I built this car to be my personal race ride this season, but plans have changed and I’m offering it for sale instead. This car has the very best of pretty much everything that can be bought or made for a Carpet Knife and every single bit of it is BRAND new. The first time this chassis had wheels bolted to it was to take these pics—it has never had a motor or batteries even laid in it.
The cost to duplicate this car using Stormer prices where possible is $377 (though I’m sure I’ve forgotten something) and does not count the hours (and hours and hours) that were spent assembling it to the excellent standard shown in Mark Payne’ blog on Carpet Knife construction.
What’s here?
Base CRC Carpet Knife v3.2R kit $220 from Stormer
CRC machined Delrin upper arms 13 from Stormer
CRC machined Delrin steering blocks 11 from Stormer
CRC front suspension brace 10 from Stormer
CRC machined upper arm mounts (3 @ $11 ea) 33 from Stormer
10-degree on chassis, 0 and 5 degree nip
CRC machined aluminum servo mount 15 from CRC
CRC low roll-center kit 13 from Stormer
IRS “lowered” lower front arms (run smaller tires) 7 from Stormer
Niftech polished bronze precision pivot balls 15 from Niftech
Lunsford titanium camber adjustment turnbuckles 10.50 from Lunsford
Lunsford titanium kingpins 6 from Lunsford
Lunsford titanium “Punisher” tie-rod turnbuckles 10.50 from Lunsford
Slapmaster front bumper 7 from Slapmaster
Du-Bro 2-56 / 4-40 ball link ends (4 @ $1.50) 6 from LHS
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Total cash outlay to duplicate this car $377.00
I ended up paying full retail price for most of this stuff directly from Calandra since Stormer didn’t have much of it in-stock when I bought it all--but that’s not your problem, so I guess I eat the difference.
You also get the “standard” kit parts shown which include the upper and lower arms, steering blocks, camber turnbuckles, adjustable servo mount, kit pivot balls, remaining rear height adjuster inserts and the unused kit allen wrenches. You also see the 0 and 5 degree machined aluminum upper arm braces nip that are included.
The tires are grey rear and purple front, Calandra, and new (of course).
In assembly, the upper arm pivot pins are carefully polished and fitted, the kingpins were de-burred and lightly polished, the steering blocks were reamed to size after the axles installed to keep them from sticking on the kingpins. The steering blocks are also bushed to properly fit the 2-56 hardware on the ball link ends.
You will note that the tie-rod assemblies are VERY much non-standard and are built to provide a virtually no-slop front end, unlike anything built with “normal” ball ends. The white marks are my way of indexing turnbuckle components during assembly so that all four are lengthened by turning forward, shortened by turning back. This takes the guesswork (and valuable time) out of race-day adjustment. Just remember...white = right.
Car was set-up and measured from a glass sheet. Rear shock end lengths trimmed/adjusted to provide zero droop (flat on glass) at full extension. Front bumper is trimmed to clear upper arms and personal transponder—it all fits like it was specifically made for this car.
All you need to do is install your motor and electronics and make final adjustments to suit your track, set-up and driving style. Then race away!!
Price? I will sell the car for
$350 plus $5 priority/confirmed shipping to CONUS addresses. Outside CONUS at cost.
Servo, servo saver, and personal transponder ARE NOT included in this sale. I will sell this servo (JR3550, lightly used—was my back-up last season) for $40 or a brand new Airtronics 94141 for $35 with the purchase of the chassis. The PT is not for sale. Yet.
Please feel free to check my feedback here on RC Tech or 8+ years perfect on e-Bay under ssmith2. Do not hesitate to e-mail me on
[email protected] if I can answer any additional questions.
Don’t wait around or it’ll be GONE!!