While we talk about strengthened parts, the diff gears have also been given an overhaul, which is good to hear as they were the only parts on which I've seen bad feedback. Xray say the gears are now manually ground for extra precision and are made from pressured steel which is then heat treated. All sounds very impressive, but will they last a season of racing though?


The biggest and most obvious difference is the new super-size shocks that are almost meaty enough to give Losi's 8ight a run for its money. Now I've heard on the grapevine that if you're a good driver, the consistency of the pack rate in a shock is very important and if you're running in a long final, you want the same shock action throughout. Sounds fair enough to me, I'll take their word for it as my E finals never last longer than 10 minutes. Fatter shocks obviously hold more oil and this all helps to keep the consistency, add to this Xray have also redesigned the inside of the shock body and added new pistons, rod ends, O-rings and some funky boots which cleverly just cover the bottom of the shock body whilst not clogging up the whole shaft and you've got some top-spec big-bore shocks on your buggy.

Racy Options

Toughening the kit up is all well and good (especially when I'm going to be driving it) but for most people buying this kit, the set-up and adjustability is a big factor - it is a pro kit after all. Fortunately Xray are dedicated to racing so they take these things into account too. On the EC you'll find some lovely touches like the Ferodo brake pads (made in the UK no less!) and things like a new lightweight aerodynamic body shell which includes re-enforcing around the sides and front of the body. Having said that, I ditched the stock shell in order to try out one of Pro-Line's new Crowd Pleazer Quik Lids, this obviously has nothing to do with the fact that our usual shell-painter, Jim at Absolute Control, has such a backlog of work that it would never have been done in time, anyone would think he was good!

You'll also find front and rear anti-roll bars, plus all the lovely 7075-T6 aluminium parts that are anodised in black and the edges chamfered off to give a "luxury" silver finish. Of these, the shock towers are a mighty 4mm thick and the new extra stiff EC chassis, which also benefits from a hard anodising finish, is 3mm thick. The fuel tank is a normal 125cl but includes a built-in stone filter and then there's a more normal fuel filter, which incidentally the additional instructions get you mounting to the side of the tank to reduce vibrations (due to the fact that the tank is mounted on rubber grommets to prevent this).

Setting up

When it comes to picking a set-up for this buggy, you're certainly not limited on options; in the instructions are guides for both European and US-style tracks. Knowing this XB8 will spend most of its time on the MaxBashing track, I opted to follow the US set-up which leans more towards lots of jumps. This meant I used 10,000 weight oil in the front diff and 7,000 in the middle and rear, it also recommends using 60 weight oil in all the shocks while the Euro set-up suggests 35 for the shocks and this is actually supplied with the kit. I went for a happy medium here with 45 in the front and 50 in the rear, mainly because I didn't have any 60 and only enough 50 to do the rear shocks! What, did you think I was a professional or something?! All I want to know is "will this buggy take shed loads of abuse?"

Still pretending for a moment that all these set-up options will make a difference, I continued to follow the US-style set-up sheet and applied two degrees of caster, four degrees of anti-squat, 1.5 degrees of toe-out and minus three degrees of camber on the front, then minus five degrees of camber on the rear and I know this is all exact because I got really anal and did it all on my HUDY setup station, Nobby still can't believe it!

Having done all this, plus a lot more, I chatted to Tony Bolwell who runs the EC as well at the Clanfield track down in Portsmouth. He's got the hang of this set-up stuff and in addition, was kicking butt at the last MaxBashing race day. Unfortunately for me he said he was running 5K, 7K, 1K oils in the diffs (front to rear), 25 in the rear shocks with the medium (blue) springs and 35 in the front shocks with the hard springs. Great, that's completely different to mine, although Tony does like to be different, you only need to check out his dress sense to suss that out!

Additional Parts

With this being a pro kit, you're left to get the extras for it yourself, so I chose to use a Sanwa ERG-VZ servo for the steering and Futaba S3305 for the brakes and throttle. To give it power I used the awesome Falcon .21ci engine which was drinking Tornado 30% fuel and to control it I opted to use my faithful Futaba 3PK and Spektrum DSM system. For tyres I used some called Hammers simply because I had them lying around but they look a lot like Crime Fighter so should work well.

Testing time

As the Falcon engine had been used previously, I was able to skip the running in procedure and plough straight into testing, which makes me almost as lazy as our new designer, Elroy. So out on to the track we went for some pictures and a spot of action. When doing this, we start off by taking things easy, some kits we test will break if we push them too hard straight away. Fortunately I didn't have to worry about that with the XB8 EC and it was lapping up everything I threw at it and was happy to work its way through tank after tank. I have to admit I'm not great at analysing my setup but I wasn't getting much grip out of the rear end so a lighter diff oil here will probably be called for but aside from that, the overall handling and response of the buggy was simply amazing and far superior to anything else I've driven recently. I had no doubts it would fly over the jumps well but it was sailing through the air smoother than Rupert Maxwell ever managed and it dug into the corners quicker than Gordon Brown jumping into Blair's shoes!

Final thoughts

Wise cracks aside, the EC has seriously impressed me and I thought I'd lost interest in buggies! I would in fact go as far as saying it's rejuvenated my interest in rallycross and I'm quite keen to get to a race meeting and put it through its paces. I've run over a dozen tanks through it now most of which are on the MaxBashing track and not suffered a single breakage despite getting carried away a few times and trying to clear all five of the whoops (no I didn't quite manage it!). I have had a few screws come loose but Nobby tells me that's not a problem, he's lived with it for years. Overall though Xray have done themselves proud with the XB8 and more importantly with this new EC version, it boasts some essential and worthwhile parts that must surely make it one of the top kits currently available and a serious contender for anyone looking for a new pro rallycross buggy!

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