This is the base frame for 1671 this year. Thanks to our sponsor Harris Manufacturing for getting it made in a couple of days.
Do I spy a 6WD?!?
Well thats a very good question. lol
Looks awesome
I do believe that frame would be illegal to compete with. The big gap has to be covered by bumper and that looks alot bigger than 8"
Yeah you are right the gap is bigger than 8 inches, so it would be illegal in that sense, but this is more of a “programmer’s bot” so they can begin programming it, until the lift is completed.
That looks… Hefty. Like, 15 lbs hefty. I assume the production version is going to be lightened significantly over that?
Yes the upper structure will be gone plus all the support rails will be made of thinner wall aluminum.
So is this pretty much just a practice/programming bot? If so, that’s pretty cool.
Yeah this way the programmers can begin testing code, and our drivers can start practicing.
You’ll want to be wary about having your drivers practice too much with a bot that is significantly heavier/different than your competition machine. Although it may drive similarly, you may find that precision movements will have to be retuned. That said, more drive practice is always good. 
One of the main reasons to give our programmers extra time and practice is because we are putting a drive systems like one our team has never attempted before. That being said we need all the time we can get to get the basics down, and then like you mentioned fine tune everything with our competition bot.
Luckily things still seem to be going good and on track, no surprises yet…haha.
See you in Davis everyone!