Xpress XQ11 Hara Edition: Body and Livery reveal

[wtcc5 5758]

Building a competition Touring Car I didn't develop myself is something unusual for me. The last one I build, was the Team Associated TC7.2 in 2018. The build was exquisite, the car on track was not. It also collided with my TT-02 KR development. So the 7.2 became a shelfqueen faster than foreseen. Since Xray released the X4, I felt the appetite to build one of the new touring car chassis. Then Tamiya announced the TRF421 and I was sure "This one is it!". Well as you see, it wasn't 

Around that time Xpress announced the Hara Edition of their top line touring car. Atsushi Hara himself drove the XQ11 at the TITC 2024 and surprised the crowd with his purple anodized special parts chassis:

https://events.redrc.net/2024/02/chassis-focus-atsushi-hara-xpress/

 As he tries to establish Hara projects with different manufacturers , he already worked on a Hara Edition XQ11 with Xpress before the TITC race. The positive reactions to his purple convinced Xpress to make a limited run of his purple XQ11 version (minus the parts of other manufacturers). So they produced 300 kits. Preorder was already early in the year, and finally last week it arrived:

 

The box itself is pretty small, but has a nice design. Unfortunately you cannot say it got any more love on the inside. The unboxing reveals a plain boring manual, no TITC mention or reason for this special edition, only simple plastic bags:

It only mentions "Hara Edition" on the additional manual sheets added to the standard XQ11 manual. No Hara sticker set or autograph card...  Disappointing...

[BruiseWayn 42]

u know i am not saying anything... but Hara was with HPI and they folded... 

just kidding... u know i got an Xpress FT1S build thread with custom purple anodized parts that i got floating around here which i nvr got to finish... 

I know I know.... i should....

[Pylon80 3688]

16 hours ago, wtcc5 said:

No Hara sticker set or autograph card... 

Sounds like an excuse for a vacation to Japan

Following with interest.

[wtcc5 5758]

@BruiseWayn: And now he will collapse Awesomatix  Regarding your build: What are you waiting for  Sounds like a awesome build with amazing outcome and eye candy happy end.

@Pylon80: I was there in April '23 and didn't even find the time to visit the Blockhead store, even though I had a little present with me for Watanabe 

The good news: The chassis is already in the mail on its way to my friend Michael Koos, who will attend the ETS race in Luxembourg next weekend. If all goes as planned, Hara will leave his signature on my chassis there  This thread is a bit behind in time, but I will still give a detailed build record here.

 

The first step are the upper arms:

You need this tool to make the camber adjustment later.

 

All the hard work first... Turnbuckles as second step = limited fun 

No problem here. I just wished, that these were made from purple aluminum.

 

Rear differential:

5000cst feel like 1000cst in a Tamiya XV-02 differential here. All in all a smooth diff that needs no extra work.

 

The front spool is simple and a straight forward design. The outdrives really look like that of the TRF420:

Putting the black ring on it, needed more force than thought.

 

[Honza 1167]

For me, as someone who likes M-chassis and shaft driven tourers, Xpress is very interesting brand. It's nice to see that they did a TC that's not all black 😁 Looking forward to continuation 

[BruiseWayn 42]

7 hours ago, wtcc5 said:

@BruiseWayn: And now he will collapse Awesomatix  Regarding your build: What are you waiting for  Sounds like a awesome build with amazing outcome and eye candy happy end.

@Pylon80: I was there in April '23 and didn't even find the time to visit the Blockhead store, even though I had a little present with me for Watanabe 

The good news: The chassis is already in the mail on its way to my friend Michael Koos, who will attend the ETS race in Luxembourg next weekend. If all goes as planned, Hara will leave his signature on my chassis there  This thread is a bit behind in time, but I will still give a detailed build record here.

 

The first step are the upper arms:

You need this tool to make the camber adjustment later.

 

All the hard work first... Turnbuckles as second step = limited fun 

No problem here. I just wished, that these were made from purple aluminum.

 

Rear differential:

5000cst feel like 1000cst in a Tamiya XV-02 differential here. All in all a smooth diff that needs no extra work.

 

The front spool is simple and a straight forward design. The outdrives really look like that of the TRF420:

Putting the black ring on it, needed more force than thought.

 

Why is he hopping around? You know you could get a set of purple aluminun turnbuckles...

Yes my build... just the anti roll bars left and then some. new wheels/tires and a Civic body. I need to pull it out of storage but to get to it... i need to drag out alot of stuff lol

[wtcc5 5758]

@BruiseWayn: I don't know... Regarding the turnbuckles: Please make a suggestion, because I could find only MST 40mm, but only in America.

 

The next build step really reminded my of my TT-02 KR developments:

All perfect without play.

 

These were put aside and it continues with the hubs. These are multi parts and allow to move the ballstud to the inside via shims. That these are all plastic takes away from the build quality. These are available made from aluminum. As set of four would cost 80€. Fronts:

At least the steering plate is made from purple aluminum.

 

And rears... same parts except for the cardans:

 

The anti-roll-bars have their own mounts:

 

And for last: Good news. Hara received my chassis and signed the chassis plate generously 

A thousand thanks to Michael for making it happen!!!

 

 

[BruiseWayn 42]

34 minutes ago, wtcc5 said:

@BruiseWayn: I don't know... Regarding the turnbuckles: Please make a suggestion, because I could find only MST 40mm, but only in America.

Ask, and you shall receive. 

https://www.rcmart.com/slidelogy-aluminum-turnbuckle-m3-x-28mm-2pcs-sdy-0280p-00121072?search=turnbuckle&page=6

They also make have other colors in a range of lengths. 20mm version, and 40mm i think? Search under Slidelogy. Just not sure if it would match the purple from factory. 

Also u might be keen to take a look @ this. Coz i read yr TT02 thread. Its a Hara endorsed product lol

https://www.yeahracing.com/blog/magenta-aluminum-conversion-kit

https://www.rcmart.com/yeah-racing-magenta-aluminum-conversion-kit-for-tamiya-tt02-purple-mgt-0001-00131947?sort=p.price&order=DESC

Not sure why but most of your pictures are not loading for me.

I might get some when i am ready to dive back into my FT1 (not S) build. I just went back to look @ my build thread (easier than lugging out the physical thing in the storeroom; gf is asleep and she will be mightly *******ed @ the noise lol) and my car has the stock black ones, though i wonder why i didnt think of purple ones when i was building it. 

Also not sure if purple turnbuckles would be overdoing it with too much purple. Maybe titanium ones? But equally cool either way! Boils down to personal preference.

 

[wtcc5 5758]

@BruiseWayn:  Totally forgot about Rcmart. Thanks for the golden suggestion! Ordered already:

And they have them in all sizes. Pretty cool!

I saw that „Magenta“ upgrade kit. A bit torn though, as the Yeah Racing parts have not really racing pedigree…

[BruiseWayn 42]

9 hours ago, wtcc5 said:

I saw that „Magenta“ upgrade kit. A bit torn though, as the Yeah Racing parts have not really racing pedigree…

Quite right. 

What racing pedigree lol

Their aluminum conversion kits are way too expensive and most of the parts are totally unnecessary for racing. If anything it makes the cars more prone to damage. Sticking Hara's name on the kit allows them to price the kits even more. Also i wouldnt use half of the aluminum parts included in the kit. The TT-02 isn't really complete without the SRX suspension parts... personal opinion!

[wtcc5 5758]

It goes on with more purple now.

As you might have recognized, the manual build does all the little units first before combining them to the big picture. The motor mount is another one of these:

 

The last of these small units is the steering rack and floating servo mount:

 

Finally it all comes together. The chassis plate is on the menu and gets the arms attached:

I love carbon arms 

 

The anti-roll-bar attachment :

 

I am a big fan of purple for some weeks  So this is my soul food. Bulkheads front and rear:

Mjam!

 

...and motor mount:

[Nicadraus 6482]

Beautiful car! Those purple bits are like candies. 

I still remember my HPI Pro4. I built it into a 2005/Hara spec and added some more hop ups. It was fast and very well planted on the track. I also had a chance to meet Atsushi Hara in 2007 at the HPI cup.

[wtcc5 5758]

@Nicadraus: These were so great! At that time and even later, I had a problem with this color  --> Asso fanboy... 

I was away for the week, but now let's continue the build. We took off with the belts and motor mount added. These were followed by the steering, servo mount and electronics plate:

 

For now the one piece topdeck is added:

 

Like the TA-08R, it has this plastic bridge added to control the flex:

 

Installing the diffs was next:

 

These are hold in place by the upper bulkhead, that also is the upper shock mount:

 

The upper arm mounts have a caster adjustment with shim and are mounted on these "sleds":

 

Slowly all the prebuild units were added. This time the hubs:

 

Mjam 

 

[wtcc5 5758]

Now to the tasty damper build. A lot of small parts, but nothing unknown or new. Overall flawless quality:

Also not as short as the Xray XLP.

 

Before installing the rear ones, the body post mount comes first:

 

Rears installed :

 

... and fronts:

 

The battery mounts are a nice and well thought out spring loaded system, that needs no screwdriver or other tools to load and remove the battery:

 

The last steps of the manual build include bumper and body posts:

The upper bumper brace is an aluminum piece, anodized and painted; with the collectors number and Atsuhi Haras signature on it.

 

The end:

 

Next on this thread:

I thought a long time about what to do... This is my first competitive chassis since 2018. But, it is a Hara edition. And (!) it will be signed. So only one thing to do: Shelf it. Right?! But I want to drive it. So buy another one. Nah, I don't have that money...

My solution: I will buy an aluminum chassis plate for the winter to save the signed carbon plate. Like that, I can run it and still make it a shelf queen later 

[wtcc5 5758]

The car came back from Michael Koos three days ago:

 

Then a day later the purple turnbuckles arrived. Here an overview of the parts I will add to this car for the indoor season:

I never had an aluminum chassis for my touring cars, so this is new, but welcome. Also the split top deck is a welcome setup variety. With flex being a major setup tweak nowadays, I also added front and rear braces to the shopping cart. A battery mount for my shorty LiPos as well as replacement blades just in case... On RedRC Power HD recently released a direct mount version of their S15 servo --> Exactly my thing! In the end a ZooRacing blop body will be added for proper aero on track.

 

In the first step a minimal invasion back bone surgery had to be done to replace the priceless chassis plate:

 

Maybe more for looks, a state of the art 3D-print bumper was added:

The print quality is excellent.

 

The direct mount servo was paired with a heavy duty Power HD servo arm:

I wish you could direct mount all electronic components like this 

 

Then the strange shaped one piece top deck was deinstalled for the split version:

Btw: The small screw near the spur gear must be one of the most expensive parts per gram in R/C car history. You can use up to four of these for flex adjustment. Two are in the box. I ordered two more for the price of 11€!!!

 

Without picture, but on all following ones: All turnbuckles were replaced then. In a direct comparison, I now find the stock turnbuckles very ugly. They look rough and already a bit rusty. For that amount of money, just a disappointment.

 

Last for today, the battery mount was replaced with this shorty plus weights version which adds technical beauty to this chassis:

[Chris.B 240]

Indeed a very nice chassis.

Could you do me a favor and measure the height and thickness (material) of the 3D printed bumper's honeycombs? Would be interesting for me as a reference for those I print myself.

 

[wtcc5 5758]

@Chris.B: Will do as soon as I am back from the business trip.

[wtcc5 5758]

@Chris.B: The bumper has a height of 8mm.

 

Today I got some more pictures of the completed chassis. I got some aluminum screws and added the electronics. I ran in a bit of trouble regarding cable length, why I had to put the esc in front of the motor, which is not so common with middle motor chassis. Overall it took the whole day to make a proper cable routing...

 

 

 

With electronics:

 

Still to come:

1. I will make a chassis protector (by hand)

2. Painting the body

3. Setup and tweak

 

[wtcc5 5758]

Needed another full day to make the chassis protector and the body.

First the protector. I put two layers of vinyl together and took the chassis as template to draw the outlines and holes. Then I cut the shape and used a 6mm holepunch for the screwholes:

 

The result:

Unfortunately, I got confused with the holes of the battery mounts...

 

Then I worked on the body. I bought a ZooRacing ZR-0016 GOAT as I love the BWOAH! body and know this brand as being trustworthy regarding their developments. Here it is already cut, cleaned and masked:

This is always the "hard" part for me, the part I don't want to do the most

 

Three colors later:

 

I used one of my custom sticker sheets from the Shingo-Tachi-project to complete the Toyota LeMans '99 livery. As it was already late and dark, I didn't cut the body posts, but had to make pictures:

 

This afternoon then I found the time for some daylight pictures with shortened body posts:

 

 

 

[Chris.B 240]

Fantastic livery!

[wtcc5 5758]

@Quincy and I went to Senden for our first Indoor practice this season.

I decided to give the Hara XQ11R  its first run and prepared the car accordingly. I put on a high-grip USGT setup and checked with our club race calendar. The first race will be RC Kleinserie. For this series I invented the KRv5.1. The two other series are for the Hara XQ11: RCK Challenge and SK Lauf. In the Challenge, I will run the GT class and need a BWOAH! body for it. For the SK Lauf I can use the GOAT body. Long story, the GOAT body will go on the shelf for now and I pulled a brand new airbrush BWOAH! from my stock:

The right one 

It has body post holes already. To prevent more holes, I made a new front upper bumper brace:

 

Then it was time to run the car. I was a bit nervous. Main goal has to be not to crash car and body! And it worked (to my surprise). I found a good rhythm all day, despite numerous setup changes. I reduced the mighty fast HW G4 motor power to 70% for the first run and then step by step raised the power level to 100%. In the end I managed 30L in 5:03 Min with a personal best of 9.7s. The track evolution was strong too. It all started with a 10.7s this morning.

The Hara Edition (which is a XQ11R as we know now) worked great. Absolutely predictable rear and great to control front end. It is easy to stay in a one to two tenth window every lap. Body and car are scratch free after more than 350 laps. Normally, I have one or two hiccups per run. Not today… 

[skom25 2179]

Looks amazing!

I really dream about something like that, but I do not have place to run it 

[wtcc5 5758]

@skom25: Sorry to hear that. I am indeed in a lucky position/location to have nearly every (race-) track type within a 120km radius. Starting with Offroad 1:8 dirt and 1:10 carpet only 10 km away. Then 28km away a 1:10 Onroad/1:10 Offroad/1:28 Onroad Carpet Indoor tracks. Further away then three outdoor Onroad asphalt tracks.

After the successful race with my TT-02 conversion (see TC Designs), the next race (8. December 2024) is one for the XQ11. It will be a DMC Sportkreis Elektro Glattbahn event, so I can use the strong Hobbywing V10 G4 motor together with my beloved BWOAH! body and a tire of my choice in the EGTWHO class.

Today I tried a Sorex tire (28 with black insert) and it didn't work at all. I later switched to the previous used RCK 28MX tire and suddenly was glued to the track.

The track development was strong, even though we were just three guys today. I even had grip roll in the fast corners and was forced to make crazy glue on the sidewall of the fronts. This then made the car behave much better and the fastest laptimes dropped down to 9.3s. I never was so fast on this track. The XQ11 Hara feels nimble and has rotation galore. I increased the droop in front and used a 1.3mm anti-roll-bar in the end. This all made the car more stable in this high-grip environment.

I missed the 32nd lap on the five minute run by some tenth. These could easily be found if I have a bit more confidence and stable behavior. I will work on the setup (rollcenter --> inner A-arm mount shims) next time. I also ordered a Matrix tire, which should be even better than the RCK 28MX tire.

 

Today was a lot of fun. The car overall was on another level. Even the motor didn't feel that strong with this chassis. Again, I could prevent the body from getting dents. Which is my main goal every time