The Chief Designer at XRAY, Juraj Hudy, just released the latest version of their column. It is written for several magazines but they publish it to the TEAM XRAY website as well. This time, Juraj details how the XRAY M18T PRO was created. The article is very long and you can read it yourself or you can get the highlights below.
"I [Juraj Hudy] have kept watching the [1/18th scale] market develop and since then the racing scene has started to move towards high-performance brushless systems, LiPo batteries, and better modified motors."
"It was fairly easy to brainstorm about what we needed and wanted to improve and change for the new M18T. We needed to bring the platform to the new level of high-competition racing so as to meet and exceed the expectations for reliability and performance."
"So the first task was to improve the handling of the car in the bumps and on big jumps, and this could be done only by elongating the car so it would be better balanced. We have increased the wheelbase by 16mm and decided upon a different weight distribution and load for the suspension, with more weight moved towards the rear of the car. To ensure a solid platform I decided to go with a graphite chassis and top deck; definitely more expensive but necessary for high-competition racing."
"With the improved performance of the car we also needed to improve the reliability and strength of those parts which were already being taxed by the high performance of brushless power plants. The first and foremost challenge was to make reliable and super-strong drive shafts... In the end I decided to use the very best material available on the market - HUDY Spring Steel™. After designing the drive shafts from HUDY Spring Steel™ and getting the first prototypes to test, I was pleasantly surprised by their performance and especially their reliability... To compensate for the slightly increased rotating mass of the HUDY Spring Steel™ drive shafts, I needed to reduce rotating mass somewhere else; the best and final solution was to use a very lightweight (but immensely strong) graphite main shaft."
"The other new part that will help the car in outdoor conditions is the steel spur gear which will ensure that if hard debris (such as a stone) gets into the gears it will not break the teeth. However, when racing indoors the standard composite spur gear will still work great as it is lighter and reliable for those conditions. To make sure that the car will have the best specs for both types of tracks, we will include both spur gears in the kit, so the driver can decide on the proper spur gear (composite or steel) based on the racing conditions."
"The positive feedback from Zack [Barry] was really great and made me relieved. Afterwards, the newly-designed truck prevailed at the 18th-scale nationals, with Zack winning the Open Truck category on a smooth track. At that moment I knew that the M18T PRO would be the 'toast of the town' of the high-competition crowd, and put more drivers into the winning circle again."
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