What's the purpose of these after market conversions

[johnboy]

As per the title why have these aftermarket kits appeared for the 22? What benifit will they have over the standard car?

[mattybucks]

I've only seen the speartooth conversion in action, but I think the main issue is the length of the car. All the conversions make the car shorter.

Checkout www.telstar-racing.co.uk for the full details of the speartooth conversion.

[nicVEGAchildJR]

more rear grip

[university_dave]

I think the 22 has been mainly designed as a rear motored car - in the US they run mostly on dirt and hardly anyone runs mid motored. I suspect they've basically put a mid motor conversion in the box so it sells in the UK and Europe, where we run on high grip astro and like mid-motored cars. Hence the mid-motor side of the kit has some rough edges on the handling front as it wasn't the primary development focus.

I think the main problem with the kit mid motor layout is that the car is very long and the weight is too far forward in the chassis. This puts a lot of weight over the front axle (long gearbox, cells quite far forward) and with the long chassis is gives a big pendulum effect when the car is in transition. I think those are the main issues, probably compounded a bit by a very stiff alu chassis.

I can only speak for the Speartooth (as it is the conversion I've put together), but the intention is to move the cells a bit further back, moving the weight rearwards to help with traction, and to shorten the chassis which will help prevent so much weight transfer and reduce the pendulum effect of the long chassis. We've gone carbon fibre to add a bit more flex, which should also help widen the setup window for the car. I think everyone has broadly gone this route, the interesting thing is that Atomic, Rossmods and ourselves have all come up with something slightly different and all have the weight in slightly different places.

Essentially the aim is to remove the rather edgy nature of the kit when run mid motored, giving a bit more rear grip and predictability.

[Projectzip]

I think its great to see all these conversions coming out.

The spirit of shed engineering is missing in this country, ok many of these conversions are not made up in a shed but its the principal.

You only have to look at the engineering skills in Germany where teens can knock up parts and bits in there sleep!