building and review of the Hong Nor X2-CRB PRO

On this page TEAM TWF8 tester Jacco Koch and former Dutch Champion Fred Steenman will tell you their impression about the cars performance of an don track.

Keep an eye on this page.

For all the new readers that have not red one of my reviews before, I will introduce myself again.
My name is Jacco Koch I am 49 years old and live in the Netherlands, home town is Amsterdam.
Together with other enthusiastic drivers I organise the Dutch Championship. it is now (2009) called the Xceed Buggy Cup named after the sponsor.
I started with flying RC plains and I have some RC boats too but 15 years ago I got a virus called 1:8 Buggy's.
It resulted in the beginning to Dutch B-Champion and there after the results were getting better and better. Best result was Dutch Champion in 2004 and further lots of second and third places.
Winning is not a must for me, I like the weekends, the very good atmosphere that is always there at our races but don't get me wrong I certainly like winning.

No custom painted body yet (under construction) so I use a X1 RTR body for the time being. It has a small advantage, it only weights 71 grams including the stickers. My other X1 bodies were aprox. 90 grams.

Let me start telling about the new X2, I have built it as usual with the manual set-up and only modified some small things.
If this is your first buggy I recommend that you read Paco's
X2 Building Review, most tips and tricks are in the review.

I think every driver has his own ideas about building a RC car.
If you like you can go through my other X1 review, there you can read some tips and tricks, some of them are also applied to the new X2 when necessary.

I have tested the X2 once now this was done at our home circuit which has a new lay out I had never driven before so I can not compare with old lap times.
The X2 motor is placed more forward which should result in more steering.
My first impression was lots of steering also on power, so much it made the car nervous. I started with standard set-up and shock oil 500, 400 cSt but changed the rear to 450 it made the car more stable after the jumps. I was very surprised about the rear, I thought that rear grip would become a problem but the rear was very good and did not break out. You will understand that before I write about set-up tips I need to test more and conclusions can only be made when tested under all conditions.
So more about performance after my first race.

X2 Weight
This give me the opportunity to tell more about other things and that is weight.
I have weighted all interesting parts and have also made a comparison with some old X1 parts.
Below I have listed all the parts that are important for X2 in my opinion.
If you think parts are missing in this table please sent me a mail and I will see what I can do for you.
Keep in mind that some batches can have minor differences in weight.
All parts weighted left and right summed.

X2 weight 2810 gram, X1 Body 88, X1 Spoiler 60, X1 Tyres 471.
Total X2 3429 gram.

For comparison between X1 and X2 I have weighted both cars with the same body wheels engine etc.
Keep in mind that the X1 has aluminium parts as an option these parts are not at the X2.
The X2 has Lunsford turnbuckles and LW universals front and rear.
X1 weight 3534 gram and the X2 weight 3429 gram difference 105 gram.
I think that if you reduce the weight of the aluminium parts from the X1 the difference would be around 80 gram.
Is 80 gram much?? From what we hear this weight together with the load more in front the car seems to feel lighter.

There is often comparison between all other brand of cars but I will give you some examples that will make you think twice.

Take a look at this photo, yes that is my car and it only weights 3329 that is again 100 gram lighter than before and yes it is ready to run no parts missing under the body

It is still the same car that weighted 3429 grams so don't let you fool by weight off other cars, for a fair comparison remove the body, wheels and spoiler. in this case the comparison is more reliable, as we assume that engine battery and servo's are about the same weight.
I think Paco has already told us before good comparison should be made with only the kit no engine, servo's batteries, tyres etc.

The main weight difference was caused by the tyre weight you can see in the pictures above that tyre weight can be very different.
From left to right Medial Pro Katana, Proline Crimefighter, HN tyres, that comes with the European kit, and GRP Cross.

When I replace the engine for the RB C6 with Magnesium cooling head the car would weight 3295 gram??????????????

I hope next time you compare car weights you think of all the things that have an influence to the result.

New towers should give you more security when high impact crashes are made.
I think it depends from your driving style if you need these towers.
Some drivers are more reckless than others.
I will keep you updated about durability of both type towers.

I don't know how long the new aluminium light weight drive shafts hold before they show wear, my experience with drive shafts (old kyosho car) are that after a while they begin to oscillate.
The new unis you see are from the same quality as normal so when you accept the weight difference they are a good replacement for the aluminium shafts but first let us wait and see how long the aluminium shafts will hold before they need replacement.

No factory news this time so only a small review with some set-up tips and other things that may interest you.

After Truggy X2 also the Buggy X2 is now seen at our races, I am very happy with this because now I have more input about problems and durability and it gives me the opportunity to help drivers at our races.

How is the X2 durability?
I remember one of the first times I drove the X1, one of my front universals was turned into two pieces (see picture in my first X1 review) it has never happened again. Same practice day my rear tower broke also never happened again. It just shows that something can break but it does not have to mean that the part is not good enough.

I was a little skeptic about the carbon towers and after the first race it had a little crack in the front tower as you see in the picture.

I never noticed any problem in the car handling. I did not want to replace it for an aluminum tower as this could also be a one time incident. The replaced new carbon tower is still in my car and no problems so far. One of our local drivers had the same crack after a big hit he has put an alloy tower in his car. I will keep you informed how it perform

If you want your universals and joints to last longer, I strongly suggest using Eureka lube. Since I use Eureka wear is definitely less.

When screwing the mid diff house make sure you don’t over tight the four long screws.
It may cause that the break links do not move smooth any more.
So check smoothness after tighten the screws.

After you have driven check your car if all parts are running smooth, best way is to remove wheels and shocks then try if the arms move up and down very smooth.
Steering can be checked by disconnecting the servo and turn by hand.

At some forums I have red about diff problems; personally I don’t have any problems with de diffs, not now and not in the past.
I have more front and mid diffs but the rear diff is in the car the whole year.
The next year I use a front diff that I have not used very much and place it in the rear cleaned and filled with new oil. The rear diff I fill with new oil and use it in the front at this way I give all my diffs the same run time.

With the new X2 Buggy and Truggy I started with all new diffs, the diffs are shimmed with two shims each at the small gears.
I think this was done to reduce play between the gears, if you have problems with the gears I suggest to shim the big gears as you can see in the pictures.

This is how I shimmed in the passed my Kyosho gears.
Make sure the diff turns smooth, if it doesn’t take one of the small shims out and try smoothness again with one shim at each gear.

Our season has started late this year and as I write this review I have only driven 2 races so far.

The first race was our German Holland edition which I participated with no practice or set-up changes, normally I do practice at the Saturday before the race but this time it was not possible because I came back Saturday from Ski holiday. The circuit had a new lay out so it was very difficult to set a good result without practice.
Next our Dutch Xceed-Cup, it started with the first race in Oberhausen this race is always very hectic, the same weekend
German drivers have a race for qualifying the German Champions Ship.
There is not much time to practice on Saturday but that problem has al drivers.
The circuit has a very hard clay and there is lose dust in the corners, when coming into the dust all grip is gone so it is important to stay at the ideal line.

I started with 550 front and 450 rear in the shocks and changes it to 500 400 I think some lower would even be better cause the car was still very nervous.
Because I like much steer I use normally thin oil in the diffs 5 5 2 but several drivers said that the X2 can handle thicker oil and still have enough steering.

So I changed to 7 5 5 and they were right more traction out of the corners and still enough steering. When driving at artificial grass with lots of grip it is even possible to go thicker like 10 7 5, I will let you now how it performs after I have tried it.

I qualified half final but it didn’t go the way I had hoped after being in good position at 4^th place the engine started to run lean at the bottom and accelerating out of corners became worse and after making some mistakes my self no final for me this time

Also in next review, short race report with my Truggy X2 third place Truggy-Cup.

Below you find the setup I used and I have said it before, keep in mind it is personal.

                         FRONT:                MIDDLE:                   REAR:
Camber:              - 2 deg.                                                 - 2 deg.
Toe                      out 1deg                                                 in 3.0 deg
Block                    B
Anti squat                                                                          1 deg
Diff                      STD (7,000)          STD (5,000)            STD (5,000)
Springs:               Blue                                                       White
Space:                 Arms level                                             Arms level
Tower:                upper middle  inner                                upper middle inner
Arms:                  outside                                                   outside
Oil:                      500                                                        400
Droop:                lowest position                                        lowest
Pistons:                6 x 1.4                                                   6 x 1.4
Stabilizer:             2.3                                                        2.5
Clutch:                 Alloy Shoes 3 point with 1.1 springs.
Bell:                     16
Tires:                    Tourex

First allow me to introduce myself, my name is Fred Steenman. I’m 57 years young and I live with my wife in the Netherlands.

Long, long ago, in the 80’s, I drove RC Buggy’s; this was the beginning of a new RC racing class. On-road racing was already a huge success in the Netherlands, and in 1982 the RC off-road competition was launched. In that same year I met Pieter Bervoets and Ron Ton in their Serpent model racing car factory. Pieter showed me their latest developments in RC racing, and the Serpent Cobra was their newest creation. It was love at first sight!! From that moment I wanted to race RC Buggy’s!

As a beginner in RC-racing it took a while before I could compete with the Big Boys and it was after two long years of blood, sweat and tears learning to construct, drive and setup a reliable RC-Buggy, that the results finally began to tell! Soon afterwards the Serpent factory began to sponsor me fully with a Serpent Cobra kit, including parts, tires, the new S-Power engines and team wear. Lucky me, I was a Serpent team driver, and very soon I began to win more races, achieving, in 1986 3^rd place in the Dutch National Championship.

The following season began awfully, the new Serpent Spirit did not give the expected results, the car was horrible to drive and finishing place 8 in the National Championship was not the result we wanted. It was also the last year Serpent competed with the off-road car as they began to focus more on their new on-road model.

The French Yankee RC-buggy distributor then contacted me with the offer of driving their new model. The Yankee TT8 Europe evo 2 was “The” Off-road Buggy, and from the opening day was obviously very competitive! This in combination with the previous years of hard work finally paid dividends, when in 1988 I along with the Yankee car and its S-power engine won the Dutch National Championship!!

The following year Yankee started a new project with on-road quarter scale cars. They asked me to help to organize a new RC racing class for Big-scale cars in the Netherlands and after two years racing in that class, I retired.

In 2007, one of my old buddy’s, Paco Raap, invited me to participate in a 3 hour Buggy race. After 18 years of retirement I was racing again! What a shock, everybody was driving so fast and I was nowhere! The acceleration and top speed of modern RC-cars are incredible, when compared to what I drove in the 80’s. Nearly twenty years of evolution in RC racing almost drove me insane, but I was hooked again!

I also realized that it will take some time to understand a modern RC-Buggy. Grip roll? Brake balance? Ackerman plate? Anti-Squat plates? Big-Bores and so forth, was all new for me. There are so many new features and possibilities to consider when finding a good setup. Today tyres are much more important than they used to be. In previous years we had one type. If we had over steer, we cut from the front tyres the outside row spikes, still over steer? Then just remove the following row!

Since 2009 I have been driving the new Hong Nor X2 CRB pro. Along with Paco, we built the new HN X2 CRB pro, for the TWF8 website review.
Building this car was really fun and easy.

The servos’ are provided by Savox, and with the by CRD provided body wrap en stickers, the new car looks really stunning.

The shakedown in January 2009 was promising. The HN X2 CRB pro was very fast and strong (yes, I did had some moments), and it will take a while before I get familiar with the acceleration and handling of the car. Reliability from a well built HN is also looking very good. With a basic setup I tend to over steer. It depends very much on what you prefer, but with help from the Dutch Ace HN driver Jacco Koch, the car will become more and more suited to my driving style!

Due engine problems, the first race was not what we had hoped for. We used a RB S7 which flamed out after every 4 minutes! Very anoying! For the 2e race of the Dutch Nationals, the Exceed cup, I borrowed from my good friend Jan V, an engine (as I was unsure which engine to buy) and finally we were able to complete some proper qualification heats without any problem. However I could not go “maximum attack”!

Top Modern RC-Buggy drivers are these days very professional. They practice sometimes days before a race, experimenting with tyres and setups. However when we arrive on race day, without practising, I have to invest precious time to discover which tyres and setup I require for that day. That is of course not the way to get good results! The Hong Nor X2 CRB pro is not the problem and I am not looking for excuses (or maybe), but in order to compete with the best I have to invest more time practicing and testing!

My ambition is not gone, but having a good time during race weekends is still the main thing.

Nice to see more Hong Nor products at our races, it really helps me with set-up and we can learn from each other.
Paco can sometimes use the camper (see picture) from his sister, this makes our weekends even better and it is always fun in the evening when al racers organize a BBQ and have some drinks and talk about the good old days.

This year my results with the Truggy is some better than my results with the Buggy.
Truggy so fare second, third and fifth place while buggy results are; two times half final and one final.
Every time some small things cost me lot of places.
First Race, engine became to lean in the bottom so my car did not accelerate out of corners or last race, own fault my rear shock absorber nut became loose and fixing it took to long.

As you can see in the picture my front carbon shock tower is broken, it happened in the second race A-main just before time, I was in third position battling for second, 7th place was left when time was done.
Of course I was disappointed and a little angry but the car performed great and after a while I was more satisfied due to the X2 performance and because I was finally battling for podium this year.

I have now replaced the carbon front tower for the alloy tower as I don't want to take the risk for breaking it again.
I would advice when replacing is necessary to buy the alloy tower.

For next race I have a new body with CRD decals, colors and print are custom made specially for me.
These decals can be printed in any design you like. If you are interested take a look at the web-site below.

When cleaning your car give your LW center joints some extra attention.
Sometimes it splits as you can see at the left joint in the picture.
It happened me once when I tightened the hexa screw. OK, some force is needed because you don't want to loosen it. However try to prevent this by not over tiding it.
We have HN already suggested to leave more material around the hexa screw to prevent it from splitting.

The right joint is the only part that I have replaced due to wear, for some reason this one has more wear than the other parts.
I have used my car five races with practice on Saturday and some practice days at our home track I think this is a very good result.

I you are using dish wheels you can't visual see what your wheels are doing while breaking or accelerating.
If you take a look at my car you will notice the wheel stickers.
They are made by CRD at my request it helps me visual see if my wheels are spinning during accelerating or block when using the brake.
In this way it helps my to find a good set-up and I can adjust my car when conditions are changing.
Notice front and rear are different this helps me to keep pairs separated when I want to use them next time.
When using more tires of one type place the "flags" in different positions this helps to keep the sets separated preventing mixing.

New CNC Hard coated aluminum balls, they are lighter then the standard steel balls so it reduces car weight.
As soon as I have received the new balls I will weight them and compare them with steel balls and add to the HN weight list.

I did a lot of practice at my home circuit and came up with this set-up it is for artificial grass with lots of grip.
Below you find the setup and I have said it before, keep in mind it is personal.

                            FRONT:                MIDDLE:                   REAR:
Camber:              - 2 deg.                                                 - 2 deg.
Toe                      out 1deg                                                 in 3.5 deg
Block                    B
Anti squat                                                                          2.5 deg
Diff                      STD (10,000)          STD (7,000)            STD (3,000)
Springs:               Blue                                                       Silver
Space:                 Arms level                                             Arms level
Tower:                Inner                                                       Inner
Arms:                  outside                                                   outside
Oil:                      500                                                        500
Droop:                34  mm                                                   28 mm
Pistons:                6 x 1.4                                                   6 x 1.4
Stabilizer:             3.0                                                        3.0
Clutch:                 Red Alloy Shoes 3 point with 1.1 springs. (Mega Z1 On-Road Engine)
Bell:                     16
Tires:                    Hong Nor BT 107 XXsoft and/or Proline Crime Fighter M3

New Light Weight Inch-Up Dish Wheels they are a 2mm bigger in diameter so other brand type tyres will fit better.

I have not yet tried these rims but I am sure they will perform the same as the other Hong Nor rims.

Also new is a 3 Pin Steel Flywheel, weight is a little higher (28.8gram) than the standard flywheel.(15.8gram)

* Smoother acceleration off the corner.
* Better handling on rough and loose conditions.
* Slight fuel mileage increase.
* Improved engine idling.
* Less engine stalls from flywheel interference such as rocks hitting the flywheel.
* Much more consistent lap times.

Depending your driving style you will like it or not. In my opinion the standard flywheel has a better punch because weight is less than the steel one so gas response will be quicker.
I think you have to try yourselves whether you like it or not.

This light weight spur gear will reduce the revolving mass of center differential and deliver more power to the drive line.

The light weight 46T spur gear is made by high carbon steel SCM21 material with CNC miller and is heat treated for maximum durability.

I have weighted the gear (26.8gram) and compared it with all the other Hong Nor X1 and X2 gears they are all listed in the light weight comparison table which I published at the start of this review.
I also received the light weight aluminium balls and have weighted one complete set (8.6gram) so you can see what weight you save when you replace them for the standard balls.(23.8gram)
Fist rule is that alloy is about three time lighter than steel but you still have to weight if you would like to know how much exactly you save.
That’s why I do it for you as not everybody has a balance that can weight accurate.

The light weight 43T and 10T spiral gear set is made by the same material with CNC miller to 1.5mm deep in the back to take away the weight and to lighten the gears.

The 43T and 10T gears use a 30 degree design, therefore they can not be used separately. (Both gears are laser engraved for identification.)

The combination of these gears not only change the gear ratio but also provide more choice for your clutch bell.FYI the standard spiral gear has 45T, when I receive a set of these gear I will weight them and ad it to the weight list

When testing the X2 I always like to use as many standard HN parts as possible, however sometimes new products are provided to us for testing.

JVD clutch

This time we received the new JVD clutch system for testing, don’t get me wrong as the standard HN aluminium shoes perform very good and I uses them in my truggy and buggy.
I received the JVD clutch with extra shoes, springs and the special tool which is helpful if you want to change springs or need to replace the shoes.
If you like to reed more about how to do maintenance this JVD system see the review Paco has made about the JVD clutch.

The performance is very good, springs are easy to change and also combinations of different hardness springs can be made so adjusting the clutch to different circumstances is easy.
What surprised me most was the minimum wear, after using the clutch three times the alloy shoes were still OK and after removing the sharp edges the shoes can be used again for many races. So if you are looking for an other clutch system this is definitely one you can try.

Hong Nor have the Lunsford turnbuckles as an option part and in the Jammin X2 box it is standard.
I use these titanium buckles at my X2 but don’t think they are unbreakable.
This year was not my year I had some bad luck things and one of them was a broken titanium turnbuckle.

A friend (Matthijs Jansen) of mine said that they have a life time guarantee and after checking the web at the Lunsford site it said that if you sent the broken turnbuckle with your name and address you will get a new one for free. So I did and after a while the post came with a new one.

As said before bad luck things this year also the fifth race in Mol. I always replace clutch bearings before a final and I am sure that I adjusted the gears well, as you can see in the picture the bell teeth’s are totally gone if the engine has moved due to loose screws the bell would not have been damaged that much.

The last races was at my home circuit and I had practice a lot but it didn’t go as I would had hoped. I woke up sick Sunday morning and felt terrible the hole day and after qualifying I started the half final but I drove so terrible that I decided to stop after 15 minutes.
I am sure next year will go better and one big difference with all other years will be our new tire rule there are only three types of tires which we may use.
How this will work out? That is what you can read in the 2010 review.

In reviews we mostly describe things we don’t like therefore I would like to say again that the car performed very good and Hong Nor has again done a great job with de buggy X2.
It is every time a pleasure to drive this car, durability is great I hope next year I will have more luck and don’t have those stupid bad luck things as described in this review.

If you have any question,
please feel free to contact me at with the link below.

This car is provided by

Taiwan

The servo's are provided by

The Netherlands

The decals are provided by

The Netherlands