Lazer ZXR with ZXS bodyset

[Bormac]

I bought this car from a fellow vintage nut here in Australia (sorry Jas) and Ive been wanting to paint the clear body I got with it for a while. Then I got to thinking about an original Optima inspired scheme.
Anyway this new built was always going to be something i take along to the track and give it a go. After seeing Darryn's car drive so well it would be criminal not to get mine onto the race track-so today I did. Fitted with a 19 Turn Komodo Dragon and my race packs I set out for Ryde/Sydney.
now if there's one thing i'll say this car has which suprised the heck out of me it would have to be how wisper quite it is. Even at full steam this car is smooth as butter. Needless to say the car drives like a dream,a little tail happy out of the corners but a real pleasure to drive. i entered the car in with the modern stuff ( mainly B44's) and the car certainly holds its own. Only my poor driving let this car down when reading the results on the board.
Saying this though it wont be the last time I have this car on the track-just cant wait for next wek now.

[jasen]

looks good i hope to score a ZXR one day. Should be good on the ride track, I used to live just around the corner many years ago. I used to drive my XLS cat there. I think I read you were on the central coast now. There used to be a track in the Bateau bay area straight accross from the shopping centre behind the bowling alley, it was in a sad state last time I was there 5/6years ago but I can see it on google earth

[Bullfrog]

Very nice, you always seem to amaze me with your paint jobs,
Cheers Bullfrog

[sk7]

nice paint job- looks good

[terry.sc]

The rear alloy mount is the right way up in the pictures, as standard it doesn't have any anti squat on the rear. The first thing any racer did was file the corners off the chassis so you could mount the blocks upside down.

Regarding your handling problems there are a few things you can do. Leaning the rear shocks in will soften the rear end slightly, but will give more rear grip once it rolls in the corner. The standard ZX-R rear geometry has the mount for the top link on the upright much higher with a much shorter top link than the setup you have with the ZX5 uprights.
The top link looks so long (and it is mounted parallel to the wishbone) it looks like there is very little camber change when cornering, so when the chassis rolls the rear tyres effectively lift themselves off the track. Try dropping the link mounting on the shock mount to raise the roll centre. For example my own ZX-R has the rear link mounted in the bottom row outside hole and middle upper hole on the upright, so about the same position as the middle hole on your rear uprights. Angling the upper link raises the rear roll centre, so the rear end rolls less in the corners and make sit more stable going into and coming out of corners.

If you are really struggling for rear grip you can flip the rear wishbones over to shorten the wheelbase and shift more weight onto the rear tyres, there already is a set of damper mounting holes on the front of the wishbones to let you do this.

[purpletimbo]

Looks good, just remembered this is in shed somewhere, who wanted one?

[Kyosho Fan2]

The rear alloy mount is the right way up in the pictures, as standard it doesn't have any anti squat on the rear. The first thing any racer did was file the corners off the chassis so you could mount the blocks upside down.

Regarding your handling problems there are a few things you can do. Leaning the rear shocks in will soften the rear end slightly, but will give more rear grip once it rolls in the corner. The standard ZX-R rear geometry has the mount for the top link on the upright much higher with a much shorter top link than the setup you have with the ZX5 uprights.
The top link looks so long (and it is mounted parallel to the wishbone) it looks like there is very little camber change when cornering, so when the chassis rolls the rear tyres effectively lift themselves off the track. Try dropping the link mounting on the shock mount to raise the roll centre. For example my own ZX-R has the rear link mounted in the bottom row outside hole and middle upper hole on the upright, so about the same position as the middle hole on your rear uprights. Angling the upper link raises the rear roll centre, so the rear end rolls less in the corners and make sit more stable going into and coming out of corners.

If you are really struggling for rear grip you can flip the rear wishbones over to shorten the wheelbase and shift more weight onto the rear tyres, there already is a set of damper mounting holes on the front of the wishbones to let you do this.

Thats funny as I and the Team Kyosho drivers did the opposte as you state and turned the rear pivot block (the very rear one) updside down without filling, as its a plush fit and gives angle to the rear wishbones, where the rear is lower than the front, so actually improves the cars handling especially over jumps and bumps.

The rear shock tower, move the tie rod down one hole so its in the middle section and most probably up to you to decide the inner or middle hole. The rear hubs, I would recommend changing to the RB Type R hub, and using the very outer hole on the top, otherwise use the standard one with the one closest to the wheel but the lower hole, and the bottom hole use the middle or lowest setting depending on how you want it to jump. You want to try and get the wishbone and tie rod to be parrellel with one another. 1 or 1 1/2 degree camber with cells in.

Rear shocks should be moved into the middle hole of the shock tower and outer wishbone holes.

Wishbones should be left as is unless your car is a Lazer ZXS as thats why the holes are on the other side, specifically for that car. I and a few of the team drivers tried it and it did not work at all, it actually ruined the cars performance by quite a lot.

Get a metal bar and fit between the two sides of the wing mount, this will make you wing mount last for a lot longer. Also set ups, well I would advise buying a roll bar set and try it, to see if it either suits your style of driving (me i preffered on low grip surfaces and not on high grip) and use it. Also use the one hole pistons and try 35 front and 30 rear as a starting point, and only change the rear until you have got it to dig in on the surface, so you may lower the oil or higher the oil, you may over fill with pack for jumps etc or just normal fill, and of course trail a lot of springs, but associated seem to work well, silver or green on the rear do work for me.

Then once your happy with the stabability on the rear you then work on the front, remember only change oils, pack if you jump and springs, including ride height. Once you have a seemingly stable setting for all round and that the rear will basically follow the front no matter what then you are set and all you need do now is up on the castor front block and get rid of the bump steer on the steering and if you are as serious as me get rid of all the play and slop in the wishbones and hubs (small washers from motors for the hubs and red rubber shock seals for the wishbone fronts) and also by using associated ball joints all over. Then game on.

Great car and happy racing, oh yeah and your shell is now available again at http://www.kamtec.co.uk and he has copied my shell so is evena thicker and will last longer, plus its cheaper than the lighter Kyosho shell. It also comes with an undertray. Any other info look up http://www.radiocontrolzone.com and look for the lazer zx/zxr thread and you will find evry conceivable thing to know about this car. happy hunting.

[vintage racer]

ME ME ME!!!

Looks good, just remembered this is in shed somewhere, who wanted one?

[terry.sc]

The rear alloy mount is the right way up in the pictures, as standard it doesn't have any anti squat on the rear. The first thing any racer did was file the corners off the chassis so you could mount the blocks upside down.

Thats funny as I and the Team Kyosho drivers did the opposte as you state and turned the rear pivot block (the very rear one) updside down without filling, as its a plush fit and gives angle to the rear wishbones, where the rear is lower than the front, so actually improves the cars handling especially over jumps and bumps.

The kit setting for the kit plastic rear pivot blocks gives no anti squat, as I stated above. If you read my posting again I did EXACTLY the same as you did, not the opposite, the only difference is coming from an engineering background I just made sure the parts were put together properly.
The kit plastic pivot blocks do not fit the chassis when turned upside down as the pivot blocks were raised near the pivot points. Just turning the kit blocks upside down the screw holes will not line up in the rear bulkhead and just screwing the blocks in place will put extra strain on the pivots and the mounting points of the rear bulkhead. As an ex Team Kyosho driver myself (still got the T shirt somewhere ) the first thing I did WAS to turn the rear pivot block upside down, making it fit on the chassis by filing approx 1mm off each side of the chassis at the very rear so the pivot block lined up properly and wasn't under any extra load due to being bent and stretched by just screwing everything down. It also made sure the pivot block was properly located on the chassis. You will notice in the picture above the the alloy one on Jasons car also has a recessed centre section so again when turned upside down will not fit straight on the chassis unless the chassis corners are relieved.
Later when alloy pivot blocks were available I used RW Racings excellent range of pivots for tuning the toe in and anti-squat on the rear, these were just straight blocks and were designed to fit on the kit chassis.

Wishbones should be left as is unless your car is a Lazer ZXS as thats why the holes are on the other side, specifically for that car. I and a few of the team drivers tried it and it did not work at all, it actually ruined the cars performance by quite a lot.

The wishbones always had the extra set of holes on the wishbones right from the first ZX, so they aren't there just for the ZX-S that came out six years later. Flipping the wishbones over is a great way to get lots of weight over the rear and I and others did use it when needed. If you knew what you were doing it was the fastest way to make it very docile if needed on low grip surfaces as it shifts a lot of weight to the rear of the car, then adjust the springs/dampers to suit.

And I stuck with the plastic bars between the wing mounts, but then I had replaced the wing mounts with a selection of glassfibre ones mounted on the rear bulkhead so I could adjust wing height and angle over a much wider range than the kit choices, and it didn't flop all over the place like the kit ones did

[Kyosho Fan2]

Ok now I understand where you are coming from, as firstly I was talking of the standard palstic ones which didnt need modding at all when turned upside down. Still I never had that issue with mine, so possibly down to where I got my alloy pivot blocks from as they were a perfect fit, still I see where you are coming from and if I was in the same position I would do just that. However I did like the rear of the wishbones angled like the front (the front I used the highest setting on the front gear box casing) as it jumped much better for me.

Also I was kindof putting the wishbone therory out mainly due to the surface that his car is being raced on, dirt where there will be substancial jumps, unlike here in the uk and with the wishbones further forwards its going to kindof screw the balance of the car up. Yes its good on cornering but it isnt practical for the track that he will be racing on. Its good for high grip surfaces and did quite well with it myself, but for my style where I loved more grip on the front than the back the standard setting proved more stable for me, however its driver preference so give it a go and choose for yourself.

Terry and myself always have different ideas, and luckily we both know our stuff with this car and both ideas work well for our style of driving, so as its a thread with knowledge its a good idea to try and come to your own conclusion from both of our settings.

The wing mounts sounds interesting, mine was just two bars like what I used on the chassis instead of the plastic centre mounts, and i removed the plastic screw mouns and the poles fitted perfectly and the kit angles were still achievable, but the wing mount lived for years without replacement as it never bent no matter how had you hit it. However as i was in the uk the car didnt need a great amount of angle as the jumps were not always there for the use of the wing to help whilst airbourne. Still your idea sounds quite an interesting.

[Bender]

Hi Jase, good to see my old car finally painted!