I recently bought the coolest RC truck ever made.  The SC8e is far and away the best looking, fastest, toughest, coolest short course truck ever made.  I have put together RC8 and RC8t kits before so this build was nothing new from the point, but it was the most exciting kit I have ever built because I just couldn’t wait to get it done.  I have been looking forward to driving this truck for a very long time. I almost bought it when I bought my buggy, but wanted a buggy to race with so it came first.  Finally though I got the truck I really wanted and I couldn’t be more pleased.

The build was very straight forward with few surprises, just one stupid error on my part.  I over tightened the rear bumper mount and split the hole so it is going to need to be replaced before racing starts.  I can’t wait to see the look on the other races faces when I whip out the SC8e.  At the track I run at all short course trucks are run together and it is a long open track built for 8^th scale cars so the SC8e will have a huge advantage.  The 4wd and long wheel base not to mention the MMM 2200kv system will make all of the other racers cry like babies when they all get lapped twice in a 5 min race.

Sorry I was rambling a little there.  When I started the build I just had to skip everything else and start with the roll cage.  The roll cage is just another reason the SC8e is so darn cool.  It not only protects the truck I just flat out looks awesome.  After I was done I worked my way through the book and did all of the rest in order.  Team Associated did a great job with the instructions and these kits are very easy to put together.  It is time consuming but most things worth while are.

There aren’t any real tricks that I can tell you about to make it go smoother or better but I do have a few comments about the conversion kit that Team Associated has put together.  The electric conversion is a sever disappointment.  The engineer who came up with it should be fired if he hasn’t been already.  The placement of the esc is too far away from the receiver to run the wires the way it was designed.  You would have to use an extension that could come apart during a race or some other inopportune time.  The battery box at 140mm is just too short and with a little more thought about component placement could have been much larger, enabling us to run much bigger batteries.  Those two things are bad but the real reason he should be fired is the design of the motor mount.  Not only is it way too tight against the chassis for big motors but it is the hardest mount I have ever seen to change the motor or even a pinion.  If you had to change a pinion on race day there is a very good chance you won’t make the race.  Even team driver Ryan Maifield uses a different mount.  The designer should be embarrassed.

Regardless of a couple of design flaws, Team Associated does make the best 1/8^th scale RC cars in the world and I wouldn’t trade mine for anything.