My interpretation of the IFMAR 91 car

[jbmeyer13]

Are you guys planning on making this available like the nix 91 was?

While it's easy to load the printed parts to Shapeways, no shock towers or chassis kits will be made. This was strictly our own project. I've learned from chassis in the past that everyone complains about how expensive it is, it's a ton of effort, and in the end is a lot of work to make it happen where there's no money to be made from them. I have no interest in going through that again.

I poured lots of time and money into the chassis/tower development. Just finding someone who could lay up a 30 degree panel with the correct harmess weave was no small task. Then there was cost to have CNC programmed, a jig made to ensure chassis cut consistently (and correctly) at the kick point and the cost of all the tweaks. Everytime the CAD model is adjusted it cost money to reprogram and this all added up. Making small batches is cost prohibitive.

[mikea96]

What about a template for an aluminum chassis and carbon topdeck?

[XLR8]

I really want one of these cars (or a near copy).

[mikea96]

Me too!

[fredswain]

You guys can still buy the NIX91 parts on Shapeways and then figure out your own chassis from pictures. We've spent years trying to figure out the entire car. I don't intend to just give away all of the work.

[mikea96]

I know i can buy the parts from shapeways i was just looking for a chassis template to cut my own but thats fine thanks!

[XLR8]

That's what I was thinking of doing. I agree; I believe there are enough detailed photos online to reproduce the chassis plates. My main chassis will almost certainly be aluminum and could incorporate the motor brace in the back.
I doubt that it would be as close to the original car as yours or Niki's but I think it will be close enough for a backyard runner. I won't allow the pursuit of perfection stand in the way of progress.
It will take time but when I have the chassis parts dimensioned, I will post it in a separate thread for comment.
I noticed that Niki has posted on Shapeways a lot of new NIX91 related parts. I'll need to sort through all the variations so I will order the best ones for my purpose.
Anyway, thanks for posting your awesome car; it certainly has rekindled my interest in building one myself.

[mk-Zero]

You guys can still buy the NIX91 parts on Shapeways and then figure out your own chassis from pictures. We've spent years trying to figure out the entire car. I don't intend to just give away all of the work.

Hey Fred, can you upload all your files for this car to Thingiverse so i can make my own?

[fredswain]

The nice thing about Niki's car is that it's close. He's spent a lot of time making alternative parts that are more durable and that give tuning options. I'm not going to do any of that as the point for us was not a strong runner but rather a nice display piece. I doubt that any of Niki's parts are interchangeable with our car, or very few if any. There's already been inquiries about the durability of printed parts in use on this car. They are not as strong and I will not be addressing that.

While in a perfect world I'd give out dimensions and a few people would make their own for their own personal use and that would be the end of it. In reality, someone will be an opportunist who will take that free info to personally profit from it. Trust me, it WILL happen. Everyone is an opportunist. Steve and Curtis Husting and Cliff Lett have helped us answer some questions and provided additional photos for us but they were not going to just give us the design for this very reason. We honestly don't know yet how accurate the car is and it's certainly off somewhere but it should be really close.

If you want a really nice shelf display car, we may help you get one but we'd provide all the parts directly, including the chassis, but it would probably be prohibitively expensive for most. If you want a close enough runner, use the NIX parts and make a chassis. He's addressed the issues of a runner that we won't and they are available right now.

[mikea96]

Im looking to build a replica not a runner. I would buy a chassis kit from Jake but he is apparently not making them anymore so if i could have a chassis template i could do my own.

[fredswain]

Get the Nix parts and then mockup a chassis and top plate out of cardboard. Then use it as a template. Figuring out the front screw hole locations on the bend is easy as the top deck forces them to be in one location. There is a nice bottom view of the real car that you can print and scale to be really close.

[mikea96]

Ok thanks

[RC10th]

With all the custom stuff and engineering that has gone into these "exotic" cars I'm really surprised nobody has made a set of machined delrin arms and basic parts for runners.

I wouldn't think it would have been too hard as Dynotech would machine custom parts, and Jwscab has made some awesome looking arms before.

[scr8p]

With all the custom stuff and engineering that has gone into these "exotic" cars I'm really surprised nobody has made a set of machined delrin arms and basic parts for runners.

I wouldn't think it would have been too hard as Dynotech would machine custom parts, and Jwscab has made some awesome looking arms before.

I think the biggest problem with that is if you do one part, you have to do them all. Strengthen one spot, now it weakens another. The '89 would be a little easier to have parts machined since you wouldn't have to worry about the bellcrank, castor blocks and steering knuckles.

I don't know if you've seen this one, but Jake built a modernized NIX91 a few years ago.

https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=36995

[Phin]

A vid about 3d printing injection molding tools popped up on my Youtube suggestions feed awhile back and I've been curious if it could be a viable solution for guys doing projects like theses. Would not having to pay the thousands of dollars to get traditional tools made bring the costs of getting a short run of injection molded parts to the point where there'd actually be a practical return on the investment?