Yokomo YZ-2
 

New high grip car....

http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2.jpg
http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2_01.jpg
http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2_02.jpg
http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2_03.jpg
http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2_04.jpg
http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2_05.jpg
http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2_06.jpg
http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2_07.jpg
http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2_08.jpg
http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2_09.jpg
http://courgette.jml.net/~neal/RC/Yokomo/b_yz2_10.jpg


Leaked from Yokomo France:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yokom...68530239829543

The brand new gaint yz - 2 is available in preorder in asia racing team!!!
Http://www.asia-racing-team.com/shop...mo-p-8354.html

---Edit---

Another image:
http://www.asia-racing-team.com/shop...02701478_n.jpg

Stoked for this car. Cant wait!

Now I know why I sold my B-Max2! :thumbsup:

Looks nice and awesome! Are there some aftermarket parts on there (shock bodies and extra bits etc look different, rear hubs?) or is it a pure yokomo kit?

I'd best start saving now lol for when it hits the UK shops ;)

Wonder when it will me available in de EU. EDIT: www.teamyokomo.eu has it on pre order and shipping on 29-12 (no year stated :eh?:)

I really like the body and lcg gearbox.

I dont understand why Yokomo would release a bmax2 V3 and V3 Factory, and now this YZ-2 in such short succession?

Car has been in development for a while now and Yokomo said a while ago that there were no upgrades to expect for the B-Max2 anytime soon... and something new was in the pipeline. Well, there it is. I'm curious and will receive some of course. Car looks great.

I don't think the bmax2 cars need any upgrades, they work awesome on the tracks they are intended for. Purely high traction tracks were always a compromise, and this new car looks to address them. :thumbsup:

Well i see some things that my B-max would need, like that wing holder with screws and buttons or those suspension mounts.

Won't buy, sorry. Can't have 3 cars for each track. I know how much yokomo and every other brand would like my wallet, but no.

I like the added tunability in the YZ.

B-max4 style rear toe and kick-up changes using bushings.
And front caster can be changed with bushings in the C-hub.

Hmmmm

The 'what to race next summer' decision just got more complicated...

My issue is that I don't know which color I'm going to paint the body.. :p

Just curious how it will perform. Yokomo tests are good. It's faster than the B-Max4 III :o (at least, that's what they told me :lol:), but that's probably in the hands of Naoto. He's fast with everything.

Great (late) christmas present. Will be available (and probably in most shops, don't know about Yokomo in the UK) just before the new year. :thumbsup:

More spec info:
http://www.redrc.net/2014/12/yokomo-...tor-buggy-kit/

New photos of the front end and steering cranks on this PDF:
http://www.teamyokomo.com/news/order...1210_b_yz2.pdf

Yokomo Product page (View in Google Chrome to auto translate from Japanese): http://www.teamyokomo.com/product/of...yz2/b_yz2.html

Car looks awesome, can't wait to build and run mine. I do like the new black alloy parts and hard coated shocks, the blue look was good, but love hte refresh.
I may have to go to a few more full carpet/astro indoor tracks to do some winter testing. My usual low traction tracks will be a struggle. I don't mind the fact I have three 2wd cars for each track type. At least you know there is a car for the job, rather than compromising. To be fair, my last astro meeting (of the year) with my then new KF (competition prize) was a revelation, that car was so good on the astro after struggling to get my BMAX2-MR to work right all summer. I was hoping Yokomo would come up with a solution, and indeed they have. :thumbsup:

Black is just like the BD-7. So possibly a new set of colors. Even though I like the blue :p

The text from RedRC is the release text from Yokomo. Not so much information tbh. Can't wait for the manual.

Neal - I think this car will be good on low grip too. I plan to run this on low and high grip.

bell crank photo

Given how the forward weight bias looks, I'd say you wouldn't be doing yourself any favours trying to run this on low traction tracks.

On the corner weight scales:
BMAX2MR - Mid, Front: 37%, Rear: 63%
Schumacher KF - Front: 41%, Rear: 59%
DEX210v2 - Front: 38%, Rear: 64%
BMAX4 III (both chassis') - Front: 46%, Rear: 54%

I've not measured the BMAX2 rear car.

There is probably more to it than just this, but i suspect the weigh bias is closer to a 4wd car.

Interesting that there is facility add a front anti-roll bar.

Well this car renders mid motored B-MAX2 useless. There wasn't any other reason to race a Mid motored car than on high traction surfaces like carpet and astro. Except maybe american type treated clay, indoor with sauce on tires.
I don't see a reason for someone having a B-MAX other than racing with RM configuration on dirt.

So now the question is... sell the B-max and buy this, or become homeless but have both?

I really like the design, finally a high-grip car with low CoG without the 4WDish inefficient 90 degree redirection of the power flow or belt drive. When I come to think of it, the last competition touring cars with the spur gear as high as traditional 2WD buggies vanished almost ten years ago. What took the buggy engineers so long?! :lol: I guess we will see similar designs from other manufacturers before long. For dirt and low-grip astro, I think I'll keep my Firebolt DM, maybe with the cf chassis, but as my hometrack has really nice astro and will be expanded next year, this is exactly what I have been waiting for before I even knew it! :p

I fancy a Firebolt DM but have heard storys about the bulkhead! No way wud I pay that for a basic yoke kit and currently run a Bmax 2 vr3.

Yes, the price tag is a bit on the steep side, but I want that piece of kit nonetheless. :)
As for the Firebolt, I did not suffer any of the breakages others suffered so far, but I do not have enough track time to compare its durability with my B-Max of old. However, it did not flinch when I hit some concrete track elements, but the brass bulkhead left its mark in the plastic front plate. I guess the aluminum front plate and the less brittle front end plastic compound scheduled for late December will remain any of those problems. VBC Racing really cares. :thumbsup:

Back to the YZ-2, though. I guess they went back to the old-school name because they won almost all their off-road IFMAR worlds titles with YZ-named cars. I really hope that Lee, Naoto, or another driver will bring them a buggy title, their last one was Masami's '97 title with the MX-4.

Not so sure on the low gearbox thing in my opinion! A bit Losi 22 like and they never seemed to be quite as good as some of the other cars out there.

Think I shall treat myself to a Firebolt for Xmas. Alex at Moss Models says they drive spot on.
How long you been running yours for.
As for yokomo the last one I had before my Bmax2 was the YR4 touring car! Always liked the Dogfighter. Bad name though

Don't want to go off topic and bash on my B-Max2 even for a great car like the Firebolt. PM sent in a minute!

I think the YZ-2 will provide everything I missed on the B-Max2 on carpet/high-grip astro, the announced release really made my day! :drool:

I race on carpet and this would be ideal as the KFs piss on the bmax2. In high grip the bmax2 lacks front end on power because it goes light even with the brass bulkhead and then oversteer off power. If you push really hard which you do to keep up with the front motor cars it lacks consistency.

This car would be ideal.

I disagree. We race on mixed traction (Gym floors with strips of carpet, or cork running tracks) tracks that the mid motor clearly is faster than the rear car, but this new car will struggle with.
I ran my KF (high traction kit) and it was next to useless on these surfaces, but is unbeatable on high traction. I'm assuming that this will drive more like the KF on the high traction, so will be comparably bad on the low.

On low traction, it depends on your driving style whether you are faster with MM or RM. As I don't like the point and shoot driving style required for RM cars, I prefer MM also on dirt. Feel free to check out my Firebolt DM review, in which I tested the car on dirt and liked it better than my RM B-Max2. Maybe I should have tried the Yoke in MM on dirt, too. ;)

Looks really nice! I never got on with my bmax 2 unfortunately... This is a little pricey though! Just on a side note, +1 for the Firebolt :thumbsup:

Having been a DIE-HARD AE fan since starting ( I've owned other stuff, but my race cars have always been AE.

I scored a Bmax2MR for cheap and have been slowly making it my Mod car. The 2 local tracks- 1 indoor clay- lSpace and the dirt have a ong history, but new management is useless, and no hobby shop to support the track) and the new track is Carpet Offroad, running both onroad, oval and offroad with Ozite carpet base.

I am planning on dumping my Centro 4.2/ B4.2 cars and switching to Yoke. I'll keep my current MR for dirt, and order the new one for carpet. Cant wait.



MOmo

I don't understand why some folk are rendering this car useless on looser surfaces already. The car isn't even out yet!

Yeah the motor is in a slightly more forward position and the geometry seems to be slightly different but that doesn't mean it ain't gonna work.

I've seen plenty of KF's working on looser surfaces.

Let's just wait and see.

The battery strap looks a bit dodgy, especially with saddles. Positive and negative within a mm or so of the (conductive) carbon fibre battery strap..........

I agree with Disco,

My TM2v2 is probably the best wet car I've ever ran despite being a proper forward motor design, I certainly find it more predictable in the wet than my previous RB6 even using a geared diff.

I'm more interested to know how this design is supposed to be more effective in high grip compared with the proper forward motor's such as TM2v2's and KF? To me this this just looks like an updated mid motor car similar in layout to the 22 2.0.

Am I missing something? What about this design is supposed to give the advantage over forward motor?



Chris

I also agree with Chris and Disco as per my earlier post. The motor is way further forward on a KF for a start and it's also about driving style.

I used the B5m at rhr dirt which should have been useless and James used his KF for a while too.

I think this new car will be great on both surfaces.

I'm just interested to see how it compares against a B5M with the 3 gear box?

People are saying the car is pricey ... Where have you seen a price?



Chris

It's about 380 euro's.

With respect guys I don't think £319 for that spec of car is pricey at all. The RB6 was £370 when first released then you would spend another 50 quid on the ally adjustable rear hangers to really help with tunability.

Then let's look at the KF, I think the best price for the kit I've seen is around £255. Then to get the car to team spec (which they all run regardless of low/high grip) you need the low grip conversion which uses shorty packs at another 70 quid plus you may need new batteries if you only have saddles too. Not to mention the alloy gearbox mount you need if you wish to run the shocks on the rear and alloy caster blocks and hubs for strength you are struggling for change from £500!!

Then there are the conversions such as the new Associated 3 gear B5m, XFactory X6S and Rudebits DB2. These cars require donor cars to complete making them a very expensive way to go. The X-Factory for example, if all parts required to build were brand new would stand you at over £600 when completed! That's astronomical!

This Yokomo kit seems to offer all the obvious tuning possibilities in the box and for a fair price imo.

The only designated high grip car that works out cheaper is the Team C TM2v2 at £265 which is a superb car to drive even In medium to low grip conditions and has a similar spec to the Yokomo making it excellent value for money.



Chris

Completely agree. This car comes with all the hop ups you usually have to pay for as extra and would probably end up paying more.