I have a 2011 and a Black Special...and an Egress
All very pretty and I love them to bits. The Black Special comes with the racing steering rack and the torque splitter set (ball diffs front and rear, plus a center one-way bearing). Mechanically, that's the only difference.
So for the 2011 model, I bought the racing steering set and torque splitter units for it. Also got the re-released hi-cap dampers and did some other swizzles (titanium turnbuckles, aluminum ball studs, etc.).
I had set up the Avante 2011 as a runner for the 2012 VONATS (this was before I got the hi-cap dampers, so I used Associated shocks, since the stock shocks are too small and only the stock springs fit), and let's just say the chassis is better on smooth surfaces. It has quite a bit of bump steer, and the narrow suspension arms result in a lot of tire scrub, especially at the rear. You can reduce some of the tire scrub by adding spacers under the ball studs on the inner camber link mounts, which will reduce the camber gain, but even still, it's very hard to keep in a straight line on bumpy surfaces. I ended up with the hi-cap dampers (which are quite nice...would recommend combining them with RPM delrin shock bushings, which fit well with the re-released hi-cap damper caps...also Losi 25wt oil front and rear) and I used the downtravel limiters which come on the parts tree in the hi-cap damper kits. That helps a lot with tire scrub, since it effectively reduces the arc that the wheels cover as the arms move up and down. It also helps to re-center the ride height when using 2.2" rims, as the stock rims are smaller (that was another problem I had when I first ran the car with the optional 2.2" rims...the roll center was too high). By the time I got to that point, I ran it once more at my local track and it felt okay. But if you want to do vintage 4wd buggy, you're really better off with something else...even an 870C which is known to jump like garbage.
I think you will enjoy the build very much. If you do plan on running it, on top of what I did above, get yourself a spare body (duh) and especially a spare wing. The wing mount really eats into the wing (at the edges of the wing mount surface) if you flip the car over, and if you do that enough, the wing gets completely beaten up.
Not that you would need any help with the build, but in case you're interested, I have build series videos of both the Black Special and the standard 2011 on YouTube. The 2011 build was more "correct," since I went into that one having had experience with the Black Special build, which came first. Anyway...check them out if you're interested...maybe there's some stuff in there that will help.
