Yokomo YZ10 97 JMRCA Specification

[Dual]

Here is a Yokomo YZ10 Pavidis Edition with the 97 JMRCA Specification parts installed. These 3 specific parts were used in prototype form by the Yokomo Team at the 1997 IFMAR Worlds Warm-Up event and later that year released in production form and won the 1997 All Japan National Titles driven by Masami Hirosaka. The item descriptions and part numbers are as follows-

ZD-117J: '97 All Japan Championship Specification Special Upper Deck Set

ZD-733J: '97 All Japan Championship Specification Special Shock Tower Set

ZD:437: Worlds Specification Front Hubs

ZD-438: Worlds Specification Rear Hubs

They were a precursor for the Yokomo Prototype and production MX-4 which incorporated all of these features.

The ZD-117J upper deck set featured a high-tension shock absorber connecting the 2 separate pieces of the upper deck. My understanding from what I have read particularly on the Masaaki Hirosaka website is that this served two purposes. The first was to allow a certain amount of flex in the chassis to aid in driveability on certain track surfaces particular low grip. The second was to provide protection for the front portion of the upper deck (where it mounts to the front bulkhead) by allowing some 'give' during a frontal impact.

The ZD-733J shock tower set allowed the use of longer shocks for both the front and rear towers, 0.89 (from 0.71) at the front and 1.32 (from 1.02) in the rear. the rear shock tower does have an extra allocation to mount the shorter shocks but the front tower does not. Included in the ZD-733J set is a carbon fibre rear camber brace that although adds rigidity to the rear section of the camber mount area, leaves only one mounting point for the rear camber link whereas the 95 Pavidis Edition included a similar carbon fibre camber plate albeit with three mounting points for the rear camber link. Interestingly, the car Masami used at the 97 Worlds Warm-Up used the Pavidis style rear camber plate. Finally, the thickness of the front and rear towers has increased to 3mm (2.6mm on the Pavidis Edition).

The last pieces are the ZD-437 and ZD-438 front and rear wheel hubs. They obviously allow the use of the MX-4 rims but also the offset has changed. The front and rear hubs have and increased offset of 3mm compared to the original hubs used on the previous models (1994 YZ10 and Pavidis).

The car I have built was a something from nothing build as I only located the shock tower set a few months ago and the top deck pieces are reproduction items made by Paul Sims at Bezerk RC. Although it has most of the option parts that I would normally use such as the ZD-304S machined motor mount, full titanium and aluminium screws and hardware, Team Suzuki front and rear hub carriers, TS Delrin rear diff, it is a small step down from my next YZ10 97 Specification build which will have OEM towers and upper deck and a few other cool option parts and hardware not seen on this car. I have omitted the Yokomo Traction Control System slipper clutch from this build as I wanted to incorporate the front and rear belt idlers/tensioners. With the TCS setup, only the front belt tensioner can be used as the hub of the TCS interferes with the rear belt tensioners. Looking at photos of Masami's YZ10's from this period (1997), it looks as though he also stopped using the TCS/slipper clutch and used the setup that came standard on the Pavidis Edition which consisted of a front one-way pulley and rear gear adapter that replaced the slipper clutch.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

IMG_3129 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3127 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3132 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3156 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3131 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3146 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3142 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3154 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3147 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3143 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3133 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3134 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3152 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3137 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3140 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3139 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3123 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3149 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3148 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3141 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3145 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

IMG_3153 by Vincenzo Triventi, on Flickr

[blast]

What a jem !!

[K-Max]

Hi Dual,

That’s a beautiful’97 !

May I ask if those are Team Suzuki hubs that came originally black anodized?

And did Yokomo ever released the Pavidis front one-way pulley as a spare part?

Best,
Shian

[Dual]

Hi Dual,

That’s a beautiful’97 !

May I ask if those are Team Suzuki hubs that came originally black anodized?

And did Yokomo ever released the Pavidis front one-way pulley as a spare part?

Best,
Shian

Thank you Shian and blast. Very much appreciated.

To answer your questions Shian, the Team Suzuki carriers were anodised black when I purchased them. I have never seen a set other than the blue versions so I can only presume that the previous owner had them anodised black. Sincerely, if they were the trademark blue colour, I probably would not have used them on this build unless I was going for an all blue theme like I did with my MX-4 SSG car.

Yokomo did release the complete Pavidis Edition centre layshaft setup separately. The part numbers for the standard and optional hard versions are as follows-

Yokomo ZR-640JR: Direct Gear Adapter Set Centre One-Way Unit

Yokomo ZR-640JRH: Direct Gear Adapter Set Centre One-Way Unit Hard Version

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Vin

[K-Max]

Thanks Vin!

That was very helpful for me. Looking forward to your other 97 build!