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