Review: Team Associated B4.1 Factory Team World’s Car

One of the most prestigious racing classes in RC is 1/10-scale 2WD buggy. Any major event that includes 2WD buggy will draw the Who’s Who of RC motorsports. The cars are fast, nimble and require lightning fast reflexes to navigate around the track with any kind of speed. Throw in big motors and even bigger jumps and you have the landscape for an exciting race! That was the exact situation when the major manufacturers met up last year in Vassa, Finland to duke it out for the World Championship. At the end of the weekend, Team Associated top dog, Ryan Cavalieri, threw down some awesome runs in the finals to put himself in the number one spot atop the podium. Team Associated has released a replica of his Worlds winning car, the B4.1 WC (Worlds Car), and I get to drive it!

AT A GLANCE
WHO MAKES IT: Team Associated
WHO IT’S FOR: Intermediate to advanced drivers
HOW MUCH: $249.99
BUILD TYPE: Kit

FACTS
• Though not readily apparent, the B4.1 WC has been lengthened a total of 8mm. If you flip the chassis over, you can see where AE added the extra length. The 8mm doesn’t sound like much, but this adds to the stability of the B4.1, making it much easier to drive.

• While you could run a standard length Bulldog body, some aspects of it might not line up correctly with the newly lengthened chassis. To cure this problem, Pro-Line has released an 8mm longer Bulldog body. Oh, and yes, this body does come with the WC!

• The B4.1 WC includes the Factory Team’s new multiple piece, zero-degree rear hubs. These hubs are stronger than the one piece plastic hubs and come in groovy anodized blue.

• One of the biggest tuning options the Team uses is weight ballast. This hunk of lead is positioned low and in front of the transmission to help plant the rear of the buggy. Oddly enough, you can really feel the difference between it being installed and not. Because of this, Team Associated has included it in the B4.1 WC kit. Just remember to put it in there during your build. I missed it and had to do some parts removal to get it in there.

• The B4.1 WC comes with a set of Pro-Line M3 4-Rib fronts and M3 Holeshot rear kicks. These will most likely work on most tracks, but you might want to check with yours before mounting them.

• The same awesome front and rear suspensions are included with the B4.1 WC. If you’ve built any of the past AE buggies, you’ll be happy to know this one is still quite familiar.

• To make sure your car is the real deal, AE has included an updated setup with the B4.1 WC. This is the starting setup the Team uses at every race. You now have no more excuses why you can’t give Ryan Cavalieri a run for his money!

PROS
+ All the go-fast FT goodies without the huge go-broke price
+ More stability thanks to the B4.1’s new, +8mm chassis
+ Aggressive handling
+ Ballast weight included
+ The extended B4.1 WC includes an extended Pro-Line Bulldog body
+ Additional ‘supplement’ sheet is included with additional tuning and setup information

CONS
– Rear axles wobble in the hubs a little more than I’m comfortable with

ON THE TRACK
STEERING: NEUTRAL
The steering on the WC has lost quite a bit of its twitchiness. It’s still aggressive, but the added length does keep the car a lot more manageable around the track. Back off and don’t over drive it and you can put it where you want it, simply and easily, and still put down some seriously fast laps.

ACCELERATION: EXCELLENT
For some giddy-up-and-go, I installed one of the new Reedy Sonic 8.5 brushless motors. Coupled with AE’s excellent suspension, this buggy goes from zero to fast in the blink of an eye. I’m not kidding; it’s fast! The new zero-degree blocks help acceleration by reducing the amount of scrub the rear wheels create when toed-in, and the added ballast helps keep the rear firmly planted. If you do happen to overpower the rear tires (uh, a little too much throttle input), the muted steering from the longer chassis helps control the B4 Buggy drift. It’s actually quite fun to overpower out of the corners and create a bit of slide.

BRAKING: VERY GOOD
The LRP SXX V2 has awesome brakes; not that you need them, but they’re really good if you do. You will need to turn them down a bit as trying to slow down a speeding 2WD buggy is never an easy task. I had to jack mine down to about 75-percent to keep the buggy from looping around under heavy braking. I’m not as much of a hero on the brakes as I am on the throttle so turning them down is a must. If you’re having some issues with this too, trying turning them down.

SUSPENSION: EXCELLENT
What can be said about AE’s suspension other than it’s obviously the best out there? It has shown over and over again that it can be tuned to work on slick, bumpy, wet or high-bite tracks. It just works. I had the joy of running the B4.1 WC on a fast, high-bite smooth track with lots of jumps. The suspension is butter-smooth and helped the WC carve some super-fast laps. If I pushed it a bit too hard, instead of crashing out, the WC just blew the line a bit, letting me know I needed to slow down a bit more at that point. After a couple laps I was tearing it up and looking good! One other thing I have to mention; thanks AE, for getting rid of the way-too-short-front-brown-springs-that-looked-funny. A proper set of correct-length springs come with the WC.

JUMPING: EXCELLENT
It’s a bird; it’s a plane…it’s… Uh, no, it’s just me flying through the air with the greatest of ease. You too can experience what it’s like to be a super-hero with the B4.1 WC. It jumps incredibly well and simply glides through the air. You just know it’s going to go up and come down the same way every time.

DURABILITY: EXCELLENT
As with any off road vehicle, there are times where, not by choice, you lift off in one direction and come down in a completely different one. I tried passing a slightly out-of-control short course truck over a huge triple jump and got the worst end of it. It was one of those times where you touch as you just leave the face of the jump and think to yourself “this is going to be bad.” Well, it was. But, instead of sweeping the remains of my B4.1 WC into a bag and going home, all that was required was to replace the front shock tower. A quick and easy five-minute fix and I was back on the track. Should that part have broken? I really think I’m lucky that is all that broke! I’m giving the B4.1 WC an excellent rating for that reason alone!

THE LAST WORD
Some cars in the RC world have gone through so many renditions that it’s hard to find fault with them. The previous B4.1 was hard to drive and always on edge (well, mine was). If you had mad skills, you could pilot that baby around the track, but for those of us mere mortals, it wasn’t all that fun. The WC version and its 8mm extended chassis really helped close that gap between myself and the heroes of the class, boosting my confidence that I can actually get into the winners circle with this car; maybe not at a Worlds event, but certainly on the club level. That’s what’s it’s all about anyway, right?

LINKS
Futaba futaba-rc.com, 217-398-8970
JConcepts jconcepts.net, 352-241-4976
Kustom RC Graphics kustomrcgraphics@aol.com
LRP rc10.com, 949-544-7500
Reedy rc10.com, 949-544-7500
Team Associated teamassociated.com, 949-544-7500