brp front end weight installation
brp doesn't make the wheels, so our weights can be used with any quality front end set...but the light weight delrin fronts make a good choice for this application. I have actually used brass fronts too, but they are naturally heavier and may result in a car that is too heavy for the rules.
Here's what you need to put together the brp front end set.
brp Front End weight set (VHORS approved) - $7.50
The first step is to cut off the wheel shank. To do that, I chucked the delrin wheel on a axle with retainer installed, into my dremel, using a small 1/16" collet. Most racers have two dremels, even if one of them is a cordless, this setup which I call the "poor man's lathe", will still work. Here we are cutting into the wheel shank as it spins. The cutting disk can be any of the ceramic disks Dremel sells, or in this case a little rotary saw blade. Cut into the shank, but try not to cut all the way to the axle!
Use an X-Acto knife to complete the separation of the shank from the wheel.
Depending on how much of the wheel shank you cut off, it might be necessary to use some spacers to adjust the front end width to the maximum allowed, 1 5/16". These spacers came from Micro Fasteners. I'm also using the Wizzard pickups, which are the widest available.
Wizzard E82 T-Jet copper pickups - 1 pair - $2.00
Put the front end together, to check how many spacers are needed and how the weights hang on the axle. They need to not hold the wheels off the track!
Open the axle hole in the weights, so that they will drop down on the Wizzard pickups. The weights are cast in resin, so that they will not short out if they touch the pickups, like brass does. This is an important advantage to our weight set! You can get our weights to hang down on the shoe itself, and no brass weight can do that. Lower the weight until it can ride right on the shoe.
The Ferrari Dino and P4 bodies have the wide arching wheelwells needed for the brp front end set. Many other bodies will work, with some trimming of the rear of the wheelwell to clear the weights.