Pro Drive – Xray T2R Pro
Middle
The T2R Pro uses a 2.5 mm glass fibre chassis plate that features the same layout as the ‘009 one. It offers six slots for the battery so it’s up to you if you would like to use a five to six cell NiMH or a LiPo battery set-up. Unfortunately no battery holder is supplied. You have to use glass fibre tape to fix the battery pack to the chassis. Xray offers a six cell battery bar as an option part (#306163) but since the T2R PRO is a budget racer that should attract new people to the hobby we would have loved to see a better solution than tape as an out-of-the-box method.
The ‘slim’ top-deck is made out of 2.0 mm fibreglass and utilizes Xray’s so called ‘top deck mount’ just behind the servo saver. The mount is made out of plastic and is meant to avoid tyre overheating when using a solid front axle. The original design was an aluminium affair so in theory you now have the choice of three different settings: none, plastic & aluminium (optional) to adjust front chassis stiffness to suit the track conditions.
Like the T2 ‘009 the T2R Pro comes with a 20T pulley on the middle layshaft giving an internal 1.7 ratio. Like all other axles the middle shaft rotates in low drag ball bearings with blue dust covers. The T2R Pro comes with the same top deck raisers the ‘009 offers. They raise the top deck by 2.5 mm to make way for thicker LiPo battery packs in case you wish to use the bulky 25 mm items that otherwise rub under the upper deck.
Rear
The rear of the car is a bit different from the ‘009. It offers hard carpet spec wishbones like the full-breed ‘009 but the rear uprights are of the hard 1 degree toe-in type rather than medium hardness 0 degree items found on the orange alloy brother. This ends in a kit set-up that offers more overall toe-in and therefore makes for a rear end that is virtually ‘nailed’ to the ground.
The T2R Pro comes with a superb ball differential with molded plastic out-drives. After building the diff to kit settings we were rewarded with one of the best plastic diffs we ever built. It offers super smooth operation while being extremely durable also because of the supplied dust covers. They do not fully enclose the differential like the labyrinth dustcovers on Xray’s pro aluminium diff but seem to hold back carpet fluff and dust very well. The 52 mm aluminium driveshafts are equipped with plastic C-shaped caps to avoid damage to the outdrives while offering more contact space than usual drive pins.
The oil-filled shocks with threaded plastic shock bodies come with Xray’s gold springs. No anti-roll bar is supplied with the kit but you can choose from Xray’s countless option parts in case you feel the need to increase the adjustability of the T2R Pro. And speaking of suspension set-up: the ‘Pro’ comes with different suspension mounting brackets to adjust the amount of track, toe-in and kick-up that suits your driving style and track conditions best. The supplied Xray manual and set-up book clearly show how to make use of them.
Finish
Since the T2R Pro is marked as an economical priced budget racer we opted for a suitable motor and speedo package which we found in the Speed Passion GT LPF v1.1 speed control and Speed Passion Ultra Sportsman 9.5T motor. Power came from a Team Orion Race Spec 3800 LiPo, a KO Propo PS-2367 connected to a Futaba R603FS receiver had the task of throwing the T2R Pro into the corners. Body-wise we went for the new Proline LTC-R which was painted by Kai of www.ok-gfx.com.
