I've held a deep fascination with all things Tamiya for as long as I can remember - touring cars aside I was more than happy to see Tamiya get into the off road racing market proper with the likes of the TRF 501X electric buggy - a marvel of machined alloy and carbon fibre with all the options & settings you could possibly want right there on the car.  I liked it so much I bought two myself and sponsored a driver in the UK to race one in the National series - just so I could see how good the car could be.

The first I'd heard the name TRF-801XT was when I was given the chance to review the car - I knew very little about the car and hoped it wouldn't be a cheapening of the 'TRF' name but upon closer inspection it looked to have all the right stuff.  The 801XT is the result of Tamiya USA and more specifically their top driver David Jun and the insistance that competing in this growing class would be a 'good thing'.  The car was designed in the USA and overseen by the guys in Japan - but make no mistake, this is the baby of Tamiya USA.

The 801XT comes in a smaller box than I'd imagined - this is partly because wheels and tyres aren't included.  Tamiya don't make these items yet so it's little wonder but still a shame, even just wheels would be a good start.

The build is partly bagged into stages - these contain most of the parts needed for that part of the build but some of the larger plastic items will come from other bags still.  One thing to note before even starting the build is the lack of any large general screw bags - This is the first Tamiya I've seen where all the screws for that part of the build are self contained, so you didn't have to dig through a huge pile of screws to find the right one.