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Note: This build log is excerpted from my web site . You can check there for larger versions of every photo or further reading.

The Dark Impact uses the DF-03 buggy chassis which was first released in 2006 as set 58370 and was black as you might expect. I have the special edition white version which came out in 2015. This is a 4WD chassis with ball differentials front and rear. It has 4 wheel double wishbone independent suspension and CVA plastic oil shocks. I don't have a lot of buggies so I can't really rate the performance of this, but I find it a lot of fun to drive. It is stable and has good traction. Of course with the stock motor it is not that fast, but I find the speed reasonable for the chassis capabilities. This model includes a slipper clutch and sizable gears so it could handle faster motors.

This car has a bottom loading battery tray, but it is mostly useless. You can't reach the electrical connectors without removing the body, so the bottom load doesn't really buy you anything except a lower CG. Thankfully, there is room for a Li-Po but it is a tight fit.

I did not paint plain white but used some pearl white I happened to have and I think it looks great. It does show dirt very easily though, but I really like the unusual look of the white chassis parts. No idea if the pigmentation has any impact on strength or durability, but I've had no problems so far. My build was bone stock with no upgrades for along time. Recently I've made a couple of changes to increase the speed and handling.

The chassis used pretty much all white parts. The chassis bathtub, the suspension arms, the shock towers, the shock bodies, and the diff housings are all white. The drive cups are black and of course the metal parts are not white. The motor is transverse mounted ahead of the rear axle and is pretty much buried inside the chassis. The kit comes with a "torque tuned" motor which is a bit better than the standard silver can. The wheels are also white and are wrapped with pinned tires which are wider in the back than in the front. Since this is a 4WD, they are all the same diameter.
I liked the white look so much that I went a bit overboard and painted the servo, speed control, and receiver white as well along with their wires. The paint is quickly flaking off the flexible wires, but I still like the look. For the body I went with Pearl White and the stock stickers which looks really nice. The wing has the overspray film on the wrong side you need to remove it and mask the other side to paint.
Out of the box, the performance of this buggy is fairly tame while still being a lot of fun. I've slowly been replacing all the plastic CVA shocks in my fleet with aluminum alternatives just because I like them. Besides looking better and being more durable, they leak less. The right hand image shows the new shocks installed. The rear shocks are much longer than the front.
I also decided to upgrade the motor. After trying out the 23 turn Super Stock BZ on the Konghead and seeing what a difference it made, I decided to install it here as well. Since the motor is enshrouded in the rear axle you can hardly see it, but the end bell is visible. I also found that the standard Tamiya TEU-105BK speed controller couldn't really handle the higher current motor and cut out a lot so I replaced it with a Hobbywing 1060 which has no problem. The performance is now much faster but still within the capability of the chassis. I think it is a perfect fit.

The white coloring of both the paint and all the plastic parts really make this model unique. I love the way it looks. I did not glue the tires because I want to be able to re-use those white wheels when the time comes. Note that these photos were taken before the shock upgrade.