The 3 Racing Sakura D3 CS Sport Drift Chassis is one of the most budget friendly chassis out there. It is a front motor countersteer CS drift chassis right out of the box. This chassis is very inexpensive, the kit + electronics can be found for as low as $199 at RCmart.

One of the local RC Drift enthusiasts in the city recently bought two and decided to let me have an opportunity to build it. I could not resist the opportunity to build chassis because building is one the most enjoyable aspects of the hobby. You can tell a lot about a chassis by building it, especially if you have experience building others. This 3R Sakura is quite interesting indeed.

Lets get started…. heres the build
First the packaging

Bag 1
The suspension arms and toe blocks. Not much to them, the suspension arms are quite bulky, with aesthetic flares. The toe blocks do not pivot on ball connectors, instead they pivot right on plastic holders. Installation into chassis felt like it would bend the hinge pins…. careful when installing.

Bag 2
Rear tensioner, steering assembly and fastening hardware. Nothing much to say here, pretty straight forward. Steering links are interesting, but can really see the limitation. The upgraded aluminum links appear to have different steering geometry.

Bag 3
The front motor mount bulkhead assembly and rear bulkhead. The plastic for the bulkheads are very hard. Really tiring torquing them by hand…. but benefit is you know it is rigid and durable. It should be durable enough for most beginners getting into drifting and should tolerate some crashing…. Front motor mount is very narrow, we recommend assembling only one side first because of limited space to insert spring pins for pulleys. Make the center shaft, pulley assembly from Bag 5 first, then bolt on the send half of the motor mount.

Bag 4
The front and rear differentials. 3Racing includes a pair of solid axle’s (sometimes called a spool) for the front and rear differentials. It is highly recommended that you get a front one-way differential for this chassis. Most people that own one would agree that this is a useful upgrade. Remember when installing a FOW, it is too easy to install it backwards. When you install the pulleys onto the differentials, be sure to pay attention to which side the drive belt will be on. Read and follow the instructions carefully.

Bag 5
The drive pulleys, fastening hardware and remaining parts from previous bags. This will get most of the central components assembled. The drivetrain installation will be complete. The front and rear damper stay will also be assembled to secure the differentials in place. Once complete it will start to look more like a chassis.

Bag 6 and Bag 7
Turnbuckles, front and rear knuckles, CVD’s (Universal Driveshafts). After this step, the majority of the build is complete. Remember to lubricate your drive shafts. These are moving components so it is very important that they are greased for maximum longevity and performance. Too much friction or heat can cause them to fail sooner rather than later. Oil is not enough, RC grease is highly recommended.

Bag 8
The dampers are quite nice. Even with a plastic body, they seal very well and so far no problems with leakage. 3 Racing gives you different weight oils for front and rear. The heavier #300 is for the front dampers and #200 the rear. There is just enough oil in each bottle to fill 2 dampers. Remember to leave the dampers for a significant amount of time to relieve itself of air bubbles. This will make a huge different in how well your dampers perform under driving loads. Just a tip, when screwing on the top of the dampers, the procedure should be: Place dome bladder seal on damper body, place top ball connector on top of bladder, put on the collar, and while holding the ball connector top to the damper, screw on the collar to secure and seal the damper.

Bag 9
Just the servo arm and servo savers, forgot to take pics… sorry guys

Bag 10
This is final bag for chassis assembly. It includes the servo posts, front bumper, rear diffuser, body posts and fastening hardware for them. There is nothing special here, very straight forward. The rear diffuser is a 2 piece design, which is quite an improvement over the original R31 diffuser. It is also significantly larger and bulkier. I think the lower part is good enough but that is just me.


Bag 11
Just the wheels with sparking tires mounted. Nothing special, but this is the rest of it. The kit is fully assembled and just needs electronics to run.

Overall the build was good. The instructions are easy to follow and really sufficient for anyone that does not have experience with building. Certain sections could have been build differently for ease of assembly, but base instructions do a good job! The plastic is hard, which is both good and bad. This really is a chassis for the economical minded RC drifter. It will get the job done, and has a significant upgrade path. However I still think it lacks something…. I suspect we will find out during the test drive/review of this chassis… stay tuned for more revelations!

Thanks for checking it out,

Drift Mission Staff