Xray T3 – History Repeating
Track test
The track test took place at a new permanent indoor track near Hamburg in Germany. The track did not see too many traffic beforehand making it quite low traction. We started with LRP VTEC 30R tyres all round, treated with Corally’s Jack The Gripper traction compound. Traction as well as side bite on the new carpet were nearly non existing so we went for softer 27 shore tyres and softer C2.8 springs up front and C2.4 springs in the rear of the T3. This improved both traction out if the corners as well as site bite but the T3 still wasn’t where it belongs in terms of speed. In the next step we softened the chassis by removing the two rear chassis posts both sides of the spur gear. This reduced the sudden breakaway of the rear end coming out of the tight 180 degrees corners. We also moved the rear shocks one position in which gave more site bite during cornering. The biggest step forward was the switch to CS Electronic’s #C6400 High Grip traction compound. Traction and site bite came up and the T3 showed its full potential.
Conclusion
Xray’s new T3 touring car a sensible replacement for the ‘old’ T2 line of cars? Decide for yourself. The new T3 offers a vast amount of modifications like the special ‘LiPo’ drivetrain layout and new roll centre adjusters as well as new suspension holders that make for more controllable flex of the whole chassis. These should help the car in slippery track conditions as well as making the touring car more forgiving in terms of suspension set-up.
Specifications
Scale: 1/10
Chassis: 2.5 mm carbon fibre
Upperdeck: 2.0 mm carbon fibre
Drivetrain: fulltime 4WD
Differentials: spool/ball differential
Suspension: independent double wishbone
Shocks: alloy/oil filled/coil over spring
Dimensions
Length: 367 mm
Width: 187 mm
Wheelbase: 256–261 mm
Track – front: 162 mm
Track – rear: 162 mm
Weight: 1256 gr
*Stock set-up with wheels as tested
Equipment
Car: Xray T3 [teamxray.com]
Motor: Speed Passion Competition 2.0 5.5T [speedpassion.net]
Speedo: LRP SXX TC Spec [lrp.cc]
Battery: Team Orion Molekular [teamorion.com]
Performance Tips
It is recommended to screw a 3×4 mm grub screw into the unused mounting hole of the rear hub carrier as the holes can be stripped during a crash especially when shims are used under the ball stud of the upper links.
The rubber diaphragms (volume compensators) of the shocks have a small amount of flash on the outer edge that should be removed with the help of a sharp scissor. This helps to ‘seat’ the rubber part better into the shock cap. Be careful not to remove too much material as this can make for a leaky shock.
For some reasons we had problems with the front and rear drive shafts. The Pins that connect the shafts and the wheel axles tend to move out of the couplers leading in erratic driveshaft action. We recommend grinding a small groove where the grub screw attaches to the drive pin to avoid the pin from moving out of the coupling.
The battery slots of the T3’s chassis plate are not pre-shaped as the ‘009 slots where. This is not much of an issue when using LiPo batteries but if you decide to use Sub-C batteries make sure you camphor the edges with a file to avoid the sharp edged to cut into the batteries shrink wrap.
The new lower suspension mount made for a tight fitting of the lower wishbones. Normally Xray parts are of a drop fit but with the T3 the wishbones showed a bit of binding. Despite using some sand paper on the contact patches of the wishbones and pivot mounts we left everything as it was as normally things free up during the first couple of runs.
Use balancing weights to achieve a proper 50/50 left-to-right balance. With the new drivetrain layout less weight is needed to get that perfect balance. Suitable weights are available from Xray. Otherwise tyre balancing weights from full scale cars make perfect weights too.
