SC8er Boy – Team Associated SC8

Middle
The centre differential found on the SC8 is equipped with a 46T steel spur gear and filled with 10k silicone oil. Attached to the differential outdrives are nearly 4 millimetre thick fibre brake disks that provide plenty of stopping power as we found out during our test runs. The remainder of the brake set-up is quite conventional with standard brake cams to activate the steel brake pads. The linkage for the brakes is a very neat and tidy looking affair. Brake bias is adjustable via large diameter collars in anodized blue – once again a reminder of the RC8 base.

Steering and throttle/brake duties are handled by Associated’s own metal geared and ball raced S2008MG servo which offers 7.8 Kg-cm of torque at 0.21 seconds of transit time (at 4.8v we suppose because it feels faster with the 6v RX-pack we used for the test).

Straight behind the plastic composite (RS8 RTR based) radio tray the multi purpose receiver box is located. It houses the Associated XP 3CH FM receiver plus the usual four cell dry battery holder to ‘power’ the servos. We strongly recommend to use at least a four cell assembled battery pack or even better a five cell version. Different from many other 1/8 scale buggy receiver boxes, thankfully the SC8 one accepts both inline and hump packs as it is wide enough to house both. The only thing you need to do is to refit the receiver and secure it with a bit of foam for a bit of extra security against the ubiquitous vibrations from the engine.

And speaking of the engine we have to mention the Pro.28 in combination with Team Associated’s own two chamber tuned muffler. The Pro.28 is known from the Race Spec line of cars (the RC8 RS and RC8T RS) and comes with an easy to adjust two needle carburetor and a hand held Pro-Start engine starter. To make sure the engine can be started with the body on the SC8 is equipped with an extension for the glow plug ignite. Instead of putting the ignite directly on the engine you can use a special mount located on the rear shock tower – very tricky!

Also part of the engine assembly is the three shoe clutch with fibre clutch shoes, 1.0 millimetre springs and a 16T clutch bell. The base for all things suspension and engine is the 3 millimetre black anodized aluminium chassis plate. It’s a direct fit from the RC8T RS and gives the truck a truggy-like wheelbase of 374 millimetres (375 millimetres on the truggy). In front of the engine the 150 cc tank can be found, again taken from the truggy line of cars.

Rear
Front and rear gearbox housings are similar items which helps with spare parts. The shock towers however differ slightly. Different from the version up front, the rear one offers three different upper mounting positions for the shocks plus two mounting holes on the wishbones making a total of six. Additionally you get three different positions for the upper wishbones on the shock tower and two on the rear hub carriers. Plenty of set-up potential especially when you consider using the second lower hole (the one where the wishbone attached to the hub) too!

Again CVA universals come into play to transfer the power from the differential to the wheels. A rubber boot protects the U-joint against dirt, moisture and other rigours of off-road racing.

To reduce the chassis roll the rear of the car is equipped with a 2.2 mm anti-roll bar which is the same up front. The factory setting of the large shock absorbers is 50wt oil with a silver 3.93lbs spring on the front and 40wt oil with a slightly softer silver 3.31lbs spring on the rear. The kit set-up feels quite soft so we look forward to putting the SC8 RTR through its paces on the track.

Finish
Also part of the SC8 RTR package is a good amount of plastic inserts to alter the suspension set-up, the Pro-Start electric engine starter, a glow ignite for D-sized dry cells, a large fuel bottle, a couple of wrenches and the XP3D FM computer radio with 10 model memory, Dual-Rate, End Point Adjustment, Steering and Throttle/Brake Exponential and loads more.

For review we received the AE Team (#80924) version of the SC8 but many others designs are available: Red Bull #80920, Lucas Oil #80921, KMC #80922, Bully Dog #80923 & Pro Comp #80925.