Team Associated has had a habit of creating a buzz around upcoming products by “leaking” details on the web - most recently by including line items for the B5 and B5M in an online version of the manual for the TC6.2, before deleting the file from the website after the details were caught and spread across internet forums like wildfire. The “slip” was passed off as unintentional, but what better way to ignite a fiery conversation about an upcoming release than to let nosy keyboard cowboys think they stumbled on a “mistake?” That’s like dumping napalm on a campfire.
Mistake or not, the B5/B5M news set the RC industry ablaze until the cars were formally announced. In that same vein, it was only a matter of time before someone noticed that the world champion B44.2 buggy was moved to the discontinued models page.
Really? The B44.2 Factory Team? The same car that Steven Hartson drove to the IFMAR World Championship less than a year ago?
Two lines of red text - that looks pretty official to me.
Team Associated doesn’t often discontinue vehicles until a replacement is ready, but we haven’t heard a word about any new 4WD - and we can’t imagine that the defending 4WD World Champion, having won 3 of the last 4 IFMAR class titles, would be exiting the class completely.
The B44 platform has three of these trophies now. The whole car can't be scrapped...can it?
It’s odd timing, too, given that this is a Worlds year for 1/8-scale buggy and we know that AE is hard at work on a new prototype for that class, too. Also, one of Team Associated’s fastest 4WD racers over the last decade, Ryan Maifield, just left.
Maifield and the B44 got along very well: TQ at the Worlds in 2005 and 2011, a ROAR National Championship, and countless other victories.
Still, the 4WD class has changed a lot since the original B44 hit the scene in 2007. Back then, cars were still propelled by NiMH packs and brushed motors - and only recently have AE’s main competitors began revamping their 4WD platforms to suit the higher output and varying weights of new generation power systems. Tracks have grown in size with faster speeds and bigger jumps over the half-decade as well, especially as 2WD buggies have improved much faster than their 2WD counterparts.
Like the B4 platform, which was finally retired after a decade of hard labor, the ongoing success of the B44 and its reiterations is a testament to the genius of its original design as well as the drivers behind the wheel, because the rest of the industry has been trying to top it since day one. Just in the last couple of years TLR released the 22-4, Hot Bodies rejoined the class with the D413, and Kyosho has a new ZX6. Back in 2007 Team Durango hadn’t yet taken the curtain off of the DEX410 in 2007, and yet they’re already on their fourth revision. And XRAY hadn’t even considered entering electric off-road back then.
What will the new car look like? I have no idea, but I can make some guesses.
It’s well-known that AE team drivers have been running aluminum chassis plates on their B44.2 buggies,
as well as modified pinion gears and bearing sleeves in order to fit Team Durango gear diffs - that’s how Steven won last year’s IFMAR Worlds. Fitting the current car with upgrades seems oddly familiar, like the team running the Centro mid-motor conversion on the B4.2 in the racing season leading up to the release of the B5M, so it would make sense that history could repeat itself. Still, a new chassis and diff design would be more fitting of the title “B44.3” than calling it a brand new buggy.
Then again, if that combination is good enough to beat the best in the world, they may not need to update much. If there is a new buggy on the horizon, though, there’s a good chance we’ll learn more about it leading up to the ROAR Nationals in late August.
Might this have been the last great hurrah for the B44?
7/2/2014
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