Review: Team Associated RC12R5.2 1/12 Scale

Team Associated has been designing competitive racing machines since they built their first 1/8-scale on-road car back in 1969. During the first few years, the RC12E made its debut; a simple, lightweight car that was not only easy to work on but could handle quite a bit of power (if you had the right tires under it). Many years have passed and the RC12 has seen its share of revisions (as well as podiums), winning nine of the 16 IFMAR World Championships to date. The boys at AE know that to continue their winning ways, they need to keep advancing their miniscule road rocket. I present to you the latest and greatest addition to the Team Associated stable, the RC12R5.2.

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

FACTS
• The Team has kept the tried-and-true Dynamic Strut front end. Easy to tune with a ton of adjustment, this front end has only seen minor updates over the years.

• Aluminum mounting blocks add to the durability of the front end.

• The aluminum motor mount has been updated slightly to accept the wide range of brushless motors on the market. A new, 2.5mm rear carbon fiber brace ties the two sides together.

• Also cut from 2.5mm carbon fiber is the main deck. This new chassis features a centralized LiPo battery mount that helps keep all the weight as close to the center-line as possible. Even with this setup, there is still plenty of room on the chassis for normal sized electronics. There’s even a dedicated spot to mount your transponder.

• The new chassis also features AE’s pivot-ball link rear suspension. This link setup allows adjustment of chassis roll, bump and alignment. New Factory Blue aluminum side-spring retainers are also included in the kit.

• A trick new feature is the through-shaft center shock. This design allows equalized damping throughout the full shock stroke in both directions.

• The RC12R5.2 continues to use their super-smooth ball differential. Using 12 carbide balls and notched rings, this diff is extremely easy to build and maintain.

• The included servo saver did not fit my Savox servo, so I had to pick up another one. Kimbrough Racing sent me over a couple to try, ranging from small to large. While I ended up using only the smaller one, I did check to see if the larger ones would fit. The cutout in the chassis under the servo horn is large enough to fit just about any servo saver.

• While it doesn’t come with wheels or tires, the RC12R5.2 does accept all the competition-level foam on the market. I hit up my old friend, Paul Lemieux, for a set of his excellent foams from Gravity RC. These are a direct fit and come in many different compounds.

BEHIND THE WHEEL
STEERING: Oversteer
After mounting up the Team Gravity foams (soft rears, hard fronts), I decided to start on the conservative side and only sauce the inner half of the front tires. Let me just start by saying that I’d like to add a new selection to the ‘Understeer / Neutral / Oversteer’ option … AGGRESSIVE! Holy moly! This little guy has steering. Even playing it safe with the sauce, the RC12R5.2 was almost drilling itself into the ground when I turned the wheel. Dialing back the steering a bit (using the Dual Rate function on the M12) made this tiny carpet terror much easier to drive. There is certainly no lack of steering into, through or out of the corners.

ACCELERATION: Excellent
The RC12R5.2 weighs about as much as a small bowl of Cheerios, so stuffing a 17.5 motor in it (even on a 1S pack) provided plenty of oomph around the carpet track. Most of the acceleration comes from the foam tires hooking up, but setting up the rear suspension for any irregularities in the track will definitely help. The stock setup is good and allowed me to power out of the corners like a champ.

BRAKING: Very Good
I can’t really comment much on this category mainly because, with a 1/12-scale car, you just don’t use brakes. The typical driving style for these cars is full throttle and turn…never lift! I would assume the braking is like any other 2WD car; brake only in a straight line and not while turning (unless you have them turned down some).

SUSPENSION: Excellent
The one thing I found with running the RC12R5.2 on a 17.5 motor is that it’s all about corner speed. So, how do you get corner speed in this car? Turn the wheel. The rare times when you need to back off the throttle to set the car up, it remains completely stable with very little drama. I tweaked the front suspension towards the ‘bad zone’ after the first run to see if made any difference and after the first lap I could immediately tell the car was not as good. Pulling it back in and resetting to the stock setting had me clicking off some fast laps again. The suspension works great and is sensitive to change, so only small adjustments are needed.

DURABILITY: Very Good
Again, this is another category I luckily didn’t have to test. I’ve raced 1/12-scales before and know that they can take quite a beating, so I’ll go out on a limb and say the RC12R5.2 is pretty durable. After a crash, however, I would check little things like the side links (and springs) and the front suspension. Even though the front arm mounts are now aluminum, you don’t want the screws backing out on you.

PROS
+ Dynamic Strut front end.
+ Updated aluminum motor mount and 2.5mm carbon fiber rear brace.
+ Updated 2.5mm carbon fiber main deck with centralized LiPo battery mount.
+ Pivot-ball linked rear suspension.
+ New through-shaft center shock.
+ Super-smooth ball differential.
+ Plenty of blue option parts included for a full Factory look.

CONS
– Plastic center shock cap doesn’t engage enough. While popping the shock on, I repeatedly ‘kinked’ the shock cap on the threads.
– Included servo saver didn’t fit my servo. I had to order an additional one.

THE LAST WORD
The Team Associated RC12R5.2 is not for the weak … this car is all about precise handling at some pretty scary speeds, especially once you start dropping in something hotter than a 17.5 motor! It’s a driver’s car, plain and simple. If you’re looking to better your game, this is the one car that will positively make you a better driver; if you can manhandle this around the track with speed and consistency, you can pretty much master anything.

LINKS
Team Associated teamassociated.com, 949-544-7500
Reedy rc10.com, 940-544-7500
LRP teamassociated.com, 940-544-7500
Savox savoxusa.com, 855-76SAVOX
Airtronics airtronics.com, 714-964-0827
Protoform racepf.com, 800-899-RACE
Gravity RC teamgravityrc.com
Kimbrough Racing Products kimbroughracingproducts.com, 714-258-7425
Kustom RC Graphics kustomrcgraphics.com