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The side mount option was where I started, but I abandoned it because there were far too many problems arising from the relationship of the body sides and the chassis rails. The chassis needs to be slightly LOWER than the body sides in order to get the front and rear wheels at the right height. Any side-mount setup would be pretty tough to work out because the rods for the mounts would be at the very edge of the sides of the body (actually, the flat part of the rod assembly would be partially overlapping the edge of the body sides, and be very weak). I considered fabricating ABS plastic angle-iron side platforms, and I considered using 2mm brass rod bent to shape to substitute for the side mounting system, but went with this center mount process instead.

The front wheels are at the bottom of their travel; the rear wheels scoot up a bit more as the pod is loosened (which is one reason I trimmed the motor pod rails to provide more space between the pod and the interior). These wheels are BWA 32002/4 (15" scale size, with .450" for inserts) done up with the matte dark finish I described in another posting on that topic. The original wheels do end up serving as very nice inserts.

I changed the chassis because of the problems with the absurd location of the stock motor, the weird gearing ratio and associated problems, the huge size of the spur gear, the absolutely crummy wheels, the lousy tires, the poor guide placement, etc.

This is my first HRS or HRS2 chassis, and the first time I fabricated any brass plate pieces. So I'm very pleased with the results. I'm really pleased with the front extension; and with the very strong front post I worked up from styrene, brass, and three different glues (using the strengths of all three types of glue for different reasons: Faller SuperExpert for welding styrene, thin and thick non-fogging cyanoacrylate with accelerator, and, of course, the grey stuff in the pictures is JB Weld epoxy). The brass extension plate on the guide mount is needed because the front axle guide mount has to be placed so the wheels are in the right location, which totally obstructs the body mounting screw hole/slot in the guide mount! But the plate should extend (pun intended) the range of application of the HRS2 chassis.

The laminated post and styrene plate idea should be easily adapted to other cars. The picture does not show the styrene tube within the Slot Car Corner brass post reinforcement, but I put a styrene tube inside the brass post before cutting it (makes the cut much better, and the post is stronger). So the new front mount is made from a hollow styrene tube glued inside a brass tube with a threaded insert soldered on one end), then the brass tube is glued inside another styrene tube, and that larger styrene tube is glued to a thick styrene plate. The join of plate and tube has a fillet of cyanoacrylate for strength. The plate is a perfect way to fix the location of the post, and provides a huge increase in the surface area for the post-to-body join. The plastics are then welded together with the Faller glue, and finally reinforced with metal-filled epoxy. Somehow I doubt this post will ever break.

The rear brass "bridge" works very well, too, and is in the perfect location for the chassis mounting slot/hole. I might use a thick plastic sheet next time, and put a Slot Car Corner threaded insert in the center.

Anyone with more questions remaining after reading through the next post, just ask! I can't wait for the next release of the Lola T70 -- this will be easier the second time around.

I did not look into getting a Fly chassis from their Lola coupes. I figured the Slot.it HRS2 would be a far better runner, and give me many more options for motor, gearing, etc., and allow for a rocking motor pod. The front and rear of the Fly chassis seems to rely on a pair of front posts, and the odds of them matching up to the Monogram's seem pretty small.

(Since taking the pictures, I trimmed away the excess JB Weld on the rear mounting posts, and to give a bit more room for the pod to rock I also took off more of the underside of the interior and filed down the front pod screws.)