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Today we started the build of Team Associated's RC8.2e Factory Team Kit 1/8 scale electric off-road buggy equipped with Nosram's latest 1/8 scale brushless motor and speed controller.

This pile-o-parts will make the RC8.2e FT. The JConcepts body supplied with the kit of course comes clear. We had ours painted up by Jonathan Nivol of JNDesigns.

The build starts with the +3mm 7075 aluminium chassis included in the kit. The 8.2e FT has a 3mm longer chassis compared to its predecessor.

The side guards are already in place as are the steering posts. Time to care for the steering assembly.

The steering ball cranks are equipped with rubber-sealed ball bearings. The smaller ones you can see here are the ballraces of the steering plate – they make for a smooth and slop-free steering action.

This is what we call customer service – the turnbuckles come factory-assembled!!!

The steering is in place. The servo saver of course is adjustable although the manual does not mention the amount of preload that is needed. We adjusted the blue anodised as shown two pics above.

The upper steering plate is a nice blue anodises aluminium part and looks gorgeous. The front chassis brace is made from a composite plastic material and makes for controlled chassis flex.

Three types of differential outdrives is supplied with the kit. The centre ones are quite obvious but you have to make sure to use the correct part for the front and rear diff!

Don't forget to fit the tiny O-ring onto the outdrives that additionally seals the diffs.

The gear differentials are quite a conventional affair with loads of seals, sintered spider gears, and lightweight spiral cut diff gear. Supplied with the kit is genuine Team Associated "Factory Team" 5000CSt silicone oil for all diffs (any many more to come as it is a LARGE bottle!).

Make sure to mark the front and rear differential as they only differ by the outdrive length and this is something you may overlook when installing them in the gear boxes. As you can see the centre gear is equipped with a 46T plastic spur gear.

The nice things continue. Supplied with the kit come machines 5mm 7075 aluminium shock towers, blue anodised suspension mount and lightweight coupler – again made from light and strong aluminium material.

The shock towers are fastened using screws and nuts rather than screwing them into the plastic material. This makes for a more hassle-free build.

The nuts interlock with the inner gear box.

More Factory Team goodies in the form of aluminium steering blocks, lightweight aluminium wheel axles and adjustable suspension mounts with plastic inserts.

The wheel bearings are rubber-sealed and the cross pin of the CVD drive shafts are locked by the inner wheel bearing – no change for the pin to disappear in use!

More of the blue stuff – this time in the form of the wheel hexes. Nice!

The C-hub bushings interlock with the steering blocks ...

... make sure the insert sits flush with the C-hub as otherwise it is not lined-up properly!

Also make sure to use the correct screws. In this build step also the droop screws are supplied. The steering block screws are the marked ones while the droop screws do not sport any markings and also have a 2mm hex in the threaded part.

The C-hubs have inserts to adjust the caster setting. Do not mix them up and put the blue ones in front and the red ones in the rear of the hub.

The outer suspension pins are held in place by small screws – no C-clips, thank you!

Here you can see the plastic inserts to adjust the (caster) angle of the front wishbones. Also visible: the titanium-nitride-coated inner suspension pins and the white Delrin insert in the FR suspension block (around "7 O'clock position" under the left outdrive).

The gearbox is sealed against the chassis with a paper gasket.

The front assembly in place. Note the updated wishbones with centre shock mounts.

Loads of nice blue anodised parts – now this is "bling bling"!

The Factory Team spec also made it to the rear of the chassis with a 5mm black anodised shock tower, blue adjustable suspension mount, lightweight driveshaft coupler and rubber CVA boots.

Suspension mount and composite chassis brace in place.