Introducing "The Tank"

Rusty had come to his latest frame configuration in late November, and we were all eager to see it come alive. We wanted to go ahead and cut and weld the frame for prototype purposes. Jason had designed a first-run steering configuration, and we wanted something that Rusty could actually sit in and steer. We also planned to use this prototype frame for design and construction of the first body trial.

We laid out the frame and canopy full-scale with our first set of dimensions. This way, we could get a realistic feel for how components would actually stack up before we started welding. After some minor adjustments and a few updated drawings, we were ready to start fabrication on the prototype frame.

This first rolling chassis came to be known as "The Tank" in that it was not optimized for weight, but built for dimensional accuracy and component layout. After making some tricky cuts and notching lots of tubes, the tank came together quite well:

A couple "jump on the roll bar" tests and we were confident the tank was plenty robust. Ok, so it was really more scientific than that...but you get the point. The tank continues to serve as our primary guinea pig for dry-running our components.