The Team Associated RC10-B3 is one of the top buggies in the country and let's face it, a lot of us big kids have one. The B3 has by far more tuning options, and has a better feel for novice drivers to learn on which has only added to it's tremendous popularity as both a recreational and competitive platform.

Even with the wealth of twaking options available, we decided to take a look beyond the norm and help give you a leg up on your buddies. Good as it is, the B# does have a few limitations on certain tracks. With these tips, you can tune your B3 to excel in areas that it had troubles with before.

What you see in the pictures below is all of my personal speed parts. When I get back from a run and I sit down at my pit table, I take a look at this box and with the knowledge of what these parts do, I can decide if they will help on a given track or not. Organization and a good understanding of what the parts do can never hurt. Lets go over some of the parts and tricks I have found to work best. This article will focus mainly on steering. Look for more tech articles in future issues on tricks for other aspects of the B3.

Anyone who has run the car on a hard packed or soft track has noticed that the B3 has a fair amount of push straight out of the box. One of the best ways to change the pace of the steering is to flip the steering knuckles upside down and swap them to the other side. This elevates the position where the knuckle sits and translates to quicker steering response. It also tends to get rid of the push feel of the B3. The best part of this trick is that you don't change your shocks, so the buggy should jump and absorb the rough stuff in a similar matter as before.

Above Left: This is the normal way the knuckles go, you can see the grove on the top.

Above Right: This is the new method. The groove is on the bottom of the knuckle. The right block goes on the left and the left block goes to the right.

Another great trick is to use 25 degree caster blocks instead of the 30 degrees on tracks that are fairly flat cornered. This with help you get more mid corner speed. This is very helpful if you are trying to pass someone on those long sweeping corners. If you have a lot of banked corners, the 30s may be more useful to you however, as they will let you carry more initial speed into the corner.

Above: These are the 25 degree caster blocks. Be sure to mark the 30 degrees after you remove them so you don't get them confused with the 25 degree blocks latter down the road.

If you run on any type of track you will benefit from the new rear shock tower. This corrects the geometry and allows the rear shocks to fully extend at the right points when you need it. If you have not updated to this new tower, you should. It is a very easy upgrade and it makes a world of difference.

Above: The new rear tower allows for the proper shock travel. The new rear tower uses a lower profile body along with a new wing wire.

If you are a good driver and can handle a little more speed in the corners as well as down the straights, you might benefit from trying the 2 degree toe in rear arm mounts. With these new mounts you will get a little faster on the straights, but the car will feel "loose" in the corners. If you can handle that, give these a try as they might be that little edge that will get you into the winners circle.

Above: The 2 degree blocks are harder to handle, but will give you a little more speed.

Should you still need more steering, you can also add weight to the front bulkhead in two ways. You can either add lead into the front end of the bulkhead behind the bumper, or you can do it the way I did. You can find a chunk of aluminum and grind it down to a size that will fit behind the cross brace, but in front of the actual bulkhead. Just attach it with either some servo tape or you can actually drill a hole and tap the threads and get a small screw into the bumper as shown below. I made mine at 5 grams of weight. You can go more should you need it, it is just harder to fit more than 5 grams. This will also prevent that pesky cross brace from bending ever again as it has no where to go now. However you will still loose those E-clips on the backside of the hinge pins, sorry can't help you on that one.

Above: This a nice way to add weight to the front end. You can also add some to the cavity that is exposed when you remove the front bumper.

If you run on a fairly flat track with a high bite to the surface, you may want to try running the B3 a little wider. One way to go about this is to use the MIP CV joint for a Losi vehicle. This will give you a little more width to the back end. For the front you will just need to make a spacer as I did and put it on the spindle before you mount up your rims. Just be careful because this may make your B3 to wide for ROAR rules. So only use it at the local track, not for big races.

Above: Width can really help on high bite tracks, and this is one of the strongest ways to go about it. If your track is big on sticking to the ROAR rules and regulations, then you may want to measure this out and make sure you are still legal.

I have made a list of all the part numbers you may need below. This does not account for anything that requires custom creation however. On a final note, I hope this opens your mind to some of the ways to make your B3 more tunable than before. Most of all however, I hope these tips will help get you into the winner's circle.

25 degree caster blocks: 7212

2 degree rear mounts:9266

MIP Losi CV joints:1042

New rear shock tower:9279 composite, 9280 graphite

Should you try some of these tips, feel free to E-mail me at mfg4rox@worldnet.att.net and tell me how they worked. Also, be on the look out for more tech issues on the B3 in future issues of Off-Road.com.