With the industry moving towards higher grip tracks, more powerful batteries and motors, 2wd buggies are beginning a new evolution in racing. Whether you believe it’s just a trend or fad……. it is here and among us. Quicker than years past, the 2wd buggy is EVOLVING and it is exciting to see! Never before have we had mid motor cars race at the “Major” races and now it seems like they are winning every minor AND major races all across the nation. The US has been behind the curve for quite sometime as opposed to our European counterparts who’ve been running mid motor for many years. Now it has taken the US race scene by storm.

This leads us to one big problem….. MORE MONEY! You can either buy a conversion ($200 for a C4.2 conversion shipped from AE) or get outfitted with both cars (killer deal at $369.00 at A-main). I personally think yes, you should have BOTH RM buggy and a MM buggy because lets face it….not all tracks are suited to mid motor and in some situations, the RM car is still going to be faster, more consistent, and easier to drive. This all equates to more consistent runs and faster overall times and the buggy of choice. Most importantly….. track conditions change daily and we all might not all be driving on super high grip, sugar coated tracks like at the “Majors”. By having 2 cars, it is much better than having to switch back and forth from mid to rear at the track. It is better to spend your limited time tuning your car instead of taking hours to change configurations. However, I’m sure there are a lot of people out there that find it economically impossible to have 2 cars with 2 full set of electrics and will just keep running their rear motor car for quite a while. Bottom line……. it’s like  an extra $1,000 added to your race program to basically have 1 car sit on the bench.

In steps Vision Racing as they’ve developed some very fine quality carbon fiber chassis stiffeners for the ever popular B4.2 buggy. These fit PERFECTLY in the side pods and screw in with short screws that comes provided with the kit. The only thing you have to do is have a #43 drill bit and a drill/dremel. You can tap the screws after drilling, but I didn’t and everything still worked wonderfully. No template is needed because the stiffeners fit so well that they act as a template and I just drilled with a steady hand. Installation took about 5 minutes. Taking them out takes 5 minutes… it’s such a simple design it’s genius! You can change the chassis stiffness in less time it takes to change your shock oils or add a swaybar. Soooo simple.

So why run these? Well, the idea behind these beauties is that you can increase the stiffness of the 5 time world champion B4.2 chassis without having to run a full aluminum chassis. That means you don’t have to worry about bending your chassis, twisting it, or twerkin’ it out on a big jump. It is still the basic composite chassis that we all know and has been proven at the highest level of competition… yet now with the Vision CF stiffeners…. it’s a lot stiffer. Not too stiff because it still retains it’s natural plastic composite flex for forgiveness on looser conditions or bumpy tracks. I think of it as a hybrid design that takes all the benefits of running a plastic chassis without having to run a full rigid aluminum chassis. Best of both worlds and the coolest part is….. you can always take them out or put them back in!

LAP TIMES.

A lot of people are focused on lap times. Me included….however, I’m not so focused on fastest laps, but more so my top 20 lap average compared to my fast lap. It is a clear indicator for me when I’m on point with my fastest lap being within .2 seconds from my top 20 lap times. As a reminder, results may vary depending on the amount of grip, layout, smoothness of the track you’re testing it at. For me and the track conditions I had (old track, bumpy clay, sauced groove, dusty on a basher Sunday), the car was a .1 faster across the board. I feel like the times would have been more significantly improved if I was running on a new, fresh, smooth track. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

The important thing is that they dramatically changed the car’s feel (perhaps exaggerated by the bumpiness of the track I was running on). Visually, the car looked much stiffer front to back and I could see the shocks were working much more with the added stiffness of the chassis. I was actually shocked (oh the pun!) and impressed at the same time. It was awesome to see the difference as well as feel it.

However, I must point out the fact that not everyone is going to see improved lap times. It is very track dependant as much as it is driver style dependant. I’m not trying to push product down your throat, but more or less share my experience and knowledge with the rest of you so YOU can decide if you want to try and buy upgrades. I think there are a boatload of people who think by just spending the $$ and putting these in, they’re going to notice a huge increase in lap times. I’ve heard for some, they’ve improve .4 sec a lap and others really didn’t see much improvement. Remember these are a TUNING OPTION and when used in the right conditions will produce fantastic results without breaking the bank. On top of that, if your chassis has scratches or gouges in the side pods, these cover those blemishes up and make the car look super tech at the same time. Bling bling as you can never go wrong with the carbon fiber look!

Awesome job by Vision Racing and if you’re interested in ’em please stop by their website and get yourself some! For all you hardcore rear motor guys… I’m going to venture to say that these are a must have for high bite!