1/10 Buggy - Preference 2WD or 4WD

[kdecesari]

Seasoned racers, your feedback is appreciated.

I am interested to know which direction to go in selecting a 1/10 buggy for racing.
2WD or 4WD?

For reference, spots to race near me include MHOR in
Aurora, CO & LRC in Longmont, CO.
Yes. One is indoor and the other is outdoor. What I am interested to learn is which direction might be best to adventure toward.

My experience? Little.
I am just wrapping up a 1/8 electric buggy build and looking forward to racing it.
Participating in more than one class will open up more opportunities for practice; fun.

Thanks for your opinions.
They're all welcome.

 

[DavidB1126]

I started 1/10th racing with 2wd SCT (Slash 2wd) when I was a kid, only raced it once and I bashed it around. Raced it 3 times since then so a total of 4 times.

I started actually racing with my first kit which was 4WD. B74.1D. Racing on indoor carpet, and indoor clay.

I would go with what they run at those dirt tracks. If they run both, you can pick which one.

Price range? 2WD is generally cheaper than 4WD.

2WD is a bit harder to drive at first, but you get used to it, and I feel like it teaches you how to drive. Vs 4WD, is more forgiving. Since my B74 was my first 4WD car (coming from 2WD Mini B and 2WD bashers) it was a handful, but it was more forgiving, have more grip around the turns on the clay track.

@bill_delong could go more deeper on which one and why. But I think its user / driver preference and what / which classes races it the most.

Another thing you have to consider is what kind of classes they run. Stock, open, mod? My local indoor clay track used to do all mod buggy, but now its more going towards stock. Same with the local carpet tracks aswell.

Stock for 2wd buggy is 17.5T motors, or sometimes 21.5 (and some classes are fixed timing
Stock for 4wd buggy is 13.5T (what I run in mine)

Here is my 4wd B74 wheeler with my Slash 2wd. Using slicks for the local indoor clay track

Check out my 4WD Buggy builds here:
https://www.rctalk.com/forum/threads/team-associated-b74-1d-4wd-buggy-build-2-0.136947/
https://www.rctalk.com/forum/threads/team-associated-b74-1d-4wd-buggy-build.136702/
And Videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@bombpoprc2023

Another thing is what kind of surface and overall setup.
With 1/8, its mostly outdoor dirt or dirt track over a hanger.
With 1/10, there is outdoor dirt, indoor dirt, indoor clay, carpet and astro turf.
And setups are alot different with each surface.
Mostly every kit these days from what I seen have a high grip carpet/turf kit (kit setup is a high grip setup out of the box) and a lower grip dirt/clay kit (kit setup is for dirt out of the box)
I got the dirt version, but changed over to a carpet setup easily. For 4WD, the major differences between setups are center diff vs center slipper, diff oils, shock oils, springs, sway bars. and tires.
And what I seen with 1/8, mostly everything bigger than 1/10 is always 4WD.

 

[kdecesari]

I started 1/10th racing with 2wd SCT (Slash 2wd) when I was a kid, only raced it once and I bashed it around. Raced it 3 times since then so a total of 4 times.

I started actually racing with my first kit which was 4WD. B74.1D. Racing on indoor carpet, and indoor clay.

I would go with what they run at those dirt tracks. If they run both, you can pick which one.

Price range? 2WD is generally cheaper than 4WD.

2WD is a bit harder to drive at first, but you get used to it, and I feel like it teaches you how to drive. Vs 4WD, is more forgiving. Since my B74 was my first 4WD car (coming from 2WD Mini B and 2WD bashers) it was a handful, but it was more forgiving, have more grip around the turns on the clay track.

@bill_delong could go more deeper on which one and why. But I think its user / driver preference and what / which classes races it the most.

Another thing you have to consider is what kind of classes they run. Stock, open, mod? My local indoor clay track used to do all mod buggy, but now its more going towards stock. Same with the local carpet tracks aswell.

Stock for 2wd buggy is 17.5T motors, or sometimes 21.5 (and some classes are fixed timing
Stock for 4wd buggy is 13.5T (what I run in mine)

Here is my 4wd B74 wheeler with my Slash 2wd. Using slicks for the local indoor clay track

View attachment 177496

Cool.
Thanks for the perspective.
Good info.

 

[bill_delong]

2WD is a bit harder to drive at first, but you get used to it, and I feel like it teaches you how to drive.

I see this type of comment a lot and I feel it's a bit misleading. "Teaching you how to drive" should be replaced with, "You better learn proper setup/tuning/maintenance /driving skills or else you're screwed"

2WD can be easy to drive, IF you can find a local fast guy who's willing to work with you, by giving you a copy of his setup sheet and you commit to buying the exact same car and every single tuning option that he invested in it. One little thing may seem like it's no big deal, but everything we do to 2WD is essential to get max performance.

2WD tends to wear tires faster and when they wear out, it happens in the snap of a finger, usually in the middle of race, all of a sudden your car starts to spin out for no good reason. 4WD will let you get away with worn out tires longer, instead of spinning out, you simply get slower lap times. If your 4WD is spinning out with worn out tires then your setup is jacked up, every 4WD needs to be able to drift with worn out tires, then you know it's dialed.

While 4WD is more expensive up front, HOWEVER, you'll get that money back in no time with the savings on tire wear. Save your receipts and you'll quickly see that you'll spend far more money on tires than anything else over a year of weekly racing.

My tire strategy is to run day old tires for the qualifiers and put fresh tires on for the mains. I will mark the inside of the wheel with a sharpie for every run so I can keep track of old a set of tires are. I won't even go into tire sauce, that's a whole different topic for discussion.

Since you'll be running 1/8 buggy, it would make most sense to also run 4WD wheeler as well, everything you learn for driving skills will translate directly... 2WD requires a completely different driving style which can hurt your 1/8 buggy learning experience.

2WD tends to pop ball ends more frequently with wall taps and this will drastically hurt your consistency as you pray a turn marshal will be able to pop the link back on your car during a race. Some tracks don't let marshals work on cars and you increase your risk of a DNF at that club.

If you want to be a faster driver, start out with 4WD, learn all the skills first, then try 2WD in a year or two down the road.

Good Luck!

 

[Lumikko]

Whether it’s mountain biking, shooting sports, or RC racing, there seems to be a common belief that having your equipment make things difficult for you somehow ”teaches” you.

The idea is not far off from the idea that you could develop more quickly as a driver if you had someone slap you in the face everytime you make a mistake.

(For some reason, people don’t recommend high-powered Mod buggies to beginners. Which is good, really!)

A pedagogically better approach is to understand that you start at the bottom so the equipment should make things easier for you. As your skills progress, you can move to things that require more skills. My advice would be to pick a class with the slowest and most easy-driving vehicles available. In the case of buggies, that would be Stock 4WD.

If your motto is ”HTFU” and you are stubborn, by all means take on challenges. People are different, we enjoy different things. Winning isn’t going to be easy no matter what class you choose, though.

 

[kdecesari]

As a relative newbie to this hobby, I can’t thank you all enough. This forum has served as an incredible resource & damn…you’re good.

If your driving skills are as good as your collective knowledge base I expect to hover around DFL for a while on race days!

Another thing I have learned here is all posts are better with pics. So…
Here’s my yet-to-be-run 1/8 next to the body that will get painted very soon.

 

[9x19]

Looks sweet!

Good luck on the track!

 

[Chubaka]

No need to thank us........ just leave money on your way out. Glad you remembered the first rule of pictures.

Good luck in your racing career.

 

[bill_delong]

Some threads here that might be useful as you get started:

• Maintenance Tips
• How to setup steering
• Pin Replacement Tools
• Racing With Tire Warmers
• Steps to diagnose electrical problems
• Tools for the Pit Table
• Shock Oil and Temperature Relationship
• Tire Prep
• Tire Sauce for 1/8 Off-Road

Side note, slower is faster... do not drive faster than your skill level, focus on consistency by not making any wrecks, once your consistency is above 95% then you can start to work on speed... always let faster drivers pass you on the inside line then try to follow their line for a couple corners as they pull away. Eventually you'll get to a point where you're on pace with the pack. Be VERY careful not to "corner dive", as you follow a car, remember to go slow into a corner, brake while going straight, then accelerate out of the corner. If you find that you can't accelerate out of a corner, then that means you've "blown the corner" by coming in too hot... remember, "slow in, fast out" the rest just comes naturally.

Good Luck!

 

[kdecesari]

Some threads here that might be useful as you get started:

• Maintenance Tips
• How to setup steering
• Pin Replacement Tools
• Racing With Tire Warmers
• Steps to diagnose electrical problems
• Tools for the Pit Table
• Shock Oil and Temperature Relationship
• Tire Prep
• Tire Sauce for 1/8 Off-Road

Side note, slower is faster... do not drive faster than your skill level, focus on consistency by not making any wrecks, once your consistency is above 95% then you can start to work on speed... always let faster drivers pass you on the inside line then try to follow their line for a couple corners as they pull away. Eventually you'll get to a point where you're on pace with the pack. Be VERY careful not to "corner dive", as you follow a car, remember to go slow into a corner, brake while going straight, then accelerate out of the corner. If you find that you can't accelerate out of a corner, then that means you've "blown the corner" by coming in too hot... remember, "slow in, fast out" the rest just comes naturally.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the links. I've only made it through the first few and already picked up a healthy amount of useful knowledge,

 

[Greywolf74]

My driving skills are great if your goal is to run in to everything and break stuff!

Good luck in racing!