The Devil Drift Racing Car Chassis Build

The Devil Drift Racing Car Chassis Kit is one of the latest clone chassis in the market. After some close examination it is approximately copy of the Eagle R31-FM chassis. This is very priced very economically at approximately $90USD at R2hobbies. It is very cheap, that nobody can deny.

This build and review is contributed by a friend of Driftmission, rwdanthony of Model Car Garage. Check them out! Now The remainder is by rwdanthony.

The Build

Here is the drift devil unbowed and laid out when you buy it

The tires are like the HPI T-drifts, but in solid form.

I was scared the chassis would be tweaked from the mold, but seems like its pretty darn straight.

Since i don’t have the manual, ill just be building from my mind/experience.
I wanted to dye all the parts so I took off all the part trees and sliced any left over burrs.

While I was dyeing the parts, I got started on the dampers. I noticed on the mold it didn’t allow the valves to have a complete surface, with this in mind, I decided to go with the 1-hole valves.

Heres the news you guys were expecting, “you get what you pay for”
one of the shock bodies was terribly threaded. lucky enough how ever, the collar is still able to thread and hold

For those who don’t have manuals either, here is the bottom exploded to show the order. (o-ring > spacer > stepped spacer > under cap)

that sums up the dampers, I put 1-hole valves on all 4. the kit comes with #450 and #350 oils, but I decided to put #550 yokomo oil (F), and #250 yokomo oil ®.

This looks much better than the traxxas colored chassis/parts. okay, lets get started on the chassis!

You always want to build from the inside, out. So first up, the steering rack.

Along with the steering rack, lets install the front-rear & rear-front suspension blocks
from left to right (FF, FR, RF, RR)

Pay attention to the orientation of the steering bride

Installed the battery retainer and servo mounts as well

Okay, heres the one-way, its just like the street jam one way with the un-molded side-wall. however the body is fully constructed with plastic, and swapping pulleys is not an available option unless you switch out the entire unit. pulley is 40t.

The same also applies to the rear spool

Rear bulk head, you have to insert the spool before you slip on the bulkhead sides, and then insert the drive cups, held in via m3 hex screws.

first glance at the front bulk head

The front center pulley is held by a threaded-end shaft, a screw at the end prevents the bearing from running out. For the other end, it has the spur gear adapter which also keeps the other bearing in place. probably the most simplest way to go about it, which i think was the target for this chassis, simple & basic.

installed front and rear bulkheads, along with the upper deck

suspension arms and hubs are on

Some small parts were missing, for example the other end to this belt tensioner wasn’t present, so i had to do some improv, i used a nylon locking nut on the other end to secure position, i later added a shim to fill the gap and insure bearing placement with the belt.

another missing piece was the extension for the center belt tensionor, again some more improv

rear belt tension wasn’t spaced out correctly so i put 1mm spacers to put it correctly.

The last parts that were missing was a pair of turnbuckles, I had some spare ones which i threw on the steering links. This picture also displays the steering angle.

the chassis is now compete as a roller!

The build verdict!

The chassis seems to be well contracted, it has a lot of flex, but it springs back to neutral state very easily, may be something you want in poor traction conditions.

The molds and plastic quality can be comparable to the sakura plastic. it looks like it can absorb impacts as its able to bend, but its not clean like tamiya/yokomo parts.

Dimensions are square, there are no places where I had to shave/ dermal, or skew to line up correctly.

Parts presently that should be replaced or kept an eye on, are most definitely the shocks. by the time i was done, you can see fluid seeping through the shock caps. The one way and spool seem to look solid, but we never know, it may break on the first, second, -tenth run, depending how much stress you put on them.

For the price, I don’t its that bad. Its not the best, but certainly decent. however for a beginner builder/ enthusiast with no spare parts in hand, the build or maintenance may be a headache for you. in that case, you may not have a good time with this chassis.

EDIT*
After going over the chassis another time, I found an error in the assembly, on my part, these photos present how they should be. The smaller front spacer should be the ones with the line in the center. the smooth solid ones support the rear center pulley bulkhead. and lastly the upper deck goes under the center pulley bulkhead.

A small bonus: All belts include at least 1 tensioner for adjustment.

Thanks for reading

– Anthony @ Model Garage