So what's she like?

[Nick Goodall]

I have to say i absolutely loved racing the Predator before packing up, and actually got my best result with the car at the 2001 Euro's in France (Q4 and finished 5th).

I've been thinking about possibly starting racing again, but just wondered what the Pred was like now? The car had almost died before a bit of a revival which led to T-Tech bringing out I think the P8? This was the car i ran that year which was awesome (but then my Dad was doing all the Maintenance so i can't say i got sick of working on it).

Does it still require as many rebuilds? I remember the Gears going on a fairly regular basis, maybe every 2/3 meetings if my memory serves me correct? How strong are the plastic components now, such as wishbones and gearbox covers? Are people running similar set-ups to the old car?

Look forward to reading the replies.

Thanks,

[jimmy]

I've only had limited runs with mine so far but when I ran it at oswestry national I was impressed, I gave it a good beating and nothing really broke. The wishbones seem strong to me (I tested them!). The only thing I was wary of was epoxying the front rocker pins to make sure they dont work loose ( I did that during the initial build)

The damage after the national was a couple of teeth missing on the old style spur. The new spur (1 less tooth) is supposed to be stronger. It happend I think landing off the big jump at oswestry.

[Nick Goodall]

Thanks for the quick reply Jimmy!

Sounds rather promising, the car was always extremely fast but I just always felt you could rip something off at any moment...

I remember the first Qualifying round at the Euro's, Ian Kenningly and I were both running 1st and 2nd, and just made it through for an extra lap, went over the big jump in front of the rostrum and snapped the rear end of my car on landing, luckily i think there were only 4/5 that made the extra lap in that round but it could have cost me a lot...

Still fun memories hey ;-) The car was just great, i'm hoping to get to a few race meets next year and see how they're running but sounds good so far!

[Slimboyfat]

best person to speak to is Tom Yardy. he's TTech No 1 now and has had a good year with the car.

I have to say from a bi-stander point of view, the car looks 100% stronger than before and you don't have to be a pro to get one round for 5 mins.

[Northy]

Well I've run Preds for years, and the X10 is by far the strongest and best car they have ever made. In fact I would go so far as to say it is one of the strongest, if not the strongest 4wds currently available.

The gears last forever. I have had the same set in mine since I got the car, thats a whole indoor and outdoor season and they look like new! :o :D Also, the whole transmission is guaranteed, break it and they replace it! See here:

http://ttechracing.com/transmissionguar.html

I will admit the car had a few niggles when first released (X10), but TTech jumped on those and irradicated them faster than any other company I have known! They have also been developing new parts for the car this year at an impressive rate.

Cheers,

G

[Southwell]

Im considering one at the moment, they seem much better than back when i drove for them (ETQ) but i never had any major problems with that car. I know what your saying about it feeling like it will snap at any time, mine did during the A at a HRC regional landing off the jump the front separated from the rear :D

[modelimages]

As some of you know i sell the x10/xrs so beware any bias, Joe has been running a stock xrs for the last two nationals and the euro's, he is not the greatest or fastest driver out there nor is he the gentlest driver on a car, that said he has had no major breakages and the diffs are the originals, the only parts we upgraded for the xrs were the rocker cranks everything else is kit standard. problem areas on the car have been the spur gears, my fault for not meshing them properly and building the motor mount wrong in the first place. there is plenty of choice with 4wd at the moment but the old horror stories of gears and breakages are a thing of the past, as for spares they are reasonably priced and availability is good. dan drives a xx-4 and costs me three times what joe does in parts!.
john cockill

[Nick Goodall]

The more i hear the more tempted i get haha, must stop thinking about it.....

I think i really need to just get my B3 going, run a few batteries through it at Lee's and decide what i want to do - this is like mental torture at the moment ;-)


Thanks for all the opinions though, sounds overall like the car is a lot stonger/forgiving then it used to be, hope this time the support/backup is kept up.

Thanks again!

[Southwell]

Just remember how expensive it is nick, i spent at least a couple of grand getting my kit back in order, prob best to run the b3 until you decide how much racing you want to do.

[Nick Goodall]

I know i know.... that's got to be the best bet I reckon.... should be fun anyway even though it's a good 9 years old near enough :-)

[MattW]

Strength wise i really don't think you can fault the latest preds.

The transmission in mine is now a season old and is completely origional. One diff has had a rebuild, but the other is just as i built it.

I have broken 2 front gearbox tops,2 rear uprights and one wing mount. The Uprights can be modified slightly so maybe those wouldn't have broken had i done the mod. I swapped the wing mounts for Losi ones. I think this was a common mod back in the say as well. That is all i have broken all year, i can't complain - other cars suffer just as much if not more so.

[Southwell]

What about taking the tranny apart to relube the gears?

[Northy]

Personally I have drilled a hole in the top of each gearbox, cover with tape, but saying that I very rarely lube the gears, they don't really need it.

Back in the day Slop never used to lube the old white gears and he said they lasted just as long. Two schools of thought on the matter really.

Also, with our weather, you tend to take the car apart to clean it way before you have to worry about opening it up to lube it! :(

G

[MattW]

I have to confess that i last saw the inside of the transmission just after Tiverton. Haven't touched them since - actually, i probably ought to do it!!

[Northy]

Just done mine, and the diffs were dry! :o But thanks to the joy of ceramic ball were still very smooth and free! :D

G

[Southwell]

Hehe, looks like i may try out the X10 soon then :D
When i drove the ETQ it NEVER broke the gears, Mick Cragg told me to bung as many gold washers as possible in there, (5 i had i think) and after 2 mins run in was free as anything!

[kydawg1]

Gents-

This is my first post here, and have a question to tap all your experience.

I own a first release X10 (I was one of the lucky initial pre-order owners) and I am just getting ready to build her up. The question I have for everyone - What options / parts change outs are needed to make her
as robust as possible (since there were some early kit issues that I am unaware of)? I am ready to place an order to get all the options / spares I need to make her teh best possible.

Thanks in advance. I know this is an old thread, so I will keep on digging to see what I can learn throughout the forums.

Best Wishes to all.

[markwilliamson2001]

I had a XK98 about 7 years ago, the gears did use to go fairly often, however, the main problem with breakages I had was the lower ball joint at the axle end of the car, especially on the front end, although nothing else broke really.

It seems they have fixed some of the things I disliked about the car so much:

The dodgy front rockers which never really aligned that well (sorted now on X11) and the front camber adjustment, and the poor alignment of the front suspension upper pins in the gearbox top, which needed much fettling to drop under their own weight, and the rocker mounting in the gearbox top which used to eat itself, (again now sorted on the X11).
The drive pins which used to eat themselves if you set too much steering lock on the tranny, but this then meant the steering lock was very poor.

Things I did like about the car were the great and free transmission
Easy setup - actually it was easy once you got the shocks sorted out to handle the bumps, the adjustable rear toe-in made small adjustments easy.

Overall I liked driving the car, but maintenance and build quality were poor at the time. They seemed to have improved things a lot, but I think their are better cars out their now, with easier suspension to setup (BJ4 and S4 for example).

Nick, I would look to the B44 which Associated have released for September of this year. It is very cheap £210 advertised and uses lots of the BJ4 parts and your already B3 shock springs and pistons....

My two cents
Mark