2012 Vonats Lazer ZX

[Brandon G]

As usual, I waited till the last minute to finish a vonats build. Actually, I finished the buggy last week, so I am ahead of schedule a little bit on this one.

I picked this one up at last years vonats from a local guy up in CT. Couldn't pass up such a good deal. I have always wanted to see how the Lazer fares on the track.

The gold shocks that were on it were still smooth and not leaking a drop. Imagine that. Ball diffs were incredibly smooth for vintage Kyosho. I dont think this car had much runtime, so maybe that would attest to it being the way it was. Not without it's problems though. The front shock tower was busted and had another sandwiched to it. The top 2 tabs on the front bulkhead were snapped as well. A typical problem with these I would imagine. Forced me to fab up a couple of new braces on the Bridgeport. I bolted on a new shock tower as well. I noticed the bump steer was pretty extreme when assembled as per the manual. I swapped the steering rack to sit on below the bellcranks and installed the inner steering pivots on top of the rack. Cured the bump steer and reduced some of the binding at extreme travels. Other than that it was good to go. Throw in some gear and it's ready to rip.

The body is an original Parma Tomcat. Being it's a Jap buggy, I felt the battle flag would be a good scheme for it. Wheels are newer Kyosho 2.2". I have Goosebumps on it temporarily, with some Flipouts in reserve depending on what the track surface looks like. I used newer Kyosho springs that are spec for the Lipo version ZX-5. Back feels good, I will need to go softer rate up front though. The stock springs were way too stiff.

We'll see how she does. Cant be any worse than that YZ-10 I ran last year.........

Shot the pics with my brand new Canon EOS 60D. I like it very much. Soooo much better than that Sony I was using previously.

[Charlie don't surf]

KILLER BUGGY! Good luck out there this year too-


I love the look of goosebumps on a buggy

[Brandon G]

Some more body on pics.

I painted up a wider wing for it as well. The one in the pics is the one that came with the Tomcat body.

[Bormac]

Now THAT is going to be hard to miss out on the track! Great job, I always wanted to try a Japanese rising sun like that myself.

Good luck at the meet Brandon

[Kyosho Fan2]

Nice, when your shell dies due to excess usage (its more fun to drive than a yz10) kamtec make a thicker version. Your car looks great. I would advise using a cf front mount as the alloy one bends easily.

[losiXXXman]

COOL looking Lazer Brandon. I have been considering those wheels on a car too. Don't they come in n Fluorescent yellow too?

[Brandon G]

Yes, and that's about it. The black fronts have been discontinued, but you might still find them hiding in a LHS.

Front black: W6061
Rear black: W6063

Front yellow: W6061KY
Rear yellow: W6063KY

Of course the newer Lazer ZX-5 wheels work, but I liked the black spokes.....

[Brandon G]

Nice, when your shell dies due to excess usage (its more fun to drive than a yz10) kamtec make a thicker version. Your car looks great. I would advise using a cf front mount as the alloy one bends easily.

Are you referring to the steering ackerman plate on the bellcranks?

[Kyosho Fan2]

Apologies i meant front shock tower. In 89 i had issues with the alloy towers bending causing broken gearboxes so went to grp then cf. Just dont want the same issue happening to you.

[Brandon G]

Gotcha. This one has the black FRP towers. They will either hold up or snap.

Hopefully not the latter.

[isobarik]

Nice build

mvh Isobarik

[Mr. ED]

I like those tower reinforcements you made, good job.
You'd better put that AMB on the chassis though, rather than keeping it on the steering servo.
I did like you on a carbon chassied ultima and had some random misses on the counting system.

Good luck at the race!

[HKS_TRD]

That buggy looks stunning

This is a bit of a noob question but when you say goosebumps you are referring to the tyres I assume, but what brand and model exactly are they, I am assuming goosebumps is some sort of nickname for them

Cheers
Dan

[geeforce59]

Wow! looks like a Zero fighter to me!
watch out Pearl harbor!

[kaiser]

That buggy looks stunning

This is a bit of a noob question but when you say goosebumps you are referring to the tyres I assume, but what brand and model exactly are they, I am assuming goosebumps is some sort of nickname for them

Cheers
Dan

goose bumps are a tire made by jconcepts, great for loamy, "soft" tracks. if you haven't tried any jconcpets tires i highly recommend them, great line of tires for sure.

brandon, this car really looked great out there!
i've got a couple of og optima's that i planned on building up for this years vonats, didn't happen though.
but i wonder if i would have to run it in 4wd or classics, a rear motor optima doesn't stand a chance against mids/lazers/yz10's.