Making a chassis
 

I'm considering making my own chassis, to start with @1/18th for on road... and maybe 1/10th on road at a later stage.

I have facilities for machining the chassis, but am undecided on the material to use.
Aluminium is a favourite at the moment, cheap and easy to machine but is easily bent in a crash
Fibre glass is also in the running (as used in the 80's) again, cheap and reasonably easy to machine.
Carbon.. yeah, i would love to be able to try this, but its a bit expensive.

Does anyone out there know of a 'sheet' manufacturer of either Fibre glass or Carbon fibre who sells in small quantities suitable for making chassis from?

NEVER use metal for a chassis if it will be electric. Major glitches!
I know some one who was going to try to make his own chassis and would have spent 3 times more than if he would have just bought one and had a lot more headaches. There are so many companies making cars, it's not worth it to make a home made car. I know there are people who like to do stuff like that, but my 2 cents worth.

www.mcmaster.com

I have bought g-10 fiberglass plates from them in the past, good quality stuff. I know that they also have CF plates, however, they are also on the expensive side. Deal is that anything in prototype quantities is going to run you a premium. It's only when you get into production quantities that the price breaks start to get reasonable. Good luck.

Thanks Timmay... That gives me a starting point..

Moshmike, if there isnt a product made out there that suits my need (there isnt), then i will have to make one.

http://www.graphiteelegance.com/
http://www.carbonbydesign.com/
http://www.kcinc.com/

Make the protos in G10 and the final in CF. If you need some one to machine the CF contact Wes at outfrontframes.com

A TRF 415 MRE doesnt suit you?

Nope, too many holes and its not wide enough to meet the bodyshell

This is pretty easy to fix.

Why would you want the chassis to go all the way to the body?

Air turbulence underneath the chassis and bodyshell = drag.... = a slower car

..and a wide chassis that scrapes the track surface in every turn (body roll) will be even slower. :sweat:

Hmmmmm

Better tell that to the full size GT1 race teams then....

Full size GT1 race cars have a much higher velocity of air travelling under the car and they don't dont have a 5mm ride height.

You definately want the narrowest chassis possible with an RC car. Your theorys are very correct it just dont apply to the RC world. Centralized weight percentages and eliminating chassis bottoming out is way more of a factor. All newer RC chassis technology is geared to narrower chassis.

yes narrow is best, here is my micro chassis i made.