"Nimble, Fast and Mega Responsive" — Cam Waters Tests the X1 at Winton

It started as a curiosity. A Supercars Championship race winner with time to fill at a Victorian club racing event, a Hyper Racer X1 sitting in the pitlane, and an invitation from Jon and Dean Crooke. Twenty laps later, the paddock had a number to talk about: 1:16.7 seconds.

Cameron Waters — Tickford Racing Ford Mustang driver, former Australian Formula Ford champion, and at the time second in the Supercars standings — had lapped Winton in the X1 in 1:16.7 seconds. Seven-tenths faster than the pole time set earlier that day in the X1's own race class. More than a second faster than Waters' own Supercars pole time at Winton earlier in 2022. In a car with an $8,000 engine.

"The X1 is nimble, fast and mega responsive and generates incredible grip," Waters said after the session. "Despite not having driven an open-wheel car since I raced a Mygale Formula 3 at Hidden Valley in 2012, I quickly felt comfortable and pushed as hard as I could."

The Turn 5 sweeper at Winton was where Waters said the car came into its own. "Being flat in fifth gear through that section of the track with the car all loaded up was a heap of fun," he said.

"This locally designed and manufactured machine is a genuine open-wheel race car," he posted to social media after the test. "The build quality and design thinking that has gone into the car is top rate, and I'm not surprised to hear they are selling plenty."

At the time of the test, fourteen X1s had been built. Seven of them were racing that same weekend. The number has since passed fifty. Waters' lap time still stands as one of the fastest ever recorded at Winton in the X1, set on his twentieth lap of a car he'd never driven before. That, more than any specification sheet, is the argument for the Hyper Racer X1.