AIRTRONICS M11 FHSS2 RADIO ■ AIRTRONICS 94360Z STEERING SERVO ■ CASTLE CREATIONS
MAMBA PRO SPEED CONTROL ■ LRP X- 12 6.5-TURN BRUSHLESS MOTOR ■ ZIPPY FLIGHTMAX
4000MAH 25C 2S1P LIPO BATTERY ■ PARMA RTB GBS BODY, PAINTED BY OOMS GFX ■ SOREX
32R BELTED TIRES ■ SOREX B-FIRM THIN INSERTS ■ SOREX DISH WHEELS
TEST
GEAR
I hit the track and right away things didn’t feel quite right: the car didn’t track the same on- and off- power; it didn’t respond the same turning right to left; it just didn’t feel balanced. And that was the problem; I put it on my Hudy balancing fixtures and realized that the 4000mAH LiPo pack I was using didn’t quite offset the weight of the gear on the opposite side of the chassis. I also took the opportu- nity to weigh the car and found out that fully ready to run it weighed 126 grams, or approximately 1/4 pound under than the ROAR-specified weight minimum for the touring car class. Fortunately, I had a bunch of XRAY’s screw-on brass ballast pieces from my previous XRAY cars handy. After securing enough brass pieces to balance the car and get it to the legal weight, I put it on my setup fixtures to get the geometry just right for my new weight distribution then hit the track again. Because of the spool in the front, the T3 liked to be driven aggressively around fast sweepers. There was a definite push around slow corners, but mid-speed and high-speed turns were best negotiated with early apexing and a heavy trigger finger. Straight-line braking was predictable and solid, but hard braking while in a turn made the T3 push wide, as the front tires fought against each other. Because the track was slightly slippery in a few turns, I decided to play with the extensive chassis flex settings, one of the selling points of the T3. I had built the car with the stiffest setting, which might be good on a car- pet track where the overall conditions are pretty consistent. But the track I was testing on is an out- door asphalt track, subject to the extreme weather conditions, so I had to deal with cracks and repaired areas. I knew what the stiff setting was like, so I then went to the far end of the spectrum and removed eight screws from the upper deck to allow the chassis to twist to gain traction. The result was a sluggish feeling, rather than the snappy response I had become used to. It definitely was more grippy, but that grip took away the on-the-edge sensation of when you know a car is fast. I eventually worked my way back to the medium stiffness setting, where the T3 retained good grip and a sharp steering response. The drivetrain felt smoother than any other belt-driven touring car I have ver run. I don’t have any damage to report, mainly because it was easy to keep the T3 in control; the body sustained a few minor scrapes from clipping some corners a bit tight. Overall, once set up to the track and to my preferences, the T3 EU Rubber-Spec felt balanced and “tight,” a testament to the fforts put into the design, the geometry and the manufacturing of all the bits and pieces of this top- shelf car. PERFORMANCE
XRAY assumes you will use either
NiMH or LiPo batteries exclusively
with the T3. The type of battery you
use will dictate how you configure
the drivetrain during the building
process. For NiMH packs, the long
front belt runs left of the centerline of
the chassis, allowing the heavy
NiMH pack to be placed towards the
chassis center. When set up for LiPo
packs, the diffs are flipped around,
and the front belt runs to the right of
the centerline, pushing the light LiPo
pack towards the edge of the chassis for proper balance.
DRIVETRAIN
CONFIGURATION
❯❯ Flexibility to adjust
drivetrain to suit
NiMH or LiPo setups
❯❯ Geometry that
rewards aggressive
driving
❯❯ The little luxury things,
like preassembled
diffs and servo saver
+
❯❯ No battery hold-down
standard
❯❯ Weight ballasts not
standard
-
(front) and anti-squat (rear) can
be adjusted independently. On
each corner of the T3 is a
plastic-body fluid-filled shock
with your choice of fixed pis-
tons or keyed variable damp-
ing pistons that allow for
damping changes without
changing oil. Swaybars come
standard—a 1.4mm unit for the
front and 1.2mm one for the
rear. The front and rear shock
towers are made of 3mm car-
bon fiber and have five upper
shock mount holes for each
corner. The steering setup is a
clever center-mounted bell-
crank system with integrated
servo-saver and 5-position
Ackerman adjustment. By
loosening one screw, the dis-
tance between the bellcrank
pivot point and the steering
rod mounting points can be
lengthened or shortened to
easily play with the effects of
different Ackerman settings
without any disassembly.
BODY, WHEELS & TIRES.
The T3 doesn’t come with a
body, wheels or tires, which
keeps the cost of the kit down
and allows the user to pick
what will work best on his particular track.
SOURCES
XRAY
teamxray.com
Airtronics
airtronics.net
Castle Creations
castlecreations.com
LRP
teamassociated.com
Ooms GFX
oomsgfx.com
Parma
parmapse.com
Silver Bowl Raceway
4acesrcracing.net
Sorex
sj-rracing.com
Zippy
hobbyking.com
Purchasing an XRAY is usual-
ly a no-brainer—you know
you’re going to get a car
from the best materials avail-
able with the latest design.
In the case of the T3 EU
Rubber-Spec, the only thing
to consider is if you plan on
racing with brushless motors
and LiPo packs—that is the
combination where you are
going to put the T3 to its
best use. However, it was
designed to be flexible, to
appease the NiMH holdouts.
However, with more and
more racers moving to
Lithium power, purchasing a
T3 now with the plans to
move to modern technology
in the future might still be a
good plan. After all, with
XRAY’s dedication and
expertise in design, I’m sure
it will work great with either
configuration. I strongly feel
that ballasts should be
included for the LiPo users
(they might even come in
handy for Nickel-batt guys
also), but regardless—if you
are serious about racing with
LiPo batts, you own it to
yourself to take a close look
at this car.
VERDICT
MAY 2010 115
