RCU Forums - Dragsters

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Does anyone have a dragster?I been thinkin about building one..making a pan chassis and put some huge tires on the back with a solid axle.Maybe some skinny little airplane wheels on the front that would barely steer.I know they make kits but I've never seen one and I'm not about to spend $300 on one to mess with so if anyone has one or any ideas help me out.:DI'd probably use a funny car body.

I was thinkin' about makin' a drag car myself...I used to make 1/24 scale slot racers ("Pro Wire" 12's, Group 20's and 27's) and was thinkin' maybe a spring steel chassis like a rail? We made slots out of .055" music wire, but I'll bet I could make a (what they used to call "Space Frame") chassis out of, let's say 1/8" and 3/32" music wire, just to be different, ya know?! Probably some guys out there thinkin' it'll never work, but who cares...You never know till you try, right?! Suspension wouldn't have to be as sophisticated as a road race car, but you could prob. get away with something like the 1/12 carpet guys use. Kingpin style front susp. w/ maybe a solid rear? Big 1/8 scale foam R. tires, and maybe the r/c motorcycle F. tire/ wheels for the front? I don't think airplane tires would handle the R.P.M. they'd get spun up to???At 70+ my Schu's 2.5" tires are almost centrifugin' off the rims (if I don't use belted slicks) Right now I've got a set of non-belted HPI X-pattern "radials" (the ones that came w/ my RS4/3 SS) on it, and they're worn out in the center, 'cuz on a top ender, it's only riding on about 1/4" of the tread width. All 4 of 'em grow like a Top Fuel dragsters rears, and the ride height goes from 1/4" to about 3/4"! It's wicked awesome dude:D but kinda spooky/ iffy in the handling dept. Probably foams would be best all around, 'cuz you'd wanna at least try and be able to steer it :eek: when it gets cookin'...Just throwin' out some random thoughts...

Hey,good idea on the motorcycle tires,I didn't think of that.I know what you mean with those stock X-patterns and the only way I've found to fix that is the hard molded inner foams and then that still isn't very good.I haven't thought about the suspension much but I'd probably try to use the stock shocks from the SS since its about all I have,lol.Maybe the stock arms from the SS too with a custom tower?I don't know.I've got a few rear ends from an old Hornet I might be able to use and lock the diff for the solid axle effect.I guess the first thing I should get is the body,and wheels I intend to use and build around that as I have no idea how long or wide it should be.I also thought about a front only brake so it could do burnouts but if I used foams there'd be no point.I think it'd be cool if you made a chassis and I made one and we weighed em and compared notes to see which type would be better or lighter.I definitly want it to NEED wheelie bars but I doubt it will have a chute..maybe just one for looks.

Good ideas,thats what the thread is for.

Ive been thinking of building one too. Got any pictures??? What do you use for power????

A chute would be the coolest!!! I used to build rocket cars out of model rocket kits and had the things eject the shut at the end of the run. It worked great and looked great.

No pics yet...all a thought at the moment but I think its gonna be cool in a month or so.I'm gonna get to work on the chassis this week and take it from here...also thinkin its gonna be 1/8th scale but not sure.

i've seen some guy on the hpi website gallery mount the mini a-arms on the front of his ss and mount mini tires and he mounted some super wide foams in the back with a wicked blue ghost flame paint job on a saleen stang it looked really trick.

You got me lookin on the HPI site and look what I found.....this is what I'm talkin about:DThat is really nice.

Hey, there ya go! That's something like what I was describing. A space frame/ cage like a Pro Stock w/o a pan though, all open. You could silver solder and wrap the music wire joints for strength. Use tubing if you wanted to...Or how about carbon rods and tubes bonded together? Carbon fiber arrow shafts (Wal-Mart has 'em for 4 bucks) for the main frame rails, kinda like a NASCAR chassis, and maybe 1/8" (give or take) for the "cage" and bond an alum. plate between the main rails for an engine mount. You could have like a "pillow block" for the R. axle bearings, or how about a U shaped channel, custom bent out of 1/8" alum. combination engine mt. and R. axle tube mts.???

I cut an aluminum pan chassis for the HPI El Camino body...when I figure out the wheelbase I'll cut places for the wheels.To start with,its full length and width of the body until I figure out where everything is gonna go.

Sounds cool, keep it simple and light, right?! I have all kinds of ideas, but not much time to impliment them...Right now I'm working on an auto-pilot UAV program w/ GPS navigation...Takes up most of my time...

[link=http://www.neweramodels.com/prod12.htm?session_id=plysvktllcvstgpshybyoowtvupk qply]http://www.neweramodels.com/prod12.htm?session_id=plysvktllcvstgpshybyoowtvupk qply[/link]

Theres some pretty cool parts on there,neat car too.

They're really nice, but kind of expensive when you figure all the other stuff you need to go with it. Lot more than 300. aye? If you DIY how much do ya figure you'll have into it Galaxy? What engine do you plan on using? I like the pro stock look, and maybe I'll convert one of my T.C.'s to a drag car.

That'd be a good question on the cost..I never wanna think about that before I start,its a good way to kill motivation ,lol.I've thought about using an electric motor and belt drive actually but not sure yet.I've got a few layin around and it'd be instant torque with no chance of a clutch slipping.I was gonna use my stock RS4 arms and shocks at least in the front.....I might be able to get pretty close with $100 bucks,not sure.