Jug Eater - Part 1

If You watch my showroom, what do You see? Tourings, rallies and tourings again. This kind of cars are my favourite for sure, but lately I've been involved even with the 'Big tires' class. I lost all the fun that cames with cars such as the Clod Buster and similar (I'm a relatively novice modeler), but when the Juggernaut hit the Rc scene, I fall in love with it. I really like the car, and it's amazing plastic body. But anyone who has drived a stock Jug, knows that the beautiful plastic body and the goofy chassis are not the perfect wedding.. So I planned to split the 2 faces of the Jug, and built 2 separate cars. A static Jug with 'state of the art' body which will last on the shelf for the rest of it's life, and a deeply modified one, which can easily assault a stock Jug. It was a hard (and long, about 2 years) job, but the result is a Monster in the real meaning. I started from the Jug2 transmission (the Jug1 one wasn't exactly bulletproof, every of You should know..) and projected a nukeproof chassis around it. All the parts of the chassis was developed with a 3D CAD (unigraphics) and I use the potentiality of the Aided 3D design to check all the clearance and motion of the suspensions (in fact this is my real job..). All the parts of the chassis are machined out from a 7075 Ergal plate, and covered with a hard anodizing process, to achieve a strong, scratch-resistent, 'black' finish. Even the suspension braces are turned from a 7075 Ergal bar. I used graphite for radio and battery plates (thanks to Alessandro for graphite machining, see www.alewings.it for more info), stainless steel for the unbreakable skid plate, and a bar diameter 5 mm of titanium for the steering rods. Kyosho long-type aluminium suspensions and stainless steel ball ends (diameter 6.8mm, from the inferno mp 7.5 series) complete the kit. I replaced the Jug tires with the ones from Clod Buster-TXT for better turning handling, and lengthened the wheelbase from 280mm to a full 340mm for increased stability. The custom painted TXT body dress my interpretation of the Jug.
Don't miss to check for part 2 & 3 of this car for more pictures, in parts 3 I have also added some pics from the car's research & development.