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Hey that would be cool. How about a sprint car hornet. For that matter, as cheap as hornets/grasshoppers can be had, it would be fun to see what CANNOT be done with them.

As for the CHEAPO W1, I am working on it still. I picked up a new FAV cage, and have mocked it up, I think it will look good when complete. I'm currently working on getting the W1 rear suspension and gearbox to mate with the hornet tub. I have mounted the front suspension blocks to the tub already, and have come up with a brace for the front end as well.

It's starting to look like a fun to follow project. Keep us posted please.

I was thinking I'd mount the rear suspension the same way it is on the W1, using some angle aluminum connected to the rear of the hornet chassis. Last night I had some inspiration to mount them directly to the chassis by orienting them differently. I assembled that and it looks good static, but after looking closer, the travel is going to be incorrect. As it sits in these pics, it would be at full compression, and there is still a ton of ground clearance.



I'm going to rearrange the mounting blocks to another configuration and see what I can get.

Now that I'm not using angle stock to mount up the rear end, the wheelbase has become too short. I'm going to have to revisit the front end, and move it forward to get the wheelbase more congruent with the W1,. This next picture shows how the mock-up wheelbase became too short.

Time for an update on this project! Now that I've thought about it some more, it seems like it is going to look "cobbled together". So I'm now thinking about fabricating my own chassis. Not sure if this will be the final result, but here's an idea I had. I'm thinking about using a fairly thin aluminum, and cutting it with material to fold into the necessary shape. Isn't this how Sassy Chassis' were made? Can someone tell me if it will be possible to make these folds with a metal break? I'm no fabricator so I don't know the rules about which to fold first..etc although I thought about it as I folded up this chipboard sample. Thoughts??

Some progress has been made on this build since my last post.

Here's the latest on my Wild One Project. I am detailing it in my blog, so for more info bounce on over to http://www.rcideafactory.blogspot.com

the wood looks nice, but I would do one of a few things......either DON't run it, or:

coat the whole shebang in fiberglass and resin to make a fiberglass reinforcement-this will make it heavier, however.

go with your original design of sheet aluminum, which you can get from mcmaster-carr fairly inexpensively, something like 1/16" would be strong enough. lay it out, and support it well when you bend it, and use something like 1/8" radius and it will work very well. use 6061 T6. Make some provisions with small tabs so the edges can be bolted together once bent up. just be aware that the T6 temper will make a sharp bend pretty much a tricky proposition, so keep the bend radius generous.

I've checked out the selection of sheet metal at the local Lowe's, but have no idea what the alloy is. It'd probably be fine, but I may look at another local metal supplier before buying. My first prototype folded out of cardstock was looking good. I was thinking of riveting the foldover tabs together. Do you think that 1/16 would resist tweaking once it was all folded up? I know 1/8 would be too hard to bend, as well as end up being heavy. Would 3/32 be too tough to bend too? I'm no metalsmith, so that's my concern.