I've been wanting to give you oval truck enthusiasts an update on the PROTOform Oval Racing Truck body for a couple weeks now - but I hate spreading "wishfull thinking" news instead of hard facts. My hunch that the ORT project might be slightly late due to decal printing delays unfortunately did come true.

However - GOOD NEWS! :woohoo: I recieved word late yesterday that the decals had just been run and on Sept 26th we (Proline) will be able to send out enough for those running the truck class at the opening BRL event at Tri-State Hobbies in Cincinnati OH. They will be sent to one of our "oval friendly" rc distributors. I realize that this doesn't give you truck racers much (if any) prep or test time - and I do apologize for that. I assure you, I did everything in my power to get this project done on time - without sacrificing quality.

The ORT will have an official release of Oct 15th at which time there will be photos posted on the Protoform web site.

I'm pretty excited about the way it turned out - if I can be so bold. I'd love to see the NASTRUCK class grow in the BRL as well as rc oval racing in general.
- The ORT is made to be run at a hight of 4.5 inch tall for foam racing and 4.75 wth capped tires.
- The rear spoiler is marked for the .75 inch BRL max. spoiler height rule but there is extra material there for other applications (and novice racers)
- The decal sheet includes 2 different sets of headlights and 2 different grills - just to break things up a bit in a spec. class
- The body mount length will vary only slightly between the left and right sides - but there definitely is a slight difference.

If you have any questions regarding the ORT body - fire away.

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

Dale Epp - Protoform Race Bodies

awesome news dale! cant wait to paint one up..

ok, so who is the oval friendly distributor ? some one please pm me !! id like to pre order a few.

ok, so who is the oval friendly distributor ? some one please pm me !! id like to pre order a few.

Brian,
MSA will be getting them in the end of next week if they ship wed the 26th. We should have them the following week (oct 2nd or 3rd).... hopefully.

Hays

www.lefthander-rc.com

thanks hays, you got pm !!

Most of the older ORT bodies were always a tick tight. How is the aero balance on this one? Really looking forward to racing this ORT, the other competition looks like a great field of Veterans.

Wolfman

Wolfman, veterans does sound better than "OLD FARTS"

Do we have to be so politicly correct? :confused:

Come on, a farts, a fart, and you guys are really old.:jest:

How about 13.5 “Gassin Geezers”

How about 13.5 “Gassin Geezers”
No freezer treats for you!

Hays, will there be a limit on the amount of bodies one can purchase? :wave:

Jim, You've got a pm.

Hays you got PM back at ya :wave:

you know that you will be 40 sooner than I will be 50, and then you can go slow and turn left with us.

I'll show you a gassin geezer on the way to Cinn. HA

HOOOWWWWLLLLL

Soo sorry to politicaly, your new nick name is Mike "Mosses" Kelm I like it...


Wolfman

Posted on another thread by Barry Hill

The first 200 ORT bodies will be at MSA Distributors on Friday 9/28/07 and will start shipping that day. Everyone owes Dale Epp and Harmony @ Pro-line a big thumbs up, Dale is paying the 2nd day air charge to get them to us by friday so we can get them to you. Pro-line received the mold on Tuesday and the bodies are shipping today.

thanks
Barry Hill
Hyperdrive/MSA

Just mounted my dads new ort body and Protoform did an awesome job on this one. I wish my grandpa could race one too!!!!!!!!!




Jason

Just mounted my dads new ort body and Protoform did an awesome job on this one. I wish my grandpa could race one too!!!!!!!!!




Jason

I know a few drivers that would take up a collection.

They are real nice !

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w13/wooduster/hobbyshop015.jpg

Nice ride Mark, Hey that place looks familar :thumbsup:

The best designed corners in the area !!! Don't ya think Jim ?

I do concur :thumbsup:

The truck and the corners look nice Mike.

That looks like a cool place to race at. :thumbsup:

Mark O'Brien;

Thanks for posting the photo. Nice paint! I still haven't recieved mine from my painter(s) yet - so it was real nice to see an ORT all painted up.

OVAL TRUCK RACERS ** PLEASE NOTE the following:
Rear Body Mounts - knowing exactly where to put the down-tubes in the rear bed area of the ORT was a bit of a crap shoot. The width spacing on the rear body posts on most pan cars tend to vary - so I had to find a happy medium. I'm guessing some of you guys will need to do a few mods to get the posts positioned just right. I moved the down-tubes inboard slightly from what's true-to-scale because I feel the posts are better on the outside of the molded in down-tubes. You oval racers are a clever bunch ;) - so I know you'll figure it out nicely.

Front Air Dam Area - as you can see I molded in a slight yet visible impression of the 3 aluminum "splitter supports" that are now standard issue on the Craftsman trucks and COT cars. Do yourself a little favour: when the ORT body is all painted and trimmed - put a bead of ShoeGoo behind these 3 little verticle details. This should prevent any folding or splitting (of the lexan) from happening the first time your body takes a hit :drunk: against one of those 3 areas.

Molded Roll Cage Downtubes - there's 4 separate pieces of mask mat'l on the window mask sheets specifically for this area. The real Craftsman trucks have a sturdy lexan "filler panel" that fills that triangle between the downtube and the box. (for aero stability) If you use these masks it'll make your truck look more like the real racetruck. (I hope you'll take the few minutes extra to use them)

Rear Spoiler - there's a slight "web" marked in the lexan as part of the trimline - at each end of the rear spoiler. This will give the spoiler some extra support. However - if you want to adjust the spoiler angle to find a good handling balance - just cut it off and use your God-given "metal brake" device(your index finger'n'thumb) to carefully change the spoiler angle either up or down, to change the downforce on the rear.

That's about all I can think of right now. Thanks for all your nice comments btw.

Dale Epp - Protoform

The truck and the corners look nice Mike.

Thanks Sonny !!!

I'll take credit for the Truck, unlike me it photographs better that it looks.

Jimmy, along with his sidekick Jason get the credit for donating the corners to the track.

Jimmy, where's that track at? Do you guys have a track in MN again?

i wish i was old enough to race the truck class... i think they look so much better

Danny, It's in Hampton, which is on Hwy 52, 10 miles south of Rosemount. Itis called The RC Barn. Mark Obrien is the owner, great guy and a fun place to race. It is a bull ring (94') run line, we built some better corners for this year, much easier to race now. We run 13.5(BRL) and we run the 17.5 with the ORT (any age) he he. We run on Sat. and right now Jason Klein is the guy to beat. Hope to see ya this weekend in Greenbay :wave:

We don't allow pink car's at the barn! LOL :p :p

Dale,

Great job on the truck body! can't wait to paint two of them tonight!

Larry Mullins

Outstanding job, Mounted mine Tuesday night.

Killer aggresive lines.

Made a spacer to widen the rear posts by 1/2 inch for my CW aggressor, the rear posts are just as wide as the front.

I just used an old 10l crossbrace/side shock piece that was laying around.

Can't wait to run it.

Wolfman

Mark O'Brien;

Thanks for posting the photo. Nice paint! I still haven't recieved mine from my painter(s) yet - so it was real nice to see an ORT all painted up.

OVAL TRUCK RACERS ** PLEASE NOTE the following:
Rear Body Mounts - knowing exactly where to put the down-tubes in the rear bed area of the ORT was a bit of a crap shoot. The width spacing on the rear body posts on most pan cars tend to vary - so I had to find a happy medium. I'm guessing some of you guys will need to do a few mods to get the posts positioned just right. I moved the down-tubes inboard slightly from what's true-to-scale because I feel the posts are better on the outside of the molded in down-tubes. You oval racers are a clever bunch ;) - so I know you'll figure it out nicely.

Front Air Dam Area - as you can see I molded in a slight yet visible impression of the 3 aluminum "splitter supports" that are now standard issue on the Craftsman trucks and COT cars. Do yourself a little favour: when the ORT body is all painted and trimmed - put a bead of ShoeGoo behind these 3 little verticle details. This should prevent any folding or splitting (of the lexan) from happening the first time your body takes a hit :drunk: against one of those 3 areas.

Molded Roll Cage Downtubes - there's 4 separate pieces of mask mat'l on the window mask sheets specifically for this area. The real Craftsman trucks have a sturdy lexan "filler panel" that fills that triangle between the downtube and the box. (for aero stability) If you use these masks it'll make your truck look more like the real racetruck. (I hope you'll take the few minutes extra to use them)

Rear Spoiler - there's a slight "web" marked in the lexan as part of the trimline - at each end of the rear spoiler. This will give the spoiler some extra support. However - if you want to adjust the spoiler angle to find a good handling balance - just cut it off and use your God-given "metal brake" device(your index finger'n'thumb) to carefully change the spoiler angle either up or down, to change the downforce on the rear.

That's about all I can think of right now. Thanks for all your nice comments btw.

Dale Epp - Protoform i notice on the body there is 2 lower side mold lines and one's behind rear wheel says, remain clear. is this a rule thing? (brl) unsure what no paint, remain clear behind wheels? thanks!

johnnyhacksaw;

One of my fondest memories of the early days of RC oval racing (in the early 90's) was the fact that we could produce NASCAR style bodies that had a striking resemblance to the real stock cars we'd watch on TV. Especially when we raced at capped tire tracks like King NC and Lake Whippoorwill. Capped tires are a little larger (more realistic) and the speeds were much lower than they are today so we could get away with producing NASCAR style RC bodies that didn't absolutely require the radically distorted shapes that are commonplace today. (in order to produce mega downforce) It was an awsome era!
In this modern era of RC oval racing aerodynamics has become a major factor just as it is in the world of full scale racers. In recent years one of the things that serious oval racers have been doing for added stability and aero "side bite" is to trim the rear quarter panels in such a way as to leave the lexan as long as possible behind the rear w/openings. Whether it really helps that much is open to debate, BUT the one thing I do know for sure is that it usually looks horrible :drunk: - and unfortunately detracts from whatever actual realism still remains in modern oval bodies.

One way to have the "cake and the icing" so to speak is to leave the extra lexan hanging down (if you so chose) - but leave it clear (as marked) so its not so obvious when the car/truck is on the track.

I haven't talked to Sonny about making this a mandatory BRL thing, but I'd like to see the idea at least encouraged and maybe phased in as a rule some day. Keeping the "essence" of realism can only make RC racing more attractive to newcomers - something that is always needed. Right now the markings I've put on the T-HD and ORT are merely guidelines for the racer - if they so choose.

Thanks for asking.

Dale - Protoform

well said dale, i'm taking this body and using it on my touring oval truck also. mounted up great to the chassis!

Masters Truck Class Logo

http://photos.hobbytalk.com/data/500/BRL_CLASS_LOGOS.JPG

another fine job by 1 800 4 graphix?

Looks great either way.

"Molded Roll Cage Downtubes - there's 4 separate pieces of mask mat'l on the window mask sheets specifically for this area. The real Craftsman trucks have a sturdy lexan "filler panel" that fills that triangle between the downtube and the box. (for aero stability) If you use these masks it'll make your truck look more like the real racetruck. (I hope you'll take the few minutes extra to use them)"

Guys: I just realized a few days ago that the masks that we supplied for the rear roll bar area are bogus. We accidentally made all 4 masks the same - thus they don't fit right. Not a huge deal - but it's probably still been an aggravation to those that tried to use them. Sorry bout that.

We've made the correction.

Hope the first BRL race of the season is a huge success! Have a great weekend. Drive carefull in your travels.

Dale - Protoform

Man do I like a guy who admits he made a mistake. LOL I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure that out, I had 2 on and said oh SH*T, it must be the other 2 peices and then discovered they were the same.

Very nice body and looks great.

Thanks Dale.

great job on the body Dale

looked very good at the BRL race in cincy

infact some of the guys who run at my local track ( New Castle Raceway in New Castle, IN) said they would like to start running them.

i will have one also




side note :

Dusty Kemp
1st win with the truck body at the BRL race
and looked good doing it
ran as fast as the 13.5 nascar class..

Must say, I couldn't be more pleased with the first reports regarding the performance of the new PROTOform ORT body. If any of you are wondering about how the body works - about all I can do is quote the 13.5 Masters Class Top Qualifier and A-Mail Winner of the opening round of the BRL tour. (hope he doesn't mind)

Dusty Kemp quote: "Great work...she's a winner right out of the gate! I can't tell you how cool it is that I was the inaugural winner of the ProtoForm Masters truck class!
There was a lot of talk about the trucks being cheesy, lesser than , etc...but before the weekend was done, my truck was faster than every single 13.5 entry, car or truck other than one other...Jamie Hanson in 13.5 with a Toyota. My buddies were asking for an age limit reduction so they could play too! I love it.....and wanted to thank you for the effort you provided to make it happen."

SnowBirds Oval Truck Champ Tony Moffre quote after the first weekend of ORT testing:
Spec Truck
"Feedback has been very positive. With the addition of a 7.5" x 2" rear spoiler, guys have said the truck turns in better and is more stable off the corner. Basically going from the Brand X body to the ORT the truck is more stable but turns better."

Touring Oval
"The fastest lap time I have ever run with 13.5 TC in Darlington (380' dog-leg oval) was a 6.5 and many 6.6's earlier in the summer. Saturday I ran one 6.3, a few 6.4's, and a ton of 6.5's. I had a 7"x2" rear blade, body mounted up against the bumper, trimmed on the 4.5" line on the front and 1/4" below the 4.5 line in the rear (1/4" rake). Man does this sucker turn, but it has stability off the corners. Compared to the Brand X body I had to drop the front posts one set of holes and the rears stayed the same.
Most of the time the trucks are lazy on entry and feel good coming off (2" rear blade). The ORT turns down in awesome but has that planted feel as well."

CONGRADULATIONS Dusty! Thanks for the detailed feedback Tony.

Dale - PROTOform Race Bodies

hey all:The new protoform oval truck body looks good and it's about time they offered one.What oval brushed or brushless motor classes are there for truck boddies?Thanks for the info

...I think the new ORT body looks good...I'm just sad Protoform discontinued the 190 and 200 mm Silverado bodys.

swtour;
You're so right. I was bummed that we couldn't have left those 2 Silverados on the market longer. Same old story unfortunately - these two part numbers soon reached a "tipping point" at which time we realized we were paying more for the licensing than we were keeping as profit. :(

That's the nutty world we live in now.

Dale - Protoform

Dale,

Here's the body I did up for my son for our Season Finale last weekend at the ENCINO VELODROME.

http://southwesttour.com/images/velotruck.jpg

I only WISH we had these back when we ran the old Dominguez Hills Velo -
they would have blown away the old Parma/PSE Dodges myself and Larry Pipp ran.
(Not that I can complain, we WON every truck race there I believe)

This was THE last one of these bodies I was able to find "IN THE USA on the NET"

Is there any progress on updating the chevy oval body or making a FHD (Ford) fusion so we can have something other than a dodge on the track. Don't get me wrong the worrk fantastic, But personally I would like to see a variety again and now with the C.O.T. that variety willdefinatley be gone or how about bringing in a retro class old buicks, olds, t-birds, grand prix's. etc

dale, i was gonna pm you, but your box is full, so here goes !!

i see you guys finally fixed the roll bar mask problem, so now when are you gonna make the roll bar area stronger ?? every body i have got, and that is from 2-3 differant suppliers the front of the bed and lower rear window are already damaged, or crushed ill call it. and with the roll bars, as you know, it makes it hard to mount on most trucks. with the area back there already thin, a few hits and your body mounting holes are ripped. i have ran a mccalister chevy body for a year and a half now, same body. my buddy has used about 6-7 ort bodys since they came out. all ripped out rear body mounts. your body is better looking and faster than a mccalister, but just if they were a hair stronger !!

brian o'

briano_72;

Sorry about the pm deal - I emptied my inbox. I'm going to talk to the production manager (@Proline) to see if we can figure out a fix for problem you described in the box/down tube area on the ORT. It might just be a matter of re-setting the heat zones on the vac-forming machine.

The sumulated roll bars are there for more than just realism - they add a bit of rigidity to the large flat expanse (box cover area) that tends to vibrate badly when its vac-formed in that way. I guess there might still be a better way apparently. I don't think that the BRL racers want me to form these bodies in .040 because of the extra weight. ( :confused: ) Am I right or wrong? If we pulled the ORT in .040 the whole problem would disappear in a hurry.

I'm sending you a pm to make arrangements to ship you a couple of replacement bodies. Sorry for the trouble.

Dale - Protoform

Ive got one of these bodies also. Ive only got 1 weekend on it. Its nearly totaly blown out in this area. I dont see why you cant make them out of .04 lexan. Most cars need weight. Its really a fun class to race.

I THINK .040 WOULD BE FINE DALE I DON'T THINK WEIGHT IS AN ISSUE AT ALL !!!! I THINK THE GUY'S WOULD RATHER HAVE THE STRENGTH, CAUSE THE WEIGHT SAVINGS WILL BE MINIMAL!!!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

.03 is ok