I hired the Intense Tracer VP and Spider2 for 6 days - absolutely loved them.
Rang up competitive cyclist to see if they had stock of a Spider2, while talking to Eric I noticed they had SC BLT2s on special for US$1360 and asked if had medium and when he replied yes I just said SOLD!!! When I got it - I was thrilled - it was a 2010 frame and the 2010 Fox RP23!!
If I was going bigger stuff I would have gone a Tracer (ignoring price for a sec).
The new VPP design is brilliant and Intense and SC are great - I would put the SC BLT2 right in the middle between the Tracer and Spider in terms of riding style/aggression.
The SC pivot bolt design is way better than Intense, the Tracer frame design is better. But for me I'm 175cm and that puts me smack in the middle of a SC medium where with intense it put on the cut off between small and medium.
I rode the Pivot up and down the street outside a shop and did some curb hopping. Seemed very sharp and a bit too much of a "race" bike for me - I was looking more trail. Also the welds on the bike I test rode were really untidy and the whole thing looked poorly finished for that many $$$
