Xray XT8 2009 Spec – 8 for 09

Middle
Xray’s XT8 2009 Spec mounts onto a 13 mm longer 7075 T6 chassis plate. The hard anodized chassis moves the weight towards the front of the truck promising better overall balance and steering response both on and off throttle. The ‘weight forward’ design is seen on most competition truggies and now adapted by Xray too. The engine, centre differential and electronics department sit more towards the front of the chassis creating the best weight balance possible. Other changes to the chassis include updated front and rear centre universals to cope with the changed chassis dimensions, a new carbon fibre radio plate for the steering and throttle/brake servos, a carbon fibre centre diff plate as well as a new 150 cc fuel tank with an updated cap for better fit. The two updated ‘lightweight’ joints for the centre universals scrub a bit of weight such as the CF parts for radio plate, centre differential and upper steering plate. Xray’s proven three-shoe clutch received a make-over with new ‘hard’ #358585 springs that let the clutch engage later and more powerfully to make use of today’s .21 engines that are often used with the lightweight truggies.

Rear
Just like the front of the car the rear received an updated carbon fibre shock tower made out of high quality 3.5 mm CF. Long big bore shocks provide a vast amount of suspension travel for the long lower wishbones. Unlike some other truggies Xray’s XT8 truggy makes use of very long wishbones in combination with medium offset wheel hexes instead of shorter wishbones and long wheel axle extensions/wheel hexes. The result is a very precise mounting of the wheels with minimal amount of slop. Up front this also makes for an optimal roll radius resulting in the lowest possible steering forces for precise and fast steering response.

As the suspension design comes straight from Xray’s older XB8 line of cars it still makes use of E-clips to secure the inner suspension pins which is the only downfall of an otherwise near perfect truggy. E-clips are fiddly to use especially in muddy or dusty conditions, making maintenance or geometry changes more difficult than necessary. The good thing is that Xray supplies different suspension mounts for both the front and rear to change toe-in and anti-squat settings. Caster and wheelbase settings are adjustable via shims or c-type clips of course as it is standard with nearly every competition truck.

Finish
We equipped our XT8 2009 Spec truggy with Team Orion’s proven CRF21 US Spec engine, KO Propo throttle/brake servo, a Team Orion Vortex VDS1409 steering servo as well as LRP’s new Kamikaze LP truggy tyres in Supersoft compound that should excel on our test track especially in the wet conditions these days.

We also used a set of PSM Racing’s epoxy brake discs that are originally designed for Xray XB808 buggy but they perfectly match the XT8 also. Xray stock set-up with fibre pads and laser-cut steel discs works just perfect but we were fond to see how the aftermarket epoxy items would perform as their vented design and material promise non-fading operation even under high stress situations such as truggy racing on large tracks with tight corners.

The PSM brake disks are a direct replacement for the stock steel items, needing to just leave the fibre brake pads away. The idea of having the plain steel calipers clamp the epoxy brake disc may seem crude but the set-up works perfect and lasts for many races. For more information on the PSM Racing brake discs click here.

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