RC10 B3

[HKP]

Originally Posted by anoolite76

I've been running a B3 and it's becoming more and more difficult to find parts. I wouldn't buy one because of that reason only. The car is perfectly fine, otherwise.

Buy a Thunder Tiger AT 10 for spares maybe? It's a clone of the B3 made in china. You can buy them new RTR for peanuts on eBay.

[purpletimbo]

i've got a NIB one and it came RTR even down to a decent nimh and charger in the box.


you can buy a fair amount of alloy hopups etc for the phoenix which will keep your B3 going a while
lower arms and a few bits here
http://www.anticsonline.co.uk/x898_1.html

[RogerM]

Interesting!!!!

I always MUCH prefered my B3 to the B4 .... again just a matter of it suiting my style better I guess. Might look into getting a stock of bits and pulling the old girl out of retirement!!!

[Nick Goodall]

Originally Posted by RogerM

Interesting!!!!

I always MUCH prefered my B3 to the B4 .... again just a matter of it suiting my style better I guess. Might look into getting a stock of bits and pulling the old girl out of retirement!!!

Seriously Roger i think it must be down to set-up or something as the B4 is far superior in every way to the B3, i used to race for Associated until packing up in 2002 - The car was great in the day, and still not bad but i don't believe for a minute anyone would get round better or quicker with a B3 compared to a properly set-up B4.

I came back into racing end of 06 with an old B3 and although did ok with it, the car would not live with B4's - the newer car is such an improvement there's no way i can see how the B3's worth sticking with when the B4 just does everything better?

[RogerM]

Nick, I understand where your coming from mate but believe me I went significantly SLOWER with the B4!!!

My car was from the initial batch in the UK and subsequently it was found that the chassis and rear plate weren't as straight as they should be. That aside I went through everything I could think off;

inline and trailing front hubs
25 and 30 deg castor
weight in the front, weight in the rear, weight all over the shop
ALL combinations of standard front link positions
ALL combinations of standdard rear link positions
Custom rear link positions (both longer and shorter)


Everything you could think of. I've been racing since the mid 80s, am an automotive design engineer by trade (specialised in vehicle dynamics .. although I work in fuel systems now) and believe me I really tried.

The problem I had / have with the B4 is that it's just not consistent enough for my liking, it seemed to do something different every lap! I know some of that will be due to me trying to drive around the problem that I had at that point the previous lap but still .... shouldn't have had that sort of problem in the first place though.

The B3 was just so consistent, supper smooth, loads of steering with no sudden loss of rear end only for it to grab like velcro again the moment you started to collect the slide as the B4 always seemed to do. I also liked the fact that the B3 needed so little set-up change ... basically one set-up for high grip, one for slippery .. job done.

The B4 actually put me off 2wd which in turn meant there was no point in going to nationals (too much driving for not enough track time if you just go for one day) and ultimately my defection to 1/8th rallycross. Guess you could say my B4 was bad enough to put me off 1/10th off-road for about 3 years!!

I am more than happy to try another one if I could borrow one of somebody to see if it was just a physical problem with my own car and all the others are awesome, however I doubt it!!!

Part of the problem, I believe, is that the current crop of cars all seem to have been designed with the "point and squirt" driving style in mind and I just can not get my head around that style, always been the part stick, flowing style driver.

[Northy]

Roger, I agree with you. The B4 rear end always seemed a little 'random' to me, would do the same thing on the same corner say 3 laps in a row, then would do something random the next lap. I always felt I really needed to be on top of it waiting for it to bite me.

However, I have tried almost everything this year, plus made my own car, and still don't know what I'll run next year

I might just have to get the B3 off the wall and give it a try, or perhaps a black tub team car

G

[RogerM]

Glad it isn't just me then!

I'm thinking of one of the mid motor cars or ..... shock horror ... a Kyosho RB5

[Northy]

I've run an S2 and an X-6, and the rear end of those cars IS very consisntant!

I've been tempted with an RB5, but don't want to go it alone.

Still undecided.

G

[RogerM]

Sounds like my thoughts on the B4's issue being one of weight distribution (hence saying it was built for point and squirt) might well be correct. Suspension geometry looks fine TBH .... never did work it out.

My main concern with S2 is that I've not seen one yet ... X6 is the importers not being helpful at all when I tried to get some info off them recently and the RB5 being one of spares availability, although Dom at DC Racing tells me it shouldn't be a problem!

[Northy]

It depends how much of a rush you are in, but the production version of the S2 sounds like it will be very nice indeed!

G

[RogerM]

No rush really .... currently on a new car every two weeks ... LOL .... they have a 13 days on that score ...

I contacted OldTimer and he wasn't letting on so for me at least the S2 is still an invisible car! We'll see

[MK999]

I've always looked at the B4 and it's strange weight distribution and wished I could move it around myself, I saw a quick dremel job that tris did to move the batteries into saddle pack formation in the middle of the car and although it had no rear end grip (as far as i know it was running on standard setup) it looked to me to be very quick and stable changing direction and ever since I keep looking at my b4 and then back to the dremel, then onto the gearbox to see how i can turn it round .

I'm sure I used to go much better with my hyper 7 but that was over 2 years ago and an entirely different class, so i'm not sure if it's just inexperience or the car since i always had a very point and stab driving style just like the B4 is supposed to like, but I'd still love to try something like an S2 as the weight distribution to me just looks far more 'right' in terms of where it should be in a car. I'm an undergrad motorsport engineer myself, technically as of next year but I started on homework early, and my housemates are doing the same course almost so theres plenty of discussions/arguments about vehicle dynamics

[Welshy40]

Originally Posted by RogerM

Nick, I understand where your coming from mate but believe me I went significantly SLOWER with the B4!!!

My car was from the initial batch in the UK and subsequently it was found that the chassis and rear plate weren't as straight as they should be. That aside I went through everything I could think off;

inline and trailing front hubs
25 and 30 deg castor
weight in the front, weight in the rear, weight all over the shop
ALL combinations of standard front link positions
ALL combinations of standdard rear link positions
Custom rear link positions (both longer and shorter)


Everything you could think of. I've been racing since the mid 80s, am an automotive design engineer by trade (specialised in vehicle dynamics .. although I work in fuel systems now) and believe me I really tried.

The problem I had / have with the B4 is that it's just not consistent enough for my liking, it seemed to do something different every lap! I know some of that will be due to me trying to drive around the problem that I had at that point the previous lap but still .... shouldn't have had that sort of problem in the first place though.

The B3 was just so consistent, supper smooth, loads of steering with no sudden loss of rear end only for it to grab like velcro again the moment you started to collect the slide as the B4 always seemed to do. I also liked the fact that the B3 needed so little set-up change ... basically one set-up for high grip, one for slippery .. job done.

The B4 actually put me off 2wd which in turn meant there was no point in going to nationals (too much driving for not enough track time if you just go for one day) and ultimately my defection to 1/8th rallycross. Guess you could say my B4 was bad enough to put me off 1/10th off-road for about 3 years!!

I am more than happy to try another one if I could borrow one of somebody to see if it was just a physical problem with my own car and all the others are awesome, however I doubt it!!!

Part of the problem, I believe, is that the current crop of cars all seem to have been designed with the "point and squirt" driving style in mind and I just can not get my head around that style, always been the part stick, flowing style driver.

I agree with you 100%. I didnt feel that driving the B4 was as consistent than the B3, hence why i have bought another B3. Like you the car suits my style of driving.