Drilling holes in your car?!

[Monster Slash]

I just read a site on rc performance and saw people who would drill holes in the chassis and call them "mods". This sounds pretty stupid drilling holes in your rc car. But does it actually save weight or is it a wives tale.

 

[RetroKevin]

I can't speak from experience, but oh man does that sound like a bad idea. Once you've drilled enough holes to make a difference I'd think the integrity would be compromised.

I think there's better ways to shave off weight. Yes it cost money, but if you break your chassis you'll be spending money regardless. Plus the time to put it in.

Carbon fiber would be a much better solution IMO

 

[Greywolf74]

Only hard core racers do that kind of thing. You could get away with it on something like a buggy but again unless you're a hard core racer looking to save a few extra ounces you can't shave from anywhere else it wouldnt be worth the time and effort of drilling a bunch of holes in your chassis.

 

[tntpoof]

I've had chassis that were drilled and drilled a few of my own...it does take off some weight but only a few grams but on a really technical track that can put you on the podium.if your planning on drilling 1 you better know were your stress places are or you will be breaking chassis.

 

[Greywolf74]

Some racers will also shave their chassis as in not drill holes all teh way through but using a router and a metal bit will shave down areas of the chassis to remove excess metal.

 

[Iowa crawler]

When I was like five or six years old the guys across the street had a big slot car race track. Some one told me to lighten the chassis. So I drilled holes in it to reduce weight. Took the windshield out of the body and sanded it so it was super thin. I spent weeks working on it. Everyone was very impressed and I could tell it was faster. Until the first turn and it flew off the track and broke the front wheels off.

 

[Chubaka]

I know jang from ultimate rc showed how to do it around 2006 or so. I havent hrard anything about it since the brushed motor nimh days.

You can find his site on the time machine, and there should be videos of his around.

 

[WickedFog]

I've had chassis that were drilled and drilled a few of my own...it does take off some weight but only a few grams but on a really technical track that can put you on the podium.if your planning on drilling 1 you better know were your stress places are or you will be breaking chassis.

I was going to say the exact same thing about the stress points. Some chassis designs you could drill 100 holes in them and not make a difference as long as the chassis is braced properly. Take the Arrma stuff for example. The centers of the honeycomb cells molded into the chassis could be drilled and you probably wouldn't notice too much more chassis flex.

 

[johnnydmd]

Just seems like a really bad idea. Sometimes extra weight isn't a bad thing either.