Hissed Off - Nitro SE Drag Car

[Iowa crawler]

That looks so cool

 

[Iowa crawler]

I found this video. It looks like it is slowing the car down. But with electric the wheels do a lot. I imagine I car with a break is different.

 

[Racer 1966]

Awesome to see drag racing picking up in popularity. Doubly cool to see you build cars with nitro power!
Just personal opinion but I would ditch those fancy canister air filters and go with open 2 stage element filters.

 

[johnnydmd]

Designed some shock towers. Considering 3d printing the bulkheads as well for the chassis' I sell.

 

[Doom!]

Designed some shock towers. Considering 3d printing the bulkheads as well for the chassis' I sell.

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The one on the left looks like a sci-fi teddy bear!

 

[johnnydmd]

Car got it's initial runs. Had some concerns when warming up, the car was spinning badly, like a top, and at one point it did a corkscrew cartwheel (nothing got hurt thank god).

I made six or seven passes, and the car actually ran straight and true. I recorded a couple of 2.8s runs. A couple didn't get recorded because it was a bit windy and the little shrouds moved that block light from the sensors (Note - need to either screw or tape them in place). The run below might have been a bit faster than 2.8, not sure which one this was. All the ones recorded were 2.8 though. I didn't do any fine tuning of anything - this was just fire it up and go. I really just wanted to make sure it would.

 

[johnnydmd]

I replaced the shocks with the same kind that I am using on Incinerator, that are big, big bore and much better to adjust - plus only 30 dollars for the full set. They aren't quite as good as the Integy ones I use on Invader, but they'll do just fine.

Got it balanced on the corner weight system, and then took it out for a few test passes. Made some adjustments to the throttle linkage and trans brake, and focused mostly on 66ft passes for seeing how it was launching. I already know what it can do on the top end.

It's definitely imperative to get the LSN right when using a trans brake. If it's too rich, the engine will get loaded up, and bog a little on launch. When you get it leaned right though, man, it's like shooting it out of a slingshot. (I already sense being told I can't use it at some events).

 

[Greywolf74]

I love this thing!

 

[burnskevin58]

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.

I never got into rc drag racing, seems awesome.
May I ask why the heavy duty buggy front ends.
Why wouldn't a lighter T-Shaped front end holding old Associated style pan car C-Hub blocks work? Wouldn't that be much lighter?
The front ends on these drag cars seem overly built for drag racing.
I just figured if lightness equals speed, why hasn't anyone changed the front ends to lighter minimal front ends?

Legit question why don't people use pan car front ends that are much lighter and still strong? Why the heavy-duty buggy style front ends? Wheelie bars work, don't they, so you're not slamming the front end down to hard right?

Or are there rules that require certain things?

 

[FJC_GUY]

I never got into rc drag racing, seems awesome.
May I ask why the heavy duty buggy front ends.
Why wouldn't a lighter T-Shaped front end holding old Associated style pan car C-Hub blocks work? Wouldn't that be much lighter?
The front ends on these drag cars seem overly built for drag racing.
I just figured if lightness equals speed, why hasn't anyone changed the front ends to lighter minimal front ends?

Legit question why don't people use pan car front ends that are much lighter and still strong? Why the heavy-duty buggy style front ends? Wheelie bars work, don't they, so you're not slamming the front end down to hard right?

Or are there rules that require certain things?

If you pull too much weight out of the front all it will do is wheelie.

There is a balance to weight and suspension setups for drag cars, both scale and 1:1 that becomes more important the faster you get.

At the same time coming down from a wheelie can be pretty harsh so you need something to absorb that impact.

 

[johnnydmd]

Yeah, the front ends are required by rule to have shocks, etc, and they do run much smoother than pan car style fronts.

Lighter is not necessarily faster. My fastest car is also my heaviest.

 

[FJC_GUY]

Yeah, the front ends are required by rule to have shocks, etc, and they do run much smoother than pan car style fronts.

Lighter is not necessarily faster. My fastest car is also my heaviest.

Yep, just like real cars it doesn't matter how much power you have if you can't put it to the ground.

 

[Jaydiaz1993]

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.

Blows my minds at how good you are at building the chassis and setting up the car. Great job!

 

[johnnydmd]

About a week ago I saw someone selling a brand new Ofna Viper body, which was something I'd searched for last year when considering going to a Viper for Invader. The wheel base was right, and though the body isn't perfectly scaled I figured it would still be cool to get. The ones I'd found previously were very expensive, this one was a decent price. I also figured looking at it, that the right trimming of the bottom would make the thing look way more accurate/scale.

The body is a little wide, but I do have some hub extenders to move the wheels out and fill the gaps a bit better to keep the wind out. I used it Sunday, and it worked quite well.