The entire story: Kinwald and XFactory

0 March 8, 2011, 9:01 a.m.

As many people know, XFactory was dealt a tough blow in 2010 whenfounder Charles "Chazz" Sinclair was diagnosed with throat cancer. Since then, he has undergone 35 sessions of chemotherapy and radiationtreatment, as well as surgery to remove cancerous tissue.

“I was completely knocked out from before Thanksgiving untilmid-January, unable to function at all,” said Chazz.

For those who may not know much about XFactory, it is asmall company that produces conversion kits for a line of 2WD and 4WD cars that is ran entirely by Chazz and his son Paul. A seriousillness, such as Sinclair’s, can deliver quite a hit to a two-manoperation.

Over the last few months, the company has been operating atfull tilt- only with limited man power, with Chazz in the hospital and Paulspending much of his time by his father’s side. As one can imagine, thehospital bills for such a serious illness are nearly insurmountable, so thiswas a huge blow financially to the privately funded company.

At this time, we are pleased to announce that Chazz has regained a largeportion of his health, and is now back in action at XFactory.

“I have a 70% chance to be cancer-free for five years,” saidSinclair. “But I probably will never return to 40 hours per week.”

Even with the elder Sinclair’s limited presence, XFactory is still runningstrong and has full plans to continue on with its projects in the future.

However, the medical costs incurred during the last handful of monthshave been a major setback to the Sinclairs. With these setbacks, came the mostdifficult decision the family-owned company has ever had to make. Theycould either continue on selling their current line of conversion kits withtheir top ace Brian Kinwald on staff, or they could continue on funding anentirely new car from the ground up while making some major budget cuts.

Unfortunately, funding a new car requires a lot of capitolinvestment, much of which had to be put into Chazz's recovery. The onlyway to continue on with this project was to free up budget elsewhere, and theonly place to make this happen was in releasing Kinwald.

Before the decision was made, Paul and Brian talkedextensively about the options they had. The first option was to keepBrian on board and hold off on development of the new kit. Both partiesagreed, however, that choosing this route would be a short term solution, andultimately a lack of new products would lead to the demise of a company thatprides itself on innovation. At that point, both Brian and XFactoryagreed that the best decision for everyone involved was to part ways on goodterms so XFactory could continue development on their new 4WD vehicle, whichwill be a complete kit from the ground up, not just a conversion.

Brian personally asked us to make sure that everyone knows that he trulyenjoyed working for XFactory, and that they remain on good terms. Hewishes all the best for them in the future, and he completely understands theunfortunate circumstances that led to this. He is also very happy to see thatChazz has made a full recovery, and that XFactory is continuing on in strongform.

Both Paul and Chazz from XFactory would like to thank Brian for his years ofprofessionalism. They proclaim they would not be where they are at today without his helpand support. He will be greatly missed at XFactory, but they wish him thebest in his future and are confident that he will have no problem findinganother opportunity to take on within the R/C industry.

On behalf of LiveRC, we would like to wish both parties the best for theirfutures. With the separation ending on good terms with both parties- whoknows, maybe some day they will have the opportunity to reunite?

XFactory says they hope to have the new prototype cardebuted at Cactus Classic, so check into LiveRC.com to see it first as we willbe there covering the event!

As for Brian- we are sure he will have no problem finding anew ride soon. Could he make a return to Team Associated where it all began forhim two decades ago? Or perhaps he will rejoin TLR to recreate a partnershipthat lead to the company’s first IFMAR world title? Or will Brian choose one ofthe many other players in the electric field, such as TQ, Durango, Kyosho orTamiya? We saw Brian driving aDurango 4WD at the Reedy Race a couple months ago. Perhaps that is a sign ofthings to come?

Where do you guys think he will end up? Or, where would you liketo see him end up? Voice your thoughts by posting in the comment section below!