Mini-Z, Kyosho Mini-Z Racer, MR-03, MR-02, MA-010, Forums, News, Pictures, Parts, and Shop - Mini-ZRacer.com
Forums, Mini-Z, MiniZ, Kyosho Mini-Z, Kyosho MiniZ, Kyosho Mini-Z Racer
Mini-Z Hop-Ups, Mini-Z Parts, MiniZ Hop-Ups, MiniZ Parts, Kyosho Mini-Z Hop-Ups, Kyosho Mini-Z Parts, Kyosho MiniZ Hop-Ups, Kyosho MiniZ Parts, Kyosho Mini-Z Racer Hop-Ups, Racer Kyosho Mini-Z Parts
Old 2003.02.27, 04:25 PM   #1
West.F1
San Marino GP- 4/25/04
 
West.F1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: south of columbus
Posts: 1,637
Product Review: the CLK Front Bumper Plate

I came across the front bumper plate for the clk by Megatech last week at the hobby store. Being an avid clk owner I couldn’t resist getting this item just to see how it worked on my beloved Mercedes sedan. The following is my review on this front bumper plate made by Megatech:

http://www2.gpmd.com/image/m/mtcc1082.jpg

The first thing I noticed after opening the package was how much softer it is compared to kyosho's bumper for the F1. It's somewhat pliable though still firm enough to not bend after applied pressure. I was concerned that it was not as sturdy as the F1 plates knowing it's purpose is to protect the body from damage. I’ll cover impact results in a while.

Installation of the bumper was quite simple. It comes with two mounting screws with flat beveled heads which is intended to replace the ones used for the front adapter on the chassis. The holes on the plate are also beveled so as to give a flush fit once the screws are in place. The length of the kit screws are longer than the stock screws and also doesn't share the same thread pattern so a bit of effort has to be made to get the bumper plate and body adapter to fit snug. Overall the fit is good after installing the kit screws without any sag with the frontal portions of the plate which essentially floats freely without additional support.

pictured here is how the plate looks from the underside. notice the sides of the plate allow for good clearance of the wheels so as not to inhibit turning radius
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...3/fc983f37.jpg

another pic from the upper view

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...6/fc983e28.jpg

Once installed, the Megatech plate extends forward a decent amount throughout the length of the the clk’s front bumper. There's some question though on how much actual protection it could provide. more on this later:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...e/fc983d19.jpg


These next two pictures shows the ground clearance of the bumper plate after installation. This first one is on my stock chassis:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...f/fc983c86.jpg

This one is on the mod chassis w/ 2 degree camber knuckles:
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...4/fc983e89.jpg


Initial performance tests last weekend yielded less than stellar results on the carpet track. From the very onset the sedan suffered poor turn-in response when taking corners. I contributed this to the sides of the bumper plate making contact with the carpet as well as the added 1 mm thickness of the plate itself decreasing the ride height of the front end. I did however use my stock chassis with stock springs during this initial testing. Future tests with stronger springs might yield different results. Also the use of stock mounting screws vs the kit screws may have had some added effect though i didn't experience any problems with drag on the straights. either from the bumper or the screws. Further testing this evening on my kitchen floor seemed to help minimize understeer effects from the plate quite dramatically. clearly the effects of any drag is surface dependent despite the ground clearance being unchanged.

Concerning impact testing, I didn’t bother doing any at the carpet track because I knew the low setting plate wouldn’t do much to protect the nose of the clk against (rounded) pvc pipes. I did perform some impact tests at home and found the plate helped significantly during impacts against any objects that was remotely verticle ie chair legs, walls, books, etc.. protection was good with both direct and indirect impacts.

Conclusion: i will say that the idea behind the bumper plate is a good one. It helps to protect the nose of the clk as long as the source of impact is fairly vertical and of course the speed of impact is not so dramatic. i feel the bumper ads to the aesthetics of the car as well. i plan to paint it black but left it's original color for the sake of examples. Any negative effects i experienced with handling on the carpet track was not shared when i ran the car on my smooth kitchen floor. essentially any effects on handling is surface dependent. also, use of the stock chassis (due to heigher clearance) and stock springs was used in this test review.

As it stands, my advise on this product is that if you like having every possible option part installed on your sedan, then by all means get it. It’s a pretty cheap item and it looks good for show reasons. For racing applications however, i would use caution. Depending on what surface you race on, it may or may not affect our cornering ability.


thank you for your time.

Last edited by West.F1; 2003.02.27 at 10:46 PM.
West.F1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2003.02.27, 04:38 PM   #2
Ken Mifune
2-Z or not 2-Z...
 
Ken Mifune's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: The Open Road
Posts: 2,678
don't forget to flush

Aren't the new screws suppose to be longer by the thickness of the bumper? If they're still too long, why not trim them to length.
Ken Mifune is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2003.02.27, 05:49 PM   #3
West.F1
San Marino GP- 4/25/04
 
West.F1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: south of columbus
Posts: 1,637
the thickness of the bumper isn't that much. under 2mm. i was able to use the stock screws without needing the kit screws anyway.

as for trimming the kit screws, i was just too lazy
West.F1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2003.02.27, 06:59 PM   #4
ZIZI
RC heli-guy
 
ZIZI's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Slovenia
Posts: 224
Send a message via MSN to ZIZI
NIce review but you should have trimmed the screws cause the stock ones would sitck out under the plate and that might have been the braking action you got but the ones that came with it are flush fit which would mean no sticking out under the plate...and possibly no more of that drag...

ZIZI
ZIZI is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2003.02.27, 07:14 PM   #5
West.F1
San Marino GP- 4/25/04
 
West.F1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: south of columbus
Posts: 1,637
new data. update soon..
West.F1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2003.02.27, 08:40 PM   #6
2G2GOLDENSTRAT
epoch indoor racer owner
 
2G2GOLDENSTRAT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: INDIANAPOLIS,IN
Posts: 555
Send a message via AIM to 2G2GOLDENSTRAT
i have a powerline bumper on my z and it drags on carpet but doesnt touch the ground in the garage...it looks cool on my mr-s body but its too low to really protect the body to much and it gets stuck under doors......if anyone cares
__________________
NO LONGER A GOLDEN STRAT BUT A "SILVER STRAT"(dodge stratus ) I TOTALLED THE GOLD ONEBUT STILL AN '02
2G2GOLDENSTRAT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2003.02.27, 10:49 PM   #7
West.F1
San Marino GP- 4/25/04
 
West.F1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: south of columbus
Posts: 1,637
thanks for the input guys. i've edited my original post and conclusion based on further testing completed this evening.


goldenstrat- any additional comments on related products are welcome.
West.F1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
June 2008, $$$ Product Review Contest! Hammer Competitions and Contests 5 2008.07.02 03:05 PM
May 2008, $$$ Product Review Contest! Hammer Competitions and Contests 8 2008.06.05 05:41 PM
review: findings on front bumper clearance West.F1 Mini-Z F1 MF-010, MF-015 6 2002.08.22 07:45 PM
my rookie review: front end springs West.F1 Mini-Z F1 MF-010, MF-015 12 2002.06.30 11:08 PM
Universal Bumper with CLK Body RKS Parts and Hop-ups 1 2002.02.10 01:24 PM


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:28 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2011 Mini-ZRacer.com
Mini Inferno Sale - Up to $85 Instant Savings!
Micro-T Hop-Ups
RC18R, M18, Micro RS4, Mini-LST, TamTech-Gear, Minizilla, RC18T, RC18B, RC18MT
shop.tinyrc.com Products

more»
Tiny RC Community News
[03/22/17] MZR was on vacation, didn't... : All kidding aside, the host experienced a bit of a server meltdown last week and efforts to restore the site to a new server took longer than anticipated. The current server is temporary until - more»
[11/25/15] Did You Hear? Our Black... : Hey Racers,
We're getting started a bit early with our Black Friday sale this year.  Generally we're not supporters of retailers opening early on Thanksgiving, but in our case, we're - more»
[06/30/15] shop.tinyrc.com: Have You... : Hey All! Just a quick reminder to everyone that we post all of our shop.tinyrc.com Newletters here on the MZR Forum. If for some reason you miss them in your email inbox, you can always see the - more»
Mini-Z, Mini-Z Racer, MR-02, MA-010
M18, M18T, RC18T, Mini-LST, Mini-T, Micro RS4, XRay, 1/18, 18th scale
XMODS, XMOD, Micro Flight, ZipZaps, ZipZaps SE, Bit Char-G, MicroSizers, TTTT, Plantraco Desktop Rover, SuperSlicks, Digi Q
Mini Inferno, Mini Inferno ST, half EIGHT, 1/16, 16th scale
Epoch, Indoor Racer, 1/43, 43rd scale
E-Savage, eSavage, eZilla, e-Zilla, HPI
Robots, Bots, Bipeds, Wheeled, Manoi, Roomba, NXT, Lego, Hacking
Crawling, Crawlers, Micro, RC, Losi Mini-Rock Crawler, Duratrax Cliff Climber
Kyosho Minium, Caliber 120, Minium Forums
Mini-Z Hop-Ups, Mini-Z Parts, Mini Inferno Hop-Ups, Mini Inferno Parts, M18 Hop-Ups, M18 Parts