Hissed Off - Nitro SE Drag Car

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johnnydmd

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I had so many spare parts laying about after upgrading most every part in Invader that my mind started thinking up a new project. I also wanted to build a prototype of my full custom nitro drag chassis. Invader used the top plate, but the bottom was a modified XTreme Racing chassis to accept using a Jato drivetrain. The new chassis would be Jato-Ready, and be a little lighter as I decided to go with 2mm thick CF instead of 3mm that XTreme uses. I decided this for several reasons: 1) To save a little weight. 2) With the CF top plate and posts, there is no flex of any kind in the front, and the rear will use a brace. 3) It takes less time to cut, so I can have it cut very slow and precisely, limiting the chance of ruining what are now becoming expensive stock materials.

"Hissed Off" will use the 67 Mustang body from Proline. I contemplated using a modern Mustang body(Bitty Design makes a great one, and there's a new promod one coming from Drive RC, as well as the Mach 22 promod body), but in the end I went with the classic, and it's such a great rendition of it.
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I had a number of the Proline hood scoops laying about, so I decided to use one for this. The car will be painted metallic red (same color I painted Angler Management), and I whipped up a logo a little while back when coming up with the idea for the car.
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I gathered up all my parts, and got ordering the parts I was missing (it wasn't much really, maybe 80 bucks worth, other than the receiver and receiver pack). I had already bought a set of beadlock rear wheels that are running belted Reactions that I kept as an "alternative" to my banded Hoosiers. (the banded Hoosiers balloon less, if anyone wonders).
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I just love this stage - parts all laid out!

This car will be using a small block (the old Invader drive train). As such, it'll be a little less "heavy duty" than Invader. The idea here is to make a car that is lighter and more suited to a small block. I will be designing and cutting my own custom wheelie bar as well. I have exactly the number of CF sheets I need to do this, so I was very, very conservative on the cut speeds. Both chassis plates are done in two pieces due to the limited size of the 3018 CNC router. So four plates are cut - and the average time is 3.5 hours each. The wheelie bar will take even longer, as it's got a lot of cuts.

I set up my router with my new little blower machine to blow the dust off the router and out into my yard. Maybe the graphite dust will make my grass grow better, lol.
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This setup worked really well as you can see the plate is super clean and free of dust. I got it running, went back in the house to do other stuff. Once all the holes were in, I put some screws in to hold pieces that would get cut free later in the process, and let it do it's thing for a couple of hours.

In the end, the plates came out perfect! (this is the upper front piece with the connecting bracket.
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I got to bolting stuff up after I cut the front lower plate, just to see how it all fit. The holes for the bulkheads were slightly off on the lower and upper plates, which I need to fix in my design. I was able to salvage both with a little hit from the Dremel. (phew). I assembled the front half of the car:
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Suspension and steering all fit and worked perfectly!

Next I will cut the rear sections (and hopefully no major tweaks necessary). Should have it rolling by next week some time.
 
Off to a great start. Like the name you chose in combination with the body, and love your router setup.
 
Awesome set up. Given the choice between a 3D printer or CNC mill. I would go for the mill all day long. Even a manual mill is really useful for RC.
 
All chassis plates cut. I've had to "massage" a few holes on each piece, but all were salvageable, and the g-code has been fixed so the next one should be spot on.

Car is coming together quick!

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Tank doesn't quite fit, that's one of the places I need to "massage" with a dremel - but it's minor to fix. Chassis is a little on the "flexy" side at 2mm, but not as bad as I would have thought. I plan on putting a brace link from the rear shock tower to the upper plate that will minimize it, as the only point that it really flexes is the rear part.

I designed a custom wheelie bar, which I will cut later this week - rain is coming for the next few days, so no cutting until after that.
 
I got the chassis in "roller" state, and the body mounted.

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This car is LIGHT. I'll weigh it after it's all together, but it's definitely significantly lighter than Invader is, but that was the intention with the small block car from the start.
 
You are making quick work of it, and it's looking hella good. :thumbs-up:

Thanks! That huge pile of parts from before is now just a small pile :D

I've had to tweak a few things with each of the four main pieces, but it's nothing major. I'm going to cut a few of these chassis and assemble them for sale. I've also incorporated my own wheelie bar mount in the wheelie bar design. There is a 3d printed block that the mount plates bolt into, and that whole thing bolts onto the chassis.

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Probably going to sell these wheelie bars too.
 
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Idiot me, I loaded up the wrong g-code, and cut out a pair that was a previous revision! Have to cut the brackets tonight, luckily I have a piece of CF that was left over from one of the other plates that'll fit the brackets. I probably have to tweak two of the holes in the bars adjustment area slightly, but it should be salvageable.
 
I know about that G-Code my brotha, OG that is. Lulz
 
Spent the weekend working on the car, as the weather was sketch. It's done, other than I need a throttle linkage.

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I kinda mucked up the paint on the front spoiler - I followed the seam that appears to be the mold line, I should have painted all the way to the wheel well. Ah well. LOL. I do love how it came out though, and the Proline 67 Mustang is a beautifully done body.

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The chassis is very light. 5lbs WITH body! It's decently stiff too - in fact, I think it's just as stiff as Invader's much heavier constructed one. Pretty strongly considering cutting another one of these for Invader. At the very least these new wheelie bars, which are like 1/4 the weight of the STRC setup, and would get rid of some of the useless weight behind the axle.

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The underneath. You can see at the front bulkhead a couple of the "fixes", as well as the screws towards the rear near my forefinger and thumb. Otherwise I think it worked out well. Next chassis will be spot on. I do have to print out the GNSS holder/front body brace, which will be different for this car since the body shape is different. Thinking I need to make something more adjustable.

I've been debating updating my CNC to the larger frame, so that I could cut the plates whole instead of splicing them, but in hindsight I think the two piece system adds a good deal of stiffness, so I'm going to keep them as is.

I'm waiting on another batch of CF plates. I'll then cut what I hope is the final proof of concept, and I'll likely swap Invader to this chassis.

The "endgame" is that I'm going to start producing these and selling them. As far as I know, they are the only SE nitro drag chassis around currently (I think DR Concepts did have one a while back). I'm going to sell the chassis kits for around 250 - I won't be taking orders, I'm going to build a batch, and put them up on eBay when they are ready. I will also sell my wheelie bar kits as well, and I'll have ones that have an adaptor for the stock Slash chassis (it's really just the mount holes are wider).
 
Looks great! can't wait to see it run

Me too, lol. It's either going to be a rocket, or it's going to be really hard to get to hook up without adding a little weight.
 
Couple of outside shots of the finished car, plus a comparison of the OG "concept" chassis vs the first prototype.

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Can't wait to cut the "final" version of the chassis for Invader. The OG chassis will go into a display case.
 
This is just straight up awesome.

Please make a video of the shoot. I am very interested to see it blossom. I have some passing experience with shoot stopping cars from high speed and am curious about that.
In full scale cars you always pull the shoot before you start the breaking phase. The shoot should drop out and the car drives away from the shoot. If you start to break and then pull the shoot, the shoot can bounce and blow sideways. When it blossoms it jerks the car sideways. You don’t want that.
 
This is just straight up awesome.

Please make a video of the shoot. I am very interested to see it blossom. I have some passing experience with shoot stopping cars from high speed and am curious about that.
In full scale cars you always pull the shoot before you start the breaking phase. The shoot should drop out and the car drives away from the shoot. If you start to break and then pull the shoot, the shoot can bounce and blow sideways. When it blossoms it jerks the car sideways. You don’t want that.

Here's videos of the chute - I was past the trap when pulling it, probably braking at the same time, not sure.


 
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