The Losi XX4 was first released in 1997 and quickly became one of the best 4wd cars around. The XX4 “worlds edition” was released in 1999 after Jukka Steenari piloted the XX4 to victory in the 1999 World Championships held in Finland.
The XX4 won the World Championships again in 2002, in Pretoria South Africa, once more in the hands of Jukka Steenari, despite the XXX4 Prototype of Matt Francis taking TQ, Matt’s car was based on the Losi XXXS single belt touring chassis.
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The Kit box is a decent size and looks to be the same as it was when first released, the copyright being 1999. There is no mention of re-releases and the box only mentions Jukkas first Worlds victory (in 1999) from which the car is inspired.
While the XX4 is regarded as the first Team Losi 4wd buggy, the RPS Dogfighter next to it was developed by the then small Team Losi and was piloted to the 1985 World Championship title by Gil Losi Himself. |
Soon after the victory in 2002 the XXX4 was released and all team drivers made the switch thus ending the reign of the XX4, a few people still believed in the XX4 and kept racing it, proving it was still a capable chassis.
After a few years of the XXX4, in which time it won the World Championships (2003) along with many other big races, the XX4 Worlds Edition is back!.
Losi will only say there is a demand for the car, and that to quote the Losi blurb:
“Team Losi recognized that in some rare and extreme cases where the track surface is badly rutted and "blown out" the remarkable suspension package of the XX-4 still offers a competitive edge”
Losi finally admitted that the XXX4 g+ is just not as good on rougher tracks whilst at the same time reinforcing that the xxx4g+ is still a force to be reckoned with on smoother tracks.
Some time in mid 2005 Team Losi drivers were given the option of running their old XX4 cars and they set about resurrecting the old cars with help from the Losi factory. Parts started becoming hard to find and regular racers followed suit and started picking up once-bargain old XX4’s for high prices.
At the 2005 worlds warmup in Italy, Travis Amezcua tested both chassis before deciding to go with the XX4 and finished 2nd with it.
The Kit, referred to as a “limited re-release” is virtually identical to the worlds edition from years ago, there are no major upgrades or changes, in fact very little is different at all.
The car was originally released to replicate the cars which did so well in the 1999 Worlds, and thus comes with all the hop ups from the time. |
Kit Includes, among other things:
Ti Turnbuckles
Ball Raced Steering
Ti Nitride shock shafts
Threaded shocks
Graphite chassis and suspension parts.
Green side and rear belts, blue front. |
In Terms of changes in this re-issue, from what I can see there are the following changes:
Alloy ride height adjusters on the shocks
White plastic yokes on the rear UJ's
VLA (variable length arm) rear arms (Though the VLA extra hole is not used) |
