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A Brief interview on the XX4 with Chris Doughty - www.doughtyuk.net / Doughty Racing Products.
Chris is a Team Losi Factory driver and 2002 4WD European Champion using the XX4 Worlds Edition.
Hi chris, Can I ask first how long have you been racing and what was your first car ?
My First car was a Mardave Meteor, I got this back in 1989 when my dad switched from 12th circuit to 10th off-road, I stole his car and started racing, he got another and we raced together for a long time.
What is your favourite and / or best result in racing ?
Best result was the Euro Champs in 2002 with the xx-4we, my car just wouldn’t crash that day, I could not have wished for a more dialled car. But that is not my favourite race, I have had quite a few of them, strangely enough, not all of them have been wins, I enjoy the race just as much as the results, most recently the Telford National in 2WD, I got TQ out of qualifying and had 3 superb legs worth of racing between myself, Darren Bloomfield and the freshly crowned 2WD world Champ Neil Cragg. |
How long have you been racing for Team Losi ?
A VERY long time, longer than Helger has been distributing Losi. I think it must have been 1991 or 1992, I basically raced half a season with a JRX2(or whatever car was previous to the XX) and then got the ‘new’ DoubleX so whenever the original TeamLosi DoubleX came out, it was around half a year before that.
When did you first start racing the XX4 ?
I first started racing the XX4 when it first came out, its been a while and I can’t remember the year, but it completely shook up 4WD off-road, nothing like that had been seen before.
Do you still see a place in your season for the XXX4 G+ or will you be exclusively racing the XX4 this season ?
In my own season, No, I will be exclusively using the XX4. The 2005 season highlighted to me that you can’t have both cars as an option; they drive so very different you can’t switch cars depending on the track, its takes too long to adjust to each style of car. Oxon national I ran 2 quals with the xxx4, 2 quals with the xx4 and finals with the xx4 and I really noticed in the finals how much I was not ‘into’ the xx4, I was still driving it like a xxx4 and didn’t make the most of the xx4.
What do you think are the main benefits / drawbacks of the current Losi 4wd buggys, the XX4 Worlds and the XXX4 G+ ? and do you have a favourite chassis?
I still believe that the xxx4g+ is a very good and capable car, it does have its flaws on bumpy tracks but on some tracks it will be quicker than the xx4. Overall though, through a whole season I think the xx4 would be the safest option, the xxx4g+ is always on edge, ready to bite, but the xx4 you can concentrate on making up time, the car will take pretty much any track surface you can think of with minimal setup changes.
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I am very fond of both cars actually, with the 2002 Euro win that the xx4 helped me get, coming straight out of the 2002 season we were given the xxx4’s I didn’t race at all during the winter of 2002/3, I missed the first national due to work and the second national of 2003 was the first time I actually raced the xxx4, it was Kidderminster and I managed to TQ and win that national. Ever since then, I have got on quite well with the xxx4 and its newer g+ version.
With all the extra power we are getting year on year I think the xx4 is starting to become more favourable, no longer is there the risk to dump like we had problems when we used 2000’s when it first came out, its now possible to have a car that is too fast so the extra drag in the drivetrain that a 3 belt setup gives compared to a single belt setup is no longer important, and to be honest, there is less different in a single belt vs triple belt as people think. |
The XX4 has done amazingly well recently, winning many races in the UK and Europe, Why do you think the car has come back so strongly against much more recently developed cars ?
I have started to cover that in my previous comments, I think the advancements in battery technology has finally caught up with the car, we have ultra quick brushless motors that will be legal for regional (depends on region) and crazy capacity available in the batteries, dumping is not an issue, we can make our cars too fast for the track. So the compromises that were made to get the component placement in the xx4 are now negated.
Are there any team-only or optional parts on your XX4 for this year ?
The Team will be using very much box stock cars for 2006, we might run LCD’s on the front but these will be available soon, possibly the ‘BK-Bone’ driveshafts/diffs if we feel a certain setup needs it, but these will be more to do with driver preference and setups than a ‘needed’ or ‘must have’ mod. Out of the box, the car is capable of winning a national, in fact it did, Darren Bloomfields xx4 won Telford national pretty much box stock, he didn’t even use a one-way!
Any clues if Team Losi are working on any new 1/10th off road projects at the moment ?
They are always working on new things, one thing that has changed recently though, the UK Losi race team have had more to do with the development of the off-road cars than previously.
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Thanks Chris and Good luck with your racing and your projects.
Thanks Jimmy, good luck for 2006! |
