Awesomatix MMCX - Mid Motor Conversion

Actually it is not mid motor. The motor is moved forward by some margin but still is located rearward. The point of interest here is the mid-spur location and the equal length belts front / rear. In theory this layout should provide a better and smoother power delivery than the unequal length belts of the current traditional layout.

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In practice, it seems to deliver as it showed great pace in the hands of Freddy Sudhoff at the recent IFMAR World Championships in South Africa.
AWESOMATIX was the highest placed team without a professional driver and the margin of speed from the top performing cars was very small, if any.
In fact on his Q2 run Freddy was on course for top qualifying until he had contact with a board on the very last lap.

I have not tried it yet but I cannot doubt much the designer's Oleg Babich ideas as so far most of the upgrades he introduces seem to produce better pace.

This new design calls for a re-arrangement of the electronics layout. So far the most common and the proposed installation is to place the speedo behind the motor, and keep the receiver and cooling fan in front of the motor. This keeps the balance of the chassis at the desired point and also cooling of the motor is aided since the airflow of the fan follows the airflow of the car running.

Here is the suggested motor / speedo installation:

Me being me.. I tried the other way around. Why? well I did not enjoy seeing the speedo so far back.
Since I had long leads from the servo and speedo I could place the receiver way back and with some carbon spare pieces I made a fixing point for the antenna.
I did not place any weights up front and added 20gr of weight at the back which seems to have worked in achieving the desired center of gravity being a few mm behind the spur. I cannot say how much mm as this is top secret info and if I tell you I will then have to make you disappear!

Long story short.. here is my car: 

Awesomatix A800 - first look

**High Definition Photo Gallery**

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.