BigBuckORamma

Using the B74.1 3.5mm turnbuckle ball ends.

Front Ball Stud mount is narrower, with three holes, instead of 2. I agree with others that is also looks much lower. Making an observation, i would guess its 3mm lower than the current B6.4. Because you can see the center ball stud hole has had its threads chased 2mm lower. That looks like a 4mm ball stud with a 1mm shim. I doubt they ran a 6mm stud flat. So it would make sense to run an 8mm ballstud with a 3mm shim to bring the geometry back to the 6.4 front end for comparison reasons. I doubt this specific car has been driven in anger, but for measuring geometry differences, it would be fine.

Front Top Plate also looks narrower, but the front shock tower looks to be the same gullwing tower, geometry wise, that we have had since the B6.3, minus the two front shock tower cap mounting holes. The new front shock cap appears to not have any hardware holding it in place. It looks like it clips through the middle of the front shock tower, and i would imagine latches into a groove or notch machined into the back of the shock tower. Making removal tool-less for faster shock position changes. Something tells me, some people, will still run the older style with the mounting hardware.

It would also seem, as others noted, that the front swaybar mounts under the ballstud mount and the chassis, rather than between the ballstud mount and top plate.

Given the way the two screws on the front bumper are placed, it makes me wonder if the front ballstud mount has been divorced from the steering block plate? Making it easier to slide out the ball stud mount to change the roll bar, without disassembling the top plate. This would also make changing the steering block angle easier. As it could be a single modular piece of plastic, one that could even be quickly 3D Printed, to change your bellcrank angle to better suit track conditions. As we have seen with the change to the 6.4T front ballstud mount and top plate.

Front bulkhead is narrower, as obviously has a new front pumper to go with it.

Obviously with the narrower top plate and bulkhead, the front wing is also narrower in its center section.

There is also a body on this car. Doesnt look like the B6.4 body shape, but it is being intentionally blurred out.

And the final, and perhaps most important thing i noticed...there are mold seams and ejection pin marks on this plastic. This isnt a 3D Printed Prototype. These are finished shot parts. You can even see the air bubble in the left front arm from the injection mold. Injection molds represent hundreds of thousands of dollars of tooling investment. You dont do that for the sake of a prototype, or some fancy clear model. If this isnt a production ready kit...i would be shocked. I would even go as far as to say the clear plastic is a final shot before production approval, so they can see if there are any air bubble issues, or material deformation problems with the flow of the plastic through the mold, so there is nothing hidden in the process that can make it to the first production run.

I had stated elsewhere, that i heard a rumor AE was doing some testing a couple weeks ago at several tracks around the country, and that would be the perfect amount of time for any production change orders, around 90 days, seeing this, i am confident that is the case.

That also means me thinking they were going to stick with the B6.4 style chassis with some improvements on a more forward battery placement, and electronics, was wrong. A good guess, but wrong.

Piles

Team Associated video series of the B7 1 of 7
https://youtu.be/DX5QIJ2giEA?si=dK2YlDWno74xVpM6

BigBuckORamma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX5QIJ2giEA


EDIT: Haha! Jinx Mr. Piles.

Piles

I posted before I watched it. Nothing to get excited about yet. 😠

BigBuckORamma

Not yet, but at least we can get a great look at the car from the thumbnail.



Body looks interesting. And after seeing the car from this angle...the front shock tower is totally new. Not a carry over from the B6.3. The stance of this car looks almost Schumacher like.

Pistol123

Front pivot looks the same width as the b6.4, they look like they are inline with the shock tower screws same as on the b6.4.
The front arb appears to go from the back to the front, so maybe mounted to the chassis.

Piles

Looks like we’ll be able to move the battery further forward. It looks a fair bit wider further towards the front. Good looking shell, a bit softer curves than the 6.4.

mes

I'm loving this new body! I assume it's the Associated version of a Proline body I spotted on Facebook on Tater Sontag's and Aaron Kothman's cars before the pictures were taken down. Also, it's the first AE kit body I really like since the B4 era. No need for aftermarket stuff! 🥰

AxiomJacob

iTrader: (27)

Agreed! Finally a decent looking kit body

Cinnabun

iTrader: (39)

agreed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if associated doesn’t include a body. That’s their trend with the t6.4/sc6.4. I hope that’s not the case, but again wouldn’t be surprised

Silverbullet555

iTrader: (16)

Considering that drivers are releasing videos of themselves driving the 7 it may be closer to production than I thought. I figured we were 3-4 months from supply chain distribution. Maybe not.

Cinnabun

iTrader: (39)

do you have a link to these videos?

trackdesigner71

iTrader: (6)

Dustin Evans posted video on his Facebook page

Kraig

iTrader: (81)

And on Instagram.

Silverbullet555

iTrader: (16)

Facebook
Dustin Evans
1up posted somebodies. Maybe Dustin's
Also Davey Batta posted his.