FuzzyFlynn

I do not know where you are located, but there is this: https://tamico.de/?a=236167&lang=eng PS: That body looks great!

According to RC-Kleinkram (Tamiya dealer in Germany) the answer is no. Source (statement starts ca. at the 6:30 mark, video is in German): https://youtu.be/LiZDhMJW3jw

Servo power is provided by the ESC BEC. So, my understanding is that the receiver is irrelevant here, unless it is very power hungry itself, leaving not enough power for the servo. However, I never heard this about Sanwa receivers, TBH. Example search that gives me multiple BEC capacitor results: https://www.rc-kleinkram.de/en/search?sSearch=capacitor

I can report that I never experienced any power issue running my Savöx 1251 with a Hobbywing 1060 ESC. This ESC's BEC is rather strong, rated for 3 A at 6 V (compared to e.g. the Tamiya TBLE-02S with just 1.5 A at 6 V). Even if you run into power issues, this should be solvable by getting a BEC buffer capacitor.

So, how did it turn out this time? Is the body finished? If yes, I would love to see it!

From what I read, the lower limit for touring cars is about 6 kg. So, for pavement 7 kg is probably fine. On the other hand, the XV-01 is heavy by touring car standards. I never ran less than 9 kg (Savöx 1251) in mine, so I do not have any first hand experience here, unfortunately. My recommendation would be to get a nice servo from the 50-60 € range (like Savöx 1251 or SRT 6012) and rather, for now, hold back on some of the other hop-ups you appear to be considering (e.g. carbon damper bridges). The XV-01 is a fine car already out of the box. I know that I would have more fun with a stock chassis with nice servo than with a hopped-up chassis with a servo that is slow, does not center properly, or has other deficiencies. But that is just me. 🙂

No, HV servos work perfectly fine with 6V. It just means that they will not be fried if you feed them higher voltages.

SRT CH6012 is a nice servo. Fast and strong. I use it in my XV-01 with HV on a 2S battery and have no complaints. My other servos are Savöx 1251 and 1252 and CH6012 is in the same league but a little stronger and faster if you can power it with HV. I never ran the CH6012 with a HW1060 but I can report that this ESC can power my Savöx servos just fine, even though these servos are known to be rather power hungry. I never measured the BEC voltage, though.

I would use a 1mm spacer in all places where it would change the geometry. If you fear the remaining thread is not enough, there is also an 8mm version of the hex ball connectors (53969).

If you’re on a tight budget, I would recommend building it stock. The kit should be pretty good right out of the box (my experience is with the rally version). No comparison to e.g. a TT-02. Once you ran it a couple of times you probably know for yourself in what areas you want improvement. Only exception: If the axles are also rust victims and need replacement, it probably makes sense to get CVDs right from the start.

Exactly like that. On the outside over the stickers. If you prefer selected stickers shiny you can also apply them after PS-55, of course. Stickiness is a bit reduced but typically works okay.

Fantastic work! Did they also cut the CF plate or just do the 3D printing?

That is looking nice and clean! However, you might want to consider putting an additional strip of foam on the inside of the bumper mount. I can report from experience (with uncut kit foam bumper) that on a hard impact, it can fold all the way back so that the washers below the screws can hit the motor or the gear cover. Since that experience I mounted a non-Tamiya carbon bumper brace on top of the bumper. As an alternative, the FF-03 plastic brace fits as well. Just not crashing hard is also an alternative, of course. ;-)

I think that is exactly what it is intended for. And no, there is no pre-cut foam in the kit. You are supposed to cut it from the strip of foam tape. Yes, the recess in the chassis is taller than what you can cut from the foam strip. I think that is also visible in your manual picture on the right. It shows the foam somewhere in the middle with some space on the top and the bottom. Not perfect but there is no secret you are missing here. :-)

Black. The silver does not match the slightly yellowish tint of the body‘s chrome, IMHO. At least that is what it looks like to me on the photo.