has been set, the longish dampers are dialed down to a reasonable travel range. Above Right: I used a Hudy setting system to dial in my T1 as suggested by the manual, but if you build the kit carefully and use a caliper to set the pivot-ball depths and turnbuckle lengths, you can get it just about perfect without ever strapping a gauge onto the axles. Left: We’ve all seen pivot balls before, but the T1’s gleaming pivots are works of art and operate flawlessly. Note that the hex hub is tapped to accept a bolt, instead of having a protruding stub axle.