Associated RC8

The radio box is quite large on the RC8 and will accommodate either a straight six cell receiver pack or a hump pack, and the chassis is milled out under the area where the servos sit it, thus lightening it even further as well as lowering the centre of gravity. Now the RC8 is fitted up with radio gear and engine, it’s nearly time to let rip, but before that the body was sent away to Sillks Design to be laden up with paint. This body shell is a unique design too as it comes in two parts with a separate nose cone held on with a single 2mm bolt, making removal of the main body easy as you don’t have to thread the nose through the shock tower and this should also prevents you ripping of the nose.

track test

With the winter weather setting in and the rain making more appearances than Chantelle at a London nightspot, getting out with the RC8 has proven to be difficult. But luckily one weekend the sun did come out; unfortunately there were no race meetings scheduled. But after a couple of emails I was offered some track time down at the Adur track in Shoreham and the RC8 was quickly packed into the car before the weather decided to change.

After a couple of laps I started to notice just how responsive this buggy is. From a standing start I could nail the throttle and off it goes like a banshee, no wheel spin, just instant grip that leaves a number 11 tattooed where it had gouged down and gone! And gone it was and it just kept going, accelerating hard down the main straight never reaching its peak until it ran out of room and met a corner. As I came into the bend I could carry so much speed and still come out the other side on my line. But off-power I found that it understeers and drifts wide. I decided the stock shock set-up was a bit hard with the back end tending to flick about, so into the pits I came to make a few changes.

I moved the steering Ackermann pivot point back to make the steering more aggressive off-power to help combat the understeer on the exit of the corners and also reduced the shock oil down from 50wt in the front to 30wt and the 40wt in the rear to 27.5wt, in order to make it more forgiving over the bumps.

So out again I went to see if the changes had made a difference, the answer was a resounding yes, as straight away the RC8 felt far more responsive. Through the low speed corners it hugged the apexes with no understeer when backing off the gas, and I could then keep it more planted on the rougher parts of the track where the rear end wouldn’t break loose meaning I could carry even more speed into the jumps and just stand back to watch it soar through the air. Jumping the RC8 is just so easy, just large it up on the gas up to the foot of the jump, back off and it would fly perfect everytime, level and straight. Then disaster struck! Coming flat out along the back straight, I backed off ready to hang it round the corner and nothing, it just decided to keep going right up to the point where it decided to stop with the aid of a track marker, and after a couple of tumbles it came to rest and cut out.

Under investigation with my pit buddy James, we put it down to a flat RX pack, so with a fresh battery it was time to go out for one last run. I filled the fuel tank back up only to find that no matter how fast I filled, it would empty just as quick. The tank was cracked across the top, side and bottom - it was game over.

conclusion

With its narrow shock towers and low slung body, the attention to detail makes the RC8 one good looking buggy, but is there more to it than looks? The way it drives, accelerates and handles is just like no other buggy on the market. It’s positive and when you drive it you know you’re in control, as every input you give it, it does what you ask and more. As for its strength, I say Hercules eat your heart out! But like anything, if you hit something hard enough it will break and just because this kit doesn’t have a load of aluminium all over it, that doesn’t make it any weaker than other buggies out there.

Team Associated’s Area 51 haven’t tried to reinvent the wheel with the RC8; they have merely raised the bar for others to follow. They’ve made a buggy that’s easier to set up and work on whilst bringing the dream of being a race winner closer to the average clubman… So go live the dream!

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