2014 VRAA Car Build

[Stubbo]

I have just started building cars for this years VRAA series in North America so I thought it might be of interest to some of you to follow the build and see how it all turns out. They are basically the same build as a Tasman Car

This year we are going to be running Brabham BT 7’s (or 11’s).

So the first step for me is to get the body. I had one of the old Atlas Brabhams that I tweaked a little and then made a mould of it.







Now for some resin.

I forgot to get a photo striaght out of the mould but it looks a bit like this and weighs in at around 9 grams






The Atlas body is a bit of a hybrid between a BT 3 and a BT 7. I’m going to cut off the rear to make it more like a BT7.


Here it is cut down. I have also “thinned” the body as much as I dare. From around 9 grams out of the mould it is now around 4 grams. I have also cleaned up all the openings. I put on a shot of primer to make it show up better.







Here is the body sitting on a test chassis.







This helps me make sure the car sits right and that things are going to be in the right place.

Now I will start to get the other bits together. Windscreen, driver, roll bar, engine bits etc.

[slo]

That looks more like the 7 and 11 now. Nice!

[old23]

Looking good so far! I wonder what kind of engineering marvel Stu will come up with to go under them? If the VRAA Brabhams run anything like your Tasman ones, I predict we'll see a lot of Brabham podiums. ;-)

[Stubbo]

After raiding all the little boxes and bins, I have got together a whole lot of bits and pieces to select the best of those to go into the build.



The shims in the middle of the picture can be used if the wheel inserts are too small for the wheels that will be on the final chassis.

The next few days will be spent cleaning up all these little bits, making sure they fit where they should, painting the drivers heads etc and having them ready for when they are needed.

[f143]

Lovely work recasting the body Stubbo.
Did you make the wheel insert shims yourself?
Regards'
Nigel

[Stubbo]

G'day Nigel,

Stu made a couple of different sizes out of aluminium tube and I just made a mould from them so we use resin shims which are a bit lighter.

[Stubbo]

Well I haven't been very good at posting things along the way. I have had a busy time with work and just never really got around to it but here is my entry in this years VRAA.





It is actually my 2012 VRAA car that has had a bit of a rebuild. The 2012 car had a solarbotics motor and finished mid pack. I modified the chassis a bit to accommodate the BWA motor and did a different body. This is a recast of an Atlas body with a bit of the bum cut off.



The BWA motors are a lot slower than the Solarbotics but I have played around with the gearing and I hope I have found a little more horsepower.

Time will tell. It is now on it's way to Canada.