Hello all... getting a late start here to my blog so, I am going to recap the last several weeks with my new 801X.

First off, let me say I am very excited to be a part of this company and team. When first opening my new kit box,  it is very nicely packaged. The instruction manual very easy to follow, especially with the actual size screw pics. I took 2 days to put it together as I wanted to take my time understanding every aspect of the car's parts. The plastics are amazing, almost too tight if there is a such a thing. Tolerances are tight.

1st time out with new build:

The Farm for the Summer Nitro Fest in Charlotte, NC. I arrived late Friday night to sneak in 2 tanks of fuel on the new buggy. Needless to say, running on that track is a challenge, combined with being dark, running the track backwards and not driving for several weeks. It was bit awkward trying to "feel" how the car felt. First impression was wow, turning is insane. Coming in and out of corners was effortless. I am not sure this was the best event to acclimate myself to the car. I struggled with navigating the track which was run in full scale mode and backwards from the standard configuration. I ended up in the B-main, but I wasn't surprised given the circumstances. I did feel confident going into the main and felt good through warm-up. Once the race started I felt confident about moving up through the field...well until my car started acting erratic. My steering was not right causing me to over run turns, etc..at first I thought i was having radio interference and I struggled for several laps even brought it into the pits they could see nothing wrong, again wacky laps and decided to pull it in for the day. Turned out my steering servo was blown. Having about 5 tanks on the car I was not satisfied with getting to know my car, so I looked forward to the next race at once of my home town tracks...

Following week, Brooks, GA VRP:

I replaced my faulty servo with the new Orion servos and was off to practice most of the day before the race which started at 5PM. I was giddy with excitement. I got to the track and met Jamey Powell there. I ran almost a half gallon! I was loving the car. Every time I came in from practice I could not wait to hit the track again, the car was so dialed. I was using the stock setup all around. Everything just started feeling very comfortable and predictable. I did have two weird mishaps: 1) my aluminum steering knuckle, the screw stripped on the bottom due to coming loose and I presume wiggling in there stripping the threads, not having a backup, I locktited it again and superglued it for the 30 min main. It held the whole time. 2) One of my rear shocks came apart near the last 10mins of the A-main. My summation is, the red lock that came with the kit did not hold as well as what I usually use or did not apply enough. I ended placing 3rd in that event. I really enjoyed that day with car.

<went on vacation for a week>

Coming back from vacation I was looking froward to getting back to my buggy for this past Saturday at the Dalton RC track in Dalton GA.

I decided to setup my buggy exactly as Ryan's nats setup. The car felt pretty decent though not completely sure. I went back to the trailer to use my buddy's Hudy setup tools and we re-measured my camber, and it was reading -5 just about all around...wow. So, my gauge was a quite a bit off. We reset to -2 for comparison on handling. I believe the -5 actually handled better on the track. We adjusted this after the 1st qual. After the 2nd qual rain was threatening and they decided to cut to the mains, when mains arrived they decided on 10 mins to try to get it in before the storm came. With the time short, we had no time to make changes to the car. I had a terrible start and decided to just use my time to drive the track for this upcoming weekend which is a two day series race. I think I ended up in 2nd to last or last, not sure. I had a real bad start and could never recover. Especially for a 10 min main. I look forward to this upcoming weekend. I believe I will try-4 camber this time around and see how it performs. I will also be trying to forward battery position next time out.

All in all I am VERY pleased with the drivability of this buggy, how durable it is and easy it is to setup. If you are reading this and made it this far, thanks for reading :)