With their AR by Ansmann Racing line of racing chassis Ansmann Racing from Germany tries to step up from their image of doing "only" ready-to-run cars but also proper racing machines. Their contender for the 1/8 scale electric buggy class is called X8e and put the kit buggy through its paces.
If the X8e looks familiar to you but you cannot recall why, here is a little help for you: The exact same buggy is also called the T8e or SX8e depending on if you live in Asia or the US as Ansmann Racing teamed up with TQ Racing and Team C to create a global product with split markets and different brands. All kits differ slightly in branding and therefore the AR X8e features black "AR" damper caps and other Ansmann-Racing-only features - more of that later.
Overview
As the X8e came as a kit we filled our area52 Build Blog with some information on putting the 1/8 scale buggy together so if you want to go into deep on all constructional detail and some build tips, feel free to have a look here. The AR by Ansmann Racing X8e is a classical 1/8 scale buggy and thus features a 4WD drivetrain with three spider gear differentials, a tough 3mm aluminium chassis and large-volume "big bore" aluminium shock absorbers. The X8e is also available as X8 called .21 nitro buggy and therefore many of the parts are identical and interchangeable. The same applies to the option parts available for both cars.
The X8e features a very slim chassis design with centralised weight distribution for an agile handling and best jumping characteristics. The 1/8 scale buggy adapts the chassis layout of many 1/10 scale 4WD buggies with front mounted motor, steering servo and receiver while the bulky batteries rest in the rear with the large but somewhat light speed controller being put in the second floor.
The high-placed controller may look strange at the first glance but if you compare it with a traditional 1/8 scale nitro buggy, these have large cooling heads sticking out of the body shell destroying a centre-of-gravity optimised design. Additionally, if you open venting holes on the wind screen the highly stressed speed controller also gets a bit of cooling air making "the cockpit" the ideal place for it.
But let's get back to the chassis itself. The slim design let's the buggy look longer than it actually is. The wheelbase is adjustable from 335 to 345mm and therefore comparable with other 1/8 scale offerings. The 3mm chassis plate features the usual front kick-up to raise the ground clearance for jumps and landings and it is hard anodised to make it withstand the rigours of off-road racing better. Plastic side guards perfectly suit the body shell lines to prevent excessive build-up of dirt and dust within the chassis.
The steering servo and the receiver are housed within a clever plastic radio box / radio tray assembly that is easily detached from the chassis for cleaning and maintenance.
The 550 to 700-size motor securely rests on a sliding motor mount machined from 6061 aluminium. The countersunk holes accept both 3mm and 4mm motor mount screws but are optimised for 4mm fasteners which isn't a bad thing given the weight of 1/8 scale electric brushless motors. The plastic parts you see above support the motor and take away some stress from the motor holder.
In the rear half of the chassis the two 7.4V 2S LiPo batteries are located. The plastic mounting trays allow for stand-up or laydown positioning of the two battery packs that are fastened using a total of six AR-branded Velcro straps. The chosen layout differs a bit from other designs that make use of a single 4S 14.8V LiPo battery in favour of having the speed controller mounted to the chassis plate. Overall both designs have their pros and cons and the solution AR found with the X8e looks clean and works pretty well as we found out later.
Between both battery packs, the electronics department and the motor run the two centre CV universal shafts in a straight line to the front and rear gear boxes. The straight routing makes for less drivetrain losses compared to other designs with highly angled shafts in favour for an even more centralised mounting of the heavy components like motor and battery.
The three gear differentials feature lightened outdrives to reduce the rotating masses with spiral-cut crown and pinion gears are used on the front and rear diff. The central diff's main gear is also cut from steel as are the crown gears meaning a full-metal drivetrain compared to some companies that use plastic main gears to lower the weight and also reduce noise levels. Anyway the true cut of the supplied 14T pinion gear and 44T main gear make for a relatively low drive noise so we did not miss a plastic main gear.
The remainder of the chassis set-up is pretty much 1/8 scale standard with tough plastic wishbones that are sandwiched between plastic and aluminium suspension holders and that are equipped with 2.8mm anti-roll bars. Part of the suspension are also 18mm big bore oil-filled shock absorbers with threaded aluminium bodies, black anodised caps and medium hard springs.
The shocks are mounted to milled 5mm front and rear T6 6061 aluminium shock towers that feature different holes for the camber links to adjust the roll-centre of the front and rear suspension.
The whole package is topped-off by a slim Polycarbonate body shell, a white high-downforce wing and white dish rims that come without tyres or inserts to let you pick the ones that suit the actual track conditions.
Track Test
As with every competition-level kit the overall performance heavily depends on the tyres, motor/controller and batteries and of course chassis and suspension set-up. We used the standard set-up as suggested in the manual with 5k differential oil front and centre, 2k oil in the rear differential and 450CST oil in the shock absorbers with stock shock pistons and the supplied medium springs. For the tyres we went for Pro-Line Revolvers and motor/speedo-wise for a Tekin T8-2050kv/RX8 combo powered by a set of Vampire Racing 60C/6200mAh LiPo battery packs.
With the 14 teeth pinion gear Ansmann Racing supplies with the kit the X8e reached a reasonable speed level that was just right for the somewhat tight track we thrashed the buggy on. For larger tracks a 15T or 16T pinion might be a better choice but again this depends on the motor and speedo settings used.
With the PL Revolvers the X8e had massive traction on the hard packed parts of the track, the buggy accelerated nice and straight with minimal noise levels despite the steel main gear. On the deeper, softer parts of the track the buggy still behaved without a problem but tyres weren't ideal showing how crucial it is to pick the correct rubber. Normally tyres make around 75 percent of the car's performance leaving the remaining 25 or so percent to set-up. In case of the X8e, the 25 percent suited our track just perfect. The buggy flew nice and straight over the small to medium size jumps with virtually now mid-air correction needed. Only on the soft and very rough parts we felt that 400CST shock oil and maybe more upright shocks would help with traction and also to make the suspension follow the bumps better.
Despite the rough track, harsh motor and several abusive test drivers the AR X8e showed how tough of a buggy it is with no breakages, leakages or problems to report other than a that darn steering servo horn that lost all of its teeth as the plastic material used is way too soft. Do yourself a favour and get a proper aluminium servo horn to replace the stock one as there is nothing more frustrating that have to retire from a run because of a cheap plastic part!
In Detail
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Things you need The AR X8e is a competition kit meaning you need to source the entire electronics such as radio system including a standrd-size steering servo, speed controller, brushless motor, batteries etc. to get the buggy running. We - again - used a Tekin T8 2050k motor, RX8 speed controller and a set of the brand-new Vampire Racing 60C 6200mAh 2S LiPo packs. Steering duties are taken care of by a not-so-new but still good performing KO Propo PDS-2368 steering servo connected to a Futaba 3-channel 2.4GHz receiver. |
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Pro-Line Revolver tyres The X8e kit comes with a set of white dish rims and we equipped them with a set of Pro-Line Racing's formidable Revolver M3 compound tyres. The tyres that won the 2008 World Championships provide plenty of traction and side bite on hard packed surface without letting you down when the track surface becomes a bit softer although there are better tyres for the "soft stuff". The Revolver is also available as 2.0 variant with a slightly updated lug design for further improved traction and even better wear characteristics. |
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Technical data AR by Ansmann Racing X8e - Lenght: 500mm - Width: 310mm - Wheelbase: 335-345mm - Height: 190mm - Weight: 3490g |
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Likes & Dislikes + Good specifications + Light weight for an electric 1/8 scale + Strong suspension and drivetrain parts + Comes in kit form - Plastic servo horn too weak - Some of the hex screws are too soft and strip easily |
Tips & Tricks
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Seal the RC Box The plastic RC box has an opening to route the servo, receiver and transponder wire through. We recommend to close and remaining gabs with a few drops of silicone sealant or simply some foam plugs. This keeps dirt and moisture away from the receiver ensuring trouble-free operation of the radio system. |
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Body nose If you cut the body's separate nose piece according to the cut lines, the result is a somewhat bulky part that not suits the sleek lines of the buggy. We simply cut away more material from the lower part making it look much better (in our eyes …). |
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Body holes Something that is often overlooked is to make the rear body post hole a long hole. Doing so ensures that the body can move forth and back over bumps and after jumps resulting in less stress on the hole and therefore a longer life of the body. |
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Steering servo horn Something we found out during the track test was that the supplied plastic steering servo horn is too weak to withstand the abuse created by a powerful metal gear servo and a demanding off-road track. We simply stripped the toothed ring of the horn making the X8e impossible to control. Ansmann Racing offers several optional servo horns CNC-machined from aluminium an available for all famous servo makes and we highly recommend to make use of them as nothing is more frustrating than DNF because of a 10-cent-plastic part. |
