To my knowledge there is no steel plate. All the AE, Avid and strc plates are aluminum. The AE one comes in non-milled and milled versions.

I run rtr black plate with black gear cover. I think it looks better too. I will say the new motor plate Jconcepts has coming out is very strong. I was at the track while they where testing it and they where purposely airing out the buggy and landing directly on the plate to try and bend it. It took all the abuse.

How bout a graphite motor plate ?

Light , stronger then aluminum ...

could flex and remain straight

RTR plate = steel ...( comes in blue or black)

You mean these:
http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...tor-Plate-Blue
http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...or-Plate-Black

It'd probably flex and wouldn't transfer heat away from the motor.

I'd be worried about threads stripping too easy. Carbon fiber doesn't take threads well in most cases. At the thickness the plate would be I don't think they would last long.

It could be like this:
http://www.stormerhobbies.com/cgi-bi...ns&pn=TRI34036
There are small nuts holding it on, the screws would thread into them and not into the cf. It wouldn't transfer heat though, same reason you dont see cf chassis' in 1/8 scale.

Steel threaded inserts ....


Ae motor plate I recommend to use below ...Ae # 9600

So the black one is Steel and the blue one is aluminum??...I can't find any info regarding the material on the black but the blue one is listed everywhere as being aluminum.

Yea...that's stamped aluminum.

Possibly...According to the AE site the regular #9600 black plate is listed as "Motor Plate". The #9600B blue plate is listed as "Blue Aluminum Motor Plate". 9600 could be a steel plate, but it depends on whether or not you want to take cherry's word for it. Would have to weigh a std blue and black together.

Not sure what it is made of , weights quite a bit more then the rest and is the strongest by far .

Team Associated Aluminum Motor Plate (Black)
[ASC9600]

There's all the info you need regarding the material. Black Aluminum = Steel

Don't always believe what Amain puts in their product descriptions.