Full suspension EVO rally zipzap, springs all around!

Sporttracguy · Post by **Sporttracguy** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:13 pm

This suspension was inspired by my 1:43 epoch indoor racer but of course i had to modify the idea a little and its still a work in progress. So far the suspension is fully functional and i just need to add the cosmetic stuff and the electronics.

Ill get better pics of the chassis later, this is more of a teaser than anything else. I had to streatch the front springs a little to make them stiffer (they were depressing with just the weight of the zipzap stock, they werent going to hack it for rally driving) I then started work on the rear end. I cut off the back and cut a slit the length of the car about half and inch long and quarter of an inch wide. I then made a corrisponding piece(reversed to fit in that area) and mounted it to the motor section. From there i made some swivel pieces (like my other suspensions) and mounted those. I put a shock in there and now i get full up and down front and back shocks and a rear indipendant swivel as well. The spring is very soft and works great with the weight of two cells,, here are those teaser shots:

Ill have more shots soon.

Sporttracguy

hue35 · Post by **hue35** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:35 pm

God damn, dude... I love the shit you're puttin' out. That's badass.
I can't wait to see more pics.

arfin · Post by **arfin** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:41 pm

Thats Sick man

I made a suspension like it, but yours is the better model! Good job.

Post by **CaboWabo** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:45 pm

So when's the full on write up tutorial to go in the Articles section coming?

That's pretty cool man.

betty.k · Post by **betty.k** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:46 pm

sweet ride man!

just don't go too hard on springs, you want about 1/4 of your suspension travel to be taken up by the weight of the car. this is known as "sag".

Sporttracguy · Post by **Sporttracguy** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 8:40 pm

yeah, 1/4 sounds about right to me. The front springs were almost fully depressed when i set it on the desk with only a single cell in it. I pulled them out and took some plastic off and streatched the springs a little. It stiffened them up so that with 2 cells it only drops a little. The rear end is fully adjustable with the turn of a screw and its just about perfect as of now. I have a few little suspension tweaks to mess with and then its on to the guts of the car. Im running aftermarket zzrims at the moment but i think ill switch over to some better wheels when i get the thing finished.

Glad you guys like it.

STG

DarkTari · Post by **DarkTari** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 8:37 am

STG ! That's Badd Azz Pimp! I luv your work, can't wait to see the tuit

Sporttracguy · Post by **Sporttracguy** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:46 am

I figured out how to cram 3 cells in there now but i somehow managed to break one of the steering wires and now im in magnet wire hell. These things are a pain and a half to repair. While trying to fix the steering wire i dropped in a super perfection magnet thats about twice the size of the stock zz one. Stronger steering is always better, the zz one was weak at best. Its really going to need the better steering because of the stiffer shocks up front that are causing a bit more friction on the steering joints. Ill update you guys again if i ever get this wire repaired

EDIT: Ok, i just got her working and HOLY SHIT!! This thing rocks. with 3 cells it handles like its on rails. I had to add the wider zz wheel/tire kit to widen the stance a little but this suspension is amazing ,,Ill get pics soon, i promise

STG

Sporttracguy · Post by **Sporttracguy** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:35 pm

ok, some new and older pictures. First is of the suspension and chassis while i was building it. You can see i was trying to fit 3 cells wide but i ended up doing it a different way because it was too wide for the body and didnt leave any room for the pcb. Also you can see the red wd-40 tubes i used to create the swivels in both directions. I had a hard time getting good pictures because i used clear plastic (from the zz box) and the camera didnt like to focus on it. Hope this shows a little more of how it works

Here it is with the body off, im still working on how i want to mount the antenna, it just has some black tape on it for now so i dont short it. That red plug up front is what i use to charge it, i use a modified epoch charger for the 3 cells.

Ok, one last pic, i was able to cram every thing in there and still get the body to sit quite low. I wanted to keep the center of gravity as low as i could while still having a functionaly suspension.

I drove this thing around and raced it on both lenolium and carpet. It can hold its own with a 1:43 scale 4 celled epoch in both handling and speed although its not quite as wide so it tips over a little more (but not much) the only down side is its not digitaly proportional

On lenolium the suspension lets me partialy drift around corners (never done that in a bit before, its great) and i can take a full on turn at top speed and not flip it. Another cool thing this bugger does is off of small jumps i get a good bounce on takeoff and on landing, it keeps the bit level when its in the air, very cool looking.

The upgrades so far are as follows: tri cell, super perfection PCB w/ turbo, super perfection steering magnet, streatched front springs, modified front suspension for more travel, solid antenna, orange zz motor, rear suspension up, down, and right and left articulation, and zz aftermarket wheels and tires (not for long of course)

All in all its great fun, its fast and handles great and im very happy with the end result. I still may do something about that body styling though.

STG

hue35 · Post by **hue35** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:47 pm

Sporttracguy wrote:On lenolium the suspension lets me partialy drift around corners (never done that in a bit before, its great) and i can take a full on turn at top speed and not flip it. Another cool thing this bugger does is off of small jumps i get a good bounce on takeoff and on landing, it keeps the bit level when its in the air, very cool looking.

Now look what you've done... you've got to make a video now. You can't just tell that little story and expect us to be satisfied... we wanna see it too.

Sporttracguy · Post by **Sporttracguy** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:56 pm

ha ha,, lol yeah i figured id get a response of "Bull shit, this guy is full of crap lol, we want proof!"

cause i would be saying the same thing. Ill see what i can do about getting a hold of a video camera in the next week or so. (ill be home from college for a few days before i have to go back for summer quarter)

STG

Finks · Post by **Finks** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:09 pm

That is looking great! What I would recomend is throwing some motorworks nubbies on her or lego tires so she could be a true rally legend.

sat4life27 · Post by **sat4life27** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:10 pm

Thats A+ pimpin STG, Spring quarter ends next monday for me. Great job once again...

Sporttracguy · Post by **Sporttracguy** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:21 pm

I thought about lego tires for this one but i use lego tires on almost all my other bits and i thought i would be a little different this time. Im currently using the tires on the left but i think im going to switch over the one on the right, just slightly more off road style

STG

hue35 · Post by **hue35** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:30 pm

Sporttracguy wrote:ha ha,, yeah i figured id get a response of "Bull shit, this guy is full of crap lol, we want proof!" cause i would be saying the same thing.

Oh, no, that's not where I was coming from at all... I just meant your description of how cool lookin' it is in action makes the rest of us wish we could see it go... I've got no doubt that thing kicks ass.