Associated TC6 vs Xray T3
 

Which would you choose and why?

TC6,, parts availability...it wins...

+1 for parts availability. I am actually in the market for a belt drive TC, and specifically waited for the release of the T6. I was close to ordering a T3 '11 - until I visited the AE site.

Been an Associated guy since the gold RC10 days myself. I am with you guys for parts availability. I have been thinking about trying a different brand though. :-)

Tough choice, I am trying to make the same decision myself. I am a long time Associated customer (still have my gold pan RC10s from when I was a kid) and have plenty of their newer cars too.... although I have heard nothing but good things about the Xrays. Unfortunately I have never had a chance to drive one, but it seems like most people that own one are extremely happy with them. I am sure they are both awesome cars but this is a tough choice!!

I can't seem to make up my mind so I am hoping to see some good responses in this thread that might help us both out.

For this I am going to go with the easiest to work on and tune. I also do not want to have to add ridiculous amounts of weights etc to the car. You know, take any quality car (such as these) and give it to a great driver and they will win with either one. :-) I had a TC3 a while back and loved it. Raced it in a stock class and did really well with it. People always questioned my motor because it was so quick to accelerate. (trade secret with lubrication :D ) Also I believe the shaft was more efficient than the belts. What ever I get I am looking forward to the brushless set up. The only brushless vehicles I have right now is a RC18T....

TC6 all the way... Have both... The Xray just is not worth the price tag. Quality and performance of TC6 is impressive for price.

I'm new to TC .. been racing the Xray T3 for about 2 months, hit tons of stuff really hard, I hit a dot off the staight which launched the car into a board which in turn launched the car about 3-4 feet in the air, landed and kept going, call it durability testing :) I have yet to break a part on the Xray and am very happy with it (knock on wood).

I may be biased, but I am running the T3 2011 for the 2010-2011 season. Xray makkes a great car and not only great cars. Having RC America sponsored drivers throughout the nation that are really approachable is probably one of the highlights of Team Xray USA. The xray is also going to be more durable than the graphite based plastics of the associated (historically since I have run the xray cars and associated cars). You also won't get caught out by xray not updating their car for 5 years. You don't have to buy the cars yearly revisions but each revision brings you a noticeably better car.

Hope this helps.

go for an xray there alot stronger and relabile manuals are great and setup book parts are easy to find

Depends on budget.
More budget, Xray
Less budget, TC6

hi,
i m having the same choice, complicated by the fact that i m aslo considering trf 417.:nod:

however the big doubt is about tc6/t3...

i m from italy, and here the situation until last few weeks was the following:

in my track if there were 10 people the cars would have been:
7 xray
1 corally
1 tamiya
1 schumacher...

the point is that since 2 or 3 weeks almost half xray drivers switched to asso,
so that now the same 10 drivers are:
4 xray
4 asso
1 tamiya
1 schumacher

guys that changed are VERY happy, according to theme the car is easy, have more steering than almost every machine else, is strong and with a complete new design have a perfect balance.
however the car, coming out of the box, is made for high grip surface, so that if you are running mid/low grip hasphalt you need to change some small details.

furthermore you have to consider that here in italy xray parts are the most popular BUT even the most exensive, meanwhile asso parts are not so difficult to find and cost even half price.
plus we have to consider that car popularity is a key factor in the choise, i would not have chose a tc5 beause no one was driving one for miles, so would have been very difficult reach any help on the track, just talking on the car, etc..

with the tc6 is quite different, is becoming very common and, even if i was not a fan (i drive mi4lp race) , i can tell you that xray drivers are now happy enough to not regret their choise...

finally if you consider that tc6 cost here almost 100 euros less that t3...you can easly understand that i m very close to the choise!

hope this help!:D

Wow, yours guy switch car so quick. Is the T3 (2010 or the 2011?) that bad? How long had the TC6 hit the the market? a week? a month?

...

sorry, i forget to specify, u are right they switch from xray t3 2010

anyway the tc6 here in italy is available since no more than 3 weeks,
but, as i told you, owners are allready very happy!

btw thare are even a consistant number of t3 2011, they are good as well but owners allready owned a t3 before...so not big change for theme!:spidey:

I will say TC6 but then again i am biased about my decision. :sneaky:

But from what i have heard from people the price factor along with the availability of parts is huge for them,

Mike

Thanks. Glad hear that TC6 is a good car too, more (good) choice is always nice. :lol:

NeeBee to the TC' world and was trying to also decide what to buy.

Parts- for the TC6 they will be available at all five of my LHS, T3 2011 only one carries them in stock and that store is 45mins away from where I live.

Price- the TC6 can be picked up for the highes price of $370 verses the T3 2011 for $480, with the extra cash from not buyin the T3 2011 ican added to a good esc and motor.

Performance-For me, the T3 2011 problebly has the TC6 covered on that but for a newbee like me all am gonna be doing is asphalt racing when my LHS puts fun runs together, so not taking it to serious right now.

So for me the TC6 fits the bill

I would read the TC6 Thread, it seems that the kits are missing parts or something else is wrong. If you don't need a car right now I would wait before buying a TC6.

That is a large price difference for cars that are practically identical in terms of materials. Of course Associated been around longer which gives them an edge in marketing etc. Anyway if both purchase had the same electronics that extra $100 could be used for extra tires, a-arms etc. So yes, I will probably stay an Associated guy. :-)

Definitely NOTHING alike as far as materials go. Xray's fit and finish is gorgeous and their parts reek quality, you pay for what you get but you have to own both kits to know what I mean. I too was a long time Associated guy and have owned many of their kits over the years, I run Xray now and will pay the extra cash for their quality.

Agreed, to a point. Sometimes what you get isn't worth what you pay for it. I'm willing to bet that you're not breaking parts like you used to, more because of proficiency than quality of any given maker of parts.

For ANY newbie, parts availability and cost will always be of major concern. SOME of the new TC6 kits have a few parts packing issues here and there, mostly with hardware. By no means has everyone that's purchased one been forced to suffer through an incomplete assembly. What kit doesn't have issues with parts packing or quality control from time to time? Not to mention everyone has had assembly manuals that have been AFU plenty of times. Practically everyone has had something go wrong with the first run of a new kit, too.

Associated has always sent me anything I've needed if it was missing from a kit going back to the gold pan dirt cars, just because I've called them or sent a polite email ASKING for the missing parts(remember that lost art of respectful communication?). Shouldn't have to, I agree, but we're all human, and it happens.

In any case, there's so much parts useage cross over with the TC5 that there are always options. Some kits change year to year and there isn't much cross over in parts useage, so that's a legitimate concern.

Either way, if one car were appreciably better than any other, ALL of the pros would be rolling one.

I say get whichever car YOU want that fits YOUR needs. Can't really go wrong with either one. The first car will tell you everything you'll want/need in your second one. The proficiency that you gain in the first season will render most of the parts availability issues a moot point. Until then, pick one, go fast, if something gets in your way, turn, and stock up on spares.

Both cars are really fast. Maybe the X-Ray is stronger in event of crash or hitting the wall. But therefore the Asso is now so easy to drive and predictable, I didn't touch the wall since 500 laps, and that's no joke (with the TC5 I hit the wall every three laps). That saves spareparts as well! In Germany the TC6 is about 60€ cheaper than the T3'2011. Thats enough spare parts for one year...

Will you be the only TC6 at your track?

I am not sure.... I believe a couple sponsored guys are running them. Haven't been out to any races at this track yet but I am going to scope out the competition this coming Saturday. :D

X Ray and Associated are both good cars:
I prefer Associated because it has a lower price and it's easier to drive;)

Thats funny, because I purchased a T3 2011 and a TC6... the Xray T3 kit had 3 burred screws.. my TC6 had no issues at all.

The TC6 also included enough parts to build a Spool or a Ball Diff.

Well, I was a AE customer for a long time, but Xray quality and continued improvements on each design feature won me over. Both have their pros and cons, but I think the T3'11 is a work of art. I like many of the design features. I think it's less prone to tweak because the hinge pins are not on the bulk heads. In my opinion Xray's R&D are worth the price. I'm an average driver and I've never broke anything. Its a very durable car. These days the nice thing is you can update the T3 series every year with just a few parts. Next year I don't see much for changes, but perhaps, upper deck, vertical camber link mounts, and may be shocks or toe blocks. I like the fact they try to improve the car. In my eyes, AE's not a serious R&D company anymore. I will agree they have some value in their kits. If you have the money you won't regret an Xray. :nod: Trust me, I'm not loyal to any brand name, just a great product, anyone can tell you how picky I am, lol, and I feel good I got one.

what about if you had bought the trf 417...think that is the state of art tight now..

it is true that xray have great quality, but to me it looks like they want you to pay too much for that...consider for example that a 450 euro car (t3 '11) come with plastic shoks body!!

isn't it ridiculous..

If it didn't work - yes, it would be ridiculous. But they do work, and I have spent very little money on broken parts on my car. Xray isn't cheap, but you almost never break anything.

I would rather spent money right now, and have a car that doesn't break in races, than having a cheap cars, that breaks every time it touches the track. (Not saying the Asso is just that, as I don't know)

I would rather have plastic shock bodies. Plastic shock bodies don't expand at the rate of aluminum on a hot day and cause me to lose dampening in the middle of a race or tighten up when the temps drop causing too much dampening of the shock absorber. Plastic a more stable than aluminum.
The internals of a plastic shock don't wear and contaminate the oil like an aluminum shock. In a touring car a properly designed plastic shock body will outperform an aluminum shock body, hands down.
I have a couple T3's. I will evaluate the TC6 once my friend finishes the build of his new TC6.....Time will tell.

I will agree with you on the shocks. I do think they are better and I accept them now. They are harder to build correct, but once you do they last forever! lol Now, I will say they need to redesign them to be faster to build correct. They do that and I will never moan about it again. I'm just glad I only need to rebuild them after a long season.

Apparently you didn't read the whole t3 2011 thread...

hi all, here in Spain do not see many cars Team Associated ... rather, national and regional competitions seem almost UNIMARC, nearly all cars are Xray, Yokomo odd (but very few) and Tamiya ....
from my point of view I prefer the Associated as to the level of driving we're going to make the same times with the car as well as Xray Associated with the car ... and Xray is far more expensive than Associated, in fact I've always bought cars and parts in the United States ,....
Xray is also the most sencible to adjustments ...... The Associated forgive you but some possible configuration errors ...

Juan Carlos

I know that parts availabilityand prices always are in important in decision making. But I suggest you drive a T3 and then drive a T6 or a TC5 which i had and you will see the big difference in cars... I really like associated, but once i started racing with my t2 009 and then my t3.. hands down so much better. I ve also had a few accidents and my xrays have held up so much better than the tc5. They are good cars the t6 and tc5 but if you want a step up i would go with the xray.

A t6 $374.99
a xray t3 $499.99

Its a $125 difference. Buy the tc6 and save 10 dollars a week for 3 months. Thats the difference in price... or wait an extra 12 weeks. and get the car you will be competitive with and most of all HAPPY.

My 2 cents...

DAMN IT!!! its so hard to choice the right one to start with.

RC4ODC is right, on saving up (for me it would be $100 more) extra cash to buy the better car.

PS: I just flipped a coin with the #6 on one side and the #3 on the other and 2-3 the Xray won :sweat:

jackdani said this about the TC6
guys that changed are VERY happy, according to theme the car is easy, have more steering than almost every machine else, is strong and with a complete new design have a perfect balance.

but this to me is something odd. i keep hearing year after year, that the latest cars have more steering. as far as i know there is no free lunch, if you have more steering, you will sacrifice rear grip. you still have to slow down considerably to take a corner, thats why cars these days have spools. is it possible to have so much steering, that you can corner much faster without losing rear grip, vis a vis the T3 vs TC6 ?

How can you even compare a TC6 to a TC5? Thats like comparing a first gen T2 to a T3.

Well, I pulled the trigger and bought the T3 2011 out the door for $5 benjis. Can't wait to put it together during my days off. I also picked up a Parma Bumper and T2 bumper brace or support. Gonna save u for the Tekin RS pro w/17.5T motor, Hitec HS 7945TH servo

To save some coin, think about if you need the Tekin RS vs. Tekin RS Pro.

Also that Hitec servo has a ton of torque, way more than you'll need. Savox servos seem pretty good (1257, 1258) and they are running a promotion where you can get $20 by trading in an old servo which ends up being about $47 for a new servo.

https://www.savoxusa.com/Articles.as...81&click=57525