First of all, I would like to say a big thank you to Jimmy in writing his reviews of all the cars he has reviewed over the last year or more... as it has helped me make decisions on buying a car for myself.
His pictures are excellent, and he has a club racers experience level of building cars (like most of us out here). I did look at the X5 when I was coming back into 4wd off-road, but reading the review, and seeing the pictures, made me think twice about it, since it involved dremmeling certain parts (like the rear shock tower.) as well as some of the minor problems with setting the belt tension etc etc.
This put me off a little, and some of the pictures showed the quality lacked a bit when placing some of the original XX4 parts into the X5. This was down to Jimmy sanding a bit too much or cutting parts a little too much... which meant that the parts did not fit superbly (like in a full production kit).
As far as I could see the car was not for me, but for a more experienced racer/kit buider it was fine, and the speed/handling of the car cannot be bad since it has made more than one National 'A' final this year.
Most of the problems with parts come from Losi, who now have stopped making the XX4 (which is 10 years old now mind!) i.e. weak graphite parts etc.
However, reading the rest of the report, he managed to get fantastic support from the guys at Xfactory very quickly through email and the companies website. This is fantastic.
I just wish Jimmy had done a review on the Predator I bought about 6 years ago, as I probably would not have bought one because of the poorer quality compared to other manufacturer's kits (at the time). However the car was easy to drive, and setup.
Becuase they have stopped making the XX4 altogether, I am now looking possibly in a year or so to change 4wd buggy or do 2wd instead. From now on, I will be reading Jimmy's reviews with interest on any new cars that come out. I had looked at the HB D4, but am now possibly looking at something else.
I think we all can learn from Jimmy's reviews before buying a car.
Thank You Jimmy and OOPLE!
Mark
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