First off let me say that I fully understand that really ANY of the top (several) cars in the 1/8 scale electric class can obviously be put in the winners circle with the right skilled driver who can compensate for their particular cars shortcomings.... so my opinions here about the cars are really more directed at the beginner to high mid-level type skilled drivers... And "NOT" guys "just under", or "approaching" the pro level, who can (like mentioned) adapt to nearly any car......

This Brings me to what I think of the Serpent, which is a very good car (IMO)..... But (IME), the Serpent is a car that wants & needs to be driven a bit on the hard side with both acceleration & braking to get the most of it... mostly since it's a pretty HEAVY car (in comparison to the EB-48)....and that it tends to fly a bit nose down thus requiring more skill to keep its attitude in constant check.... And it seems that the majority of the "skilled" guys running REALLY fast lap times on our highly technical jumps, large outdoor open tracks down here are running 2050's (and faster motors) with it.... and it seems that the greater majority of the "beginner to intermediate" guys that can't quite properly control or fully utilize the (2050 & above) motors running the Serpents are looking pretty SO SO with them on our tough to master tracks.... I guess what I'm getting at is (IMO) the Serpents are just Considerably more difficult to drive well for the more regular "Beginner to intermediate" skilled guys.... To give you an example: one of the Several guys that I let drive my EB-48 last night after our races has been running his Serpent 811be for a while, and at our track for quite a few race days, and (myself and Jay (IE:ProTc3) were helping him with some set-up changes on his car for a good part of the day, so I KNOW that his car was not set-up funky or anything like that....he got behind the wheel of the EB-48, and he literally looked like a completely different driver... Lap after lap, (while driving it) he kept commenting "over and over" in ALL of the areas of our "pretty technical jumps track" that he would normally have severe issues with his car... Saying Jeeze, my Serpent would have NEVER been able to deal with that jump the way I Hit it, or that's where I normally end up on my lid.... driving the way he drove the EB-48, he would have Undoubtably qualified much higher up...

Now on to the balance of the cars... Contrary to popular belief, the Serpent (with the standard large size 2s lipo's in it's "side by side" layout is actually fairly equally balanced " side to side, but a bit nose heavy (this is not because of the independent component weights, but rather their placements in relation to the cars center line)... but with the shorty type lipo's in the Serpent, (to get more weight out), many complain that the car starts to handle and jump very different regardless of whether the shorty packs are run in the forward position of the treys ,OR the most rearward position.... I know on J's Serpent we also found this to be true, as he immediately lost nearly one second per lap immediately after putting the shorty lipo's in it..... Where as cars like the EB-48 with the shorty packs being put all on one side seem to be affected much less (especially in the air) than split pack designed cars (like the Serpent) running the shorty's.... Once again, I'm sure this could be delt with with set-up changes, but unless you run nothing but the shorty packs, it's really not reasonable to me on the Serpent...

Durability: in the commonly "first to break" parts... (IE: control arms & knuckles) I have to give those to the Serpent.... But, as funny as it sounds, IMO it's not really too much of a plus in the way that the serpent does it..... In our Florida heat the Serpents plastic (glass-less) plastics have flex almost like chewing gum... And I personally have never been a big fan of those type of car parts taking away too much from what the suspension is designed to do.... And it's not like the parts on the EB-48 are fragile, they just don't flex as much before breaking.....

Up keep: the EB-48 takes this hands down IMO, the serpent parts prices are CRAZY high for nearly everything... Things like the aluminum towers for the Serpent are in the $40 dollar range a piece, and wanting to simply try a different steering Ackerman change will cost ya around $20 a piece (for EACH of the Ackerman positions), while the EB-48 comes with machined aluminum towers, and ALL three Ackerman positions are easily changeable on the one INCLUDED aluminum brace that is always on the car....

Car weight..... This is HUGE.... Whether it be real car racing, or RC cars, power to weight Ratio is VERY important on any level of racing (even for beginners), and even after spending $200ish additional on Titanium replacement parts for the serpent, It's actually the better part of a pound heavier.... That's pretty drastic on these cars... and you can feel it big time... I myself will be sticking with the EB-48 for sure....
Joe