Yes, the big blue meanie finally showed up to the party. They still have a long way to go as few are cough up XTR pricing to switch and obviously this stuff will only be spec'd on halo level bikes (nice Evil, BTW) until we see it trickle down to XT/SLX.

They must grow some mean bud over in Spain.

I am really excited about the potential with this. A reasonably priced fork that is simple, effective and burly...basically what the original Z1's were. Too bad that Fox already did an orange 36 as that look would seem more applicable here.

I'd like to take a moment to address some points regarding this review. I've ridden my Wrecker for the last 8 months on every kind of terrain you could imagine 2-4+ days a week so here are my two sheckels. First, while I am sure the 11.6 is swell I personally prefer an air shock on mine for all around riding. I think the bike becomes more responsive without losing any DH capability. I have a Monarch with an Avalanche SSD mod which simply rules. My friends run DB Airs on theirs and love them and Evil themselves has tried them with similar results.
Second, I've ridden/demoed all of the bikes that you've tested here save the Sentinel. My Wreck dusted all of them both up and down. When I demo anything I will ride my bike followed by the demo on the exact same trail. Some were fun, but nothing beat my Strava times on my Wrecker. I will admit that Speshy's SWAT thingy is awesome and I'm surprised more companies haven't come out with their own version.
The Rallon, your "winner" (even though lawyer doublespeak was maintained without declaring a "winner" ) has a much more forward and higher position than the Wreck despite having similar numbers. I actually thought it felt more twitchy and less planted than the Wrecker as such. I agree with y'all in that it takes quite a bit of tweaking to get the suspension to feel good on the Orbea. Even when I was not initially blown away by the Monarch, my Evil still rode phenomenally well.
Finally, the top speed in your "race" run that the Orbea nabbed was only 0.226 seconds faster than the Evil. You guys may not have liked the Evil, but the numbers don't lie. What I find curious is how divergent Vitals findings are from pretty much every review out there at this point. At the end of the day, ride whatever turns you on and I will keep my Wreckoning as such.

Nice reviews, fellas. I personally ride a Wreckoning and will simply agree to disagree with your feelings. However, beyond your misgivings over the Evil are there any bikes in this test that either of you would spend your money on (assuming you had the kale to do so) personally to buy? A bike that out rides whatever personal rig you have at this point. There was no clear winner chosen here and you both took a lawyer-esque approach in your criticisms/praises. Previous tests/shootouts/bibles or whatever testers have come out and said which bike knocked their socks off and/or which one they actually would or did purchase. So whatcha got?