As part of the continued evolution work for the Traxxas 1/16 chassis, I have been looking into ways to stretch the wheelbase for stability and center-of-gravity purposes as well as to give me a platform to improve on the odd proportions defining my body-shell designs.

Working on an idea for long 'tusks' on the nose of the rXA, I realized I might be able do away with the entire standard Traxxas front bumper and mounting assembly and replace it with a bracket and beam setup (similar to the latest LMP wing mount).

This doesn't need much explanation; all-out hooning on some nicely-graded dirt pads with the Traxxas converted to off-road spec (long shocks, chunky tires) wearing the alpha version of the ARX offroad body.

The 1/16 Traxxas VXL is one of very few rocker-arm-suspension R/C chassis available, but even this compact layout still brings a major challenge to creating low-drag, low-frontal-area body designs. The lowest and narrowest possible roofline is defined by three critical components: set high and wide across the middle of the chassis are the receiver box on the left, the Velineon 380 motor, and the speed controller and its chunky motor wires on the right.

I needed a shell for the Traxxas to keep dirt/rocks/sticks out of the central chassis during off-road adventures. I figured I should make it cool, too...

This was a quick study for a sedan body design on the Traxxas 1/16 Rally chassis. This shell captures the legendary Audi 90 that utterly dominated the GTO class in the 1989 IMSA series.

First pass on modeling the GTR coupe design... The 1/16 scale Traxxas chassis has an extremely short wheelbase which does create some challenges in getting the proportions of the design to work.

The GTR Coupe is an aggressive dual-purpose drift and road-racing body-shell concept for the Traxxas chassis. The design makes use of the same aerodynamic downforce airflow treatments developed with the LMP body to cancel out lift and minimize drag at speed, yet remains stable and balanced even in low-speed maneuvers.

The most recent build of the LMP revealed more dimensional problems between the source CAD model and the physical chassis. Since several parts were going to need to be revised, I made the update an opportunity for further refinement of the design concept.

Rapid-prototype work for the Traxxas project is done with paper-modeling techniques. Paper is a relatively low-cost way to validate the LMP body design as well as the underlying chassis model and all its various hard-points and clearances. Getting the chassis model right is important as it will serve as the basis for additional design projects.