If you’ve been with us for a few months, you’ve probably seen our Traxxas Slash 2wd LCG Chassis Shootout. The original two wheel drive Traxxas Slash started the short course craze. It was only natural that Traxxas would release a four wheel drive version. The Slash 4×4 was released in late 2009, and race classes started to form all over the world specifically for this truck.

The Slash 4×4, like its two wheel drive brother, has a very high center of gravity. Because of this, you have to take it easy in corners. You must slow down or you will traction roll. If you’re racing against other Slash 4×4’s this isn’t necessarily a problem. Everyone is dealing with the same limitations. But there is competition out there that isn’t held back by the same limitation. There have been other 4×4’s out there for the last couple of years, but recently more and more manufacturers have released their own four wheel drive short course trucks. Losi released the Ten-SCTE, and its design made it a very race worthy truck. It has a very low center of gravity (CG). It was only a matter of time before people would start buying up the Losi in favor of the Slash 4×4 for racing applications. Team Associated followed with their SC10 4×4, and this meant the doom of the Slash 4×4 as a viable racing truck.

But, there are so many Slash 4×4’s out on the market, they can’t go to waste! Enter Shining Star Chassis (SSC).

Mark Soliman started SSC after designing the 6061 aluminum chassis you will see us build over the next few pages. He saw the Traxxas Slash drivetrain and suspension as a fantastic building block to a dominant short course truck. Mark recognized that with a lower center of gravity, the Traxxas Slash could be a formidable opponent to the Losis and Associateds of the world.

Mark built in some really cool features, ones that we’re anxious to see what performance gains they show us on the track. The SSC LCG chassis has a two piece motor mount/center diff mount. This allows the heat from the motor to dissipate through the motor mount and into the bottom plate of the chassis. This keeps the heat away from the center diff, and its front bearing. There are common stories out there from Slash 4×4 owners of center diffs having issues due to heat from the motor. This extra heatsink capability should also translate into being able to gear the motor higher for more top speed, without having issues with overheating. The chassis is designed with a user converting from a stock Slash 4×4 in mind. There are threaded holes for the stock VXL ESC, and the stock receiver box.

You know us…we can’t just build one of these things and do a basic review. No, we are going to pin the top Slash 4×4 LCG chassis against each other in an all out brawl.

Shining Star Chassis (SSC) vs. Team RC Engineering (RCE) vs. Chuckworks RC

In this article you’ll see us build the SSC. But, stay tuned for the RCE build from Kevin, and the Chuckworks RC build from Jim.

Lets get started on the Shining Star Chassis build.