4wd on carpet - What features to look for?
 

I am very seriously considering getting 4wd for racing indoors on carpet, I have a 2wd already and I think 80% of my racing will be indoors on carpet.

My local club in Watford has quite low grip (for carpet), so that might be worth considering when I look at what will suit me.

Most cars seem to come in 2 versions now.

So what should I look for?

Belt or shaft?
Slipper or centre diff?

I have not raced 4wd for a long time, the last car I had was a xx4, which I loved.

So why not get the 22-4 2.0? I understand there is no official importer for the UK so parts could be a real problem?

Any advice welcome!

Shaft drive generally eliminates any of the belt slipping/reliability issues with the power cars have now. X-ray XB4 and B64 would be my personal preference.

Good stock all over the uk and distributors are really solid for both cars.

Hi Jhock.

have a word with the guys running 4wd at the club and see what they think.
of the guys that run 4wd there, most were running the B64, though there will be more and more changing to the Carisma in the next few weeks i would expect.

i second what Mark just said about belts.
get a slipper clutch. there is enough grip there that it is noticeable how much drive you loose with a centre diff there.

I'm sure I'll see you over there in the next weeks.

You may want to consider the PR Racing SB401LW.
Distributed in the uk by Kev Lee from Insideline Racing.
These kits are great out the box, easy to setup and really tough.
Have a look in the PR Racing thread for some info on them

Hi James, for racing at our club take a look at the new Carisma 4XS '17 spec. Quite possibly the highest spec 4wd kit on the market with so many items included that are normally options on other brands.

There's a lot of people locally who have now joined us on these and they are proving to be as fast as they are popular. Over the coming weeks I think you will see quite a few down the club so set ups and help will be easy to come by and spares are very well priced and all readily available too

For 4WD on high-bite carpet you will look for a shaft-drive car with a slipper clutch and gear diffs. If I was to buy a 4WD for carpet right now, I would most likely go for an Xray XB4 '17. If traction is too low for a slipper set-up, buy a centre diff and you should be settled.
As I am Yokomo guy, I'll hold my breath an put their upcoming shaft-drive car on my birthday or Xmas wishlist. Even if it should not be a match for the Xray on carpet, I'll be fine as I only want to race 4WD on dirt.
Although I was not as disappointed in the belt-drive YZ-4 as others, it has not been as succesful as everybody hoped for, and the same holds true for the 22-4 2.0 from what I heard from some TLR fans. The B64 series seems to perform pretty well, but I have not been a fan of Associated's material quality, 50 shades of blue anodising and the "need" to buy so many upgrades. If you like to spend some money on blingy bits, this is the car to get, though. RDRP, JConcepts and others offer them by the truck load!

Having owned the Schumacher k1 & K2,Associated b64 and now driving a charisma 4xs my personal opinion is that the charisma is the best value for money.
The kit comes with almost every think you need to run on any type of track (only thing you might want is an aluminium chassis) also parts are very well priced

Is the TM4 still competitive on carpet?

Thank you guys, lots to think about.

I will have to a close look at one of the Carisma's tomorrow night.

Darrens car certainly looked quick last week.