This year, Team Associated played Santa Claus and dropped us off a little present by unveiling the new Team Associated B5 and B5M on Christmas Day. Finally, the B5 has been announced as rc enthusiasts all over the world held their breath wondering if Area51 had something in the works. I’ve been hearing rumors about this car for the last 2 months and finally it can all be put to rest….. Well sort of. There is still no release date and no chassis shots!!! Zip, zero, nada!

Being a savvy, smart company…. I personally think AE is playing it smarter by choosing not to tell us a date because if they missed it and had to postpone the date back a few weeks or months, there would be a lot of upset customers with their panties in a bunch. Especially the ones that pre-order! So instead of potentially building negative hype by missing release dates (seems to happen a lot in the world of RC), they are just gonna play it cool and make all of us wait with a huge question mark over our heads with cash burning in our pockets.

I’m going to dare to say that the B5 platform is the 2nd most important car in the history of 1/10 scale racing. Obviously, the most important being the classic gold pan RC10 as it changed the face of rc racing all across the world taking it from backyard bashing to the local tracks racing. The gold pan was a major contributor in shaping the way we race today and I believe the B5 and B5M are just as crucial in carrying the industry even further forward into the next exciting era of competition racing.

Being the biggest and most successful manufacturer in the 1/10th scale offroad car market, Team Associated is the last of the big companies to release a new car and I’m willing to bet they learned a lot from all of the the other companies’ mistakes along with their own endeavors with the Centro conversion. It was a brilliant move on AE’s part to partner up with CML so they basically had a “prototype” mid motor platform to learn from and not having to play with the stigmas of “prototype”. It didn’t have to be under wraps! With the entire team running the C4.2, they were able to get feedback at the highest level of competition and throughout the course of that partnership, we saw numerous upgrades for the C4.2 platform. With that said, I can’t wait for the B5M as I think AE’s advantage is going to pay off in their mid motor design and the fact that it’s a dedicated design also heightens the appeal. Also, with the B5 rear motor as said to be rumored to be “better in every way” than it’s predecessor is BOLD statement as the B4.2 is the most successful car in RC history at the World level.

I can’t wait…..

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Here’s the press release below courtesy of Team Associated.