With the car fully built I set about searching the garage for my nitro gubbins that hadn’t been used for the past couple of years.  I had a new bottle of fuel given to me - tho it was by now a bit old, perhaps it’d be OK.   The small 12v battery in my starter box though was dead and wouldn’t hold any charge - apparently it’d been left switched on and probably resting up against something whirring away for months.
I rigged up a couple of lipo saddle packs in series and stuck them in the starter box.  With everything in place I decided to do it in the garage - at least the initial starting anyway since it was really cold outside.

I only include all this information, so you can laugh at me - I'm not a professional racer so please don't judge me. -Jimmy 'they laughed at my thumb on rctech' Storey

I heated up the Alpha engine with a hair dryer for a few minutes until it was toasty warm.  Ragging the car down on the starter box it made noises that sounded good and a puff of smoke- woha, this isn't too hard after all.  The smoke was actually the connector inside the starter box melting from the strain of twin motors attempting to spin a big rubber wheel against an alloy chassis.  So - I didn’t quite have things lined up properly?  oops.
Getting the JQ car lined up I found a bit hard in all honesty - the central engine needed the buggy far over to one side and I had to remove the exhaust side locators to get a good position.

Time for another try - this time nothing was happening.  The engine was locked at the top and it appeared the clutch bell wasn’t turning at all.  Hmmmmm.  So out came the engine - by now back in the kitchen where it was at least slightly above zero degrees.  

It seems I’d put too many washers on the end of the crank and taken out all the end play - and it was now jammed.  I took it all apart again and turned the engine over a couple of times in my hand with some grips on the fly wheel then reassembled the clutch with a bit more play.  

I went to put the engine back in the buggy when I realised half the tank of fuel was now collected all over the kitchen surface and my nikon battery charger.  Awesome.  

At this point I decided to cry and give up for the day.  I called oOple man Stu Evans and he offered to come over the following day to help get the engine broken in and get some photographs of the buggy.

Not much of a test really - didn't have snow chains :(

The next morning Stu arrived bright and early to get the Alpha going. Stu spent 10 minutes setting up the starter box with the enging totally out - more sensible than ragging it against the chassis I guess.

With the starter box properly set up, the engine started right away - and despite getting the crank stuck at the top a few more times, we managed to get several tanks through the engine - though it was still quite tight.

I won't lie and pretend we got a feel for the car since the normal photo-place was covered in a blanket of slushy snow and it was almost impossible to drive the car at all. Still - a few mediocre photos would have to suffice for this review it seems.

TEST
I went down to Notts & Derby who were having a mid-week practice day, and some of the UK JQ team were in attendance to work on their setups. It was a misserable day and conditions weren't great - with a really soaking wet track providing zero traction with the AKA tyres I had. I borrowed some Schumacher spike tyres off Kev Davies who was a fellow JQ driver and these were OK but still not up to the traction of the angle spikes which were seemingly NEEDED in these conditions.

Kev mentioned the kit setup being way-way too hard - and it was apparently on my first tank that the front end was pretty much dead. I was already running lighter oil than the kit suggestions with 40wt AE oil up front but went to 30wt and the car felt a whole load better - the front end now felt attached to the track like it hadn't before. The rear was already running 35wt AE oil and whilst this was still probably a bit thick I chose not to change this as my main problem was learning to drive after a couple of years off racing a nitro vehicle of any sort.

Above: Some of the JQ Products 'THEcar' in attendance at the Notts&Derby practice day

After a couple of tanks I had a problem with the car which looked terminal - landing off the big double in front of the drivers stand the car felt just plain wrong - like there was something slipping. On closer inspection the front end was totally locked.

By the time I got the car back to the pits the problem was gone. I still stripped out the centre diff and Kev Davies opened it up fearing there was some horrific problem that had caused the locked front drive. But there was nothing wrong with the differential, or the rest of the car for that matter.

Another team driver mentioned a problem with the brakes locking up if they were set with too tight a setting. I reassembled THEcar and had another go. The brakes locked up twice in this run so I took it back to the pits to loosen off the front caliper half a turn. After the change I didn't have another problem with the front brakes but later in the day whilst Kev was driving THEreviewcar for some photos it looked like the rear brake had locked also for a moment.

I originally adjusted so there was approximately 0.5mm clearance or less - I re-adjusted the front brake to nearer 1mm clearance which seemed to solve the issue. The copius amounts of sand on the track could have been the issue or it might be a heat issue as it mostly seemed to happen after heavy braking - but the extra 0.5mm clearance seemed to completely solve the issue and the brakes still felt good.

Some JQ lads that helped me out - Thanks guys! - No that's not me pixeled out - he didn't have his own buggy with him, and didn't want to be identified!

Kev took the car out for some more photos and my lack of preparation was once again the cause of a mishap - my hastily soldered receiver battery hadn't been heat-shrunk together and coming up to the big jump the battery broke in half from the vibration which saw Kev launch the car out-of-control-style high-high into the air like a complete maniac basher nutter. THEcar bounced after landing heavily on its rear wheels - someone managed to stop it before Kev could smash it up any more and with the broken battery diagnosis I decided to call it a day.

It was only later I discovered the anti-roll bar link on the right rear had snapped. The only time I can imagine this happened was from the big nasty landing after the car went out of control. I'm not sure how it happened or if it was just a combination of the cold weather and the sudden large impact.

Notts and Derby is a bloody amazing track.	Mrs.oOple prays one day I will do THEwashing-up