Product Review - XRAY - T1 | Radio Control Racenews | www.rcracenews.co.uk |
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XRAY - T1 . Believe the Hype ?
XRAY - T1
Never before has so much
hype surrounded the release of a radio controlled
racing car. Sure there have been cars before
it that have been eagerly awaited, cars
that have had hard acts to follow but never
before has one car had so much expection
surrounding it. Never has one car been so
lusted after by so many people before they
had ever even seen one. The clamour for
this car has been incredible and lets not
forget, this is XRAY's first production
car. Now, thats a LOT to live up to. |
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The car may be new but the XRAY company and the people behind it are most definitely not. Juraj Hudy, the founder
of XRAY built his first handbuilt RC cars in 1975 and continued to refine this until 1989 when the Hudy company was
started and shortly after started to produce high quality machined parts including components for Serpent.
In 1999 development of the T1 is started and in 2000 the XRAY company was formed.
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 | Countless hours of computer aided design and
analysis took place before prototypes were
built and tested on both tarmac and carpet
tracks, before the final design was chosen.
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This level of care continued through to the production of the tooling required to produce the car and the materials to be used in the final racecar. As well as the special spring steel that had been previously used on the Serpent cars, parts are also made from carbon composites and CNC milled Duraluminium.
| The basic design of the car utilises the tried
and tested twin deck chassis and twin belt
drivetrain. Although traditional in many ways,
XRAY have utilised the pillow ball wishbone
and hub system that is more commonly seen
on nitro cars and this provides limitless
variation in suspension geometry while providing
a slop free and strong assembly. |
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Throughout the design of the car, time and
again you can see this balance of the proven
and the innovative. The top layshaft features
a fully adjustable one-way pulley on a hollow
spring steel layshaft while the shock absorbers
are the familar units that can be seen on
the Serpent cars. These shocks feature a clever
4 way damping system that can be adjusted
on the car. |
Building this car is an extremely enjoyable experience. You will find no sprues of parts to be cut off and finished, everything is ready to fit, no holes to enlarge to fit hinge pins, no hand finishing is required at all. Actually that is not entirely true. The clips that are used for the 9mm adjustable
wheelbase need flattening on some wet and dry paper and the manual even points this out. On the subject of documentation, again this is like nothing you have ever seen. A CAD produced manual in full colour on glossy paper, a setup book that takes you through every adjustment on the car and the effects that will have and an interesting leaflet explaining how the T1 was developed and designed.
If I had to be critical of the build up, the only thing I could complain about are the shock absorbers, these need very careful building and can take some time to do correctly but with patience and care they build up to a smooth and adjustable set of shocks absorbers that are well up to the task.
| The sealed differentials come fully built and
are some of the smoothest I have ever felt.
They can be adjusted without removing the
driveshafts and even with the body on. The
driveshafts have captive universals and an
integrated hub that accepts all standard wheels
and the drive pins are fitted with a nylon
yoke to cut down on wear. |
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I think we can all agree that the engineering side of things is exceptional but this would all be useless if the car did not perform as well.
I can confirm that this car has the performance to match. A free drivetrain and rigid chassis give this car top class performance both in speed and handling terms.
The rigid chassis ensures that all changes to geometry and suspension have the desired effects, making this a car for drivers who know how to set a car up or are prepared to learn. If you don't want to take the setting up of this car seriously, then it might not be the car for you.
This is a race car that demands to be taken seriously. In the words of Xray themselves " Touring Cars Aren't Toys Anymore "
I think the bottom line is, Yes, you can believe the hype. I think the XRAY will change racers expectations of a RC racing touring cars for ever.
XRAY products are imported into the UK by Centre.Point.
Centre.Point Contact Details :
Centre.Point
The Lower Boat House,
Historic Dockyard,
Chatham,
Kent,
ME4 4TY,
United Kingdom.
Phone : 01634-826111
Phone : 01634-827111
E-Mail : teamcpr@hotmail.com
Further Info :
Team XRAY Website
XRAY T1 Set-up Book
XRAY T1 Instruction Manual
Xray T1 leaflet
MyTSN Internet Community
Blank XRAY Setup Sheet (.pdf)
Worldwide XRAY distributors list
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