The ideal vintage RC10 track racer

[nicholasdivitto]

I'm new here, so yeah. Just putting that out there. But anyway, my goal is simple. I am about to purchase an X Y table for my drillpress so I will essentially have a 3 axis Milling machine to machine my own plastic, aluminum and carbon fiber parts. I want to design and build new chassis and suspension components to build the very best Vintage RC10 buggy possible. I don't really care about vintage in this case, but I would like it to atleast be recognizable as a vintage RC10. So here are my ideas so far:
-Double deck 2mm carbon fiber chassis
-2.5mm carbon fiber rear shock toower
-inboard mounted front dampers (maybe 1:16th traxxas revo dampers?) with nylon pogressive rockers and titanium pushrods
-aluminum steering bellcrank
-wider nylon front lower suspension arms
-titanium turnbuckles to replace piano wire all around
-threaded rear dampers with titanium nitride shafts (gotta browse the selection)
-titanium nitride coated kingpins all around

I've also been looking at various RC10's with the trailing arm s in the back. what is the advantage to that?
If anybody has any crazy far out there ideas, shout em out! They may be translated into carbon fiber.
Also, when I purchase this X Y table, hopefully within this next week, I will definitly hand machine parts for somebody who needs something made. So yeah, toss in ideas!

[fredswain]

There are a few people here that custom make their own parts. We've seen everything from shock towers to chassis to new arms made. If you want it to be recognizable as an RC10, lay down front shocks aren't the way to go. How are you going to do the front of the chassis? Since it is next to impossible to buy a blank chassis with a front kick up that really only leaves you with the option of using the stock aluminum nose.

There were several bell crank options available so it's easy to just pick and choose there. I took a route no one else has ever taken as far as I know. I am using an old sliding rack bell crank from the very rare Raborn Invencer oval car.

There were several different styles of trailing arms. Back then many different suspension designs were being tried. Everyone was still learning what the best compromise setup between durability and performance was. Trailing arms supposedly allowed better traction on lower grip tracks but they lacked the adjustability of standard rear a-arms. Different trailing arms had varying amounts of adjustability. Some had none. Their weakness was to hard side impacts on the arms.

There is a thread called "what's old is new". In it you can find cars that have been done by members that modernize them with wider arms, modern wheels and tires, brushless systems, etc. After some searching around you'll be surprised at just how many things have been tried or done already.

[nicholasdivitto]

The chassis kick up is a good point. So I guess if I want carbon fiber, I would have to go with a retail chassis, which is stiff enought without the top plate. Unless I lightened the crap out of it and it required more stiffness. How is the carbon chassis structurally? It looks kinda weak to me relative to robust aluminum tub.

[fredswain]

That's an open question as there were several manufacturers of aftermarket chassis and all of them were a bit different. Some were quite flexible. Others weren't. An upper plate would most certainly add rigidity. The thickness of the material used as well as the overall design is going to determine overall strength and rigidity. The stock aluminum chassis does have a degree of flex to it as well but you most certainly can never truly break it. There is even a carbon fiber version of the tub style chassis as well which is quite rigid.

[nicholasdivitto]

Does anybody have blueprints or dimesnions and hole spacings for the chassis pan? I think what I want to do is have the main portion of the chassis made from a single pplate of carbon fiber and build a hinge into a machined nylon bulkhead up front so that I can adjust the kickup. And I think I will just stick with a normal damper configuration. Although I got the idea from an RC10 lowering kit to make a dirt track racer

[fredswain]

The easiest thing to do is to get the bolt pattern off of an existing chassis. Just trace it.

[nicholasdivitto]

Yeah, I'm bidding on a pretty molested, drilled out, painted A stamp chassis. It ends in a couple days, I think it'll go for pretty cheap. And I looked at some more pictures, and the kickup isn't an issue at all. I was under the impression that the kick up was actually a part of the entire chassis, but it is just another plate that bolts on with 3 screws. So I could still have a single flat plate of carbon fiber as a chassis, then have the aluminum front kick up bolted on

[nicholasdivitto]

Ok well, the chassis came in, and its not so bad. actually Its kinda refreshing to see that the guy did a pretty good job with drilling the holes. I'm gonna build on this until I buy a sheet of carbon fiber to cut up. So here it is. I think I'm gonna strip the red off of it and re anodize it. I'll use it in a future project.

[orangemazda]

You could make a jig and "lay up" some carbon fiber mat and resin it just like you would with fiberglass. That way you could get the angle needed for the front end and not have to bolt on an aluminum nose.

[1990Racer]

Here is a template I found and saved. I don't know where the thread is now though. Not sure if it will help.

[nicholasdivitto]

are the smaller inner holes the mounting locations for the stealth transmission?

[1990Racer]

are the smaller inner holes the mounting locations for the stealth transmission?

yes

[orangemazda]

I have a metal template that came with a Stealth tranny conversion kit, when they first came out and weren't even in a car kit yet. I'll see if I can dig it up and post a pic of it.

Here is a template I found and saved. I don't know where the thread is now though. Not sure if it will help.

[nicholasdivitto]

You could make a jig and "lay up" some carbon fiber mat and resin it just like you would with fiberglass. That way you could get the angle needed for the front end and not have to bolt on an aluminum nose.

Thats not a bad idea. I could actually use the aluminum tub as a mold. I can build a jig on the front. What's the kick up angle? Does it vary from series to series (edinger, caddy, graphite)? I think before I buy carbon fiber fabric, I'm gonna practice with fiberglass mat first. I'm gonna have to construct a vacuum bag system

[fredswain]

The RC10 was 30 degrees. Cars have varied over the years. The JRX2 was originally 20 degrees and then later 30. The RC10B4 is 25 degrees. It is my personal opinion that 30 is too much but that's just me.