Intro
Losi 8ight-T
Xray XT8
Hyper ST Pro
Hong Nor X1 CRT
Mugen MBX5-T
Kyosho ST-R
Revo Derived Truggy(RDT)
Conclusion

Xray XT8

Overview

Xray kits always tend to exude quality and the XT8 doesn’t fail in this department, it has to be one of the best looking kits around at the moment with its machined black aluminium parts and silver chamfered edges gleaming away at you. In the engineering department it doesn’t really offer anything new but like Ronseal, it does exactly what it says on the tin, and gives you a competent handling truck that’s capable of winning races. It’s a pure pleasure to build the kit with quality instructions and well packaged up parts. On the downside, Xray have tried to keep the retail price down to make it competitive and in doing so have been forced to lose some of the aluminium hinge pin retainers in order to achieve this which is a shame. Other downsides include spare parts being expensive (in league with Kyosho and Mugen) and availability can also be an issue, although to be fair, it’s not very often you break an Xray kit as everything is so well made. Xray are dedicated to the racer and only produce kits with this in mind, so for that reason the body shell is wafer thin; you might worry about this but ours has done half a dozen race meetings and it’s lasting reasonably well (for our level of driving). During this time no real weaknesses have arisen although the front body mounting posts do come loose the moment it looks like it might hit dirt. In general though it’s a very competent bit of kit and deserves to be right up there among the top choices in this market!

dan's view

I love this truggy, and having been through four different truggies in the last year I feel I can say that with good justification. It’s just so smooth to drive, it even makes my driving look clean and as the others with undoubtedly agree, my skills are the worst amongst us, so if it can handle a race in my hands, it’s got to be tough. The on-power steering isn’t the best but off-power it really excels and will just glide round the corners. Its take off is truly impressive and it flies through the air with more grace than a ping pong ball in a Thai bar. The build quality is second to none (well maybe second to the Mugen) but coming from a person who loves ready-to-run kits, this is high praise indeed although the overall quality is let down by the plastic hinge pin brace and the use of e-clips on the lower braces. I truly thought nothing could surpass the feel of the XT8 but having driven the others I have to admit the Losi is on the same level and the Hyper gives you a real buzz to drive. Even knowing that though, I’d still prefer to be behind the wheel of the XT8 just because it offers so much predictability and when your driving is as unpredictable as mine, you need all the help you can get!

matt's view

Looking over the Xray it is easy to see this is a serious piece of kit. The Xray plastic and alloy parts are again, like the Mugen, first class and I found driving it was pretty similar but this does have the edge - those big bore shocks soak up the bumps even better than the Mugen’s. This was probably the most stable truck of all due to its long, low and wide stance. The quality and durability of this truck gives you the confidence to drive it hard and fast and being Dan’s truck I know this is the way he likes it! The only thing I didn’t like was the ”old school” C-clips holding the hinge pins in position, apart from that it’s a very fine truck with lap times being very consistent and pretty fast. This is a great truck for all levels of racing, I’d definitely buy one! The outright winner in the quality category and it’s right up there in desirability.

Gung Ho Pro says

This handled very similar to the Losi, i.e. very smooth and consistent. Very good pick up on acceleration and jumped very well especially when initially it had a knackered OS engine in there, it still flew easily over the jumps. Does feel like it’s running a lot of caster which could be a bad point but steering is very good although not quite as good the Hyper ST.