Suspension blocks attach underneath the chassis and are identical all round. I couldn't even get this first suspension block fully tightened! I gave up.

The first job in the build is to attach the steering posts and suspension mounts to the main chassis.  The steering posts mimic the cars big brother, the 501X, being laid back in a similar fashion to match the angle of the front ‘kick up’. 
The suspension mounts are from a large parts tree ‘A’ which appears to be the same glass filled plastic as the main chassis.  The suspension mounts are identical all round and a little similar to those on the front of the 501X – but of course plastic instead of anodised alloy.
The mounts have round holes to accept the hinge pins which pivot on plastic balls inside these holes.  The benefit of having these 'balls' on the hinge pins is that the squat angles can be easily changed without changing parts or binding.

The instant you begin to use the Phillips screws in this hard plastic you realise just why Hex head screws are a god send for the serious builder / racer.  I found that nothing short of immense power and a good screw driver are needed to attach these initial parts.  With 1mm left to on on both screws my hand was hurting and I'd stripped both screws heads. Great.

This  just wasn’t right at all – I tried two screw drivers and knew I had the right size but the material was just too hard to screw into and by this point I couldn’t even unscrew the mount to pre-tap it!  Oh dear – oh dear.

As well as pre-tapping the holes, I also applied a little silicone grease to the screws before inserting.

I was now left with the possibility of writing off the review after putting in the third screw of the build!  Luckily there was room to swing a dremel and I managed to ‘slot’ the heads with a cut-off wheel.  This enabled me to use a large flat head screw driver to remove the offending screws and start again!

For a car of this level, which requires screws inserting into quite hard plastic composites, like these mounts – then either the holes need pre-tapping (by the user) or hex head screws should really be included.  I attached the second front suspension mount with a couple of hex screws I had laying around and the difference was like night and day – it took so little effort since the only force needed was to turn the screw, not push like a maniac to stop the driver slipping.

I decided to stick with the kit-supplied phillips screws, since this is what most people will use. I did however decide after my little ‘incident’, to pre-tap all the holes with a quality hex-head screw and my Hudy driver.  I also put a dab of silicone (diff) grease on the kit screws before installing them into the tapped holes. This worked very well indeed and I didn't have any more problems.

With both front suspension mounts installed the rear are next – the exact same parts installed in the exact same way.  The mounts might need to be properly trimmed here as any rogue flashing stops the mounts fully seating into the chassis.

An hour of building had seen me put 10 screws into the chassis – of course I was photographing, demeling and swearing a little.

A seperate motor mount attaches to the chassis next – this is a large aluminium part with a matt grey finish.   Perhaps they deliberately made it dull so they can sell ‘shiny bits’ later?  How cynical am I!

The motor mount attaches with 6 screws (in four different sizes!) and also carries the lay shaft and spur gear assembly later in the build. The size should help disipate the heat from the motor, possibly making up for the lack of a motor cut-out.