INVADER - Nitro Slash drag car

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Alright, thanks to WF, my interest in adding some unique aerodynamics is rekindled, so I whipped up some rear window vents and a mount on the spoiler for the exit on my lunch break. I'll print these out and mount them when I get home, and run the corrugated 7mm tubing.

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This should allow any air pressure that builds inside the body (which we all know does happen to a fairly extreme level) to exit and vent out the rear. Is this cheating? LOL
 
I had to vent the body on my 100+ MPH Rustler or it started acting like a parachute after 75MPH lol

Yup, that's definitely a common problem, I had my car lift off the ground when running the shoebox 55 Chevy, which is one of the reasons I switched to the Vette with the cutout rear. This one is cut out a decent amount, but even so, the roof bubbles on these cars trap a lot of air pressure. Plus it'll look cool :D
 
Alright, this one is done :) It'll be a couple weeks before I do another pull, I still gotta pour the new front form. This one is rough but it'll do for now. It looks ok in the right light, lol.

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For size comparison - here is it side by side with the Proline Vette -

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Significantly smaller than the Vette. Haven't weighed them, but I'd guess the weights aren't far apart.

Only thing I'm going to do is re-do the spoiler - that one I hand built from a scrap piece, because I ran out of full sheets to vacuum form that part. It's a bit janky, and heavy, plus because it's missing the edges, it bends more easily. Should be able to do the spoiler tonight. Also I changed my mind about the rivets, just too much work and probably too much extra weight as well. Kinda like it better without them too.
 
Going to properly form the rear wing tonight (that wing I tried to hand form from scraps). At the same time I'm thinking of some bracing. I think I'd mentioned some internal bracing that I'd printed out, but on second thought I don't think that's a great idea, and came up with this:

1mm CF rods with terminal rings on the ends. One end can mount to the wheely bar, and the other end can slip over an extended bolt on the spoiler mount using a thumbscrew so that it can be slipped on and off when removing the body. This will 100% ensure the spoiler is properly applying downforce to the chassis, and not flexing the body (which is something my Vette was doing too). There will be a rod on both sides.

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Couple o' pics and a vid of this thing out in the wild :) It looked much better outdoors than in. That being said, I'm just about finished the new front form's mold, and should start pouring it this week. I started refining the rear form, just some light sanding of some minor imperfections. There's some divets that I think I need to fill, but not really sure of the best way. I'm thinking using some wood putty, then coat/soak that with a very thin "finish" epoxy, then sand a little. I just don't want to create waviness by trying to sand down some of these and would rather fill, then sand. I could try filling with the slow cure epoxy, but I really worry about that just oozing around, unless I have the form propped so that the fill area is 100% flat. There isn't that much to fix though on that half.

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So how did the body perform? I had one full pass with it, that I would call "conservative", not because of the body, but because the new engine was putting down a lot more power than the road could hold. From the videos, the body looks good and stable, didn't see any flapping/wobbling. Thanks to the snug body brace in the front that's on my chassis, the nose never dug into the pavement either.

Speaking of the engine/chassis. This was the first I've run all the new stuff. Earlier in the morning I tuned the car and was doing some launch testing without the body on. The car was launching very hard with even just a small amount of throttle applied - slamming the wheelie bar down and the wheels off the ground. I tried the trans brake a few times. It blew the tires off and nearly flipped - definitely couldn't use that on this road/day. I really didn't have time to program a new tune in the radio, so I just decided to use my KE25 tune, and some throttle control. This was the result:



That slight hesitation at the start is me on the trigger, not the car, little bit of twitch when the light went green, then giving it some gas, which gets the front wheels up and it bounces hard on the wheelie bar and then back down. I never squeezed more than half throttle on this run! In fact, I eased off once it was in second gear and I saw that I had the race won (which in hindsight was a little risky because my teammate's car has a lot of top end actually). And I really have to give it to my teammate Dino for just balls-out-sending his car and trying to win. His car btw, if anyone is curious, is a lightly modded nitro Slash running a TRX 3.3 and 24/66 gears.
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This is an older pic of it, he's removed the EZ start in favor of a pull start now.

It's a super clean, precise build, and what has shocked ALL of us, is that the thing is pretty darn fast! He's changed his slicks out for these Dotek tires - https://jconcepts.net/dotek-drag-ra...BgFxEqb2IxKxcfRj-MnBK_g8AoedaPjSwgsBiRWwTz8Vw and he's been hooking up very well and extremely consistently running mid 2s hits since he got rid of that EZ start. He really had low expectations for the car, figured he'd be at the bottom of the list, but somehow he's hung on to the #2 spot. I just love his build.
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Now he's building another car, but this time he's using one of my DR Viper chassis and a Proline Vette body (going to be Batmobile themed!). He's putting in a Novarossi Legends .28-8 in that one - and that thing will surely contend for the top spot on the list.

I know I've posted these pics in another thread, but I gotta also give a shoutout to one of my other teammates, Big Moe, who has already built a DR chassis based car, and it is equally beautiful.
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This one is running a Novarossi .21 and it's a super clean, precise build as well. He had some bad luck with it though - he crashed it during warmups, which cracked the rear bulkhead (which I've since decided I'm no longer going to print those, just modify the stock ones), and also broke his transmission case where it mounts to the engine mount. The broken trans case wound up causing him to eat two spur gears during racing. He was pretty disappointed, but still had a great time.

Another teammate, Mark, already purchased a chassis and is currently building it, and another, Jose, plans on buying one shortly. After posting our pics/vids on some FB No Prep groups, there are a ton of people interested in building nitro SE cars and buying these chassis. I've got four blanks to put together this month, then I'll put them on eBay.
 
Invader II does look much better out in the natural light. Nice work and congrats on your chassis getting a little interest. Looks like you've got a good group to hang out with. :thumbs-up:
 
Never been much of a drag racer, 1:1 or scale. I was the guy that had front tires almost as wide as the rears on my 70 Chevelle because I liked playing on the twisties even though it was a 13 second car with "freeway flyer" 2.73 gears.

That said even though it's not my thing I appreciate the work that goes into setting up a car to be competitive. People often don't understand that there is just as much, if not more time put into suspension/chassis building and tuning than most any motorsport.

Also, the cars just look sweet. I might have a soft spot for those Camaros because of my age.
 
I love the gasp at the end of that video when the Camaro ate it :hehe:

That was my wife, and she made me edit the rest of what she said :D "Oh my god, oh no!!". Apparently she thought it was my car that wrecked, she said. She said :D

Now the other video which is taken by the other drivers wife you hear her POV and comments which was "Dino, I swear!") - because it was like his third or fourth wreck that day.
 
That was my wife, and she made me edit the rest of what she said :D "Oh my god, oh no!!". Apparently she thought it was my car that wrecked, she said. She said :D

Now the other video which is taken by the other drivers wife you hear her POV and comments which was "Dino, I swear!") - because it was like his third or fourth wreck that day.
lol. too funny!
 
I got busy on the new front form...

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Many more sections than previously before - I wanted to be able to easily demold. Coated it heavily with Flex Seal clear (no pic). Poured that with zero wood chunk filler - I really didn't want to deal with repairing cracks like I've had to with the rear half. Five four pound cans of water did the trick.
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In hindsight, I really should smooth the tops of these pours with a board!

I let this sit for four days. Demolding was super easy, very little need for the heat gun, and only minimal damage. There were a few minor air bubble/void areas to fix, and one corner in the front broke and I had to glue it back on with JB Weld.

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It's still too wet/soft to sand, but I did get the repairs started on the voids and seams.

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This thing may take another week to fully cure. Meanwhile I've been refining and fixing the rear half. I used that thick, 30 minute slo-cure epoxy for that, and it had quite a few uneven areas to block sand - though the strength of it is off the chart. For the front I'm probably going to use a finish epoxy that is thinner and dries slowly and more evenly. That stuff also tends to soak more into the putty to create a layer of total indestructibility. This form should require only minimal sanding as well.

Also I will place some small (1/16 inch) holes in the areas of detail that might be troublesome so that air will suck out and pull it tighter. I won't do that until it's full cured and coated. The previous pull was decent in that regard, aside from the hood scoop, but not quite perfect.

After I saw the pics of the newly released BittyDesign version, I was gonna just throw in the towel and take the easy way out, but I really don't dig how that one does the details using stickers, and I don't like the liberties taken with the car's lines and overall shape. I mean, don't get me wrong, had I not started this nightmare project I would have bought that and not even given a thought to start this, but now that I'm so close I gotta close the deal :D
 
I got busy on the new front form...

View attachment 154786


Many more sections than previously before - I wanted to be able to easily demold. Coated it heavily with Flex Seal clear (no pic). Poured that with zero wood chunk filler - I really didn't want to deal with repairing cracks like I've had to with the rear half. Five four pound cans of water did the trick.
View attachment 154787

In hindsight, I really should smooth the tops of these pours with a board!

I let this sit for four days. Demolding was super easy, very little need for the heat gun, and only minimal damage. There were a few minor air bubble/void areas to fix, and one corner in the front broke and I had to glue it back on with JB Weld.

View attachment 154788

It's still too wet/soft to sand, but I did get the repairs started on the voids and seams.

View attachment 154789

This thing may take another week to fully cure. Meanwhile I've been refining and fixing the rear half. I used that thick, 30 minute slo-cure epoxy for that, and it had quite a few uneven areas to block sand - though the strength of it is off the chart. For the front I'm probably going to use a finish epoxy that is thinner and dries slowly and more evenly. That stuff also tends to soak more into the putty to create a layer of total indestructibility. This form should require only minimal sanding as well.

Also I will place some small (1/16 inch) holes in the areas of detail that might be troublesome so that air will suck out and pull it tighter. I won't do that until it's full cured and coated. The previous pull was decent in that regard, aside from the hood scoop, but not quite perfect.

After I saw the pics of the newly released BittyDesign version, I was gonna just throw in the towel and take the easy way out, but I really don't dig how that one does the details using stickers, and I don't like the liberties taken with the car's lines and overall shape. I mean, don't get me wrong, had I not started this nightmare project I would have bought that and not even given a thought to start this, but now that I'm so close I gotta close the deal :D

Looking good.

Do you vibrate the mold when you pour the filler in? My buddy uses a vibrating sander with microfiber on it to vibrate the mold, he says it helps clear out bubbles and voids. I don't know much about it but he's been making stuff with molds for a long time so I don't tend to doubt him.
 
Looking good.

Do you vibrate the mold when you pour the filler in? My buddy uses a vibrating sander with microfiber on it to vibrate the mold, he says it helps clear out bubbles and voids. I don't know much about it but he's been making stuff with molds for a long time so I don't tend to doubt him.
That is a helluva idear 👍
 
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