View Full Version : Back in Vogue? T-Jet Belly Pans!


mikeponiatowski
05-09-2008, 01:29 PM
I confess to rediscovering Belly Pans for T-Jet.

I like the looks of a stock/customized T-Jet with cool wheels. I like the overall performance and handling of a Fray type T-Jet set-up. I suggest here that the good old Belly Pan can give you both.

Belly pans offer the following:
* Realistic and improved cornering versus magnet cars
* Minimize pick-up shoe hop and deslotting from bumps
* Improved traction over stock T-Jets
* Lowered center of gravity
* Works on any T-Jet set-up.
* No ugly (FRAY Type) cars!!!!

I have purchased a couple different styles off E-bay and from RTHO all provide significant improvements over stock T-jets and I can have cars that look great too!

Don't G-Jets use brass weights for the same reasons that belly pans are used on T-Jets?

AfxToo
05-11-2008, 12:39 PM
Handling pans add weight where it's most needed, low down close to the track. As with all attempts to balance a car for better racing characteristics with weights, handling pans went out of vogue when magnets were found to provide much the same (and eventually dramatically better) results than adding weights and pans. As we see more cars return to traditional weight and balance hop-up techniques there can certainly be a place for handling pans again. I have a few in my inventory and they definitely give the car a better handling profile with the right setup. They are yet another of many modification options available for a racing class, one that has no bearing on whether other techniques including Fray-style and magnetic traction classes are also used. Nothing exists at the exclusion of anything else and no truly new ideas have surfaced in decades. There's a time and place for every conceivable stock and modified class of racing you'd like to participate in, so if running brass pans does it for you, slap on a pan and go for it.

If you use a pan, try using nylon screws (at least for the rear) if you can find some.

I like the Fray look as long as all cars in the class are similarly styled. I also like running Fray style chassis under AFX sized hard bodies. I'd love to run Fray style TJets with full width Lexan bodies that cover the wheels. To me, Lexan bodied FrayJets would be the bomb.