Kyosho SX032 Steering Plate Scorpion XXL

This is the steering plate for the Kyosho Scorpion XXL.

The steering plate, often called the Ackermann plate, is the link between the servo and the two steering knuckles. Where the tie rod ends attach to it determines Ackermann, which is how much more the inside front wheel turns than the outside one through a corner. Get it right and the car turns in cleanly and holds its line; get it wrong and one front tire scrubs across the surface, which costs you both steering and tire life.

Because it sits at the front of the chassis and carries the full load of every steering input, it also takes a beating in impacts. On a 1/7 scale buggy those loads are substantial, and a bent plate skews the steering geometry so the car pulls to one side and has a different turning radius left versus right. That is a maddening fault to diagnose if you have not thought to check the plate itself.

This is the genuine Kyosho part, so it restores factory steering geometry exactly rather than approximating it.