First Time I've Ever Bought a New RC Car

[Basher67]

So I've been doing the RC thing since the late 80's and over the years I've easily had over a hundred different rc cars and trucks of all different brands. I currently have around 40 in my collection. Until today, I have never bought one brand new. I have always got a deal on a used one or picked up a beater and refurbished it. Well, I'm getting more serious about my racing, so I pulled the trigger on the new B6.

[RC10th]

High grip version, nice. Looking forward to seeing what your thoughts are on the old vs new Associated.

[matt1ptkn]

I've been thinking of doing the exact same thing! Problem is, I don't have the funds for a new vehicle. I've been considering selling off some stuff, but it would be like getting rid of my children.

I'm also curious to hear how you like it. I've heard and read, that the box stock set up for the B6 is killer for carpet off road.

[duckhead]

So I've been doing the RC thing since the late 80's and over the years I've easily had over a hundred different rc cars and trucks of all different brands. I currently have around 40 in my collection. Until today, I have never bought one brand new. I have always got a deal on a used one or picked up a beater and refurbished it. Well, I'm getting more serious about my racing, so I pulled the trigger on the new B6.

Congrats on the purchase!!!

The B6 is pretty killer on carpet right out of the gate, if you are running on high grip dirt such as clay, I'd recommend swapping the gear diff for a ball diff (https://www.teamassociated.com/parts/details/91702-ASC91702-b6_ball_differential_kit/.

Other than that, it is a fantastic car on pretty much all surfaces. Enjoy the build

->Mark

[tamiyadan]

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[duckhead]

"The B6 is pretty killer on carpet"

that moment you 'LOL' in your head and cry for the days of dirt.

You forgot to close with "GET OFF MY LAWN!"

[tamiyadan]

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[Saito]

(clears throat and gets up from Lazy Boy with help of a cane) You know, back in MY day, carpet was for those little 1/12th scale things and if you ran one of them duuuuune buggies, you raced on dirt like a real man. (sits down and goes back to watching Wheel of Fortune). I do badly miss dirt though...

[tamiyadan]

.

[Basher67]

I'm going to be running it on a "turf" track. Any of you that have been following my "Tomorrow I Race Again" thread, know that I have started racing again at one of my local tracks. It is an indoor offroad turf track. I have been making the transition to this type of track using a T4.2 factory team truck that I have been tuning/modifying to work on this type of track for the last month or so. I'm at the top of the pack in the novice class and will be moving up soon. The next step up at my club is open mod truck which is a mod class for any stadium or short course truck, or get a buggy and go to stock buggy class. My lap times are still around 2-3 seconds slower than what is needed to be competitive in the truck class, so getting a new buggy and looking to run in the stock class made the most sense. At my track, 99% of the buggies running in stock and mod are the B6. Everyone has told me to build it to the "sheet spec" setup and it will be close, if not dead-on, for setup.
As far as old AE vs new AE, I've got a few opinions as usual. I have complained a few times, to anyone willing to listen to me whine, about the quality of some of the parts on my T4.2 FT. The main one was the cheap brittle p.o.s. ball cups. I came down hard on the side once and shattered both ball cups to pieces and left my turnbuckle laying on the track. I wouldn't think it was possible if I hadn't seen it my self. I switched to rpm cups and bent the Ti turnbuckles all around. Switched those a to a set of Lundsfords and so far so good. Building this B6 last night, I didn't notice any of this cheap brittle plastic being used anywhere. Ball cups are a style I haven't seen before on an AE car and look nice and beefy---we shall see. I have heard a few complaints about the assembly manual and I disagree. I thought the assembly directions were very clear, although there are a couple mistakes. The build is done in sections. For example, one section of build uses parts bags 11-14. So you start by assembling the gear diff and it ends with a completed trans being bolted onto the chassis. Two of the final screws to bolt it down are shown as M3x8mm button heads, but the only two screws left out of part bags 11-14 are considerably longer. A quick inspection make it obvious that the two screws that remain, are the correct length and the manual has an error. Not a big deal. My biggest bitch about the kit is how they supply you with all the shock oils and diff fluids(which I thought was fantastic) but then didn't include a little tube of green slime! They even tell you to use it to assemble the shocks but tell you it's not included. Overall, this buggy is sexy as hell. The blue anodized aluminum and carbon fiber parts make it a real looker right out of the box. I still have to pick an esc and motor, wheels and tires, etc. I don't plan on running it for at least a couple weeks yet.

[Basher67]

I think turf and carpet offroad tracks are the best of both onroad and offroad. The traction and speed is insane. The jumps are bigger and longer. It's faster and more intense in every aspect. Plus, at the end of a day of racing, a quick once-over with some compressed air and your car is clean like new again.

[XLR8]

Turf shmurf, it ain't racing if you're not getting dirty!

[Basher67]

I'm so glad I don't have to clean off nitro residue anymore.

[Basher67]

I watched a youtube video yesterday where a guy was complaining about how horrible the assembly manual was for this buggy. He had a couple legitimate gripes about a few mistakes in the manual but overall it sounded like he had no real experience building rc's or perhaps his methods of building could use some fine tuning. I went back over my build very carefully after building and installing the shocks and went through my adjustments and set up specs. I had made one mistake on my rear camber link ball stud location. In the instructions it did not specify which hole of the 3 to use, but showed it in the middle one in the pic. This was MY fault. Since it did not specify at that point in the build which hole to use, I should have just referred to the set up sheet in the back of the manual instead of assuming that it should look like the pic. The pic was not incorrect, it just did not show what the "kit setup" was. I'm not saying that the manual doesn't have a few mistakes, usually when referencing the length of a screw to be used, but I think it's better than a lot of assembly manuals I've used over the years. I think any hobbyist/car builder who goes through the proper routines wouldn't have any problems. When I'm building something broke down into sections and coinciding parts/hardware bags, I take the parts/hardware for that section, lay them all out in front of me, line up the hardware in order, clean off any excess flashing from the plastic parts with my exacto and maybe some sand paper and mentally go over the steps real quick before picking up any tools. One thing that I didn't do that was recommended to me after the fact, was pretapping the screw holes in the plastic parts with a 3mm tap. In the past, I would never have done this. Softer nylon parts of the past not only didn't require this, but letting the screw jam it's way into an unthreaded nylon hole helped it grip and not back out. The materials used now seem to be much stronger and much harder. It is actually a bit of a chore to get a screw started and none too easy to screw into. I don't think it is required to tap the holes by any means, but I was told by an experienced shop owner that tapping these holes makes building and future maintenance much easier. I haven't tried it yet, but something to consider.

[XLR8]

I've always found assembly manual errata so minor that it's hardly worth worrying about.
After all, you're building a toy car not a heart defibrillator so cut 'em some slack.