The Top Deck is 2mm Carbon Fibre, 5 Layers layed up
0-90/+-45/0-90/+-45/0-90.
Both Shock towers are 3mm Carbon fibre, 7 Layers arranged
0-90/+-45/0-90/+-45/0-90/+-45/0-90.
Both sides of the carbon are like glass, the edges are nice but it would be best as with all CF, to run a small bead of thin superglue around them to protect the carbon from delaminating. 
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Science aside, they look nice and are stiff. Off the car its very hard to bend the shock towers, the top deck under twisting seems slightly stiffer than the original but being only 2mm is still flexible, I'm not sure having a chassis a lot stiffer than this would help.
The top deck requires the use of a 2mm spacer to raise the antenna mount to enable easier access, otherwise its next to impossible to get a wire up without taking off the top deck.
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The Original Moulded Top deck on the ZX5 is angled (though it might not look it), the rear motor mount / gearbox are about 4mm higher than the front gearbox / steering.
To mount the Carbon top deck, I found the best way was to screw down the rear 5 screws, then with 1mm spacers on the steering and no spacers on the front gearbox screw the front 4 screws down.
This results in a slight curve to the top deck but doesnt effect its performance. You can mount the top deck flat using 4mm spacers in the front 4 holes but this doesnt allow the body to sit as low as it should- probably by about 2mm.
All the holes line up perfectly on the top deck, and when screwed down its hard to tell a difference with the original, its already a stiff chassis setup, the look is hard to ignore though, it definately adds some *bling*. |
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The front shock tower has the same angles as the original, and doesnt alter the shock angle at all so the spacers go on the same way as originally
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The Shock towers are similar to the existing ones, all the shock mount holes are identical, the rear wing is limited to a high and low position.
The rear shock tower, with the spacers and screws in the same place angles the rear shocks backwards by about 2mm, you can overcome this change of angle by putting the big spacer on the other way around, after the shock.
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Overall, Atomic Carbon have done a really good job with these parts, the holes are all perfect and the shapes interesting, the carbon used is nice and adds the required *bling* factor as well as reducing weight by 18g overall for all parts.
You Can Purchase / Preorder the parts directly from Atomic, or get in touch about custom work.
www.atomic-carbon.co.uk
Make sure to keep your eye on their TOP SECRET new 4wd buggy design.
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