Test and Reviews

X1-CR FTE

Review Hong Nor X1x-CR FTE 2008

This is my fourth review for Hong Nor but before I start this review I would like to thank David and Sammy Wu for supporting TEAM TWF8 with all the parts Hong Nor has in their program
I really feel like a team rider with this kind of support and hope that my reviews and ideas will help in developing the new coming X2-CR

If you are new in reading this review you can start, if you like, by reading the other reviews about the X1.
Most parts that are now standard at the X1x-kit were first option parts and they are all described and tested in the other reviews.

This year the car-kit is up-graded to the X1x-CR FTE model.
Of-course you would like to know  what is different from last year model.
In the kit are now:

Standard you now get as (X)tra
* 16 mm super bore shocks
* Spiral cut gears (FTE version only)
* High Down force wing
* Top loading Servo Saver

If I am right all these parts are reviewed but as you will understand when I have new parts I first have to drive with them.
There after it is possible to tell something about the performance or it's durability.
If I am not mistaking you still get info about the Spiral gear and the light weight spur.

I can tell that they both perform well and there is no excessive wear I have driven the spiral gear in the rear almost whole last year and it looked still good so I decided it would hold for an other year as rear diff.
For the front their is no need to replace as I sometimes drive torsen (standard gear) and I use more normal diffs with spiral gear but with different oil for quick replacement so the wear of front diffs doesn't go that fast as |I use more then one.
The light weight spur is as good as the standard one so also in this case no excessive wear.

For this year I have replaced the parts as I already mentioned in last year review.

A new body was necessary therefore I chose this time for the pre-painted body as I am not so good in painting bodies.
I was surprised about the nice colours and good looking print, only disadvantage are the also coloured windows but that is with all the pre-painted bodies, think it has something to do with the way they are painted.

Paco has made a personal stickers for the high down force wing, which you can see at the pictures, more info about these special wing, wheel dots and fuel bottles stickers at the web site below.

           http://www.customracingdecal.com
 

Hong Nor Factory News

I have to disappoint you there is no news about a new X2 Buggy.
As you may know the new X2 Truggy is out now it has some great changes and geometry is different from the old car.
It has many new parts but you can reed all this at the Truggy CRT-X2 review that will be soon placed at TEAM TWF8.

Only one thing that I would like to mention was that they used new plastic which made the car a lot lighter and stiffer.
Hope that the new coming X2 Buggy is now in development and will be ready soon.

That brings me to my next new light weight item the new stand-offs made from alumina and as you are used from me I have also weighted these parts to compare with the standard parts.
Stand-off light weight 5.4 gram
Stand-off standard 14.9 gram
It is just 10 gram but if you take all the light weight parts the result is worth it.

For this year I have bought a new R&B WS 7III.
In stock was also the new Magnesium L2G coaling head.
As you may now they are very expensive.
My local RC shop made me an offer I could not refuse.
We changed the standard L2G head for the magnesium one and had to pay a little more.
Of course you would like to know what this magnesium coaling head weights compare to the standard on.
Standard 102.3 gram, Magnesium 64.0 gram
38.7 grams lighter and that at almost the highest point of the car.
Later this year I will let you know what my experiences are with this new magnesium coaling head.
 

New tyres available now for Truggy and Buggy but better news are the new foam inserts the older standard inserts were to soft.
For HN tyres I used old inserts that I removed from old Proline or GRP tyres.

I heard the new inserts are available in different type of  hardness.
When I have tested these tyres and inserts I will write about it at this review.

EFRA has new rules for exhaust pipes in 2008

Here in Holland it is still allowed to drive the whole year with the older EFRA pipes.
However noise is a problem at many clubs, I think we also need to change rules for next year this will allow the clubs to hold their license for the next coming years.

Hong Nor has already made a new pipe that is EFRA 2008 approved.

I like the other Hong Nor pipes that I have tested.
Especially its durability, other pipes are a little lighter but very vulnerable.
I prefer the little more weight that comes together with strongness.

I see more and more racers choose HN pipes as they all prefer a strong pipe with good performance.

I am sure this new developed pipe will have a good performance.
More news about these pipes as soon as I have test them.

Next time more about set-up and race results I will ask the factory if they already have a planning for the new X2-CR.

If you have any news or question about the X1x-CR FTE please feel free to contact me.

Factory news

New clutch shoes are available, although the silver aluminium shoes are perfect in my opinion, Hong Nor has developed new shoes.

They should last longer thanks to an addition of 10% silicone which also causes an increase of clutch grip.

They have beveled edges to prevent mushrooming and there is a hole drilled for light weight so they have instant throttle response.

I will used them next race and will keep you informed if al promised benefits come true.

Race report.

As you all know I have also a truggy and when I have the time between all the races I have with my buggy, I some times participate a truggy race. There was one truggy race at my home circuit which has artificial grass and after some practice I found the right set-up for the new lay-out.

Most of the time I use as less droop as possible but at our new circuit lay out, which pretty flat now, I found out that much droop decreased my lap times with almost 1 second, which means I had TQ and become second that day which I think was very good as most other truggy drivers race every weekend with their car.
If you would like to know more about the HN Truggy read the other review from Paco.

One week later there was a buggy race at the same circuit and because I had a small vacation I could practice a lot.
It was perfect hot weather 25° during that week and I found the perfect set-up for the car also this time I increased droop a lot, and although I could not compare lap-times the car felt great. I had to wait till Saturday for lap times but unfortunately it rained but for |Sunday the weather report was dry so I decided not to practice and see how the car performed during qualification.

After the first qualifying I was very disappointed I made very much mistakes and the car did not feel the same as it did before.
After changing my mid diff from 10 to 7000 the car felt better but Lap times were still not OK.

I asked myself what is different since the last days the circuit was dry only temperature was almost 10° lower.
I decided to change the stabilizers (thinner) shock oil front 600 to 500 and rear 500 to 400.
Other tyres Proline Crime Fighter M3
I am never fund of changing that much at the same time but I had to do something as I only drove 11 laps and my competitors had 12 laps in the same time.

The last qualifying started and the car felt good again not one mistake and when I finished I hoped I would have 12 laps to.
I could not believe what I saw, I had 12 laps in a better time than I had before with 11 laps.
All lap times were in 25 seconds only one with 26 this was very flat driven.

I was TQ this race and it gave my confidence for the finals.
Half final started disastrous last place after 1 lap and I pushed to hard and during a crash my engine flamed out and after restarting and leaving the pit lane it flamed out again. It cost me more than 2 laps. the rest of the finals went great and lap times were perfect but the distance between the other drivers was to big I became 10 seconds to short for fifth place.
So no final for me but I was still a little satisfied because I proved the car was fast.

Set-up

I don't know how the development of circuits in your country is doing, but here in the Holland it is seen that there are more circuits that replace there grass and sand or clay for artificial grass.
I think there are alot of benefits for artificial grass but I do mis the dust and sand coming from the cars and the change of circuit during a race day it is the real off-road feeling that is missing.
On the other hand no maintainance and here in Holland where we have much rain it is always possible to race.

Below you will find the set-up I used last race and all other coming races are at artificial grass.
Next race I start with the same set-up and wil see if I can improve the set-up for this similar circuit.

                         FRONT:                MIDDLE:                   REAR:
Camber:              - 2 deg.                                                  - 3 deg. 
Toe                      out 1deg                                                 in 3.5 deg
B-Block
Anti squat                                                                          2.5 deg
Diff                      STD (5,000)          STD (7,000)            STD (2,000)
Springs:               Silver                                                     Silver
Space:                 5 mm                                                      7 mm
Tower:                 upper  middle  inner                                upper  middle inner              
Arms:                   outside                                                   outside                
Oil:                       500                                                        400
Droop:                  40 mm                                                   28 mm
Pistons:                 6 x 1.4                                                    x 1.4
Stabilizer:              2.5                                                         2.8
Clutch:                  Alloy Shoes 3 point with 1.1 springs.
Bell:                      13
Tires:                     Proline Crime Fighter M3

Factory news

With the worlds coming soon Hong Nor factory drivers are very busy with developing new parts to improve the X1X buggy.
I think most improvement will be found in the new proto type chassis that some drivers already use, more weight in the front by moving the engine and middle diff forwards.
They also make the cars as light as possible like they did with the new X2 Truggy which performs very well.

We will have to wait till after the worlds to see what new parts will be available for the Buggy.
Maybe a new X2 ore an update X1X with optional parts.

Before I start reviewing I would like to tell something about the new Truggy.
Hong Nor provided TWF8 new X2 truggy's building was no problem. (see Paco's review)

When I have time I like to participate a truggy,nl race also last time I joined one.
It was great to drive this new X2 which has more steering than the old X1. I had practiced at our home circuit and the performance was very good. However the same set-up was not so good for the dry/wet circuit in Groningen.
My set-up was made at a dry sunny circuit, but a view drops of rain made the race circuit feel like driving on ice.

Getting in the final was no problem although grip was very hard to find as the circuit was a little wet but during the final it rained three times a view minutes.
Every time I managed the see the number 2 from behind it started to rain and all grip was gone
This was coursed by the heavy diff oil I used 15000 front and 20000 mid,
Normally when I have a buggy race I change diffs as I have more diffs already filled with different types of oil.
But the new X2 truggy has different gearing so this was no option. This race is just for fun so no changes during this day.
I ended at 3rd place which was a good result for the first race with the new X2.

CR X1X

Last year I made a modification to the hing pin holders see picture (if you like read the review about this item from 2007)
I still use the same front and rear hing pin holders and also the same hing pins there is no wear as in the past it was always necessary to replace the hing pins and holders caused by wear.
I will ask the factory if this modification can be done in the future.

The new red clutch shoes perform very well they are ideal for high grip circuits.
I had to remove sharp edges after a complete race weekend with lots of practice on Saturday.
The next race I use the same shoes so they were used two complete race weekends which is pretty good in my opinion.
The silver shoes which I normally use have the same durability but the sharp edges needs to be removed more often especially in the beginning, maybe they will be made in the future with the same edges as the red ones.

I have modified my fuel tank and made the fuel line almost the same as it is on the new X2 Truggy, I glued the fuel line holder at the fuel tank with acrylate glue.
I sanded it very well before gluing I will let you now if it will hold that way.
As you can see in the picture some material from the body needs to be removed otherwise the body won't fit very well.
One of the reasons for this modifications is that I use to have lots of problems with a Mega engine. (flame outs)
After putting this engine in the Truggy X2 no more flame outs happened.
Also no problems in the buggy now, it is word trying if you have unexplainable flame outs.
I also removed the fuel filter as the sinter filter in the tank will do the job.
Next race is just for fun and I will start this race with the mega engine and see if the flame outs are history.
I have also a RB .28 which also gave unexplainable flame outs in the truggy, I will try this engine in the X2 truggy again and see if this engine will now run without problems.

With more astro turf circuits coming new tyres are developed, the new BT118  tyres perform very well with the new inserts, I also tested the BT107 xx-soft tyre. (see picture)
I was surprised the BT107 almost feels the same as the Pro-line Crime fighter M3.
Of course it is different for all circuits but you can give it a try and see if you like the tyre.

As you all may know some things are disappointing the new lightweight cooling head from RB performs very well and the weight advantage is good.
However after some races the upper cooling ring broke of.
In the pictures it is seen that there is no damage to the upper ring, it looks like it broke caused by engine vibrations.
The upper ring fits perfectly to the cooling head
I have seen this problem more often and I have returned mine to my local RC shop they would contact RB.
When I have news I will keep you informed about this problem.

No set-up tips this time maybe next review.
Next race is a Buggy VS Truggy race just for fun, I think that there are 2 separate races and laps will be summed to see which cars have most laps.
After the main finals there is an other final with the best 5 buggy drivers against the best 5 truggy drivers.
During a practice day at our home circuit we drive together but we have never done this in a race.
Think that if we drive with respect for each other no problems will occur.
I will let you now how this event will end.
Keep in mind set-up is a personal matter, you can always use set-up from other drivers as a guide but you have to try for yourself what is best for your drive style.

Front springs Super Bore 16 mm

Rear springs Super Bore 16 mm