Scott and Harry finally got me to bite the bullet on building one of these after all their postings. I have the intention of sending it in to the Summer Slam, but because of the way I built it I thought posting it here may benefit more people.
Since I don't have an oval, I thought I would probably get more enjoyment out of the car if it could turn reasonably well in both directions. So I decided to replicate a 1/24 chassis we race a lot called the "Econo chassis" in our parts. It is essentially a really simple "rattle" chassis design, where the center section of the chassis slides independently of the pans. This has a few different positive effects on handling, but mainly I went after this design as a compromise because most of the weight of the chassis can offset itself around .080" inches in a turn. In an oval this "should" help.
A small note if you want to try and employ this type of chassis design, it is only going to effective where the tires are smaller than the fender arches so they can telescope in and out. Also, if you have rules in your club that your tires must remain in the fenders at all times this isn't going to work the best!
It is probably too heavy to be a front runner on the oval, but is should do well on a road course as well.
Here is a list of the chassis parts I used:
I cannot remember the dimension of the rectangle tubing for the guide tongue, I will update. But I drilled it 9/64 for a nice tight fit on the Sloting plus guide.
Professor motor motor bracket. I shaved it down a lot up top to remove weight. I used this because I want to shim the crown internally which is easier to setup than using the tube style mountings.
.063" front pan
.055" Piano wire main rails
1/8" od Tubing front axle
3/32 square tube on top of the guide tongue for axle support
.055" "u" shaped wire on the back of the axle.
.032 side pans
3/32 square tube "slides" mounted on the center pan
.062" piano "guide" wires, connected to the side pans with another short piece of .062" wire
It is really important with this type of chassis design that both of the "slides" are perfectly parallel, or else you will end up with some binding. I took my time and this one is nice and smooth!


Since I don't have an oval, I thought I would probably get more enjoyment out of the car if it could turn reasonably well in both directions. So I decided to replicate a 1/24 chassis we race a lot called the "Econo chassis" in our parts. It is essentially a really simple "rattle" chassis design, where the center section of the chassis slides independently of the pans. This has a few different positive effects on handling, but mainly I went after this design as a compromise because most of the weight of the chassis can offset itself around .080" inches in a turn. In an oval this "should" help.
A small note if you want to try and employ this type of chassis design, it is only going to effective where the tires are smaller than the fender arches so they can telescope in and out. Also, if you have rules in your club that your tires must remain in the fenders at all times this isn't going to work the best!
It is probably too heavy to be a front runner on the oval, but is should do well on a road course as well.
Here is a list of the chassis parts I used:
I cannot remember the dimension of the rectangle tubing for the guide tongue, I will update. But I drilled it 9/64 for a nice tight fit on the Sloting plus guide.
Professor motor motor bracket. I shaved it down a lot up top to remove weight. I used this because I want to shim the crown internally which is easier to setup than using the tube style mountings.
.063" front pan
.055" Piano wire main rails
1/8" od Tubing front axle
3/32 square tube on top of the guide tongue for axle support
.055" "u" shaped wire on the back of the axle.
.032 side pans
3/32 square tube "slides" mounted on the center pan
.062" piano "guide" wires, connected to the side pans with another short piece of .062" wire
It is really important with this type of chassis design that both of the "slides" are perfectly parallel, or else you will end up with some binding. I took my time and this one is nice and smooth!
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