Bought a Raze, runs great, no hop-ups yet. Some of you despise Duratrax and I already know your opinions, so go bash them in another thread.

I will be mostly running this on the street and looking to balance the chassis better. As most of you are aware, the engine and battery pack are located to the rear of the chassis causing the chassis to rotate around this point and making the steering "push" or understeer. It also requires one to work harder to level the chassis off a jump. A perfect chassis weight distribution would be 50/50, 50% weight in front and 50% in rear. Well, that's in a perfect world.
Now, I understand that some of that "push" or understeer can be fixed by tuning the suspension. I'm on a quest to lighten, strengthen, and balance things, all at the same time. So tell me what you think.
After comparing some pictures of parts very closely, it would appear that some OFNA and Integy parts (for OFNA) will fit the Raze. This is what I'm thinking.

In the front -
Lower front aluminum suspension arms (integy), lower and upper aluminum suspension mounts and front hinge pin brace (dtx), aluminum front c-hub carriers (integy). These will help to strengthen the front, where most impacts happen. It will also put a little more weight on the front, helping to offset the weight in the rear.

In the rear-
Graphite rear shock tower (OFNA)
Will take a very small amount of weight off the rear, helping to balance the chassis further. I'm leaving everything else in the rear stock plastic to keep it as light as I can. It's hard to slam into something and break something going 30mph backwards. So, strength is not a big concern in this area. Remember, I'm going to be running on the street, not taking 5 foot jumps.

In the center-
Graphite diff plate (OFNA)
Aluminum servo tray (dtx)
The aluminum servo tray will help to further balance the left-to-right balance, since most chassis weight is on the left due to the tuned pipe and gas tank. The servo's alone hardly balance this out. The graphite diff plate is just to reduce weight, since it's located right in the middle of the chassis, it shouldn't really have any effect on chassis balance.


This is only my second nitro RC car, am I on the right track? Opinions?

I also plan on reducing the amount of rotating mass in the drivetrain using an aluminum flywheel, lightened clutch bell and lightened spur gear, but that's another thread.

First thing look at where I used the bold thingy. That should be fine to do to the front end to add some weight but you have to also remember when you add all that aluminum strength you take away some of the flex. So if you do hit something on the front end while you are driving it the street and something breaks it will cost more to fix. Other than that your ideas look fine and should help you achieve or at least get close to the 50% weight ratio.

I do have to ask you one thing though and this is not a bash against your Raze. You are going to spend some cash to build this thing up to get it balanced out, so why don't you just spend the extra cash on a more race ready buggy?

I agree with the post above, and I want to warn you.

If you haven't heard, Integy tends to make a weak product (to be nice...). I would look for other ways to strengthen/weigh down the buggy before purchasing Integy products. They are made of cheap and weak aluminum that bends like butter.[:'(]

Perhaps zip-tie'ing the battery pack to the front somehow will help distribute the weight, but it may be unsightly. Perhaps you could purchase a 5-cell flat pack for the rx and it would look pretty good.

I've taken that into consideration.
The reason I decided not to get a more race ready buggy is simple. Money. This is something that's going to take a while to get built up to how I want it. The money to immediately put out for a better buggy was not available, or an option, at the time of purchase. Things like bills and the girlfriend prevent such obscene spending all at once. So over the next few months, I'll slowly add a part here and there. By the time I'm done, I should've toasted the motor nicely and it will be time for a better one.
Not to mention, nobody has attempted to mod their raze so much...as far as I know of anyways. I'm the kind of guy that does things different, to be unique and to show others it can be done. I like to inspire others.

I wasn't aware Integy didn't have a good rep. After having been a machinist for a few years, I do know that aluminum can tend to be "soft". This could actually be a good thing though. I'd rather have a suspension arm break or bend as opposed to the entire front end and half of the chassis. If I still worked in a machine shop, I'd make the parts I'm looking to fit out of a magnesium or titanium alloy.
As for relocating the battery pack, not gonna have much luck there. There's absolutely no place in the front I could put it. and if there was, it would realy screw with the left-to-right balance with the engine sitting in the rear on the left and then nothing on the right. Sure, that'd be great if I was a nascar driver and only going left, but that's not the case.

Yeah, but bending an a-arm that's gonna cost 20-30 bucks isn't worth IMO. Is there another company to buy some parts from? Golden Horizon maybe?

As of right now, not that I know of. [] I've searched all over.

If you ever want to get the buggy finished, lose the girlfriend (read fun-loving companion), hey it's a tough decision, but she thinks it's just a toy, and we know better. And don't ever make the fatal decision I did. I upgraded my fun loving companion to wife status (read supreme ruler) and now I'm lucky to run my RC's once a week. But, man is it great when the supreme ruler grants me her divine permission to terrorize the neighborhood, payback's hell, isn't it kitty, teach you to leave pawprints on my just cleaned car.

Oh, BTW, those sound like some pretty good ideas for weight distribution, post some pics as you go. That way us husbands (read prisoners) can see what could have been...

Lol larry. Animals and small children both seem to run in fear when they see / hear something this small coming towards them at 30-40mph.
I'm 31 and have already been married and divorced. Although it will be some time until I get married again, at least this ones a keeper. She's really quite understanding when it comes to "toys". I can't complain too much, I just built a new computer not even 3 months ago. Tried sweet talking her into letting me get some of the parts I've listed, but I can't seem to make her understand why they are needed. Even tried the "because they make it stronger and it won't break as easy" approach. That backfired when she said, "After what we spent on it, you better not break it!" Lol. As you and I know, the woman is the official keeper of the money. So, looks like I have my christmas list made. I need to go to the lhs to get a new fuel filter, maybe during that hour drive I can bat my eyelashes at her and talk her into letting me at least get a new clutch bell.