Rb5 or ... RC10B4 ?
 

Hi.
I am doing a little research with the intention of dabbling with some Off-Roading.
Normally I indulge in Touring Cars so as you can imagine I know nothing about these cars.

Having convinced myself 2wd is more enjoyable the 4, my short list is now down to these two cars. I have almost come to a decision hence this tread in here, but so save disappointment I am hoping my answer can come from you guys.

I know both are probably as good as each other but is there anything I should know?

Thanks :thumbsup:

B4 is my answer,its the most popular 2wd so there are loads of set ups for it and if you break somthing at a raceday the shop there should have the bits if not someone else will.

I've ran one for ages and they reward even the most cack habded drivers ( eyethankewe ).

I run a zx5 4wd because I wanted a shaft drive car that took stick packs, I havent driven a b44 yet but when I get a go on one ( hi rob :wub ) my credit card may take a battering.

the zx5 is a good car but the b44 seems to be further advanced than it and as there are very few who run zx5's set ups arent as common sad realy as its a nice car to work on.

or buy one and convert it into a propper car
X6

get the rb5
built like a tank, very robust. spares are cheap and easily availalbe. It steers as aggressively as a B4, but has a rear end a stable as the Losi CR, best of both worlds. I'm quicker with the RB5 than my old B4. I wouldn't look back.

b4 im biased!hi jim,how you!?

Jim's description is spot on.

I used to run a B4 but since my switch to RB5 I have picked up not a tenth of a second but over a full second per lap ... as has everybody I know who has switched!!!

The B4 is a good car but requires a particular driving style .. if you don't drive that way the car will be a handful.

The RB5 is very neutral out of the box and can be tuned to be almost whatever you want it to be!!!!

No question in my mind, RB5 all the way!!!

having only driven the B4 i can not comment on the RB5. from watching them and seeing the drivers at the worlds in japan that had 3 cars (b4, RB5, X6) and choosing to run the B4, shows a pretty good example of how good the B4 is...........

as said....alot of drivers now have them...that is also another good example of how good the car is and allows you to have spares on hand....nothing worse than breaking a car and having to go home!!!

Lee

It all comes down to your reasons for buying a car - If it's for wanting help trackside pretty much wherever you go racing then a B4 has to win hands down PURELY down to the amount of people that run them (no offence to the RB-5 guys) but you can't argue that probably 90% of the 2wd cars you will see racing at just about any meeting will be B4's - So straight away you've got access to spares (even if there's no shop), set-up's and advice.

The RB-5 does look like a good car in the right hands, but there still just isn't many of them about and therefore even if spares are available from a shop it doesn't mean you'll be able to get them on the day unless there are others running the car that also happen to have a spare.... plus if there's nobody else with one (which can happen) you may find it hard to get the car right when all you want to do is drive the thing around and learn about off road.

I guess what i'm saying is that i think the RB-5 can be just as good and obviously suit some people more then the B4 does, but then the same goes with the B4 - Both cars are capable of doing well, it just depends how important it is to you that you can guarantee to get help trackside or not really?

B4 has inch and the RB5 is metric.
RB5 is a bit more expensive but spare parts are cheap.
i love my rb5 but it is your choise ... both are good and fast.

For me, the RB5 was an easier car to drive smoothly and it also survived some big crashes without a single breakage. The B4, whilst being a superb car, breaks relatively easily in my experience, particularly a-arms.
On a side note, everyone is excited about the new manufacturers producing cars for both 2 and 4wd yet all the recommendations are to go for what everyone else is running! Just because everyone else has one doesn't necessarily mean it is the right car for you. A well organised driver should have all the spares he/she would need already in their pit box. As for set-up advice, the way you want your car to behave is down to driver preferrence, the basic handling alterations will be the same whether you run a Losi, AE, Kyosho, X-Factory, Hotbodies or anything else. Whatever brand you choose, you will get the set-up right with patience and practice.

recently i've really smacked the wishbones about 3 times, they really don't break that easily, which is a shame cos i broke a chassis, a shock shaft, and bent a hinge pin instead :D the last one i broke i actually went at with a hammer to see how tough they were, i eventually got one bit of it to splinter away slightly after going a bit nuts on it :lol:

Depends on what you want....

B4 - Build as kit but, change springs and put right tyres on and you have a competative car. Great if you just want to put batteries in and race!

RB5 - Need to work more on the setup, but if you enjoy that kind of thing its very rewarding.

In my opinion (having raced B4's for 4 years and RB5 for 2 weeks!) the B4 is a stronger car, the latest FT version also requires very few hop-ups, maybe some castor blocks etc.

RB5 is a smoother more neatral handling car when you get it set-up right and its nice to run something a bit different. Also it needs a few more hop-ups, must haves are titanium turnbuckle set and carbide diff balls.

I would say go with the B4, just down to the fact that almost every modelshop stocks spares for them in-case yuo break it.;)

Thanks for all the advice lads.
...still non the wiser so anyone got a coin? :)

I had made my mind up on the Rb5 until I discovered the 2008 Factory release of the B4 at which point my brain went into meltdown.

Are the B4's still using imperial size fixings? I have all the metric sizes under the sun for my touring car so it may well be down to something as simple astool sizes. :rolleyes:

where are you going to race?, trackside spares can be an issue for some cars, obviously the b4 is supported by all shops and the rb5 by some.
john

If you can drive both ( I suspect this will be quite hard to achieve )

as for imperial tools ebay and £25 will sort you out

At the moment nowhere because the tourer takes up most of my spare time but I have two local options. Eden Park in the South East is reasonably close to me and my club; WKRCC has something in the pipeline with regards to offroading.
We are in the process of applying for permission for a permanent tarmac track and the idea is to build a multi purpose layout.

In the meantime it will be practise, practise, practise with one eye on the futere in the very conveinient park the other side of my back fence ;)

nope, B4 is still imperial!

try the RB5 just for something different. mine was awesome at Eden Park a couple of weeks back

So what car did Shawn opt for? Was it the right choice? I have been looking to get back into the off-road scene and was going to get a 4WD car. However, after visiting the local track it seems that most people / clubs prefer 2WD...

So I have also narrowed it down to either an Ultima RB5 or RC10 B4. But which is better? There's only one way to find out! FIGHT!!!!!! lol :lol:

can't fault my rb5:thumbsup:

Ear Cataracts !??? :lol:

As you have probaly read the RB5 became my choice purly because I have a shed load of Metric tools for my Touring Cars and I really didn't want to by all new items just for a car I was going to use for a little bashing here and there.... HOWEVER...

Being a member of the West Kent Club I thought it best I should show willing and enter the 2wd round of the South East Regional we hosted on 4th May :woot:

With the track being totally new and really quit bumpy ( much more than what I am used to ) the men were sort out from the boys and alas being a new born to this class of the hobby the learning curve seemed somewhat vertical.
Add to this my new 6.5 brushless which I had bought after killing of a couple of my old 19t motors in recent weeks the power overcame ability by a big margin.


In practice the extra power shred the kit spur gear after a few minutes but I think this was possibly due to my lack of experience with the slipper clutch; and I had no spare!
This bought on my only problem of the day but a few well aimed questions soon found me holding a Kevlar Losi spur and slipper pads which fortunatly went straight on.
The first few rounds still saw me struggling with the slipper clutch and I must say I never got to the bottom of it because with each adjustment I made the grippy grass was changing to slippery dirt just as fast. Again a lack of experience...

Now to the question: Honestly I can't answer it because I only have the experience of this car and not the B4.
Yes the decision was correct regarding the tools but the available trackside knowledge and spares lets it down a little. Out of the 40ish entries there was only one other there.

One big thing I noticed though was how strong the car is though. Thoughout the day I was crashing left right and centre with absolutly no damage what so ever but there seemed to be no ends of B4's retiring with broken suspension parts.
On that observation I would say the RB5 is bullet proof so in hindsight I would say the RB5 is my correct choice.

It is obviously lack of driver ability rather than car instability, but give it more time and experience of setting up buggies for the dreaded bumps and I'll get there.

Is that a little clearer for you :confused:

Many thanks for you input and experiences. One question though, do you still have the coin you used to make your decision? :lol: lol

dish a few quid for imperial tools, wont cost you much and get a B4! I'd choose one over an RB5 anyday, they are so easy as you only 1 base setup for any condition compared to any other car on the market, i don't even run one as i bought the X6 conversion for it which improved me even more with it but i been playing with my m8s b4 for awhile he forgets i have it and it reminds how good the car is. There's just not enough support for the RB5 in my opinion and others, havn't seen any setups for them, not enough people run them, why? Do the math. :thumbsup: all that breaks on the b4 is front wishbones, bulkheads and the hubs i'd say this is common on all cars as they are first in the firing line in most crashes

The RB5 looks pretty cool to me, parts i hear arent too deer either. Jez at Model Torque - Mobile shop from the North East and West but with you running a different region find him on here and there is a contact number if you ever need parts maybe he can help you out? most of the time has good stock on parts too. Atomic Carbon have some neat looking upgrade towers also ;).

Garry

i've been racing my RB5 for almost a year now.
like some of you, i had loads of tools, bearings and screws in metric sizes, from my 1/8 rallycross and TC days.
to get a B4 would not only mean a new set of allen drivers, but also a whole box of screws & nuts to replicate what i already have.
and having owned the mp7.5 and mp777 and familiar with kyosho parts quality, it was a natural decision for me.

racing experience -
again, like some of you, i often find myself the sole RB5 car in many local races. in the most recent big meet, there was around 100+ entries (across all classes, including a total of 40+ in 2wd mod & stock) but only 3x Rb5's.

driving experience -
the car handles as well as the other cars in the market. it's when the track gets really loose (very dusty & loamy) that it seems to get a bit more twitchy and tail-happy than the B4.
but in the british track surfaces that u guys race in, this should hardly be an issue.

IMHO, i find that it's a really strong car, considering it's the 1st 2wd i've had. this makes carrying spares a bit tricky. i now find myself with bags of spares that i may never use!?!?
the only possible weakness is the rather weak stock turnbuckles. i have progressively replaced the stock ones, with B4 AE titanium blue turnbuckles, whenever they get bent out of shape.
i hear the lunsfords are a good upgrade but pricey.

i race and practice with other B4 racers all the time so i would not rule them out. they are easy to set-up and ubiquitous (!) making it a dream to find that one rare part that breaks.

u cannot go wrong with either car.

garry driffill - is there a track in Hull? i studied at the uni and lived off cottingham road over 12 years ago.

we dont have a offroad track here in hull :( weve been trying for a while to get somthing sorted but lack of offroad racers in our area doesnt really help.

that's such a shame.
there are lots of flat land around hull! :thumbsup:

where do you guys race in east yorkshire then?

Indoor wise we race at the local club NHMBC www.nhmbc.co.uk/

Its mainly touring cars that race 1 or more heats of stock and modified usually then you get the buggy heat which is ace if you like fast high grip carpet :lol: and maybe one or two jumps.

but the norm for us is york of road car club in door and any outdoor track like Batley, Bury Metro basically anywhere in the north east/west area.

Garry

If it helps, I've recently changed from running a B4 (used one since it came out in, what, 2002?) to an RB5 and much prefer the Kyosho car. The B4 is agile and very fast, but only if you've got the skills to drive the wheels off it. I find the RB5 has a more forgiving nature and is easier for me to drive, that means I actually end up faster with it. When I found the limits of the B4, it would bite back and spin. The RB5 is more progressive and give enough warning to allow me to catch it before it spins - it has a more predictable rear end and I find the car is better balanced front to rear in terms of grip than the B4.
It's also very strong and has the best shocks I've used for along time. PM rogerm on here to get his setup - it just glides across bumps like they don't exist.

Stu Wood proved last year that with a good driver the RB5 is equal to anything else out there. The lack of support last year meant that finding a good setup was hard, that's all been sorted now and it's like the XX4 - needs minimal changes between tracks to get really dialled.

Hmmm..... I am still sat on the fence wondering which way to jump..... RB5? or B4?

I have had a look on-line and have found that they cost around the same

RB5 = £150

B4 = £159

What to do.... what to do.... :confused:

If i were you i would try and get to the national on saturday, have a look at rogers car ask him all about it etc.



I bet you have a b4 by sunday:lol:

Thanks Lee .... LOL

The RB5 is a great car no question. Yes there is a little development to do on the set-up to get it 100% right for you but I still don't believe the generic set-up thing existst for any car ..... both the B4 & XX4 "generic set-ups" didn't suit me at all well.

I can give you shock set-ups that will make it feel like the bumps don't exist at all and am more than happy to recomend a full set-up but it may need tweeking to get the best out of it for your driving style (I'll recomend what I know is safe and easy to drive).

I will admit that it has taken a while to sort the RB5 out, far more effort has gone into it than the ZX5-SP (mainly due to the ZX5-SP being so good straight out of the box I've not felt the need to spend so much testing time on it). The good news is that it reacts to every change exactly as you would expect and a small adjustment will give very definate results without being so much you can't find a good middle ground.

I would not go back to a B4 for the same reasons as GPs3300 states (he drove my car and bought an RB5 on my recomendation).

Can I have a go with your car sometime Rog?

Are you sure you could deal with such awesome all-round handling in 1 machine of artistic perfection?










Oh, I nearly forgot, you already are dealing with it. ;)

Dan, of course mate ...... so long as I can have a go with your X6.

The X6 always looks good around the track but the ones I've driven haven't felt good but I put that down to set-up.

Quote of the day! :lol::thumbsup:

That sounds good :woot:

PM sent Roger :thumbsup:

I hate to have to say this but have been racing tonight and have always raced a B4 in 2wd. Car is always good but tried a friends RB5 at the end of the night and the difference was very noticable. The track had some very bumpy sections with which I had to really be careul with the B4 and could not carry to much speed through. With the RB5 it was like the bumps were alot flatter! The RB5 could carry much more speed through the bumps and just felt very very stable compared to the B4. At our first 2wd regional on Sunday aswell on a farly bumpy grass track the RB5s looked very good and there were 3 in the A final.

My take on this "magic" setup idea: One setup won't work at say, the indoor Tiverton track and a carpet track, but what I found with the XX4 & now the RB5 is that the starting point for both works almost all of the time. Both cars seem tolerant of varying conditions and from a base setup their handling varies from "OK" to "great" unlike say, the Yoke BX which varied from "almost unusable" to "dialled". For example, the BX was beautiful to drive on damp astro but as soon as the grip came up, the same setup became a twitchy grip-rolling nightmare to drive. I'd have to change springs, oil, roll-centres, anti-squat & wheelbase to get it to work again. Same conditions with the RB5 & I changed nothing. I started with Roger's recommended setup but changed slightly to suit me. Since then all I've changed at a meeting is front springs. I admit that I've only used the RB5 on wet & dry astro + dry grass but that covers 95% of the tracks & conditions I race on.

Ultimately I suspect that if you're a world champion class racer there are faster chassis's out there than the XX4 & RB5. At my level (F3) I find that stability and a forgiving nature mean faster times that something setup to suit an F1 driver.

Back to the point of this thread, the B4 is no way as bad as my Yoke example. I've driven B4's for 5 years and it's a great car - strong & fast & doesn't need huge setup changes (but more than the RB5) It's just that I prefer the RB5's stable "push it hard" feeling instead of the B4's ultra-agile "drive it round on tippy-toes". From what I've read I get the impression that the RB5 is more similar to the Losi in that respect, only with more steering.

:thumbsup::thumbsup: Class