Kyosho Optima restauration complete!
 

http://www.a-perfect-circle.de/phpbb...file.php?id=30

This I paid with blood, sweat and tears due to being the result of a long long restauration process. I'm finally pleased with how it came out even if the shell could have been done better. It took some time to get the best colour match for boxart paintscheme but in the end I think it looks great. Nice vintage colours, close as possible to boxart. The shell comes from Kamtec and surprisingly the quality is not as good as I expected: the shell is 4 - 5mm shorter than the original one, which makes it difficult to fit to the chassis. I almost suffered heart attack when I realized this (when the paintjob had already been done). I still have the original shell (already paint stripped), so it will get painted for display purposes later. The Kamtec one was meant to be a runner anyway.

The chassis is more a Turbo Optima with some extras: I got 2 cars from the bay, one a half descent shelfer with badly painted shell and the second a battered ex-racer with tons and tons of tuning parts. I disassembled both just to make the best out of it. It has belt drive conversion, special strong gears, steel final pinion, carbon shock towers, front universal joints, gold motor guard and most important: gold shocks! The front stabilizer is homemade as I don't have the original one, but it's mandatory for running. The motor equipped is a peak performance 13 turn (looks great with the gold endbell).

One of the cars came with original box, which is now loaded with spare parts which would make a second car (if not more). I got several sets of wheels, original motor, 240ST tuning motor, driver figure, original red shocks, some used chains, plenty of shock towers, etc, etc. One day I will assemble a second car to put it up for sale.

This one will be run from time to time, looking forward to the next vintage buggy race!!

More pics:
http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_m...=73680&id=3226

that is very very nice

A

Thanks. I took it out for the first test run today. enjoy!

http://www.rc-rally.de/temp/Optima_action_400.jpg

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_m...3226&cid=73724

Looks great!

I run my old 240ST-powered Salute every weekend at a local "track" against my brother with his brushless Durga... and win!

Keep it up! any more vintage projects on the go?

Nice that was my first proper racer i used when i joined out buggy club in queensferry.
After that i bought a brand new optima pro .

Some nice option house parts there i see.

Awesome. The only better looking buggy from the era IMO was the Turbo Optima.

Great looking car you have there, :)

Yepper! I have not seen one of those in a long time.
Dont remember seeing carbon fiber on it though.

The Optima Mid was the better version.
But the older version still kicks butt too!;)

Like the included tires and rims it has, sharp.:D

Cheers guys! There were even some more carbon fibre shock towers of different thickness included in the package + various alloy ones. Once I have built a second chassis out of parts I will maybe put it up for sale.

wow.......the car is really great........:thumbsup:

And once again I couldn't resist to run the Optima, now where it really belongs: a local dirt track! Apart from a little lack of traction from the tires it performed quite well and most important of all: it was tons of fun driving it around, taking jumps and answering questions from attendant people. btw: no Optimas were harmed during the race!

http://www.rc-rally.de/temp/optima_lazer.jpg

more pictures: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_m...=76519&id=3226

Damn!

If I'd known you were going to be in Troisdorf I might have come and had a look :)

How did the Optima do on the big triple?

Great to see it running... and in the lead!

Nice.:)

Supergreg is actually rather quick at the wheel...

I'm sure I could push it to the limits with a nice Lipo brushless setup :) but doh! I think I lost my spares box of final pinion gears :blush:;)

I agree that it's probrably not too wise to put too too much power through a 20 year old Optima drivetrain. Earlier this year I broke a few teeth off of a gear whilst running with a 13x2 motor in the Salute at Eden Park.

I guess it probrably happened in a landing, as there's no real slipper or even ball diff to soak up any shocks to the driveline. Oof.

Luckily I found a replacement part on Ebay pretty easily, but i kept me off the road for a few weeks. Bummer!

But I'm back on the road now, and it's running great.

Final pinion
 

Hi,

I'm just like you (were) on the way to restore an old Optima. I have managed to get most of the parts together (including an alloy front support!!!)
I have off cause got a full set of ball bearings, long shocks and a 'Slipper OT-74" from a Turbo Optima.
I have also got a Pro Stock 15T motor from Yokomo which i would like to use. However i guess that my final standard alloy pinion will be to weak for such a motor. Do you by any chance have one to sell me?

I will post pictures from the car when it is ready.

Best regards

Peter

htose final pinions are awful, that is one part i need for my restoration optima. was thinking of trying to find the plastic one from an ultima for it

I have bucket loads of spares for the optima and the optima mid/ turbo as well including loads of gold shocks

Well well well
 

@ Tisher:

What do you mean with this? Are your 'bucket-loads' of spares for sale or did you just want to tell what a lucky one you are? :lol:

As mine will be a 'runner' I dont really care about gold-shocks. I have found some black ones which seem good. I don't know 100% though that they fit as my optima is currently in pieces until i get the bearings set I ordered. If they don't fit i might be interested.

But more interesting are the final pinions? What do you have? And even more interesting, are they for sale and then 'quanta costa'?

Best regards

Hi Tisher. Off cause the thing turned out just as I thought. The darn schocks I got turned out to be bad.

Do you have a set of gold-shocks to sell me?

I would sure be interested if the price is reasonable.

Regards