Xanthos
Introducing CEFX's new 1/10 oval car for the 2011-2012 indoor racing season. A brother to last year's Balius, the Xanthos is a total mix of all of CEFX's experience from the ultra sucessful Griffin on-road cars as well as our Lithium, Balius and countless prototypes in between. The Xanthos is built to maximize corner speed, reduce steering scrub and input to get the most out of your 1s oval experience.
With the change to 1s a few years back, we all went searching for more left side weight. In that persuit, one of the most important features was overlooked - CG. The Xanthos is a back to basics car with less left side weight than it's Balius brother but it has a severe reduction in CG. The chassis is now pocketed to drop the battery and speed control .050". Additional cuts next to the battery allow the racer to use two additional 15g screw in brass weights. As an added benifit, you can use all screws in the weights to drastically stiffen the chassis or leave one out in each weight for a more flexable combination.
Once of the most unique features built into the Xanthos is the new pivot bar and side shock set-up. The side shocks now mount to the pivot bar which means you have no loss in side shock geometry during compression and rebound of your center shock. This allows you to completely fine tune each aspect of the rear pod's movement to it's maximum potential. While the side shock geometry appears more laid down, it's not. The shock tower that wraps around the center shock moves the shocks further a part and while it looks different, still maintains the same side shock geometry from the more than proven Lithium car. The center shock geometry is completely revised and based off the rough track master, the Griffin 12.
Two chassis will be offered for the Xanthos, one will fit the older style AE front ends and the other will fit the newer R5 style front end. With the removal of the locators from the chassis, the new front bumper has a new mounting pattern that's wider and much stiffer to the front body posts maximizing the downforce. The body posts have been moved further out as well and you can use any combination of the three holes to match the feel and body you are using. Also, the rear of the car has two different body mounting holes. The outside is for cars and the inside lines up perfectly in the trim line for the bed of the truck bodies. The new positions put the posts in the flatter portions of the fenders and truck bed for easier and more consistant mounting.
The Xanthos is a no frills 100% race car. Only the needed shock positions are supplied without the hundreds of worthless holes that are never used. The cross brace for the side shocks is 4mm graphite for maximum stiffness and consistant performance. The Xanthos will come with 0 degree rear steer pod and only the 1.4" right rear hub will be used on this car.
The Xanthos is a creation that has been in the works for quite some time. Before the 2010 Snowbird Nationals, a prototype car was designed based off the Lithium AP. This prototype had the side shocks mounted to the AP bar in an effort to isolate the center/side shock movement from each other. The cars were designed and cut only days before the Snowbirds.
At the Snowbirds, the prototype cars ran extremely well and were hindered only by what was later deemed "battery gate". Several top industry people commented on how the prototype was one of the smoothest, best looking cars on the race track and with a little hp, the results could have been drastically different for a car that only had a handfull of runs on it. Reguardless, it achieved a podium finish in 7.5 and just missed the podium in Mod. The consistant performance left the prototype just missing out on the Overall Champion's title by a single point.
After the Birds, there was concern about the sensitivity of the center shock lenght and racers not adapting to being more precise with that single adjustment. The prototypes were put on a shelf and work began on the Balius t-bar only cars.
Since that time, oval racing has changed further with super soft tires, lighter weight bodies and reduced speed from higher turn motors. Now, that smooth handling and agressive cornering is at a premium so it was time to bring back the car that possibly was ahead of it's time.
