Plafit chassis

The Chassis

LMS Technical

Plafit: The "Nuts & Bolts" of the LMS championship

Chassis pages

The chassis used in the LMS Series are made by Plafit. This small Japanese company builds several types of 1/32 and 1/24 chassis.
Their " Meccano" style assembly makes them fully adjustable to fit all types of Model car bodies.
In the LMS both the Plafit 124 "inliner" and the Excel "anglewinder" type chassis are allowed.
Most teams however will opt for the Excel Chassis, as it offers the widest range in adjustability and gear ratios.

Pro Racing Chassis
In 2001 Plafit introduced the "Pro series" chassis. These were updated versions of the 124 and Excel design in a more durable and hardned steel material.

The Base Chassis

Pro Handling Kit

Suspension stop plates

Free wheeling front axle

Body Mount mods

Single Spring Suspension

Plafit produces a wide range of tune up parts to meet "almost" all the slotracers wishes in terms of set-up and specification.
But for the specific needs of the LMS endurance's, some teams have developed extra modifications to improve up on the base chassis. Some of which you will find described on these pages.

1/24 LMS	The Excel Chassis and Tune ups
	Besides all off the standard Plafit Excel Chassis parts and tune ups The LMS allows the use of some Non Plafit tune ups part that have to be bought separately. Parts list and numbers can be confusing so we made an illustration with the most commonly used in the LMS Championship. Non Plafit parts are the thicker (green) Scaleauto Spur Gears. These range from a 40 to 50 tooth and include also odd numbers (41,43 etc.), giving the teams a wider variety of gear ratios to chooses from The Prescribed Aluminum Rear Rims measure 21x 16 mm and need inserts of 20mm. They can be ordered at MSD under part No: 502021. For the races they are supplied by the organization. MSD also has 3 insert that will fit these rims BBS Y spoke (Porsche) #57200 OZ 20 spoke (AudiR8) #57201 OZ 8 spoke (Toyota GT one) #57202 The Sigma rear axle spacer part no SG 8220 comes in handy as it holds the axle in place during fast wheel changes.



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1/24 LMS	The Pro Handling Kit: balancing the weight distribution
	In races run with sponge tyres the weight balance of the car generaly has to move forward. As of round 3 the LMS will switch to the 20 shore GP sponge tyre, so the teams are advised to mount more weight to the front. For this you can best use the Plafit Pro Handling kit. The ballast plate is bolted under the Front Chassis plate. On top of this plate you can either fit the small plates or glue lead.



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1/24 LMS	Suspension stop plates: Fine tuning the Chassis suspension and Body movements
	In it Standard form the Excel chassis movement can be adjusted by adding spacers over the chassis bushings. But to do this your first have to remove all the nuts and washers. By cutting four plates out of the Plafit Bodymount plates will give you a quick and easy way to adjust the chassis with a simple turn of the screws. If mounted on top of the chassis springs you can adjust the chassis suspension travel independently from the spring load. Once you have found your desired set-up it is wise to treat the bolts with some treadlock. That way they will stay fixed in their desired position.



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1/24 LMS	The Freewheeling front axle: Lowering the roll resistance
	Allowing the front wheels to turn independently form each other will reduce the roll resistance in the corners. On a 85 mm wide slotcar this results in a better turn in. A simple way to achieve this is to modify the standard axle. Two slots are made on both ends of the front axle to hold the wheels in place with e-clips. Fine tuning of the axle play can be done with the black Plafit spacers. An off the shelf Free wheeling front axle is the SSH front axle with a M2 tread. They come in 2 widths and can be ordered at SSH directly or MSD. 55mm: #WG055, 75mm: # WG075



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1/24 LMS	Bodymount Modifications: Fine tuning the body placement on the chassis
	By making these changes to the Standard Plafit Bodymounts you can have more control over the placement off the body on the chassis. Four slots are made in the Bodymounts Subframe to mount the movement of the Bodymounts under the Bodymount plates. The threaded hole in the BM Plates are made wider to allow adjustments forward and backwards.



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1/24 LMS	Single Spring Suspension: Sometimes one is better that two
Under the 2002 LMS Tech Rules this modification is no longer allowed!!	One step further than the Suspension stop plates is this latest creation by Willem Kloppenburg of the B-24 team. His Philosophy is that one spring is better adjustable than two separate springs. An added plus is the improved torsional rigidity by linking the two main Chassis plate arms.



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