Doc you are right the first time, it's the drive shaft from another car cut down with a sleeve to hold it together. Of course, on the production car, M.I.P. will make correct shafts for us. This is what put Ellis out of the Southport race with just 4 laps of practice; the crash broke both front driveshafts, and he had no spares.

And yes, we don't want to give things away just yet. Because we are very small and don't have tons of money to throw around, it takes us a while to do anything and do it the right way. There are several things on the 5.1 that we must change now because what we thought would be simple to assemble is proving difficult. So how to use the same engineering principle but make working on the car simpler?

The X - 5 still is a great car but finicky and needs constant maintainence. The X - 6 is a great car too, but the 6 Squared is so much simpler to work on yet retains all the capability of the original. People loved it when we made the changes, and the lesson is not lost on us. So we're hoping to have the 7 ready for market late this year, but don't bet on it, and in the meantime we'll keep certain things to ourselves.

Trust me, we want to show you everything ASAP.

Sweet!!!!:thumbsup:

please dont tease with comments "may be out this year":p

now im really hanging for it!!!!!!!!!!:o:cry::cry:

even in proto form it looks good!!
looking forward to seeing the finished kit!
those belts look mighty thick!!!

and made from normal material too!!!! not plastic(losi)stuff!!!!:thumbsup:
3 belts:lol::lol:

2 belts as X factory r looking for an efficant drive train not a crap one!!!
cheers
Mic

Taking a guess..... the layout is not too dissimilar to the old Losi JRXS touring car. Motor in the middle of the car on the centreline, with cells in the middle too (one in front/behind the motor maybe?).
Twin belt either side of a wide layshaft to clear the motor... but where it differs to the JRXS style would be the belts connecting to a gearbox (TA03 style!), meaning proper suspension and drive shaft geometry etc can be used.

Simplicity... use the same gearbox+internals front and rear (idlers are on the correct sides if you rotate), and if you put the layshaft in the right spot, equal length belts as well. Cut down on spares, cost to produce is less... all with simple, intelligent design :)

thats how i think the car will be but with saddle :thumbsup:packs!

It's got 18 belts, 2 shafts and room for 3 lipos.

so thats why they had issues fitting everything under the body:lol:

The main transmission concept of dropdown gearboxes and twin belt to clear components such as batteries etc is nothing new and has been tried in several variation in touring cars.rally cars and buggies before.

Let's see their take though and if they bring something really novel in the table.

The use of small pulleys in the X5 transmission design was a big mistake in my view.The XXX4 had enough belt skipping issues with pulleys twice as large,using smaller pulleys is the wrong way to go if you want decent reliability from the transmission with what is more or less the same drivetrain concept as the XXX4

I will be watching with interest though.Good luck

The last few posts contain some really good guesses, but I will say this: there are no 'idle' things in the drive train, and there are a few unusual/clever/novel details which so far no-one has noticed.

Good to see someone from X-Factory/somebody who donates ideas to Chazz and Paul (Elvo) putting things in the right perspective and not fanfaring with false comments on major innovations (like the whole deal behind the X6) that do not hold any water:

The car main concept is more than possibly not groundbreaking - as Elvo said and as seen by the pic I posted as one example it is an older concept with some minor clever new takes.

Presenting things in the right magnitude is the only way for a business to achieve respect in the long run

Childish sloganeering and fanfare like is not going to save your ass in the long run when there is no depth in your claims

And in order not to come across as a hater/doubter or something similar.Cheers to Chazz for risking his pension fund and backing his son in an attempt to bring their flavour of fresh air in electric off road .He could have chosen more easy/boring things to do in his retirement as most do.

Just present things without megalomaniac tendencies or big claims . People who have been around for a while see through your claims immediately and flag them as unneeded

I recon the gearboxes will be like a B4 with three gears :)

Here's my 5 min ms paint guess work :lol:

http://i530.photobucket.com/albums/d...k_dyson/X7.jpg

Or maybe, like that, but with each belt directly driving the front/axle rather than idlers?

Well you do sound like that !!!!!!
no one said the drivetrain was a new idea.......its all the other things noone knows about that will be interesting !!!!!!!!
for a family run factory they do a very good job of making cars ......
lets see u do better.....all you seem to do is knock there work and ours.....
if you have nothing good to say on this forum then P$% O**!!!!

going buy your crap you have never driven a X Factory :p or is it they beat you on the track!!!
as all on this site DO drive one and put forward ideas and setups for each other...........
so i think we know our own cars pretty good!

That my thought too... gearbox's look a lot smaller than a 2wd 3/4gear type one. Also looks like the casing is more like a cover, as there appears in the front view to be a through bolt. Wonder if the alloy bulkheads support everything (axle bearings etc), and the white delrin is an integral cover, with a bolt to clamp it all together nice and tight...

Having said that, it looks like there is some carbon between bolt head/nut either side of the bulkhead. Bracing? Or some kind of belt adjustment by moving the whole gearbox (bit out there with that one maybe!!). Still look forward to seeing more the design when it comes out :)

As a guess,that's not bad! I like it. But it's not really unusual or clever or novel, now is it?

That's more like it! The gearboxes move indeed....

Wasn't that tried on the works 93 yokomo?

Yes, slotted rear bulkhead holes. It first appeared on the Yokomo works 91 in production form, earlier if you count the world winning masami Yokomos

Looking at the drawing DaveG28 did - if u took out the idler gear from both gearboxes in that drawing, and ran the layshaft gear directly on the diff, then u could swap the motor round and have it wrking the same way as in the cat sx3 ;)

The belts would run "backwards" in effect, when the car was moving forward, if u get my meaning, as well as the housings themselves being much smaller :D

Moving the gearbox to adjust the belt isn't unusual or clever or novel though, and it's easier to use a tensioner so I think there's more to it than that.
This may sound silly but do the gearboxes move whilst the cars in use?