The rat has to be the newbie car of choice.

[adamjimny]

oh and dearest hop up so far for me is £15 being the alloy rear mount with the brass weight so hop ups are dirt cheap

[deano261]

is the aluminium front arm mount with the weight worth it

[maseace]

I think some people are missing the point, the mad rat is a great starting point and you can learn and grow with the car until you are at a standard and you are sure you want to take it up as a full time hobby then spend the money on a better car, you can by the kit 50 spend another 30-40 on all the correct hop ups and bang a nice little race car. On weight I use and 74g under the servo and 120 under the lipo all you need. Love it I am driving my new cougar this weekend and I do wonder if I will fall for it like I did the underdog rat and its personality.

[markymark6183]

Originally Posted by maseace

I think some people are missing the point, the mad rat is a great starting point and you can learn and grow with the car until you are at a standard and you are sure you want to take it up as a full time hobby then spend the money on a better car, you can by the kit 50 spend another 30-40 on all the correct hop ups and bang a nice little race car. On weight I use and 74g under the servo and 120 under the lipo all you need. Love it I am driving my new cougar this weekend and I do wonder if I will fall for it like I did the underdog rat and its personality.

i think that sums it up perfectly

[maseace]

Just wanted to let people know the cougar was sold yesterday and will stick with the rat. Got into the top ten as the summer shoot out at shrccc with the rat and just posted my fasted lap at torch. The gearbox and diff on the cougar are worse then the rat and all the parts are stupid expensive. Thinking about the monkey now as a mid motor?

[jpmatrix]

Originally Posted by maseace

Just wanted to let people know the cougar was sold yesterday and will stick with the rat. Got into the top ten as the summer shoot out at shrccc with the rat and just posted my fasted lap at torch. The gearbox and diff on the cougar are worse then the rat and all the parts are stupid expensive. Thinking about the monkey now as a mid motor?

+1

The rat and monkey are fantastic value for money and are very competitive against the more expensive kits out there. They are very well built, materials are of good quality I have only a rear shock tower crack from a high impact collision. Parts are very cheap and easy to get.

There are a few upgrades you need firstly replacing the kit diff and idler gears. I have the kevlar diff and ali idlers gears. You also need a set of roller bearings and some alloy shocks and thats it.

So kit £62
bearings £8
Alloy shocks £25
Kevlar diff and Idler gears £15

I would go for the monkey as it is mid motor and is quicker than the rat around high grip astro. Also is very planted and level over jumps and through the air.

[StevieG]

Go for the Monkey, been racing one all season at WCRCCC and got it pretty much dialled in now and only broke one thing all season which was my own fault and only £5.99 to fix!

Been racing for 20 + years and had many cars, from Schu, Assoc Kyosho and they all have had money spent on them. Yeh they need bearings some better shocks and a couple of nylon gears, running a 7.5 brushess in mine and it's quick and reliable.

The Ansmann stuff is OK with a little set up as with every car. Going to buy a touring car for indoors now to see how more expensive cars I can get ahead of.

Love the challenge.

[BeachBuggyPhil]

StevieG, hitting a concrete wall would break any car! Plus, with a little glue, it still got through the A final!! Shame you've got it dialled 2 weeks before we move indoors!

[StevieG]

Racing outdoors till Chrimbo!

So looking forward to next spring, got a few more improvements to make over winter, may even splash out on a new shell!

[-bendeman13-]

sow its a good club buggy
if you have not so mutch money in your pokked

[StevieG]

Originally Posted by -bendeman13-

sow its a good club buggy
if you have not so mutch money in your pokked

Yep, I am the only one racing an Ansmann Mad Monkey at WCRCCC (West Cornwall), racing with Losi 22's. X6's B4 and the odd cougar, always been around mid field and to be honest if I had a 22 or X6 I reckon I may only be a couple places in front due to my ability.

For £65 its a bargin, plenty of spares around and hop ups if you wish, the only two definite changes would be acetal idler gear (x2), a set of better shocks I am using a set of Kyosho and a set of bearings, that's all the extras that I am running apart from some lead to weigh the front end down.

I am running a 7.5 Losi Brushless with Lipo's and it pretty quick. Check out WCRCCC.co.uk to see our grass track. 12 - 13 laps in 5 minutes.

[Dale Goodchild]

So I've just picked up a madrat of my own, fitted with ballraces throughout and looking to race at tichfield............

Its got the kit shocks on it, which look ok, ie they arent leaking, but if I like my first outing off-road whats the best bet for cheap aftermarkets shocks, pref with adusting collars not clip on spacers.

[Robbiejuk]

Originally Posted by Dale Goodchild

So I've just picked up a madrat of my own, fitted with ballraces throughout and looking to race at tichfield............

Its got the kit shocks on it, which look ok, ie they arent leaking, but if I like my first outing off-road whats the best bet for cheap aftermarkets shocks, pref with adusting collars not clip on spacers.

The 3 racing zx-5 shocks re good valus if you can get hold of them. Just fit the internals from your original shocks to keep the legnths the same.

http://www.oople.com/forums/showpost...0&postcount=14

Or you can buy just the alloy bodies and shock tops from ansmann to replace the plastic ones. Think that works out to be about £35.00 in total. Then you just take the internals from your plastic ones and fit them.

[-bendeman13-]

if you're a mad rat rid of a club with all brand drivers.
is not laughing with you
and if i have money for a b4.1 rtr or a mad rat, what to do

[gordy]

Ive got a mad monkey, up until recently I've been racing with all top line kit and have done for the last 20 years. Due to serious financial problems recently everything had to go, which is where the monkey came in. I thought to myself it's not going to be a great car but it's cheap and will keep me racing. But I was wrong, with the addition of a set of shocks and ball races, which takes the total cost of the car to around £100, the car will stay with the best of them. The last few years I've been running an X6 squared and the Ansmann certainly handles no worse that that atall and the x6 is an awesome car! As for idler gear issues, alarge part of that is down to people not setting slipper clutches up properly. Anyone that says this isn't a proper race buggy is just an RC snob!! If the car had an Associated badge instead of Ansmann, people would not be saying it's not a proper race buggy.

[Miggers]

Originally Posted by StevieG

Yep, I am the only one racing an Ansmann Mad Monkey at WCRCCC (West Cornwall), racing with Losi 22's. X6's B4 and the odd cougar, always been around mid field and to be honest if I had a 22 or X6 I reckon I may only be a couple places in front due to my ability.

For £65 its a bargin, plenty of spares around and hop ups if you wish, the only two definite changes would be acetal idler gear (x2), a set of better shocks I am using a set of Kyosho and a set of bearings, that's all the extras that I am running apart from some lead to weigh the front end down.

I am running a 7.5 Losi Brushless with Lipo's and it pretty quick. Check out WCRCCC.co.uk to see our grass track. 12 - 13 laps in 5 minutes.

Just been for a looksee at WCRCCC,your name and "Rat" feature a hell of a lot.
Stands out a mile from "Losi" and "Associated".

[Mad-Wolfie]

Originally Posted by maseace

I think some people are missing the point, the mad rat is a great starting point and you can learn and grow with the car until you are at a standard and you are sure you want to take it up as a full time hobby then spend the money on a better car, you can by the kit 50 spend another 30-40 on all the correct hop ups and bang a nice little race car.

Tamiya made the same point when i started buying kits.. you buy the car & hop it up & grow the car with your skills & experience & use it as a learning exercise. Ansmann are doing the exact same thing.

The difference is though, if for example you buy a Tamiya TT-01 & spend £300+ on hop-ups you would only have a TT-01 with a load of hop-ups added to it that is going to be no good for racing, so it makes more sense to buy a TRF & spend the money on that (or even save money) f you are going to spend a fortune, however with the Ansmann cars, you can spend £300 on hop-ups & have a car that is as good as the best 2WD racing buggies that the pro's use.. even with a £50 car as standard you can be competitive & nothing pleases me more than seeing a mad-rat taking on & beating cars that are more than double the cost.

I know there are some who say the Ansmann's are a bad car (i hear it often - usually from people who never owned an Ansmann or if they did it was on older car such as the Smacker or the Terrier with brushed Clash motors fitted), a lot of this comes down to brand snobbery as there who see a couple of zero's extra on the price ticket or the decimal point being moved a place to the right being the indication of a good car. also there are some critics who say to make the ansmann competition worthy you have to throw your credit card at it, but at the end of the day, what car don't you have to do that if you want to do well in competition?