One of my favorite vehicles since I got it was my Kyosho DBX. I converted to brushless and loved its performance, especially considering I could use 1/10-scale electronics and it could still keep up with 1/8 buggies. For a while now, I kept staring at it thinking "it's only 20mm or so shorter in wheelbase than a 1/8 buggy...I could make this a full 1/8 buggy ultralight". So I drew up a new chassis in CAD, but never made it due to lack of interest and it being too costly to make a one-off. Then I thought, I'll just pick up a 1/8 chassis and drill the living hell out of it to make things fit. That idea took a whole 6+ months to finally complete, which is the end results I have today (after a good 4+ hours in my garage...ay, I'm tired!).
So here's my Kyosho DBX8e extended 27mm in wheelbase for a total wheelbase of 327mm (same as a pretty long 1/8 buggy). It weighs in the realm of 5lbs with everything (I'll weigh it at a scale hopefully soon). I run a HW EZRun 60A ESC (external UBEC) with a Medusa 3300kV motor on 3s (2s for small tracks and testing). Currently it's geared for about 40mph on 3s (perfect at Revelations). It's never gotten hot on me except for the one time 3 of my 4 wheel bearings seized up. The donor chassis a Hot Bodies D8 4mm 7075 chassis.
It's been very durable, even at 40mph...had some horrid crashes and do fine as long as I don't hit the wheel dead on when I nose dive down...which will sometimes break an arm. The only other thing I've broken is a rear bulkhead because of 2-days straight of landing directly on the wing (yes, I'm a bad driver).
Finally, I got my DBXe to what I wanted it to be. Can't wait to get some time to hit up Rev for some on-track testing.
In the pics, I tried to show the wheelbase and the stock chassis next to the extended one.
