Chassis layout after install of all electronics.
I relocated the ESC switch to the rear bulkhead for easy access when the body is buttoned up.
I applied four layers of LiquidMask with a brush last night and let it cure overnight. I didn't really like the panel lines/windows on the Dome body, so I just put them where I thought they belonged. It definitely has some strangeness to to its physical features, but I like it.
After working out a livery and deciding on what color will go where, I settled in with some Tamiya Clear Pearl, Neon Pink, Cherry Red, Smoke, gold and white. I finished it up with some 2mm and 4mm tape to create borders between the colors and frame the windows and threw in a smattering ofd decals of real world sponsors and RC related stuff . I kept it minimal, but tried to get a little bit of that race feeling.
Traction duties are taken care of by the GRP GTK-XM7s that I had painted for my JOTA body and some blue wheel hexes.
I took her out for a test drive as soon as the body was done to see how it do. In a word: lively. lol...This car immediately put me in mind of the Lancia Stratos Group B Rallye car. Very agile with the short wheelbase with a healthy offering of oversteer. I'm going to swap the front and rear diffs, I think that should settle it down a little. I had to do a fair bit of throttle delay and expo tweaking to get it to behave a little better but all in all, I think she's going to be an awful lot of fun. Actual diffs front and rear are hands down better that diff lockers. It's not even close (for me anyways).
One last thing I thought was worth mentioning are the body posts. I'm not really sure what Hobao was thinking with their design. I can only surmise that they designed them based off the assumption that you would only have one body for the car and never have a second or third. If you are to use them as supplied by Hobao (two piece, a stalk mounted to the shock tower and "sliding top caps" for lack of a better term), you'll need to cut both the stalk and cap to lower the body. If you cut off one hole position too many on accident....well, that's one less body mount you now have (unless I'm totally misunderstand how they're supposed to be used, but I don't think I am).
So I simplified their unnecessarily overwrought design, took the foam pads and eliminated the "sliding top caps" altogether and decided to just use the stalks as a more typical, run of the mill body post.
I think my only two gripes with this car are the oddly constructed body posts and the fact that you have to remove the motor/diff mount from the chassis to service the pool which was kind of an odd choice on Hobao's part. It's not a deal breaker or anything, just feels like last century after seeing a stock Arrma 5S motor/diff mount. Oh and the screws that you tighten down the sliding motor plate with are...I think anemic is probably the kindest thing I can say. It was definitely a reminder of how much better some thing like a PPS mount is.
One pic comparing the Infraction GT setup with VTE GT. The proportions of the chassis are different enough that the VTE looks like it's noticeably wider than the Infractin..but it's just an optical illusion.
Diff swap is in progress. I hope I can try it out here in a few before the rain starts. Oh and this car is
sooo much easier to pick up and carry by the body. The rear end of the Dome body is super rigid (and of course the fact that this weighs a couple of pounds less helps as well).
I think I'm also going to try the softer shock springs. These stiff spring are a bit much at this weight. I would't be averse to it being a tad more supple.
