The shock absorber towers tie left and right bulkhead sides together at either end of the car.  The towers have a vaguely similar look to the original car but instead of carbon fibre the 'R' gets cheaper pressed alloy towers - the material is more than thick enough however so should hold up well - but the extra weight high up on the car will raise its centre of gravity slightly. 

Front and rear towers are curiously larger than those on the 410 - an extra outer hole on the front end and two extra holes on the rear plus some extra 'tabs' lead us to believe these might be the same items to be included on the rumoured 'SC' Short Course truck coming from Team Durango.

The extra height of the towers might see the car more prone to 'digging in' and apply more stresses to the rest of the structure in the event of a crash - but we'll have to wait and see for a proper verdict on that. The towers look good when assembled onto the car.

The ball studs used on the 410R are simpler than those used on the 410 competition car and thankfully no more losing cone washers in the grass whilst changing setup - since the 'R' does away with all that nonsense in favour of a fairly standard socket-head ball stud. The studs have a nice wide shoulder for extra support and secure with a nyloc nut on the towers.

Left: rear bulkhead combines the wing mount

The front aluminium shock tower goes on easily and firmly joins the two halves of the front bulkhead.

The plastic rear 'U' brace supports the rear bulkhead and ties it to the side pods.

The rear-rear braces ready for me to pick and choose!

Rear-rear brace sits a couple of mm high before being bolted down.

The suspension arms are (identical to the DEX410) moulded with plenty of glass or and are proven to be really tough - possibly too tough depending on your point of view since something else might well break instead of these arms. I bought some spare sets for the original car and never used them - it seems the Tamiya TRF501X finally has a match in the toughness stakes.

Droop screws feature on the rear suspension for quick adjustments

The rear arms mount up with several spacers so wheelbase adjustments are possible on the inner - along with the outer hubs. It's nice to see the spacers are all correct in the 'R' and everything bolts together as it should with barely a whisper of friction. Tolerances are tight in the Team Durango cars and they've clearly learnt some lessons to this point in the build.

As already mentioned, the suspension arms pivot on moulded plastic suspension mounts and whilst at the front of the car the hinge pin angle never changes - on the rear you have the option to change the pin height and angle using the included range of plastic blocks.  Four blocks are included, three for the rear of the rear-wishbones and one that sits in front of them and can itself be flipped to raise or lower the leading edge of the hinge pins. 

<--- Liberal use of previously-created artwork (for the DEX410 review) on the left gives an idea of what's possible with the included plastic blocks on the rear of the car. Fine adjustment of the anti-squat isn't really catered for.

The hinge pins on the 410R are the same high quality items as the 410 - ground steel items with a recessed centre section to reduce friction.

The suspension arms are buttery smooth on these badboys and there's no trimming or filing needed.

The lipo strap bolts down at the rear - with two different mounting heights possible. The strap combines with the rear gearbox brace - the little hoop sets the gearbox angle.

The DEX410R's narrow chassis requires a saddle-pack type cell arrangement. Unlike the original DEX410, the 'R doesn't come able to accept NiMh cells as standard but a newer multi-fit lipo strap is included so you can use the latest lipo saddle packs in the car.

Things have moved on from just a year previously when the original car was introduced - the end of MiMh cells in widespread use was most certainly already just about complete. We tested the car for a mere 1-charge on NiMh cells and found it excellent - a combination of extra weight and reduced voltage made the car very stable and easy to drive hard. Thank goodness for lipo though.

Three holes at the front combine with the two at the rear to adjust lipo strap height.	The strap is secured with just one pin - and pivots up to allow cell removal.

We found in some situations the extra weight of the nimh cells would have been good - particularly on bumpy tracks. For this eventuality the guys at Team Durango have optional brass weights available to tune rear end weighting - there are cheaper ways of doing it and some drivers swear by avoiding the rear skid-plate weight claiming it's too far back and causes too much pendulum effect.