Thursday, 26 November 2015

AWESOMATIX A800 A (Aluminum)

Although here in Greece we mostly race outdoors on asphalt due to the many sunny days we enjoy, the majority of customers are getting ready for their indoor carpet seasons where the aluminum chassis is most of the times the favourite choice.
This chassis is 2.0 mm thick, 0.5 thinner than its carbon brother and I must say it feels quite flexible compared to the carbon and other aluminum chassis.









The chassis has a very slight concave shape, giving it a 3D appearance. Initially during prototyping this was taken as a manufacturing flaw but after extensive testing it has proven to work very well and it was decided to produce it with this curving.


Monday, 16 November 2015

Awesomatix A800 - first look




The new Awesomatix A800 is hitting the stores shortly and soon many new lucky owners will enjoy it.
It is a departure of the shaft driven layout following now the trend of 2 belt driven cars.
Although a proven choice, Awesomatix has chosen to explore even further the posibilities to improve weight distribution and maximize the performance potential of the car.
By placing the spur gear on the right side (battery side) of the car, it allows to put the motor by 2mm further to the centre of the car as well as give direct access to the spur gear without the requirement of removing belts or upper deck. More on this later.
The entire transmission has been designed with the goal to be the lightest and most efficient possible. Low friction belts and pulleys help to achieve these goals as well as better reliability is achieved through the use of specific materials and well thought design.

Three chassis options are available. Here you can see the two of them. The one on top is a very nice aluminium hard anodized scratch resistant chassis with a lot of milling and a 3D shape where a concave effect is visible at the bottom of the chassis. This has proven to perform very well in many different conditions on carpet racing.The carbon chassis is a standard design with symmetrical milling on both sides of the main axis to produce even flex characteristics

One piece motor mount and spur holder, centrally positioned on the chassis, providing several different flex options depending on how many screws are used under the chassis.
The bulkheads are now 'keyed' in the chassis with integrated pins so they always perfectly align with the chassis' centreline

A beautiful aluminium diff housing also helps on keeping the oil cool and consistent.
Incredibly lightweight front spool !! Featherweight.
detail of the central pulley

Various optional central braces are available. On the photos of the assembled car you see the standard aluminium part. Here below is the heaviest available made of steel at 30 gr.



In my opinion one of the greatest improvements over the shaft kit is the ability to use the much proven dual bell crank steering design. It has super smooth and precise operation. 

The one piece spur gear holder also incorporates an easy to install/remove single piece nut system. The replacement of the spur gear can be done by simply removing this nut and pulling upwards the spur, then place from the top the new spur, install the nut and you are done. No other part requires to be removed.







And here is the complete kit.  A lot of work, thought and testing has been applied to this new design. What initially may look like a conventional two belt design, the spur gear position as well as a few other design details sets it apart from what we usually see in other car designs.