Corvette ZR1 Body Review: Performance and Durability Insights

The Kyosho Mini-Z Corvette ZR1 body boasts impressive downforce, a lightweight design, and compatibility with MM2 motor mounts.

### Impressions and Performance of the Mini Z ZR1 Body
* 🚗 Today, I share my personal thoughts on the mini Z ZR1 body, highlighting that these opinions are based solely on my **observations as a Corvette enthusiast**.
* 🔍 The body has an appealing design that resonates with Corvette fans, and while I initially planned to research wing replacements, I found the **stock wing to be quite fragile**, often breaking easily.
* 🛠 Upon inspection, I noticed a recurring weak point in the design, specifically at the back where the body tends to **break**, which could have been avoided with a **more solid construction**.
* ⚖ Despite some damage, the body remains **lightweight at 30.5 grams**, and I appreciate that it accommodates an **MM2 motor mount without any clearance issues**, making it **suitable for racing**.
* 💨 In my preliminary aero testing, I observed a notable increase in downforce, with the stock wing providing approximately **7 grams of rear downforce**, a significant improvement that reflects well on the design.
* 📈 After testing an aftermarket wing I created, I found it generated **23 grams of downforce** on the tail, confirming its effectiveness in **enhancing rear grip**, especially on slippery tracks.
* 🏁 Overall, I'm impressed with the performance of the ZR1 body and plan to conduct further track tests to evaluate its racing capabilities, as it shows **great potential for competitive use**.
* 🔧 With its compatibility for various components and the ability to **handle wider wheels**, this body could be a strong contender in my racing lineup, **surpassing my initial expectations**.

Today we'll take a look at the mini Z ZR1 quarter of that body. It's just my opinion. It really is not a definitive statement, and every opinion expressed in this video is mine alone and is only based off my own personal opinions and

observations. So with that, we'll get started. And first thing I'll say about this body is it looks pretty cool. It's a Corvette, so obviously, if you're a Corvette guy, you'll like it. I'm a Corvette guy, I like it. This is the

body that Joe gets sent me. I was going to do a little bit of wing research on it, try to find something that will replace the stock wing. These just get into the review of the basic car. The stock wing, I don't know how much it actually does, but

it is very fragile. I've seen just about every one of them break off. Until now, I don't know how Joe's kept two wings on this car, but once I got it, I, of course, broke it off to do a little bit of testing on it,

take it off. And the first thing I notice on every Corvette is they do have a built-in weak point on the back, and it happens right in this area here. If the car takes a big hit... I had a phone number on my hand earlier from another

appointment, but ignore that. This line right here has one on the side as well. I've patched it; you can see that there. But this line, I don't know why they designed that into it when they could have just gone flush with it and made it

solid, but almost every Corvette body I've seen will break on either side right down this line, or because of this line through here that could have been just molded flat on the back side.  Yet, I've never seen it, and this would have been a very strong body. I have glued a

patch in here, and it, of course, came broken with a chunk out of the nose.  Sort of see that. But I do like the body, and they are pretty good to drive.  During a few of them on the track, they're pretty nice. They handle well. They have a kind of a cab-

rearward weight bias to them. And another thing you'll notice is they're also pretty light, even after a patch that I've added right here and on the backside, plus a bunch of super glue to hold this body together. It's still only 30.5 grams. I'd imagine 30

.6 if that wasn't there. This body would probably be right down around 30, if not just a hair under, into the 29 range. But it is a very light body. I like that about it. Another thing I like about it is that an MM2 motor mount will go right in, and

there is enough room because that cab-rearward design, nothing rubs, and it fits very nicely. So kudos to Kyosho for making the body so that you can run an MM2 motor case. So a 5600 stock Evo out of the box will work with this body, and

I highly recommend it for racing so far. Another really great thing about it is if you decide to do an underbody brace, similar to the one that I have created here for the nose, there is a lip underneath here that that edge of your panel that you screw in will fit.

absolutely perfectly. There's a ridge on the bottom that it goes against and, I should say, a ridge to the middle that it can go against down here. And then these outer ridges support it very nicely, and there is no gap. I don't know

what the mils thickness of my plastic is here, but it's from a plastic package. But it is absolutely perfect. I've never seen one line up that well before. And these front air dams do matter, especially on cars with a little bit longer nose. I don't know how much it'll matter on this

one, but it is pretty good. I'm going to pause the video for a moment. All right, I'm back. I had to take a phone call. Normally when I do a video where we do aero testing, I like to have my anemometer so I can get the exact wind

speed set right in the middle of this seam at 22 km/h. But as of right now, I don't know where I put it, and I've looked around and I cannot find it. So, just let you know, I'm going to take a guess at the wind speed today and try to

line it up in approximately the same location as other tests. But it's not going to be an exact test because, like I said, I don't have the wind speed indicator today in order to do that for you. So we're just going to take a guess at

it, like I said, and try and see how this thing does. We'll start with the Corvette. This is an end-of-life Corvette that's been raced very hard. It's chopped up. I have plugged all the holes in the body with tape, covered them

all up so that hopefully it's as accurate a test as possible, but we'll see what it does without a wing. Then I'll sort of do the part where the body with the wing is on and test that, and then after that, we'll test the wing back on this body.

again that I made earlier today, just to measure the effectiveness. This is a chassis with no batteries, because, like I said on previous tests, we're not concerned with the actual weight of the car, only the difference. And I'm not even worried about the front

weight of the car because, in this particular one, the splitter smashed off, so it's not even going to be an accurate test on that. But we'll just worry about the rear downforce today. If it makes front downforce, that's great. That's

the shape of the body, not even the splitter, but I do have the underbody panel that I made for it, so there may be some benefit. Let's have a look. All right, here goes approximating 22 kilometers per hour. 60 on the front. That's pretty interesting.

It lost six on the rear. Sorry, lost about two on the tail, but it gained five grams of downforce. Is that right on the nose? Who knows? So that is a high downforce nose on this car. It could be due to the fact that I have the underbody panel, and

it is probably scooping some air from the hole in the nose. So that's what I'm going to attribute the front to because, like I said, it's unscientific. We'll look at the other car and see if it doesn't have an equivalent gain with no

ability for that scoop effect to happen because it has a sealed, firm end. But the back of this car, you can tell, does lighten about two grams. That's pretty typical for Kyosho bodies, regular car bodies anyway, from what I've noticed. They generally lose about two

two and a half grams with no wing. Let's try this. I'm going to use the same chassis and see what it does with the stock wing. This will also tell us if the nose is getting heavier from the scoop effect of my underbody panel, or if it's

actually made by the car. All right, so 56, 6, 67, 7, roughly 53.17. I'm... so that is a good, really good result. If that thing is gaining six pounds, or six... yeah, six ounces of downforce on the nose, I've never seen that much before by one

of these bodies. That is really good. Obviously, GM did some nice work in the wind tunnel with this car when... when they produced it, because that's fantastic. I've not seen that big of an increase before. Let's go to the tail again, 67.3.

[Music] Plus, you can consider the fact that it already had two, just because that's the difference between no wing and a wing. So this... this wing is making about seven grams of downforce just with the stock wing. That... that is fantastic. I might have

to get one of these bodies myself. I'm kind of surprised by how good it is. So, let's look at that: the rear downforce, 66.5, and we'll jump it back up and see what we get. So, five grams of downforce, plus the two...

From no wing, it's a 7 gram downforce rear wing. And for a stock factory wing from Kyosho, I'm very impressed by that. That's really good. That's really, really good, actually. I'm going to throw the one on that I made and we'll see if we can't

jump that up even more. Mostly impressed by the front downforce on this. I'm just a little bit in disbelief that it could be that good. I mean, part of it may be the the underbody panel, but let me, let me do some switching around. So I'll get

the, my aftermarket wing that I created on the orange car and we'll do another test. We've got the orange body back on. This is a wing that I built earlier today. It is to replace the very fragile wing that comes off of the stock car, and

right now it's not screwed on, just, with purpose of the video, I have it just taped on. I will eventually drill those two holes out and secure it. Basically, it's just got a blade that I've taped onto the back that I'll be able to just

screw down out of the car, and it should be durable. It should take hits and even flips, maybe even be a little more gentle on the car when it, when it hits the wall and such. But it's a good-looking wing. It sort of matches the original shape of

the one that came on the car, because I tried various shapes and nothing really looked good until I went back to the original shape. It's a bit exaggerated, but we're working with small-scale cars that need to push a lot of air in order

to make a real difference. So let's see what it does. 68, 155, 5, uh, 23 grams of added downforce on the tail. That is confirmation. This one, it does provide a little bit of that teeter-totter effect and takes away some

of the nose downforce, but you get a lot on the tail from the swing. And if you're on a track that is slippery and you need more rear grip, this is the wing to use. I'll just run it back up one more time and see what it gets with the one

that went on. Oh, I know what you guys think, but I'm kind of a believer now. I thought the Corvette was kind of cool-looking when I first drove it, first saw it. I am a little bit suspect of this line right here because that's where

they brake. And if you were to pre-brace that before you even drove the car, on both sides like I've done here, I just glued in a piece of clear Lexan plastic that's real thick. I think if you glued, basically just glued it to death

back here, and also make sure your headlights are glued in real tight. They do provide structural stiffness to the body as well. But this, this should be a fantastic race body. I'm going to take it to the track later on. I have my own track with the timing system currently set up

at a rental property that my family owns, and I'll do a little bit of track testing, just for a few opinions on how it does. But just by showing the aero testing, this thing is a really, really good body. So that's all I've got for

Today, I hope you enjoyed the video. I'll get that screwed down tighter, and I'll do some track testing with the body. That's somewhat whole; I repatched it with a little brace on the front there. And other than that, it's a good

whole body. And I'll even test it with this one I have here. It's broken up a little bit, but nothing appears to rub. That's another thing I forgot to mention: this thing, sorry about that, this thing will allow not only the MM2 motor case, but I've got three-millimeter

offset wheels in the back, two-millimeter offset on the front, and it is just fine. There's no rubbing issues, so it's a wide-track body that should be really good for racing. I'm normally racing McLaren 12Cs, but I can see buying one of these

Corvette ZR1 bodies and trying it out on various tracks. But I think it's going to be a really, really good one. I hadn't expected it to come out that good, but I'll try to get some track tests and videos up for you, and just some general

opinions driving it, and that'll be the next section of this, if I can do it.

Mini-z Corvette ZR-1 (Not recommended. See comments). KK

EXPIOWA

The body is visually appealing, especially for Corvette enthusiasts.

The stock wing is fragile and breaks easily.

Corvette bodies have a built-in weak point along a specific line, causing them to break easily.

The body is lightweight, handles well, and has a cab-rearward weight bias.

Compatible with MM2 motor mount and a 5600 stock Evo motor.

Suitable for underbody brace modifications due to a convenient lip underneath.

Front air dams are present and potentially beneficial for aerodynamics.

Accommodates wide-track setups with offset wheels without rubbing issues.

Wind speed measurement is approximated due to a missing anemometer.

Testing conducted on a chassis without batteries to isolate downforce measurements.

High downforce observed on the nose, potentially due to the underbody panel.

Stock wing generates significant downforce, around 7 grams.

Custom-made wing tested, showing even greater downforce increase but reduced nose downforce.

The body is considered a strong contender for racing.

Recommendations for reinforcing the body by gluing specific areas.

Plans for track testing to evaluate real-world performance.