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Why use Associated parts?

We decided to use Associated parts because of their widespread availability in today's and the future market. Associated has a very large following and the parts are available at most LHS and through the Internet. Plus there is a wide range of available hop-ups that can work for these cars as well. You will also be able to use the same wide array of tires, bearing kits, axles, extended pod shocks and a whole list of parts that can be used on this car.

Will you be selling a kit as well?

Yes we now sell these as either a kit for those that have an existing AE style pan car or as a full kit. Since we re-sell many of the kit parts, the price tag is as low as we can possibly make it without loosing money. We want to offer you a full kit, but it might no be the most economical way to go about getting a full chassis, but it is offered.

Can these cars be used for running a spec Indy/F1 class?

Absolutely it can be, your local track or hobby can require that only the original 10L3 or 10L4 kit with one of our chassis is allowed. No additional hop-up's could be allowed and you would have everyone on the same playing level. Then it is a matter of who can tweak and run the car better. The T1 or GRX would be great conversion kits. Or if you plan on running a stick pack battery then the Spitfire is the kit that you are looking for.

What kind of front wing can I use for these cars?

The chassis has two holes pre-drilled to accept the HPI, Corally or some of the Tamiya front wings (mainly F103 wings). You can drill other holes to allow for other wings if you desire. Some of the owners of this chassis have bought and drilled to mount the DuraTrax IRL front wing. The Spitfire is the only kit with the rear lower pod included and those lower pods have holes pre-drilled for the rear nylon wings. We also sell in the online store wing mounts that you can attach to the two holes on the Associated rear top plates.

What kind of body can I use for this car?

You can use many of the same bodies that you use for any other Indy/F1 car; Dahm's, HPI, HotBodies, Parma IRL, McAllister, Duratrax's Delphi Indy, Tamiya and the list goes on. We tried to make the kit as universal as possible to allow for your body to fit.

I bought your chassis and I bought a 10L3, what else do I need?

To keep the cost down we only include the bare minimum, you will also need to buy a front/rear wing, a body and Qty 4 of either 4-40's or 5-40's to mount the front butterfly to the chassis. We recommend the 5-40's for more strength, but we ran the prototype with just common 4-40's without a problem.

The butterfly looks like it would easily break with a hard hit!

It may, but we tested it by running it into the wall running the car at 50mph, it didn't break. The chassis and the front mount is made of 2.5mm woven graphite fiber, it's made to take some punishment. The Solid Chassis kits like the GRX and T1 are made out of 3mm woven graphite fiber to make them stronger.

What other chassis's do you have or are going to make next?

We looked at building a 4WD chassis based off of the AE TC4, but didn't see the market for 4WD F1 cars remain strong for long, so we scrapped development on this chassis. For now we will continue to tweak our current chassis and possibly offer special chassis kits over the course of the years to come. We have been toying around with a Red, Blue and Silver Graphite chassis special edition kits of some of our current kits. But we haven't come out with those yet and we have no timeline on those kits yet.

Are these chassis ROAR approved?

Yes and No. First let me state that it was probably the early 90's since they updated the rules for this class, so if they would update the rules say every 5 years then all of the chassis would probably be found to be legal. The Spitfire Chassis is legal without a doubt. The other chassis are hung on the Saddle Pack battery rule which if they updated their rules and allowed them they would be purely legal.

Does the chassis kit come with directions?

Yes, we include a one page, two sided directions to assist you in putting together the car. The directions are from the point of have a 10L3 or 10L4 already put together and just converting the car over to the new chassis. If you have not already put together the car you can still complete the conversion, but you will need to check the Associated directions to put together the parts that are needed for the conversion.

RC Indycars Tips

1. My body doesn't fit well on the car with the three shock design.

We have seen this on some of the bodies that are out there, this is what we have done with the side shocks. First go out and buy the SS Damper Stand off (Associate Part#: 8328) and use those on the two out side stand-off's. The move the ball cup mounts from the top side of the rear top plate to the bottom and then mount the side shocks. This will lower the shocks angle and allow for clearance on most bodies, but you may still need to trim a little off of the rear on some bodies as F1/Indy bodies tend to narrow near the rear of the car. There is a picture of the way that this is done in the picture section of this website. If you want the car to turn more then get as much angle from the shock as you can, if you want let turn from the car then use a higher standoff for the shock mount and this will make the shock softer.

You can also take a wooden dowel and a heat gun and create a shock space in any existing body. The McAllister IRL body, some of Dahm's and the Tamiya Sauber C12 does a good job a giving you room for the side shocks.

2. Adjust your shocks to be softer or harder.

Moving your side shocks to the underneath part of the upper rear pod will allow you to lower the body and avoid scraping the bottom of the body. What it does do is make the shocks more horizontal and in theory softer. With the width of the chassis you could run the car without that rear chassis brace and also switch to the Associated SS stand-off which are shorter and will allow for some angle to the shocks. Some bodies will allow you to run the ball bolts on the top of the upper rear pod, this will give you more of an angle for the shocks and thus make them harder and make the car turn more. You may need to switch to a longer ball cup to avoid it hitting the top plate. Also when you are mounting the ball bolts to the top, you will want to use the rear chassis brace as the holes in that plate are set to the correct width when you have the shocks at more of an angle.

3. Run some CA glue around the chassis to prevent splitting.

Like any other chassis, it is wise to take a file or a Dremel around the outside edge of the chassis to round it off a little bit. Then follow that up with some medium or thick CA Glue to help seal the edge of the chassis to prevent splitting on the edge.

4. Look at the current hop-up's out there.

There are plenty of hop-up's out there, a few that I would recommend is the Silva Shocks, these are some of the best shocks out there and very smooth and last easily 10x longer then the stock shocks in most kits. Another suggestion is the Wolfe MotorSports front end parts such as the longer kingpins and front shocks. Also the new PRS pinions and spurs are some of the smoothest that I have seen, the mesh is excellent and the quality of the pinions and spurs are second to none!

5. Make the Spitfire Center Shock stiffer.

Because the shock is mounted above the battery on the shock tower the shock tends to be more flat which leads to a softer shock. If you take a stand-off, and they vary in sizes so you can play with different sizes, mount that to the rear top plate and then mount the pivot call to that. With the engine shroud of the body there you will have some space to work with.

6. Give your side shocks more throw.

This is if you have the particular rear chassis brace that has two holes on each outside. The furthest out holes are for mounting the brace to the stand-offs, if you screw your pivot ball into those holes you will be able to increase the throw of your shock piston versus mounting the pivot balls into the inner hole.

General Racing Tips

1. Learn the best line to get faster around the track

Watch the fast guys practice, see what line they take, even see if they will allow you to shadow them and have them tell you when they are lifting and when they are accelerating. You can have a killer car setup, but the driving determines if you make the turn or smack the wall.

2. Drive your own setup

You can have the fast guy setup your car and still be off his pace, this is usually because you will drive the car differently then he/she will drive it. Understand what you car is doing and how it is handling and make as few adjustments at a time as possible, too much can cause you to second guess your adjustments. If you can make 1 or 2 adjustments at a time and understand what those adjustments would have done to your car you are on your way to getting it handling properly./p>

3. Practice, Practice, Practice

A Team Drive will not show up at their first race without putting some laps in prior practicing, you should do the same. Don't expect to use your same setup at each track, each track has its own demons and variation of grip and layout. Plus tracks will change, adjust with those changes to yield your best performances.

4. Fastest Car doesn't always win the race

Sometimes you have to go slow to be fast. This gets back to an earlier point that you need to work on your line. Work your speed up gradually to get faster, plus when you are going slower than the rest of the pack this will allow you to work on your control of the car when getting passed cleanly. Work on allowing faster drivers through without taking each other out of the race, everyone would rather run with a clean racer than an out of control speed freak.

5. Find the fast kid

These are usually kids in the range of 12-18 that seem to know how to race, plus they can usually program that $300 radio that you bought to be better, they'll do it in about 5 minutes. This is another valued asset that you will want to have. Just don't bribe them with a lot of candy, their parents may call you at 1A.M. because their kid is bouncing off the wall.

6. Talk on the driver's stand.

Let the guys know that you wrecked, where, and how to avoid you. Nobody wants to T-Bone a wrecked car, even more you don't want to be the person that decides a race. Everyone has to buy parts occasionally, but it is better for everyone if they have to buy less of them. Having to buy parts to repair your car because someone wasn't talking on the driver's stand is where we loose drivers from the class. Do your part and talk so that you and your fellow racers can race the next race.

7. Neutralize your car first and then work from there to set it up for the track.

If you are new to a track and getting the way of the land, setup the car as neutral as possible and then make an adjustment at a time. Check the adjustment and see how your car performs and then make another change and see if it is better or worst, keep going until you get it dialed in.

8. Share your information with those that ask.

We are all out to have fun and compete, share your information as it could help others. Would it be much fun after a few weeks if you win ever time because you are that much faster? Why not help others to help them get up to speed and give you more competition!

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