First Proto of X - 7 Running At Cactus
 

Paul Sinclair and Clayton Easley are now running the first prototype X - 7 at Cactus, Paul in Mod and Clayton in 13.5. You can keep up with things at www.liverc.com

The car is hugely un-sorted. Paul ran it for about 15 minutes in the shop parking lot before getting on the plane. They have no idea what the set-up will be, and are changing things constantly.

They good news is that, at this very early stage, the car seems competitive, and with set-up work it will only get better. They practiced it once on Wednesday, several times on Thursday, and intend to run it in today's quallys.

The bad news is that we've discovered an issue we don't understand; sometimes we get 2-3 battery packs in before it breaks, other times 2-3 minutes. We know what's happening, but aren't sure why, and think it's something we may not be able to fix at the track. This is typical of early prototype work.

Most other companies would not think of bringing a car at this stage of development to a race as important as Cactus. We can't think of a better place to find out if this radically different design has what it takes to be an X-Car.

Any photos....?

Keep at it guys, I'm sure you can get it right:thumbsup:

I'm looking foward to seeing this car :thumbsup:. Might have to hold off getting a b44.1.

Keep me informed over the weekend Chazz, glad the cars made it to the track in time (did Paul sleep at all last week?? LOL)

At last we can start to talk about all things "X-7"....... :D

x7
 

Im sure they will be some by the end of the weekend but i cant find any at the mo

clayton is up in about 5 heats time and paul is up a few afterwards .

Is this 2 or 4wd?

4wd :woot::thumbsup:

Is it all new or a conversion of an existing car?

All new.... nothing like anything you have already seen.....

When does Mr Stafford get his test mule

Really glad to see Chazz, Paul and the rest of the team have stuck with this project. I'm sure things have changed in the past 12-18 months, but I bet the design will still contain some unique features.

Good luck guys.

In Round 1, Easley crashed the X - 7 after three good laps and broke some front suspension parts. They repaired it and ran it a bit in the parking lot -- all seemed well.

But when Paul got it back on the track, it was obvious something was wrong from the beginning of warm-up. The spindle had cracked, and after a lap it fell apart, so Paul's race never really started.

They have the parts needed and will be on the track again in about 5 hours.

Get some pictures posted :lol:

Fair play for testing it at the highest level :thumbsup:

Cheers Phil, it is just a "tad" differnet to some of the ideas you witnesssed being banded around at the time and it is indeed VERY unique.... ;)

Sorry guys no pictures from this end to reveal at present

chazz i really like you way of taking care of buissnes and looking forward to join the x-7 family even if it is early days yet. good luck to you all. :thumbsup:

X - 7 Finishes First Race
 

Paul Sinclair, driving the X - 7, brought it across the finish line for the first time in Qual 3 of the Cactus Classic. Paul was in the F qualifier due to DNFing the first two, and finished second in his race.

Paul was marshaled on several laps (very nervous driving the brand new car) but had two 26s and two 27s in a race where the winner's best was a 25.9. We've still got to find 2-3 seconds to compete in the A, but I think running 90% of the leader's times first time out isn't bad.

Congrats! Kind of? Sounds promising though and its nice that the car is completely your own! Good work so far xfactory, would love some pics!!

The car is NOT a conversion of anything out there at present ( as I confirmed in an earlier post), but the car is still using a few "familiar" parts from other cars at this early stage. Only time and testing will tell what will make it into production kits later on in the development program.......

I know its not, didnt say it was ;)

Hi Tom,

When I saw you put "its nice that the car is completely your own", I did not want anyone thinking we had made "every" part that is running on the protos this weekend at Cactus, since when and if pictures emerge it will be clear to see there are just one or two bits that we already recognise... ;)

Darren

Easley Wins His Race
 

Clayton Easley, driving the X - 7 in the 13.5 class, has just won his race with a 12-lap run and a string of 26s & 27s. This will probably move Clayton up a main to the C tomorrow. The A main guys in 13.5 are turning 25s, so Clayton's getting close. There are bump-ups in 13.5.

Paul will be up in an hour or so in Mod and I'll be in bed so you'll have to check LiveRC for the results. It's midnight EDT now, 9:00 in Phoenix.

Paul does Well Again
 

In round 4, Clayton's race and Paul's race were closer together, and the decision was made for Paul to run with Clayton's 13.5 in his Modified run. This put Paul at a distinct disadvantage, but he went out and ran a good race, with a bunch of 26s and 27s, plus a 25.

Running in the F (lowest) qualifier Paul led the race until the last lap when he was marshaled and wound up second. Out of about 60 entries, Paul's time with a 13.5 motor that could not clear the triple jump was about 45th. (Nobody with a 13.5 could clear it -- Clayton's motor was fine.)

Booo just show pictures, talking about a product, giving race results ect is worthless. If you guys are confident enough to take it to one of the largest off-road races in the country you should be proud enough to show her off.

Your argument will probably be something like the car isn't ready, we're just testing some new ideas, its not even close to being done, or something like that. You'll never gain anything by keeping it under wraps. Anticipation builds off of what we can see.

I'm a director of marketing at a company that did 937 million in revenue last year and haas been growing at an average rate of 37% the last 4yrs, having been created in 2005. So I know a little about marketing, here in the uk you seem to have these guys swinging from a tight rope. But come on

Its been a year now, lets see some results. There is a kid on here that's in high school that has developed two cars in that time, and you guys aren't this small company anymore. If you think small that's all you'll be. You guys are an international company with drivers all around the world so lets go.

Design Without Fear of being criticized for a prototype that we all know is still in beginning stages.

Just some constructive criticism from a fan. I'm ready for all the backlash you guys can dish out, I could care less. My conscious is clear.

They probably couldn't afford to hire such an esteemed marketing expert as yourself.

Or maybe they are putting their efforts into producing the best possible chassis. It's not all about marketing you know!

It doesn't take a degree in marketing to understand that, you want pictures don't you?

And is not all about marketing? LOL that's interesting.

Tell JQ that

Or maybe we just dont want our unique ideas ripped off or copied before our car even hits the shelves. Nearer the time all will be revealed, but NOT yet sadly, far too early...sorry.

Photos will come -- unlike most R/C companies, we do not try to do this in secret. But be advised that we will be very careful about what the photos show and what they don't.

There is an order to things, and several years' experience launching new vehicles has taught us the hard way to follow it.

X Factory remains a two-man company, and over the six years in business have yet to gross a total of 1 million. So yes, we are building fast but easy-to-drive quality cars on a shoestring. If we had pix to show, we'd do it, but there is nobody at Cactus other than race drivers with very little time to do pix. I would give anything to be there, and if I were there, there would be pix.

Ahh i see, fair enough! Will you be doing your own shocks or using some of the currently available ones? Im guessing shocks to be one of the most expensive parts to design and make in a kit?

I can respect that. I appreciate your reply. However I can say that I can agree to disagree. But redrc doesn't seem to have any problems getting pics

I hope we can see some photos soon

.
 

clayton just won the 13.5 d main by about 10 seconds, he gets bumped up now so see how he gets on

Paul has just broke/pulled up in the mod E main but he was running second !

Easley Wins 13.5 D Main -- Bumps Up To C
 

Clayton Easley, with a consistent string of 26s & 27s, has won the D main of 13.5 4WD. Clayton kept the X - 7 away from the marshals to win the event by almost 10 seconds over 2nd place.

The top two in each non-modified class bump up to the next main, so Clayton will be up again with the X - 7 in race 38, the 13.5 4WD C main. This will be after the A-2 round of modified, so it will be about two hours from now.

Talked to Paul about a half hour ago. Pix have been taken and we hope an interview will be done. You'll see them tonight or tomorrow.

Clayton Easley, starting from the #9 bump-up spot, wound up 5th in the Cactus C main, with another string of 26s & 27s.

Over-all X Factory is pleased with the performance of the X - 7 first time out. We have work to do, but it's a good start for an all-new radically different car.

1st. Great showing.

2nd.
I wasn't asking for you guys to get her naked on the 1st outing, rather just a peek of what's to come

Sounds like you guys are getting it together down there, good stuff

Pix Will come
 

Paul will be home late Monday, with some pix which we will post, probably Tuesday. BTW, Tate, anybody who wanted to could have taken all the pix they wanted while the car was on the track, and we know that at least one web site photog did. As soon as he puts them up, we'll post a link.

I pitted beside Paul all weekend, and saw the car in various stages of assembly and fine tuning. I can tell you 3 things for sure:

1) I've never seen anything quite like it. It's one car I highly doubt we will see any posts along the lines of "oh great another *blank* clone."

2) It is very, very pretty. It looks FAST sitting on the table with no shell on, like a 1:1 supercar.

3) It performs the way it looks. It was very quick and nimble on the track, and considering the lead time the fellas had before the race, that is saying ALOT.

As the proto gets the kinks ironed out, the X-7 will become a force to be reckoned with!

Shall we guess what it is like first? That would be fun

I think the the motor will be centrally mounted with cells right up to the rear diff!
Actually I think rear motored kicked up so less overhang ?

I bet it has 4 wheels and is 4wd:thumbsup: