[Gary Dillard]

We've been using polycarbonate for several years now - I don't think anyone would accuse us of being fragile. This year our front frame was aluminum tubing and center pan was aluminum sheet, but most of the rest of the chassis (including the gearbox housings) were Lexan. It's easy to machine and assemble - it taps very easily for individual brackets and we use self tapping drywall screws for general assembly. A couple lessons learned - grease the screws and don't use locktite - it will shatter the laminate when it heats and cures. A key thing to remember in battle is that low spring rate materials will absorb impact energy better than stiff materials and lexan does a great job.