Anywho, I'd been eying the Tamiya 801XT for some time, since they had been on sale for $200-$250. Well, last week, the price for the kit dropped to $99 shipped! I was all over it. It showed up yesterday afternoon, and what a kit!
Now, I have never owned a Tamiya before, and given equal pricing, this would not have been my first choice. That'd be an RC8T, followed by Kyosho, Xray & Mugen. But with the sale price, it was a no-brainer. It's not that I had any dislike for Tamiya, just that they don't really have a presence in off-road racing, and the aforementioned brands have much history and success in 1/8 off-road.
All that said, I am VERY pleased with this kit. It is perhaps a little more delicate in a couple areas than the competition, but gleans with the usual Tamiya quality I've seen on other Tamiya TRF kits. Well made parts and very good assembly instructions made building it a snap. Well, an 8-1/2 hours snap, anyway. lol. Certainly a lot of parts, but it went pretty smoothly. Tamiya does include everything you need except for assembly tools, which consist of 1.5, 2.0 & 3mm socket head and 4mm & 5.5mm hex.
I did rob the Novarossi .28-7RT engine and AE XP3SSi radio gear from my RC10GT street fighter to build this. I had a couple of Kyosho KS200 high torque MG servos on hand, and for now I'll be running the OFNA Buggy8 pipe & header I had in the parts bin. This kit does not come with tires & wheels, either, but I already had a set of Proline Tazer VTR 4.0" tires I mistakenly ordered instead of 3.7", so I just had to get wheels and foams.
Very slight modification and shimming of the engine mount to install the engine equipped with a rotostart, but otherwise had no snags at all. I have not run it much on account of body still needs finished, but what little I did left me quite impressed!
And with one of my RC10GTs and my OFNA Ultra LX Comp for size comparison. This thing is BIG!
