A.R.T. Forgery - Agitator DTR Reproduction

[Phin]

With help from Gomachv, a project that literally has been on my drawing board for several years now is finally getting done: a reproduction of the Advanced Racing Technology Agitator DTR (Don't Turn Right) narrow super-speedway pan car.

I actually drew the CAD file for the main chassis about 3 or 4 years ago but held off getting it cut because I really wanted to find an original instead. About two months ago, though, I managed to get in contact with Lucas Garneau, designer of the original Agitator, and learned that the DTR never really made it into full production....only a handful of DTRs were made for team drivers. It also turns out Garneau wasn't directly involved in the development of the DTR, and it was instead the design of another A.R.T. employee who was into oval racing. While I couldn't find contact info for the DTR's designer, I did also speak with another former A.R.T. employee/team driver, and one of the companies owners....who sadly told me all the original plans/tools for A.R.T.'s pan cars have been purged or tossed out.

Which meant the only DTR I'd ever get to own would be a repro cut Factory Works.

I used a typical Agitator 2.0 chassis for most of the measurements in my drawing but also had to make plenty of guesstimates based on pics found in RCCA's Feb. 1992 Super-Speedway Round-up article that featured the DTR. The rear pod plates especially were mostly guesses based on track width measurements given in that article. If I screwed up anywhere I expect the rear pod is where the problems are going to be. At least the main chassis matches real well to authentic Agitator chassis.

The rest of the parts I'm using to complete the car will be authentic A.R.T. ...or Team Associated parts.

First mention of the DTR in an RCCA's Inside Scoop. c.1991 (Note: Narrowed rear track but it's still using a wide front end.)

February 1992 Article (Note #2: Narrowed front and rear but the nerf wing is larger on this car than the earlier Inside Scoop pic.)

[Phin]

Made the narrowed front beam today using a front suspension conversion kit for a Bolink Eliminator. The front suspension mounting holes on DTR chassis aren't changed from the road course Agitator...instead the holes for the steering knuckles are moved in on the front crossbeam. This put the holes for the pivot blocks under the upper "A" arm plate. (there's a pic of this in the '92 RCCA article). As it turns out, the conversion kit A.R.T. made for Bolink's cars also had the pivot block holes under the upper "A" arm (honestly that's what the smaller upper arm plates were called )...due to the Eliminator having a cut out out where the pivot blocks are on an Agitator.

This made narrowing up the front end real easy. I just mounted the Bolink kit's cross beam to the DTR chassis, used the pivot block holes on the other half of the chassis as guides to drilled two new pivot block holes on the cross beam, and then used the two new holes as a mounting point to pin route a copy of the suspension end.

Top beam is a crossbeam from a Bolink conversion kit, lower beam is the narrowed crossbeam, and the diagram on the instruction sheet shows where the pivot block holes are on a normal/wide Agitator cross beam:

[Incredible_Serious]

The OCD guys are going to have a field day with that picture

Loving this thread, very interesting build!

Alex

[Phin]

Glad you're enjoying it Alex.

[Phin]

Assembled.

There's a couple of measurements I'd tweak, if I could go back, but the front and rear tracks match up with those given in the RCCA article and I'm satisfied with that. Now I go nuts trying to find the center point steering link that I've been holding on to for years, but wasn't with the other parts.

[GoMachV]

That’s looking sweeeeeeet!