Jeff Hoy, American

On the heels of Associated’s other new cars and trucks comes the final, official announcement of something we’ve all known about since October.  Team Associated’s SC18, a 1/18th scale short course r/c truck.  What has been announced isn’t what was advertised though, there have been some changes.

As I suspected they did change over to a 2.4 GHz radio system which is a cool and welcome addition.  The more important change, in my opinion, is that they are NOT including a battery and charger with it (see update 2 below).  Which is strange, considering all the other 1/18th scale RTRs from Associated include them.  I’m kind of sad about that fact, but it’s not a great loss considering the probable price point.  MSRP is $289.99, but the potential street price according to Tower and Stormer might be as low as $180, with your local hobby shop prices varying from there.  That’s actually much cheaper than I was expecting, so adding the cost of a battery and cheap charger won’t add much to the cost and will still likely come in cheaper than Duratrax’s Vendetta SC.  You’re looking at about $20 for a battery pack and another $30 for a cheap AC/DC peak charger, so a total of around $250 for the full setup, which is closer to the final price point that I was expecting.  Look for it to be in stock  just in time for Christma… er… nevermind.  Some time in March it’ll be on store shelves.

So you now officially have two choices in the 1/18th scale short course market.  You might want to wait for some reviews of the SC18.  RC Driver has a review of the Vendetta SC in the February issue, which all subscribers should have now, newsstand buyers keep an eye out for it.  But based on cost alone I think I’ll be going with the SC18.

Update: Oh, just for the heck of it, here’s the link to the official press release [PDF].

Update 2: See my unboxing video at Big Squid RC, and guess what, despite it not being in the announcement, the battery and charger ARE included.