Welcome to build #2 for the Slash 4×4 LCG Chassis shootout we have upcoming. This is the Team RCE LCG Carbon Fiber Conversion Kit. If you’ve not heard of Team RCE (RC Engineering) it’s time to pay attention. This conversion kit they make for the Traxxas Slash 4×4 is about the sickest thing I’ve laid my hands on in my stint in R/C (coming from someone who’s owned over 90 different vehicles through their r/c career). This kit is all Carbon Fiber and Magnesium!

We had the pleasure of meeting the Team RCE crew at Motorama 2012, where they were competing with their truck. We talked with Jason Punty and some of the other drivers like Raul Garcia. The truck looked very competitive on the track, hanging with the Losi and Associated trucks lap after lap. We were impressed.

I started with a stock Slash 4×4. If you have the intention of buying a conversion kit right off the bat, I highly suggest doing what I did, and buying a rolling chassis off of ebay. Mine was new, never run, without electronics for $160 shipped. The electronics are borrowed from fellow Soup writer Jim Decker. If you’re planning on racing, you’re likely looking at better electronics anyways. For the sake of keeping everything even though, our shootout will be focused on maintaining everything stock with the exception of gearing, tires, the allowance of sway bars, and a center diff installed.

I’d almost go as far as to say you could buy RCE’s arms, shock towers, Associated SC104x4 shocks, and a number of other goods and just build this truck up from parts since most of it will be replaced anyways (Keep an eye out after the shootout for a followup article featuring all of the items just mentioned being added to this build to create the ultimate Slash 4×4 race machine).

In this pic I’m sporting AKA Enduro’s that I used for some initial testing (so I know how terrible an experience it is to attempt to race a stock Slash 4×4).

Here is how the Team RCE chassis arrives in the mail. A nice baggy of carbon fiber goodness. As you can see from the label, it’s proudly made in the USA (a rarity in the R/C industry it seems these days).

As Matt mentioned, we’ll be having a 3 way shootout between LCG chassis conversions soon. It will be Shining Star Chassis (SSC) vs. Team RC Engineering (RCE) vs. Chuckworks RC.

Follow through the next several pages to check out the RCE build up.