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ZooRacing ZooZilla Body Review


I think everybody knows about ZooRacing after the last few months. The Preopard has taken the class by storm, and as predicted lots of the top drivers have also started to use it. The DBX (Dogsbollax) is also now out (Review soon), however there is another shell in the line-up called the ZooZilla that I was keen to take out to try at the track.

The ZooZilla is the least aggressive of the ZooRacing line-up, developed to provide reliable stability around the track it could be a good base line shell when taking the drama out of learning a new track layout, or just providing you with a shell to bank those laps. So let's take a closer look :)

There are two versions of the ZooZilla available. ZR0001-7 std weight and  ZR0001-5 lightweight.

The package comes with decals , two step window masks and and the shell.

The quality of the mould is excellent, with sharp lines defining all of the aerodynamic features of this bodyshell. The angled vortex generators positioned at the rear of the roof are something that I have not seen before on a 1/10 shell. 

The ZooZilla is less aggressive than the Preopard and this is evident with the slightly smaller (But still large) front splitter and the raised and rounded front of the shell. The front bonnet has some aggressive flow conditioners that channel the air towards the roof channel.  


The profile of the roof is more conventional until you get to the vortex generators just over the rear window. These help to manage the airflow down towards the rear wing.

Track Test

I have been running the ZooZilla at a couple of local carpet tracks on club nights. Both clubs are temporary so the grip is not high, and ideal test case for the proposed stable properties of the ZooZilla.

The first outing was at the larger of the two tracks, I actually managed to take the TRF419XR out for some practice laps before racing to get an initial grasp of the handling. The car was running on used sorex with less than 5 minutes of additive and after a couple of tentative laps (I didn't want to ruin the paintjob) I started to push a little harder. The shell did feel nice and stable but I could hear a strange noise coming from the car, it sounded like I had stripped the spur so I had to pull over and take a look.

After a quick inspection in the pits, there was nothing wrong with the chassis so was a little stumped on the source of the noise. I did check that the shell was cut correctly, and nothing was clicking or rubbing the track. So I just put it down to maybe a bit of tape in the belt etc so lined up for the first Qualifier. 

On the tone I was off and I started to just bank some laps as I pushed harder and harder to see the limits of the ZooZilla. As the track was very low grip I was surprised on just how stable it felt, I was trying to get locked into a grove but the car was making the strange noise again, which was off-putting to say the least. I was confident that it was nothing terminal so I continued until the end of qualifying but that noise was messing with my head, so I knew that I was not on my top game. 

For the second Q I had stripped the car down and checked everything and all looked good, there was no marks on the shell so it was not rubbing so I just ran the car. Now there was more grip and I was much quicker, although the weird noise was still there. The shell however felt locked and I was much quicker than Q1 thanks to the higher grip and my confidence with the shell.
I then spotted the cause of the noise, one of my used sorex one wheel had actually split. So when on the bench the car looked fine, but under load the actual wheel was warping on the inside rim! A new set of wheels where fitted and I went out in Q3 with new vigour. Unfortunately, I tried a bit too hard and actually had a terrible 5mins. I can vouch that the shell is resilient in a high speed collision into the wall though. (ahem)

So for the final I qualified in third. We lined up and raced away. The car felt great, the ZooZilla was very stable on the brakes and into the corner despite the grip not being that great. The stability did take a little of the on power steering away from the car but it gave me a lot of confidence as I was in a three way battle for the lead with the other drivers as we were bunched up at the start.  As the race got into its groove I was still in third place but I was much quicker than the second place runner, they had more speed on the straight, but I excelled on the infield thanks to the confidence I had with the car being so consistent. I kept the pressure on and it paid of as they made a mistake and I claimed second place. I worked hard to catch the leader who had edged out a gap but with the amount of time left I could only work on closing the gap. However my best lap and best 10 average was quicker, showing off how fast the Combo of the ZooZilla and the Tamiya TRF419XR were together.

The next outing was at a smaller track, I had now tweaked a couple of set-up changes to give the car more cornering speed (2 deg rear). The ZooZilla was great. I managed to qualify first in the A, win the A and also beat my personal best time on the current layout. 

So in conclusion I am happy with the shell for low/mid grip tracks. It is really stable and it feels nice and planted on the track. This shell is not as ultiamtely fast as the Preopard, but unless you have the grip to exploit that aggressiveness the ZooZilla will give you a more predictable drive on the track. 

Check out your local distributor here (ZooRacing website)
ZooRacing 3532766241209520547

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