Design Flaws in ZX5 and how to sort them

[andys]

Had my 2nd indoor run with the ZX5.
Only change I made was to put some extra Losi large spacers inside the rear shocks to limit the droop. Ran 40wt up front and 35 in the rear.

The car was awesome. My driving stunk, but the car could have being so fast around the track. Before limiting the droop the back end kicked up and the car flew badly over the jumps, it was well settled now and flew beautifully. In fact I've never felt so good about driving a 4WD indoors, it really was spot on. Very pleased. BJ may well be up for sale yet

[BluesFan]

I do see the lack of droop you all speak of with the front of the car, but I'm curious as to why you would need more? I would think on the UK type tracks, this really wouldn't be an issue so much as it would for US type tracks. I for one am actually quite surprised that it hasn't caused me any trouble yet at any of my tracks and some of our jumps can get pretty big. I have very few scratches on my chassis or front bumper. I don't really bottom out all the much and the only changes I've made thus far is 40wt up front and 35wt in the rear. The suspension seems stiff enough to prevent the car from bottoming out on jumps, yet plush enough to soak up all the bumps on the track. It may look odd with no droop, but somehow, Kyosho did it right. On a related note, have any of you tried the other optional kyosho springs? One of my friends bought the stiffest front springs and they don't even fit! LOL! Odd isn't it? Kyosho springs don't fit the shocks they are intended for. The springs are too short and the collar cannot be threaded low enough to match up with the spring. If you don't like the droop now, don't try the stiffer front Kyosho springs!

Lastly, the handling of this car never ceases to amaze from race to race. I was at a track this past weekend that *tried* to maximize its building space by building a track that was just filled with 180 degree turns. It was quite annoying in 2WD, but the ZX-5 flew through them beautifully. I was impressed to say the least. All the XXX-4's pushed through the turns REALLY bad and the BJ-4s had to at least tap the brakes to cut the corner sharp. I didn't hit the brakes once through any of the turns and could easily roll them tight off-power. Acceleration out the turns was amazing. I was able to rattle off the fastest laptimes for the weekend.... now if I could have only driven a little bit more consistent. Either way, my friend was able to win the meet and he was running a ZX-5 as well. He also noticed the same handling characteristics of the car as well through the tight turns.