I'm receiving my Racer 2 on Wednesday. I'll have some reports soon if the rain holds off.
Dave and Hammer0149, I think you made the right choice. Both the Fors CoRe and R2 will give you great performance, however, since the Racer 2 is here and ready for release will offer you more features such as Iron Audio Volume, Tone Breaks, Notch Disc (along with the standard variable disc) Also as mentioned above, they did expand the non-ferrous range from 41-99 to 11-99. For example a Nickel on the Original Racer or Fors CoRe rings in at a vdi 56 The new Racer 2 with the expanded non-ferrous range, that same nickel will now ring in at a vdi of 31 so the high conductors are spread out a bit more and not lumped in the 82-83 range.
Also the Racer 2 has the new designed ergonomics, the S grip is more relaxed and not near as abrupt as the original Racer....I would say it is about like holding a White's M6 plus the fact that they re-did the standard 7x11 coil which is now very similar to the Fors CoRe stock coil, makes it a nice machine to swing. I just got done playing with Monte's Racer 2 a few hours ago that Makro provided him awhile back. They still amaze me. With the stock coil, gain 85, 2 tone, disc set at 3 ( remember 10 knocks out all iron, a setting of 3 or 4 will knock out nails) I could hit the penny on the nail board test 8 for 8 no sweat. The feature I will enjoy the most will be the iron audio volume, on my original Racer or Fors CoRe I ran very low disc and listened to a lot of the iron. Now I have the option of adjusting the iron/low tone to just barely hear it or turn it off completely.
Without a doubt the R2 will give you many different ways to set up your machine for specific ways that you might want to hunt. I also forgot to mention that the R2 also retains memory. Once you set it up how you like it...it then can be saved. I see on diff forums and diff threads , battles are raging over MX Sport vs this or that etc etc. Other than "waterproof" which I really never had a need I personally feel that for a modern digital machine there isn't a better one out there for performance, options and price.
I can do with the Stock coil of the Racer 2 on Monte's nail board test, what most machines with a smaller, say, 5-8" coil can't do and that is hit the penny 8 for 8 times. My MXT Pro or M6 with the Eclipse 5.3 or 5" detech coil will only get 6 of 8 maybe 7 if you count a iffy signal. T2 with 5" coil....nope, might hit 5 of 8 and the list goes on. Of course I look at this from a POV of someone that hunts iron infested ghost towns 90%+ of the time and I haven't found a better "Modern" machine that will unmask goodies in iron better then a Makro or Nokta. The XP might .....if they would offer a smaller then 9" coil. Some will say the Nail board test proves nothing.....well then they would be wrong. Its a tool and that's all it is, but a good tool.
If I am going to face a very challenging iron infested site, such as ghost towns, old homesteads etc The Nail Board Test will quickly help me determine which machines can better handle those types of sites and which ones I'll pass on. I want the machine that can hit the penny (surrounded by four nails) 8 out of 8 times, not the machine that struggles to get 4-5 hits out of 8 and so on and so forth. Geez, I rambling....sorry. But Dave, I think you and others will very happy with your Racer 2. Your lucky you get yours on Wed. I have to wait till next Monday for UPS to get mine here
