Test and Reviews

Click on the pictures to enlarge

VERDICT

Xray describes their car as a LUXURY one and this is not a lie.
No it is not Ready To Run it is a first class hard core buggy that comes in kit form.
The car is LUXURY when it comes to all parts that are standard in this kit.
No need for upgrades or hop ups, it is all there in the kit but lets go through it again after building one.

As this Xray brand was new to me I was anxious to know the standard. The fitting of the parts in general is superb. No need for extra tools like drill bits or files to get the parts fitted.
Tolerance and clearance is 100% OK.
The English full color  manual with the extensive set up guide is a new standard for any manufacturer as we write this review. 
This manual is OK for superb for novice and experienced drivers.
Packaging of the parts in combination with the manual is excellent.
Each bag refers to a step in the manual.
This bag contains all parts and screws needed for that particular step so no search parties have to be organized for screws and nuts.
Building this car is like a dream and the exclusive set of Hudy tools included are of very high quality and easy to use.

The car does not comes with radio gear, engine, header and pipe and these items have to be purchased separately.
Same for the tyres and inserts although white STAR DUST rims are using the 17 mm standard hex wheel adapter.

All aluminum parts are black anodized and all steel parts are made of HUDY spring steel that have a brownish color.
The plastic molded materials are nicely finished and look to be strong enough for current race standards.

This XRay XB8 comes with three normal composite open gear differentials and are of high quality design.
All drive outputs are O-ring sealed to be used with silicone oil.
For the differentials there are two bottles of silicone oil bottle of 1.000 W and 7.000 W supplied with this kit and are nicely mentioned in the set up sheet.
Quality and the fitting of the differentials is excellent!
The milled out chassis makes it possible to mount the differentials as low as can be done to achieve lower the center point of gravity.

Instead of normal nylon clutch shoes this kit comes with aluminum ones. It becomes a standard in off-road.
The 3 pin scissor spring style clutch has regular 2.5 mm pins.
Standard with the car come 0.9 and 1.0 mm thick springs and are designed for these aluminum clutch shoes.

The fuel tank has a molded build in splash guard what we see as a new standard but it lacks a build-in fuel drain.
A build-in splash guard makes it easier to remove and clean the fuel system.

A single slotted metal front and rear brake disks are stopped by calipers with factory mounted brake lining.
They will provide enough stopping power even with servo's rated above 50 Nm of torque.

All drive axles are of the universal type and  made of the special lightweight Hudy spring steel so no CVD's to be found in this car!
Some drivers prefer these universal drive shafts over CVD's.

The center differential mounts are decomposable and are made of plastic and come standard.

Molded steering knuckles with steel inserts are not new in 1:8 scale off-road but for C-Hub design they are.
The low un sprung weight helps the damping of the car.

The shocks are of good super quality with one bleeding hole in the shock absorber cap and already equipped with 3.5 mm shock shafts instead of older style 3 mm ones.
Even a bottle of  350 W silicone oil is provided to fill the shock absorbers to the set up sheet values that come with the car.
Included are molded pistons and they are pre drilled  in 2 x 1.3 - 2 x 1.4 - 2 x 1.5 mm and are available in straight and conical holes.
So no need to buy aftermarket pistons.
Xray already upgraded their production cars with new white colored pistons as result of drivers breaking them due to wrong set up.
And that is a point some manufacturers can learn from
Beside the light blue standard springs also a set of dark blue springs is included in the kit.
We missed one 3.5 m O-ring in the kit but this problem was quickly cured by our kit supplier.

The low profile style body is a made by Pro-line USA and is a MBX5 version of the Crowd Pleazer.
The body has a spray film cover at the outside and window masks standard.
You have to take care when cutting the body and making the holes of the front and rear body post that they are a little of the markings pressed in the body.
The front mounting body post is nicely positioned behind the front shock absorber stay to preserve the strength of the body.

Heavy duty servo horns are provided as standard and that is also one of the many points making this car luxury.
The lay down steering servo set-up has lowered the center point of gravity and the carbon radio tray looks nice.

A NiMh receiver battery was included too but was defective when we tried to charge it the first time.
We know Xray will sort this problem.

Also all other carbon fiber parts like the center differential top plate and servo saver top plate are nicely machined.
But do not forget to put some cyano acrylic glue around the edges to prevent carbon splitters.

The left/right thread rods all around the car and the front steering balls make the car easy adjustable for a personal set up.

The white rims are sturdy and interchangeable when placed on other brand cars that use the 17 mm hexagon wheel adapter.
Aftermarket 17 mm hexagon rims fit without problems.

An air filter is supplied in the kit and works fine as a Duale stage air filter
Even the air filter connector has the correct measurements to fit the filter snugly underneath the body without rubbing against the body inside.
A small tube of air filter oil is supplied with the kit and is a risinus/methanol oil mix to make the air filter kit complete.

The chassis is as you could expect made from Swiss T6-7075 hi-grade aluminum and is hard coated just like all other aluminum parts.
Milled out on all kind of places to get the weight down.
The hinge pin holders on this car are except for the front upper rear one made out of black anodized Swiss T6-7075 high grade aluminum.
No C-clips to be found on this car!!!!
All hinge pins are secured by replaceable and adjustable plastic bushings.
Two extra lower front and rear hinge pin holders are included.

Some parts like fuel tank, servo saver and all ball joints come factory assembled to make your building easier and quicker.

With a reference weight of 2160 grams this car is the lightest tested so far.

Almost all parts needed to run the car are in the kit we reviewed except radio system, engine, muffler, header, paint.

Unfortunenatly we can not run this car as we only received it for building.
So we can not state if the standard set up out of the box is good or anything about the performance itself.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

 JWhat are the pro's? J

* The plastic and metal parts, like steel and aluminum are of very good quality
* T6-7075 hard coated anodized aluminum used for chassis, shock towers and other aluminum parts
* Air filter with air filter connector and oil
* Decomposable center differential mounts
* Aluminum clutch shoes
* 3.5 mm shock shafts
* Superb full color  manual with extensive set up guide
* Large radio box to accommodate normal size receivers
* Carbon parts
* Fuel tank with built in splash guard
* Patented adjustable caster in C-Hub design
* The included exclusive Hudy tools
* Included 5 cell NiMh receiver battery

LWhat are the bad moves? L

No big one we really could find, except that the included 5 cell NiMh receiver battery was defective.

For Xray's first 1:8 scale they have looked very well to the cars of other manufacturers and left out the bad things and filled it up with the good things. This resulted in a hardcore race car super easy to build that will do nicely for newbie and experienced drivers. The word LUXURY is not an empty one. This car is complete out of the box ready for hardcore racing. As a first 1:8 scale off-road car Xray can be proud of this product. A new standard has been set and some manufacturers have to raise their standards! The manual with the extensive set up guide is the best ever produced and the included hop ups and tools are of really good quality and make it even more LUXURY.

Comment by

Thank you for your independent review that just ads to the line of awards and positive reviews that XB8 received from all around the world.  Because you do not give any negative points to the car, there is basically nothing we can comment about.  Though we have a small comment about XRAY and how you mention it.  XB8 is not the first off-road car as you state, because Mr. Hudy, the owner of XRAY, has been designing RC cars since 1978, when he developed several 1/8 on-road and off-road cars.  Therefore the current XB8 is not the first off-road, but Mr Hudy utilized all his long term experiences from designing cars.  If you will have any further questions let me know.   Thanks, Mario Hudy

  five stars is maximum score

BACK TO THE INDEX

The car is provided by

The car is supported by

The engine is provided by