With nitro season coming right around the corner, it was time to get the 801x together and take it out for a test drive. I am very pleased with the way the buggy goes together. The plastics and metals are pretty beefy in most areas which will help in preventing those nasty DNF's. The buggy is a little heavier than most buggies but I am sure once I get the light weight options installed it will bring the weight down to the ballpark of most other race buggies.

I used a set-up from TRF driver, Brian Givens, as a base. I heard from several people that his buggy has been looking really good on the track. The days prior to hitting the track there was a lot of bench tuning of the suspension. As Brian's set-up calls for 1.2 pistons up front, I felt the front was a little too soft (he does use an after market spring, while I was on the stiffest Tamiya). I switched to the 1.1 pistons and 35 wt. Losi  oil and got the feel I was looking for. 1.1 pistons and 30 wt. oil in the rear felt pretty good on the bench; again with Tamiya's stiffest buggy spring.

Finally, track day! It was a hard choice between watching the Super Bowl or going to Thunder Alley for some test runs. Obviously, we see which is more important to me. Track was dry, dusty, and a little rutted. Medium to large size jumps, mostly small kickers that give you a little hang time. First couple tanks I took it pretty easy to get everything broken in, tune the motor, etc. First things I noticed was the gobs of steering this buggy has. Second was the brakes felt fa nominal.  The front was still a little soft, I installed HB front blue spring and took the buggy out for another run. This was much better! I can hit the single jumps harder and not have to worry about the front end doing a nose plant. It also calmed down the steering just a tad, not loosing much. From here, I pretty much ran the buggy the way it was all day just to get more feel for the buggy.

There were some issues I had, the shock tops and bottoms were coming loose, and one of my pistons actually came off the shaft. Gobbed on the loctite and it was good for the rest of the day. Judging from the tire wear, it looked like I might be able to go up in the diff oils in the front and center. Plans for the week is to change the diff oils to 8-6-3 and get the 801 ready for Round 1 of the Grass Roots Series in Palm Desert this coming weekend.