Although the layout (sans the center diff) is very common in smaller scale, it is really refreshing to see it in 1/8. I really wish there's a top deck or something for additional stiffness though.

I might just have to replace my Hyper 7 with the 9e once they become more available - there's one on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hyper-9-E-versio...742.m153.l1262