CE1 ... The XB2 that the XB4 could have been!

Now that Xray are about to release their 2wd drive version of the XB4 I thought I would show you a project that a friend of mine, Chris Ellis, has been working on.

After having a successful season campaigning his XB4 as a 2wd he has utilised this experience to make some alterations to the car that he feels will improve it's performance even further.

 After a few long evenings beavering away in the workshop he has produced a car that many people think the the Xray XB4-2 should be.

It is certainly interesting and worth a closer look.

As can be seen from the picture the changes are quite substantial.

The saddle cells are gone and the motor mount is rotated 180 degrees thus enabling the motor to be relocated at the rear of the chassis together with the esc and a shorty battery .

To contribute further towards the perfect weight distribution the servo has been centred under the front top deck.

What you see here is a prototype. Chris tells me the car drives as he hoped it would and initial tests have been impressive.

  Some top drivers have been enlisted to help him develop this car in to a winner, they are currently testing it in varying conditions to ensure it works well whatever the surface/conditions come race day. 

It seems to be a well executed conversion.

I don't know if Chris plans to bring this to market at some point but if he does I'm certain there will be no shortage of potential buyers.

Good luck with it bud.

The layout seems to make a lot of sense and is a good way to utilise the shorty pack that is becoming ever more popular. 

Team C clearly feel the concept has a future as can be seen below with the TM2.

It is quite exciting times for 2wd drive buggies with the bigger manufacturers picking up on the design solutions that talented home designers have come up with.

Watch out for new releases soon from Schumacher and, for the well heeled, Team Xtreme and the RudeBits DB2. 

Indeed is Dave DB1 Burton the man responsible for the rise of the forward/mid motor 2wd?

A note of caution however.

The rise in popularity of 2wd off road in recent times has been, in some part, due to the increased costs involved in running touring cars.

These new 2wd cars are flippin', and in my opinion unjustifiably, expensive and rip through tyres at an alarming rate, it's not unusual to see racers using a fresh set for every round at bigger race meetings.

I'm not sure this is the way forward.

What do you think?

A new year Schumacher Cat K1 fest!

Well the rain finally stopped so I blew the dust off of my Schumacher SVR and toddled off to TORCH for a morning club meeting to blow away the cobwebs.

It was set to remain wet throughout the day so I bolted on a new set of Schuie silvers to keep me pointing in roughly the right direction.

I had made a few changes to the SVR during the Christmas break, some with purpose others just because I couldn't leave things alone.

The main change was some Ghea pistons and a set of the new Core rc springs from Schumacher, I was interested how they worked out.

I hadn't been behind the sticks for about a month so it was great fun being out there banging wheels.

I was pleased with my changes and whilst still being some way behind the quickest guys I managed to qualify A6. 

I was unable to follow this up however and had a disappointing final that saw me drop out early.

Still smiling though.

One of the highlights of the day was wandering through the pits seeing what Santa had delivered to my fellow racers.

There was no shortage of new cars and accessories but by far the most ubiquitous was the new Schumacher Cat K1.  

They were bloomin' everywhere!

This new car is attracting a lot of interest so I took shots of a few of them for your delectation.

(Click on any pic for full size version.)

You will be unsurprised to learn that this example belongs to Schumacher TC ace Chris Grainger who can always be relied on to roll out a beautifully prepped car.