RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

I am building a modernized RC10 race car and am looking for opinions about chassis selection. I have several a/b/c pan chassis's and also several graphite pieces. I am using the rc carbon works carbon 3mm worlds towers and thought a carbon chassis would look awesome and save some weight. What do you guys think?

Carbon fiber looks cool, but aluminum is the way to go

if your going to race it i would go carbon .. the alum gets realy scrached up in off road unless you use a pice of 3m or Scotchgard hood protector to protect the bottom .. i rember someone selling it for rc back in the day but its the same thing

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Scotchgard_Paint_Protection/Film/

ive got one that i want to race as well and looking forward to it

most people would go with a tub chassis for off-road. graphite is too rigid.

Tub is the way to go...dont worry about scratches, comes with the territory. I just had my runner tub powdercoated a couple months back, it is already starting to show the scratches again. Graphite cars didnt handle as well, its why you didnt see many graphite AE offroad cars with the pros running them.

I'll probably take a couple chassis down and have them type 3 hard annodized and run chassis tape on the bottom to protect it. May even make an offer for a group buy if anyone else wants them done.

scr8p wrote:most people would go with a tub chassis for off-road. graphite is too rigid.

You are right, but here is some interesting food for thought...

With 1:1 cars and trucks you will never hear anyone complain about the chassis being too rigid. Complaints are always quite the opposite. The more rigid the chassis the better, and every new model seems to flaunt an increase in chassis rigidity over the previous model. Less flexing in the chassis means that the suspension can work like it should.

With RC cars and trucks, however, people seem to always want some flex in the chassis. It certainly works, but it is completely illogical. Wanting a less rigid chassis for better handling indicates poorly designed and/or tuned suspension that isn't working as well as it should.

I agree 100%. I used to build real race cars and we were alway looking to stiffin the chassis any way that we could. Notice in the pics of massami's worlds car he used a double deck graphite arrangement. I was thinking about building an uper deck and incorporating an angled bell crank steering system.

ChisaiKuso wrote:

scr8p wrote:most people would go with a tub chassis for off-road. graphite is too rigid.

You are right, but here is some interesting food for thought...

With 1:1 cars and trucks you will never hear anyone complain about the chassis being too rigid. Complaints are always quite the opposite. The more rigid the chassis the better, and every new model seems to flaunt an increase in chassis rigidity over the previous model. Less flexing in the chassis means that the suspension can work like it should.

With RC cars and trucks, however, people seem to always want some flex in the chassis. It certainly works, but it is completely illogical. Wanting a less rigid chassis for better handling indicates poorly designed and/or tuned suspension that isn't working as well as it should.

The shelby cobra had huge tires and the car flexed just enough to keep them on the ground. It can work and has in the past with real cars as well.

There is "what works" and "what works on paper". The key is to figure out which one you want to use. Carbon fiber sheet went the way of the dodo bird, and aluminum is king again- but give it a year or two and who knows, carbon may be back again. History repeats itself.

Graphite / Carbon chassis are way better: lighter, more rigid, cooler looking as a bonus. All the aspects sought after in real race cars. If you find it too rigid then you need to adjust the dampers / springs. The stiffer any chassis the better job the suspension will do.

Just like with a real race car...Sub frame connectors , roll cage etc....Ya stiffen her up and adjust with shocks , springs , sway bars and tires...Just gotta play around with it...Write down your settings [ camber , caster , droop etc ] and change out the chassis...Try the graphite then the aluminum and see which one you like the best...I always went with the graphite chassis...But I raced on road when I raced...Oval and road course...

If you choose graphite then you have some prep work to do...If I remember them well they had sharp edges...We used to sand or round off the edges on the chassis and battery slots because they would cut thru the battery pack causing it to short and start a fire...Yes I have seen that happen...And then we put ca on the edges to seal it because graphite is made of many layers and if you hit something they would start to separate...Just a tip for ya...

Well yesterday I glass beaded one of my alloy chassis's and dropped it and a nose plate off to be powder coated. I guess I'll just have to build one of each and see which one i like better. The other will end up a shelf queen lol

Not every graphite chassis is the same. Some are thin and flex a lot. Others are thicker and have less flex. Others have double decks. It's not the material that really matters. It's the design.