RE: how good is the savage xss
On paper anyway, yes it should be pretty good. The Savage has always been - IMO - the best basher anyway. Savages are just tough. Plus there are TONS of tuning options. The X SS has supposedly fixed the main Savage issues - weak, hard-to-get-to diffs above all. The X RTR was flawed IMO(TVP's, tranny case, spug-gear set-up..), and it seems HPI recognized that and made all those things better with the X SS.
Is it the best on the market? That's not really an answerable question.. But, if you want the "best" for repeatedly launching off huge jumps, bashing around off-road, at skate-parks, etc.., then yeah, probably..