I bent 3 in the last year. I have broken way more arms than plates. I have not broken any front towers and 2 to 3 rear towers. Most all tnis occured at our indoor track. Its packed like concrete.

Yeah, we're indoors as well. Feels like we've broken 100 a-arms over the past year. :-) As for rear towers, it seems that the newer towers are breaking and I'm wondering if I haven't broken one because I'm running a tower from an old batch. I know I hear of a disproportionate number of B4.2 guys breaking them at least....

Hmm...here and I just ordered some new towers (front and rear) as just about the only thing on my car that is still .1 is the towers...but (knock on wood) I haven't broken any yet. And if you've seen me race you'd know that's saying something. :lol: I clearly just don't go fast enough to break anything. :cry:

If your talking about w3, that track is nice to cars. No exposed piped on the corners and the clay is spongy. You guys also dont have bricks supporting the sides of the jumps, so that if you land wide, you hit a pile of bricks and break the arms/chassis. I love the concrete disks that W3 used on the corners. If you hit the fast, you roll over, but its not over damaging and better than and open ended pipe.

There's a motor plate out there that has the vents milled vertically. More support to help anti-bending. Makes sense. I can't remember the brand though. I just run RTR solid black. Haven't bent one since I put it on. Plus, the solid ones keep those little tiny rocks out of your gears better too.

What is it that y'all are doing so wrong that you're bending motor plates?

I can recall some really bad crashes and my Avid is still perfectly straight. Had for several months now.

I would also like to know, I have never bend a motor plate!! How are you doing this??

ah, ok, let me explain. 3/4 to full speed over a triple that is 15-18 feet long and your 5 feet in the air and you land motor first on dirt as hard as concrete. I have seen a lot of videos of indoor and outdoor facilities. Many tracks have these tiny little jumps where you barely get 3 feet off the ground and they have nice plush landings. My my current outdoor layout I can easily get 6-7 feet of air. Also, the bent is not extreme. most probably wont even notice it. take it off the car and find a flat surface and so if you can see any day light under it. The first sign is normally a louder sound gear mesh. Because the force on the motor normally causes the bend, it tweaks between the motor and the spur, so your mesh gets off and causes more noise. When i replaced my slightly tweaked plate my buggy got noticeably quieter. Did my lap times improve with a new motor plate?... no.

Been doing my best to inform those who are thinking of purchasing a Aluminum motor plate to buy the steel versions instead ..:nod:


message to aftermarket company's



prefer strength over fancy machine work

Would be interested in a steel motor plate
with ventilation ports if possible .

which is the steel version? the rtr one is even alum.

Crashing constantly? :lol:

Honestly the more I look at the AE design, which is simply to take the check stamped stock part and remove material from one side, the less I like it and the more prone to bending I realize it is. I haven't seen and Avid motor mount (yet) but I assume they do NOT start with a stamped piece of aluminum but rather CNC from AL Billet from the start. They then make their vent/lightening cuts clean through the part thus not making the part uneven in terms of internal stresses and take it a step further by NOT machining groves all the way down to the motor mating area. The Avid part is slightly heavier and is no doubt just a stronger part.

yeah, the avid is heavier. I weighted is recently. it was like 1-2 grams heavier I think.

Enjoy using many AVID parts . Purchased their motor plate a short time ago .

Had to remove it after just one day of use. It bends way easy and cannot take a hit and remain straight .

When the motor plate gets bent ?
Your ride will become loud & noisy ....:(

Note : same goes for all the other aluminum motor plates, AE JConcept and who ever else ...

I actually wonder if this has been bent since indoor season over the winter. The indoor track I raced at has this jump they call 'the kicker' which is basically a vertical jump and you really have to have the correct speed entering it. It has a flat top too...so if you go too slow you hit the flat top. Too fast and not only to you go high but you're coming straight down on the nose. I recall one of my early attempts at this jump resulted in my car sticking in the clay just past the landing ramp like a lawn dart.

This isn't buggy racing but this is the track and the 'kicker' is the jump right in the middle of the track. This angle doesn't do justice to what it looks like. Quarter pipe on one side, flat top and then straight slanted ramp for landing.

+ YouTube Video

I had a very slight cog from stop to start power. It was minimal and not noticeable on the track. But after replacing a bent motor plate it went away completely. Not sure if something was rubbing on the plate but its all better now. I replaced it with a AE Black $7 plate. Not sure if that is the steel plate that you guys are referring too but it hasnt bent yet.