Lazer ZX-R carbon fibre tub project

[minichamps11]

Got a bit of a thing for these carbon tub cars at the moment. Restoration of a ZX-R with Fibrelyte tub from the mid 90's.

Carbon motor plate




Carbon gearbox side brace



Wasp racing machined nylon layshaft



Alloy pivot blocks fitted front & rear



New arms fitted



WASP Racing slipper x 2 - very crude & heavy. Spurs are replaceable without altering slipper setting



Hope you like. Got to dremel the carbon tub (ouch!) at the rear underneath the wishbones as the Fibrelyte tub is wider here than the original chassis and the wishbones have no droop at all. This car must have handled terribly..

[Mr. ED]

wooow, that's got to be some serious money. Lazers were notorious expensive here and very thin spread. I guess none of this extravagancy made it to belgium ever, even if it's just a big jump from the UK

Thanks for posting the rare!

[bdrmbully]

wowzers that is 1 super rare piece of rc history.gotta love it. looks awesome.

[jeroen206]

looking great , almost want to start collecting Kyosho cars.
I liked the Lazer ZX , the only kyosho i ever raced.

[Synergy]

Got a bit of a thing for these carbon tub cars at the moment.

You're not the only one.

I don't really understand why Fiber-Lyte don't list all of the tubs they used to produce, I know they've relisted the RC10 tub so why not the rest (if they still have the molds)

[RichieRich]

Wow, that looks beautiful. Carbon fiber is awesome.

[Kyosho Fan2]

Just remember the first tub chassis was only made due to me pestering them to make my design, then they made it more.

I see the front shock tower is one of my designs so if you want to make it a definate ZXR design I would recommend going for the original design. Otherwise a good strong choice if you prefer the design.

Are you going to race it or just for show. If your racing then the alloy motor plate is a wise idea as CF doesnt dissipate the heat. Also from experience the wasp layshaft wasnt that good, never the less still looks good.

Its looking really good, hope that you have a good shell to go with it. I found the chassis kept the shell in great shape and I used mine for five or six years without needing any replacement and thats three club events a week and a main event on the weekend. Class act!!

If your up for racing it I am doing the Petit event in December this year (there is one on and will be advertised when the time gets closer) I can get a good setup for carpet for you. The chassis makes it one of the best buggies I have ever used on high grip surfaces. I will be racing my ZXS so should be a giggle

[minichamps11]

Don't think these cars are that rare as this is the second one I've owned. See here for the first one. It had loads of upgrades and I regret selling it http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=83506&id=23061

Never had a problem with front towers breaking on any of the Lazer's I used to race. The ZX's alloy one used to bend, but when I upgraded to a ZX-R mk.2 the standard kit tower lasted 3 years of racing and I still have it somewhere. Front gearbox moulding's were a different story and used to break often. If I were ever to race a Lazer I'd fit the reinforced machined Nylon MMS upgrade. This carbon car isn't going on a track though. Lazers were too heavy & never had enough steering compared to the Procat I raced.

Regarding the motor plate, carbon is electrically & thermally conductive. Ellis Stafford uses a C/F motor plate on his X-Factory X6 and today's motor run much hotter than those from 16 years ago so I don't think it would be a problem.

[Kyosho Fan2]

Heavy on this car is what made it handle better and steering was better than the Cat. I had 7.5 degree on the front and had the wider front and boy a lot of top drivers couldnt drive it due to too much steering. Jamie Booths was the same, major grip front end.

Mind you I prefered the tub chassis as you could pretty much lower it so its almost hitting the deck on carpet and it stayed there like glue. Outdoors the chassis took the pounding and handled the rough terrain with ease.

I agree rare it isnt as there are a lot around for sale. I never broke a front gear box but thats probably due to using the half circular shock tower as the design strengthened the central section and due to that you didnt need the white nylon gear box casing. The chassis may well be though as if its got six cell holes in the chassis (cut out) then its the only one as I was the only one who had it, and was the first tub for the Lazer.

I tried a CF motor mount in the early 90's and found the motor came off hotter and that was the reason why I went back to the metal one. It disappated the heat through the alloy block that holds the top deck up better as the CF didnt.

Still Dan Greenwood uses the alloy one on his X factory car whilst yes ellis does use the CF one. I suppose its down to preference as the brushless motors dont get as hot as brushed motors.

But for the ZXR it likes being over geared a lot and due to this maybe thats why I came to the decision, but as you are making a display car all CF is really nice. If you want to you can get the pivot blocks out of CF as well, as I had them make them as well.

[minichamps11]

James,

By "alloy block that holds up the gearbox", do you mean the optional MMS style machined alloy part? Got one but it's been machined for the ZX-R not ZX-RR and doesn't fit this car

Already got a set of your carbon fibre pivot blocks . I'm the guy that loaned you a set of original plastic pivot blocks for Fibrelyte to copy, and in return you gave me a free set of C/F pivot blocks. They almost went on this car but then I re-discovered that Fibrelyte hadn't drilled the vertical holes because they told you they needed reinforcing with a metal tube to stop the blocks splitting. At this point I decided to put the alloy ones back on! This is supposed to be a quick restoration & I was feeling too lazy....

Don't get me wrong, these tub cars are rare, just not ZX-S rare.

[minichamps11]

Aluminum alloy thermal conductivity = around 180 W.m-1.K-1. Carbon Fibre actually has a higher thermal conductivity at 250 - 300 W.m-1.K-1 measured parallel to the plane. However on the the Lazer the heat flow would be perpendicular to the carbon strands so conductivity lowers to 50 -100W.m-1.K-1, so agreed, if I were ever to race the car I'd fit my black finned MMS motor mount

[minichamps11]

Got this far before I decided to dye the strange coloured Teamline castor blocks and the shock bits & pieces:

[minichamps11]

Finished rolling chassis....








The slightly battered bodyshell & wing that came with it. The wing is a ZX-5 wing, and the shell might be a Parma one? It's not Kyosho whatever it is, but it's a nice shape, I like it better than the original body.

[Kyosho Fan2]

WOW!!! looks really good.

TRX1 shocks are the bees knees with this car. Use for the front size 2 pistons 60wt and schumie grey, and on the rear size 3 with 40wt and schumie white springs and with 2mm of pack so the ends dont go totally into the body. This setup will put you easily into the A on any type of carpet or evan at Worksop. For outdoors just swop the pistons around and use the same oil and same springs on the rear and schumie yellow on the front and roll bar.

I hope they are 7.5 castor blocks as that means it will be dialled big time.

Yes the alloy mount thats holding up the top deck at the rear should fit, not matter what chassis. This disappates the heat really well and adds strength to the top deck and chassis.

So now I know where they are. The CF items that I had made were a work of art, and hope that one day when you get around to it (I am the same and cant be bothered as much as before) you can fit them. Good work though.

[minichamps11]

Cheers for the compliment James. The shell will be replaced with a new one at sometime, possibly the ace ZX-S Dragon one you sold.

I have no idea what degree the castor blocks are - how many different options did they sell? I've got a confirmed set of NIP 7.5 degrees but I'm saving those for another project.

One thing that's bugging me - why did your carbon tub chassis move the steering servo from it's usual ZX-R location?

Cheers,

Ian