[sdcantrell56]

I am echoing a lot of the sentiments voiced on here. Too many people seem to be designing things without really thinking about what their team can actually produce and what would be the best for them. Specifically, all the sheet metal and west coast style drivetrains lately. While I agree many of the teams that do west coast and sheet metal drive trains do very well with them, it is because they understand all of the intricacies of the design and have the resources to implement it properly. Teams should do like RC says and really focus on designing for their resources and for their goals. While I greatly admire the "simplicity: of west coast drives and love the integrated design of the 148 style sheet chassis, chances are you will not see a 1771 chassis out of anything but wood. We have tried other things and for us we can achieve the most optimized chassis building with laser cut plywood.

Secondly, the idea that Andrew brought up about people spending so much time on CAD and not actually thinking through the design is alarming. The design that comes to mind right now is a west coast one seen in the past week that is beautifully rendered and has jags, battery, etc included but doesnt have any bearing blocks, axles, or tensioners. Basically it is missing all of the crucial parts of a chassis and the most important parts of a drivetrain. The time spent plugging in all the existing models would be much better spent actually figuring out the drive train specifics.