First teaser images of Team Associated B6.1 buggy

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com 

As they've done for recent releases of new kits, Team Associated has posted a few photos of what's believed to be a new 2WD buggy. They began shortly after 10:30 AM yesterday morning, with a shot of the front of a B6-based buggy that shows off what looks like a new front shock tower that appears to fit between the previous pieces to be used with either flat- or gullwing-type front arms. Gullwing arms are used in this picture.

The Facebook caption was "It was February 2017, Ryan Cavalieri just won the Reedy Race and the #B6 is looking dialed, but it's a 1:10 EP Worlds year and you know if the Worlds are coming, AE will be going all in!

We love the front end of the B6, refined, simple, and incredibly adjustable, but for the rear end, we had some big plans! 

Some even questioned whether it could be done...so the engineers within #Area51 got to work.

The result:
Easier to work on
Increased adjustability (more on this later 😋)
More consistent feel on track
and MORE! #WeAreAE #WhatsInTheBack"

A rear-three-quarter photo of another B6 has also made the rounds, and posted alongside the new photos on a couple of other media sites, but the keen eyes of some viewers noted that it was actually just a standard B6 — and did not include the new rear arms used by the team at the IFMAR Worlds and Reedy Race of Champions (which we showed in a spy shot you can see by clicking here). The photo has since been removed from social media, as far as I can tell.

Move along, folks - nothing new to see here...yet.

At 6 PM last night, a closely-cropped new photo showing an SLA prototype indicated that the slipper clutch assembly has been moved to the left side of the car, where it won't be hanging out of the body. Some viewers also noted that it looks like a new transmission layout which may utilize a smaller idler gear similar to a standup transmission to move the motor position; a new transmission was reportedly used by some team drivers at the IFMAR Worlds, which is believed to also have a split case to allow for easy diff access, but it wasn't used at the Reedy Race and those details not visible in this photo. The caption for this photo on Facebook was a very punny "There is clearly something new here, but what? #WeAreAE."

These teaser photos are expected to last for multiple days, as the company did leading up to the full announcement of the B6 and B64 buggies. Follow along for further updates and analysis!