Associated RC10 Project

The Team Associated RC10 is one of the most iconic racing buggies of all time, which is pretty much all I know about it.  True RC racing fans rave about this buggy and revel in its history, but since I wasn't into any of that as a kid, I didn't know anything about it until recently.  There are websites dedicated to nothing but documenting the history of this, so there's really nothing I can hope to add.  I'll simply say that this kit was released in 1984 and promptly won everything in the first ever international IFMAR race.  What's IFMAR?  I don't really know but it's something to do with racing.

Let's look at what else was out there in 1984.  Tamiya had the SRB (Special Racing Buggy) chassis with no differential, tiny shocks, and swing arm rear suspension with no adjustment.  The Frog and Hornet were newer, but certainly not for racing.  Kyosho introduced the Scorpion in 1982 which was much more capable and used some very strange steering geometry. The RC10, on the other hand, has most of the features of a modern 2WD buggy including a ball differential, large bore oil shocks, and adjustable camber, toe, and roll center.  The use a formed aluminum tub also makes for a very light but also very stiff chassis.

Associated re-released the RC10 in 2014 and called it the "Classic".  It was not particularly expensive at the time, but by the time I was looking a couple of years later they were all sold out and going for a fortune (>$1500) on eBay.  Through patience and perserverance I eventually found one for much less and added it to the build backlog where it sat for a couple of more years.  For whatever reason, it just didn't call to me.  Once I finally built it I was pleasantly surprised.  I expected a 35 year old design to be historically interesting but otherwise outdated and weak.  I was wrong.  This thing drives like a dream and I can see why it was (and is) so loved.  It is very fast and smooth and jumps totally straight.

I installed a Reedy 19T brushed motor to stay in the Associated family and put in modern 2.4GHz electronics.  I use a modern 2-cell hard Li-Po pack for power.  The model is completely stock apart from the addition of a set of ball bearings.

Update:  This model was destroyed in the 2022 fire.  It is extremely rare and probably cannot be replaced.