SHOCK APPEAL • Up front you will see a standard Team Associated T4 suspension setup. Long-stroke, aluminum bodied shocks are on all four corners, and their extra "truck" travel helps the J82 take on more of the rough stuff on the track.

TRANSMIT POWER • Team Associated's widely used Stealth transmission is left intact at the rear of the chassis. 48-pitch gears and a standard slipper clutch keep the power moving from the motor to the tires.

REAR END • The J82's rear end is all T4 as well, but JConcepts includes extra offset ball cups that you can install to keep the wheels from rubbing across the upper links during suspension travel. With no modification to the axles themselves (both front and rear), you can easily switch back to truck mode if you decide to run in the truck class just by reinstalling the front truck body mounts and swapping back to truck-dimension tires.

• Bigger Shoes: JConcepts 1/9-sized Groovy tires are up front.
• Middle Weight: Center battery position balances weight.
• Trucker Arms: Longer arms of the T4 give the J82 a wider stance.
• Brushless: Novak GTB brushless ESC fits easily on the raised sides of the molded chassis.
• Clear Downforce: Rear wing looks like a standard truck piece, but is actually included in the conversion.

Testing
Lately the sun seemed to coordinate its appearance on the days I wanted to go track testing. Sure enough, when I went out to Pegasus Hobbies in Montclair, CA it was one of those hotter days we don't enjoy. The track was being prepped for the JBRL series, so it was on the loose side, but the layout offered a host of different jumps and berms and traction levels. Luckily the track was watered down in between runs, so I wasn't kicking up that much loose dirt.

Acceleration and Speed • With the 6.5R bolted in, the J82 had some traction breaking power. Acceleration was great when it hooked up, even if the slipper clutch was a tad on the loose side. In fact, when the track was fresh from
watering, I could pull a wheelie on the straightaway—and this is a buggy! Top speed was good for the track size, and I'm sure that if I had been going for a top speed run, a switch to a bigger pinion would easily have raised the limit.
Rating: 9/9

Braking • I had to fiddle with the brake high point on my radio to compensate for the loose dirt on the surface of the track, but once I got it set right, I had some smooth braking. The J82 reacted to trigger pushes like a truck would, the front end dipping slightly as the buggy came to a stop. Most of the course didn't require much braking anyways, but when I needed it, it was there. The Double Dee rear tires did a decent job when slowing down, and the chassis itself stayed straight when I had to slow down fast.
Rating: 8

Low-Speed • Low speed handling was—again—truck-like. The wider stance of the front end gave the J82 understeer through the tighter corners. On the other hand, when off-power the rear end of the buggy swung out slightly. The buggy switched directions fairly quick at low speeds, but I would have liked a little more on-power steering for the hairpins. It wasn't as precise as a standard 1/10-scale 4WD buggy, but it was very easy to drive.
Rating: 8

High-Speed Handling • High speed handling was great. The understeer during low-speed driving made the J82 easy to control when I punched the trigger. Down the uneven straightaway I did have to watch my trigger input carefully, because if I gave her too much power, it felt like the front tires barely touched the dirt. I was able to drift the buggy through the big sweeper around the squared corner at speed. Switching directions through the faster parts of the track felt stable and controlled; the truck stance helped here, as wider tracks usually translate to easier driving. If I let off at the right time, I could take a corner tight, as the rear end of the J82 would slowly swing around a tad faster than the front.
Rating: 8

Rough-Track Handling • This portion of the test showed the benefits of running a truck suspension. With the longer arms, more shock stroke, and larger tires, the J82 took the rough stuff like candy. The buggy rarely lost its trajectory, and even when it did, all I had to do was move the steering wheel slightly to correct the direction. The soft JConcepts tires absorbed a lot of the bumps and dirt clods that were scattered across the track surface. It also stayed level over bumps and ruts that would usually flip a standard width 1/10-scaler.
Rating: 9

Jumping • Just like in the rough-track test, the J82 jumped nice and smooth, thanks to the truck-spec suspension. Though it didn't feel like a standard buggy on lift-off, the landings were soft and stable. Even when I landed at an awkward angle, the J82 corrected itself during suspension compression. It was fun, and easy, to jump! Just don't hit the brake too much in mid air, or you'll nose dive it into the dirt.
Rating: 8

Wrenching
Maintenance • Maintaining the truck—er, buggy is standard issue here. The 3-gear transmission comes out with a few screws, and the chassis layout is nice and open. With only two driven wheels,
working on any 2WD electric is pretty simple, and since the J82 is based on the easy to work on T4 platform, there's nothing weird to talk about here when it comes to garage work. Just make sure you have a full set of SAE tools, not metric.
Rating: 9

Wear and Tear • As much as I try, off-road and James Revilla are a difficult combination. It's mainly the jumping that gets to me, and sure enough it's also the jumping that can kill weaker platforms. The J82 survived, however, even as I did my standard gymnastics twirl across the hard-packed surface after the double, which is pretty much automatic when I hit the dirt. The wing had dirt chunks on it, and the front bumper did too, but the chassis was OK. Some of the impact was absorbed by the J82's soft setup and soft tires, but then again, if you haven't seen a "Revilla twirl" you have no idea how much I put off-road vehicles through when attempting something as elementary to off-road as jumping!
Rating: 8

Tuning • The J82 benefits from starting with an already proven platform in the T4. Team Associated has had years and years of testing, development, and race experience—and all of that has been refined over the years, from the first 10T to the current T4. Seeing as the J82 is basically a T4 with buggy looks, tuning the J82 is almost the same as tuning a T4. With that in mind, you know that if Associated offers a chassis adjustment, it's for fine-tuning for a track, not to correct a design error.
Rating: 9

Conclusion
"The ease of driving a truck with the feel of a buggy;" that tag line pretty much sums up the J82. I saw a buggy, I was driving a buggy, but it was easy like a truck. JConcepts' idea of bringing the buggy look back is novel; even a novice-level driver can get the hang of driving the J82 quick. Of course, once you get used to how it drives, you can also take advantage of its racing heritage as your skills progress. Although 1/9 in "scale," the J82 works perfect on 1/10-sized tracks. The $80 you spend on the conversion kit is reasonable, considering a new set of tires and wheels cost almost the same. So if you've got a T4 laying around but you're a buggy fan and want something a little bigger and a little easier to run, take a look at JConcepts and their J82 conversion.