AscotConversion wrote:I don't understand the belt hate. This truck will never put down the horsepower a sedan on foam tires can, and there is no top level shaft drive sedan today.
I think the jury should stay out until it hits the track. I can never understand why there is a rush to judgement unless there are obvious faults.
I don't understand belt hate either. It was proven technology back in the late 80's with the Optima Mids (and original Optima conversions), the biggest advantage was probably decreased maintenance, as the cars didn't need a chassis tighten every half-dozen runs that the chain-drives needed. They ran quieter and smoother, and I would imagine a properly-tensioned belt would be just as fault-tolerant as a chain or shaft.
A shaft seems like a good idea but when you compare the weight of the components required for a shaft-drive--the shaft itself, 2 outdrives of some sort probably easily outweigh a belt running through already-present diffs.
For me, this new AE car's biggest issue isn't the belt....it's that it just
screams "over-engineered". If the plethora of adjustment-points translate into better track performance, AE'll be laughin'. If all those adjustments just make it more confusing to dial in the car, or contribute more to complexity than performance, it'll be like the original Tamiya Avante. Only time will tell.