Kyosho Lazer ZX-5 SP - Page 5

RogerM · #81 31-12-2007

Rich thanks for the offer mate, much appreciated!!! I have however tried your set-up exactly as writen, one-way diff and pistons the whole 9 yards. I still didn't get on with it .... to the point I was actually lapping quicker with my RB5 at Newbury than the BJ4WE ... but this is not the thread for discussing that.

Caryphotography · #82 09-01-2008

I've got mine built and had a few battery packs run through it. I ended up putting the Novak GTB esc, Orion Velocity 5.5 brushless, and Orion 3600 race LiPo 25c pack in it. The power is ballistic. At the moment I'm just using the stock setup, anyone have any setup suggestions?

Gayo · #83 09-01-2008

Great pic !

zaskar · #84 09-01-2008

Hi everybody from Spain and please, sorry for my english

,
I´ve ran all this year whith a zx5 and i´m happy whith it, and this is the question, is the new SP a great improvement with regard to normal zx5?
Generally, Spanish racetrack are bumpy and low truction, what about thouse features?
Thanks

RogerM · #85 09-01-2008

The ZX5-SP is a much smoother car to drive, loads of steering but never feeling twitchy or nerveous.
Traction is possibly a little more than anything else out there at the moment (driven Yok BX, B44, BJ4WE, XX4, Pred, Durga and 501X so fairly comprehensive list to compare against!)

The most important thing is the balance of the car. It will reward you with very fast times if driven smoothly but will let you "go to battle" should you need to throw it around.

A friend of mine is an F1 driver and has run several of the different top cars over the last few years and his comment to me after giving me the transmitter back was "that would make a great qualifying car", what he means is it was easy to push hard with and didn't punish you if you made a small error.

Get the conversion / new car, I can assure you you'll not regret it!!!!

RogerM · #86 09-01-2008

Cary ...... that is now my backdrop .... great picture!!!

From what I can gather the kit set-up is meant to be a really good base to work from on a dirt track, most people not changing it much. There is a lot of discussion on the car on RcTech.net ...... hopefully more soon here as the car gains popularity. Most of the guys in the USA are running the kit set up with just an oil or spring tweek and maybe a washer or 2 under a ball stud.

The tracks we have in the UK are very different but if your interested my base astro set-up was derived on a VERY greasy mixed surface track. All I have changed recently is .....

up 1 spring grade all round to make the car more direct
up 5wt in rear oil for the same reason.

I intend to try the original ZX5 king-pin ballstud next time out as I'd like just a little bit more from the front end to turn it from a "safe qualifier" to a pointy "finals" car. I could increase the length of the link at the inboard front as there is one more hole acailable to use but I'm not sure that will give me exactly what I am looking for at all points through the corner!

If you let me know what the car is doing and what you'd prefer it to do then I will do my best to help with suggestions.

dbizzle5 · #87 09-01-2008

Roger,

Just to confirm, I am about to buy a 4wd and its either going to be a B44 or a lazer. A couple of things Im concerned about with the lazer are, firstly, as Im buying the sp in this country, will it be the full sp kit or the zx5 and the conversion? If so, which parts are missing? also, someone I know who has just bought one has trouble fitting his speedo in and has had to cut out part of the bodyshell to make it fit. I would be running it with a nosram tc spec brushless. Are there issues of fitting this speedo in the car? These have probably been covered before but would just like a black and white answer! Thanks a lot

gps3300 · #88 09-01-2008

Another ZX-5 question: I have the original crap handling, leaking shock car that came out 2 years ago. Please can someone simply list the part numbers and descriptions of all the bits I need to update it to the latest spec? Where's the best place in the Uk to buy bits?

jim76 · #89 09-01-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by gps3300

Another ZX-5 question: I have the original crap handling, leaking shock car that came out 2 years ago. Please can someone simply list the part numbers and descriptions of all the bits I need to update it to the latest spec? Where's the best place in the Uk to buy bits?

you will need the LAW 35 to convert the front and rear ends to the new spec. there isn't an upgrade kit for the shocks on their own unfortunately, but the tripple cap shock parts come in the law34 rear end kit (bit of a pricey upgrade at £60+ just for the shock caps!)

you will also need new front wheels as the old ones will no longer work - too wide.

if you do plan to buy the LAW34 and LAW35 kits together with wheels, then it may be better value for you to buy a new kit altogether. The sale of your old kit should make up the shortfall.

hope that helped.
with regards shops, DMS racing is usually pretty competitive for price, or microtech who have a great website.

RogerM · #90 10-01-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbizzle5

Roger,

Just to confirm, I am about to buy a 4wd and its either going to be a B44 or a lazer. A couple of things Im concerned about with the lazer are, firstly, as Im buying the sp in this country, will it be the full sp kit or the zx5 and the conversion? If so, which parts are missing? also, someone I know who has just bought one has trouble fitting his speedo in and has had to cut out part of the bodyshell to make it fit. I would be running it with a nosram tc spec brushless. Are there issues of fitting this speedo in the car? These have probably been covered before but would just like a black and white answer! Thanks a lot

dbizzle5 ....

At the moment the SP kit is supplied as the original car and the LAW35 upgrade pack along with a Balkan body and wing.

To build the car to the SP geometry you should really buy 42mm front shock shafts (W5184-04) and ideally 50mm rear shock shafts (W5193-01) although as the ZX5 kit shafts are 54mm you can always get to the same place via internal droop limiters.

That will get you a car that runs as an SP.

There is a thread on RcTech.net (search for RogerM posts in Electric offroad and you'll find it) which details the exact differences between a "kit SP" and a converted car to "SP" ..... I will try to copy it over to here later for you.

Basically the missings are;

one-piece motor mount (not a performance issue really)

SP kit includes the LAW31 ali front arm brace

the velvet coated shock bodies (again no difference on the track)

SP kit uses the RB5 shock cartridges which are an improvement

shock shafts as mentioned

hex screws (DC Racing do a comprehensive screw kit for about £10)

you will have all the transmission options, the SP kit is direct drive 4wd only .. no one-ways.

Body wise the Balkan body (SP shell) is big enough to fit any brushless speedo under (as is the Bullet) so no worries there. My car has LRP TC fitted so don't worry.

Anything else please ask!!!!!!!

RogerM · #91 10-01-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by gps3300

Another ZX-5 question: I have the original crap handling, leaking shock car that came out 2 years ago. Please can someone simply list the part numbers and descriptions of all the bits I need to update it to the latest spec? Where's the best place in the Uk to buy bits?

Jim76 is almost correct but not quite .....

To get the car running as a full SP would be expensive but some of it is just for show....

I will assume that you have the LAW31 ali front arm brace and decnt screws already ..... if not get those!!!

To do the rest of the conversion you need an LAW35 SP upgrade pack.

If you've not got the tripple cap shock cartridges then you can get W5184 which is the tripple cap rebuild kit for the RB5 / SP. That contains the cartridges and ALL hardware including 42 / 50mm shock shafts!!!! That will be about £30 - £35.

I still have the original ZX5 shocks on my car at present and they don't leak ..... but I took my time building them with grease (packed) and careful deburring of the plastics.

As for the best place in the UK to buy from that will be Dom @ DC Racing. As I am now fully Kyosho he will no doubt be ordering from them on a very regular basis to keep me going. I am sure you won't beat him on price either and definately not on quality of service!!!!

As for the comparison with the B44 price wise by the time you factor in a one-way of some description for the B44 it will be a little more expensive than if you bought the current ZX5-SP, DC screw kit and W5184 shock upgrade.

For my driving style the ZX5-SP is a vastly better car than the BJ4WE / B44 / D4 style cars so I'd obviously suggest you go in that direction. Everybody who has driven my ZX5-SP has commented on how nice it is to drive.

Compared to the original car it is super safe, one person described it as like it drove itself around the track .... another compared it to a XX4 on weed ... LOL I've yet to hear anybody say anything negative AFTER driving the ZX5-SP.

jim76 · #92 10-01-2008

Roger
just to clarify because i'm getting myself confused!
If you buy the new "SP" kit, does it have the triple cap RB5 shocks in it?

maybe you can draw up a table to compare the two kits to clarify? something like;

'' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' SP kit ' ' ' ' ' original + law35
hex screws ' ' ' ' ' Y ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 'N
one way ' ' ' ' ' ' 'N ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 'Y
alloy front brace Y ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 'N

etc
etc
edit - bugger, didn't come out very clear, they took all my spaces out!

sorry to be a pain! i just think it will make it 100% clear for everyone. maybe it could be a seperate sticky thread in the kyosho section.
cheers

edit2 - just looked at microtechs site and they list the SP, and say it has triple cap shocks and full one-way options? How many versions are out there?!!!!!!! arrrrggggggghhhh!!!!

RogerM · #93 10-01-2008

Jim .... I will try to do that tonight!

It seems MicroTech have done what a few others have and copied the text directly off the Kyosho.com site which is for the SP car kit that the rest of the world are getting!!!!

The importat part of that, but you do have to read it VERY carefully not to misunderstand it is......

* Choice of three front axle configurations with one-way, ball differential or spool (rigid). One-way is sold separately.

If you ring Microtech they will tell you that it is the original car with the LAW35 and SP body and wing added, of that I am sure!!!

In the UK (and the rest of Europe that is served by FDL as an importer) is not getting the full "SP kit" until their stocks of the original ZX5 are exhausted or at least much lower.

At first that seems we are short changed but think of it this way .... you actually get to try both cars if you want, can mix and match, if your not running brushless you can run the much nicer looking original shell, you have a spare wing ....blah ... blah ... blah. In the long run I actually think we are winning considering that the front one-way will cost you 2 x £9 + 2 x £6 + 1 x £23 {all prices approx} so in total £53 it is worth getting the car the way FDL are distributing it.

I stronglt advise anybody selling a ZX5 to get an SP later in the year to keep the one-way parts back!!!

And anyway Jim ..... why are you looking at Microtech's site .... surely you'll be ordering from DC Racing anyway

jim76 · #94 10-01-2008

oops! that will teach me to read the full sentence!

the one way options in the original kit are worth it, but then if you have to buy the shock shafts, velvet bodies, hex screws, alloy brace etc it probably won't work out much different. But you will obviously have the spare shell.

what a nightmare. This unfortunately is why Kyosho are not as popular as they should be over here. The car is great, and Kyosho do have constant inovation of parts, they just implement things is such a confusing way!

RogerM · #95 10-01-2008

You don't NEED the velvet bodies, they are more bling than anything (ok the rears have more thread on so using Losi springs will be easier but ...)

You only really need the front shafts, in fact you can get the same overall shock lengths with the kit shafts but I wasn't happy having the shock bottoms screwed on such a small amount.

In fairness to FDL and Kyosho if the original ZX5 had been as popular in this country (and northern Europe) as it has been in most of the world then there wouldn't be so many of the original kits left in stock.

Unfotunately the original car seems to have got a bad name and that has put people off buying it, which put the shops off stocking it and thus .... loads left in stock at the importers.
It wouldn't make sense for them to distribute the updated car any other way at present.

My car cost me less than a B44 would have, lots less when you consider I'd not have built it without some form of one-way (prefer centre one-ways .. not sure if there even is one). I think people are still getting a good deal!!!

RogerM · #96 10-01-2008

By the way Jim .... can you please edit the LAW34 to read LAW35 (which is the SP conversion pack) before somebody gets confused and orders the wrong parts .... cheers