OCDerbyDad said:
Btw Oparennen...did I see you racing a similar ladder body style to one of my concept bodies racing at Mid America? It had a clear top.
I have several "ladder" bodies, although I frankly don't think they are as good as DD4H's X style body. The SS you are talking about at MidAmerica, is called "Blue Hole". That body might not be as fast as other bodies, but with the transparent top, I thought it looked really nice. BTW, that car has fenders both in front and behind the front wheels, plus a thin side piece connecting the two fenders. That was all done for beauty, and not necessarily for speed.
However I normally modify the X style body thinning it down to 1/4", removing the single "cross bar" strut, extending the front triangle hollow up to just behind the front axle strut, and adding another hollow just in front of the front axle.
IMHO, if you cover the entire body (either front or bottom) with 1/64" birch, you really don't need the X section at all. Just leave that whole middle section without any X or ladder support.
John (DD4H) now has a body that I believe is superior to all of the above. He creates a single hollow section that goes all the way from the rear axle to the front axle, and then in the weight section just behind the rear axle, he mills out at a different depth. Thus when you thin this body down to 9/16ths, the weight section has a 1/16ths top, but in front of the rear axle, it is all hollow. I'm currently creating two new SR's and one SS using this new body, and I like the results.