Lowrance

iTrader: (30)

I would highly recommend a different front bumper...I run a one of the hard bumpers from a xray T3 which for the most part a direct replacement. The stock bumper is very soft.

wollow86

iTrader: (7)

To begin with, I wouldn't worry about the sway bars. Pick up some springs instead.

And as Lowrance recommends, get the T3 hard bumper.

Maybe the only other thing would be the XI rear arms.

The VMM will need some work done on other areas of the car, like the top deck and the battery mounts. Plenty of pics and info not to far back in this thread.

thefan

iTrader: (3)

I was considering getting swaybars too, are the front and rear swaybars identical? or do i need to buy both?

wollow86

iTrader: (7)

You need SAK-45 (mounting kit) SAK-46 (front bars) SAK-47 (rear bars)

6376vette

Agree with the spring set over the sway bars but it would be best to get both.

Can you please explain the physical difference between the arms that makes the xi arm better? From the listings I have seen the xi zero zero s and ff all can use the same arm. I have always used the zero hard arms and never had any traction issues at all. Please explain so I can learn.

The bumper is nice but not a necessary upgrade.....unless you plan on hitting a lot of stuff really hard. I have never broken a part the hard bumper would have saved. Bodies included. If you have the $$$$ get the bumper but get the bars and springs first.

6376vette

Ok found it. XI rear arms are shorter. Better traction in low traction conditions. I run on high traction carpet. Probably why I never felt the need to change anything

davlind

iTrader: (4)

How much shorter are the xi arms over the zero and are they a direct fit or do you need other parts.
Thanks

wollow86

iTrader: (7)

It's a few mm, but I haven't actually measured the difference. They do bolt straight in. It's much cheaper then using narrow blocks. As as vette explained, it adds more rear grip because of the increased weight transfer. It depends on your driving style too. I've found with the stock arms you have to have a big difference front to rear spring rate to get it nice, and because your taking away grip from the front instead of adding it to the rear, you have less overall grip.

Got it in one. I run mostly low to med grip so I notice whenever I drive a stock s. Might also be why your big on sway bars but I'm not :-)

6376vette

Lol. It may be. I love the sway bars and I swear by them when they are used properly. on our high grip track it helps keep the inside tires down so they don't diff out and spin causing the tires to overheat and get really slippery. my son was running a s model without them and the tires are chewed up. The motor was also getting really hot from the spin. Just put the sway bars on tonight so tomorrow will be a huge test. I will be sure to report the differences. I just picked up an xi so my son has inherited all of the zero parts from my car.

I have a good friend of mine who runs vta and he prefers no sway bar in the rear but runs one up front. It works for him. Guess most of it comes down to driving style and feel.

By the way I absolutely LOVE the xi. Man what a smooth car. Funny thing is that it has xray arms on it so I couldn't compare them to the zero arms. I have no idea what the x ray arms do as far as handling. Only drove it once and I never drove on the stock xi arms. I have been told they increase wheel base by 2 mm. In theory the car should be more stable. Guess I need to swap the arms just to try it. I will save that one for a later day though.

Got me thinking though. If the xi arms are shorter I'm willing to bet it is by 2mm. The zero has a total of 4 mm track difference front vs rear so the car is physically wider in the back. I run 7mm hexes in the front and 5 in the rear so the track is even. Car measures right on 190 mm when using 0 offset wheels. I also went to 3mm offset wheels for a total width of 196. I could notice a difference. Had to make other tuning changes in the set up but the car became more stable in the turns. Maybe this is the same effect as adding the xi arms.

wollow86

iTrader: (7)

The stock XI is nice, but for me I found it was lacking a little steering. The DH is a huge improvement there. You could probably get close by running the split blocks, and DH upper deck. But then again if your on high grip less flex is probably a good thing.

Will be interested to hear how the S goes with just adding sway bars. Are you just copying across your bar setup or going something different?

6376vette

I was running a full zero with everything on the 2.5mm stiff chassis plate. My son had a s model with the vertical motor mount, 19 tooth pulleys and a spool on the 2.25mm narrow chassis. Now that I have the xi he gets all of my zero parts. His set up as far as shocks springs camber and toe etc will all be the same when we drive the sway bars today. I'm sure we will need to do a little tuning but we are going to start with the same bars I had working on the 2.5 mm chassis.

The xi is beautiful on high grip. I have a ton of steering so you're probably right about the flex. it seems perfect but I do want to upgrade to dh specs. Especially the split suspension blocks. Can't wait to throw my reedy sonic in it today. My revtech is overheating (sensor board????). Should be able to get some great laps in.

hotrod306

can some one tell me the dif with motor mounts sak66 v2 &sak 17?

6376vette

Sak 66 is just the motor mount. The sak s17 includes the post opposite the motor mount. If you have a sakura s then get the sak s17.

shadowracer24

iTrader: (3)

I took my original bumper and put the foam pieces back in the cutouts and covered the top, bottom, and front with a good layer of shoe goo. Just as stiff and tough as the Xray bumper after it dried. You know we all have a big tube of shoe goo layin around.

FauxMako

I did that too. It definitely makes the bumper stiffer. But, the 3Racing foam is just softer than the foam Xray uses. The Xray foam itself is harder. Cutouts or not the foam isn't the same.

That said, if you never hit anything the bumper never has to do anything, so your experience may vary. $14 for the Xray bumper is a lot of money compared to the couple bucks the 3Racing bumper costs (and since it comes with the kit you could even consider it to be free). But, if you are hitting stuff hard enough to break arms/c-cups/knuckles, IMHO it'll pay for itself.