Redcat jumps into the ring with the RDS RTR

February 6, 2023

I’ve been saying this for a while now, this is a year of new chassis for the Drift scene. Chassis kits, Pre-assembled kits, High-end ARTRs (Almost Ready To Run), and RTRs (Ready To Run). Redcat has jumped into the ring with a newly designed RTR, the RDS. Not be be confused with the RDX from another company.

I was surprised to see it comes with a carbon deck right out of the box. From the images I had seen awhile back, it appeared to have a Flex deck design, but when I actually got my hands on it, I was surprised to find it to be really ridged. Not a bad thing, but definitely not what I was expecting.

The RDS has a direct drive steering system which is quickly becoming popular. Of course Redcat added their spin to it, and it appears to have a lot of adjustment. For a RTR, the steering was just about on par with some of the other RTR offerings. The electronics seemed to be what is to be expected, but the gyro Red Cat spec’d out seems to be on the nicer side, with Endpoint Adjustment, and ACVS mode or Standard. Not bad I must say.

How does it drive? It’s not terrible, but it’s not going to be winning any championships out of the box either. Then again, what do you expect from a RTR. We slapped on a set of TSG-007 tires, did a small amount of steering and gyro adjusting, and went to town. We all had a blast throwing down some laps. As with any RC, we had a great time driving it.

Overall, it’s about what was expected from a Redcat RTR Drift Chassis. How does it stack up against the other RTR offerings? I would say it’s about par for the course out of the box. However, the future has yet to be seen. The lack of upgrade path would appear to be the biggest hurdle for the RDS. That’s the biggest obstacle facing any chassis new to the scene.