are there any body off pics of the x7 and if not, when will we see them ?

Once Ellis starts racing his X - 7 in a few weeks, we assume somebody with a long lens will stand 4 miles outside his pit and capture something while Big E is working on the car. However, we don't plan to give away the store for a while yet. Too many great new concepts on this car.

Somebody on RCTech posted that he saw Paul's X - 7 at Columbus and it accelerated better than a shaft drive car from a competing team driver. He was correct, and that's an amazing advance in belt drive systems. There are several other proprietary innovations on the car as well.

Because we are so tiny it takes forever for us to get something from design into production. And because we insist on testing at the highest level before production, that adds to the time frame. For example, Greg Hodapp and Paul were at the CRCRC Mid-Winter and then Cactus with the original X - 6 protos many months before the car went into production. So we've got to do our best to keep our ideas under wraps until we are ready.

Most companies do not do nearly so much work in public as we do, and most companies will tell you nothing about what they are doing. But X Factory is not most companies...

That would be Jimmy :p

To be fair, there's a few larger companies that have taken or are taking their sweet time getting their cars from prototype to production.....

Fortunately, this isn't the arms race of touring cars - buggies stand the test of time a bit better.

You're right. But one thing; we are not taking our sweet time, we're going as fast as the R & D money can take us.

One big problem is that all the people involved have other things to do. I've got shipping, work with the Dealer Family, ordering, packaging. Paul has design work, production work (For both, don't forget about the SCX - 60CF.) and Team manager. Ellis has a beautiful family and a full-time job. All the other Team drivers are really amateurs with full-time outside jobs.

So prototype-building and testing, while it's the dearest thing in our hearts, often must wait while the business goes on. Frequently -- more than once a day -- I'm in the back of the shop bagging parts while Paul is in the front making shock towers, and we are shouting back and forth about a design idea. Suddenly one will stop what he is doing, go to the other, pick up a piece of scrap paper, "What about if we do it this way?"

Paul shoots down more of my bad ideas that way...

Just from an outside point of view...

Love the fact that you come on here and talk to people about your products and ideas... Nice to see :wub

Tom

Absolutely-very much appreciated as well :thumbsup:

Thanks guys. We are trying to do this differently from the others in every way.

Good luck, and so strongly that production

Ellis is running the E.P.R Winter series in 4WD, and won again this weekend with his Gen 5.1 prototype. That's two in a row!

He also lapped 2nd place twice in the process

Sounds just like me and designing new things for the kyosho zx/zxr. Ideas just appear and they tend to be the ones that work really well, old car with new ideas. Looking forward to seeing Ellis use his soon.

5.1 proto wins again!
 

:thumbsup::thumbsup: brilliant news

Okay, now where are those paparazzi shots? :drool::drool::drool::lol:

Well, Gayo, get your plane tix now and you may be able to do much better than a photo! I posted this on RCTech:

"Paul has been invited to the J concepts race in Kansas City the weekend of the 20th, and will be competing in buggy and 4WD. He'll run the Gen 5.1 X - 7 prototype. Be in the right place at the right time and you'll get a peek under the body when Paul is working on it!"

Nah, I have not been invited... :p

Just show up, Gayo! If nothing else, you can play paparazzi. And all the J Concepts races are a ton of fun.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...56350531_n.jpg


from X-factory facebook :)

That's Team driver Lendel Smith, obviously quite happy to have his hands on the Gen 5.1 for at least a few minutes.

Looks like I was pretty close :D