OptimaFan's Vintage Car Collection (with vids of runners)

[OptimaFan]

Inspired by guys like Daniel Rowland, and other vintage car fans I met here and elsewhere, and having discovered the extra options the internet gives compared to 25 years ago, when I was running my first cars, I started rebuilding classic RC buggies. At first it was more like getting at least one Optima Mid, as that was my first competition grade car ever, and I remember how impressed I was with it back in the days. But one car just isn't enough, right? So "a couple more" followed over the last year or so. Instead of spreading these over various topics, I think it will be better to just group all together in a single topic.


I've divided this topic into several parts, here's an index:

Posting 1: 2WD cars:
- Kyosho Triumph
- Team Losi JRX2
- Team Associated RC10

Posting 2: Kyosho Optima and Optima Mid:
- Turbo Optima
- Optima Mid

Posting 3: Kyosho Optima Mid and Mid Custom
- Optima Mid Custom Special
- Optima Mid Custom ZX-R (Lazer/Optima hybrid)

Posting 4: Kyosho ???
- Optima Mid (RaceCraft shell)
-



Kyosho Triumph:

I will start with my latest rebuild/refresh, a Kyosho Triumph. As a few of my other cars, it was bought for parts, in this case the golden shocks. But upon closer look, the car impressed me, it had been well cared for, so I opted for a good clean, partial rebuild (front steering and suspension) and a repro body to replace the somewhat battered stock body. It looked like this:






And now it looks like this:














I think it's a "slight" improvement, don't you?

Fully ready to run at the moment, 6 cell 3000 mAh NiMh, Hobby King 45A brushed ESC and same brand receiver, Futaba servo (S3003 I believe) and Trinity "Joel Johnson" motor. Top speed around 35 km/h, car is currently geared for short tracks, so it accelerates like a rocket, considering the mere NiMh battery.



Team Losi JRX2:

Another 2WD car I had the pleasure of restoring, is this Losi JRX2, which is also present in a different topic here, but is part of the cars I currently have.

Before:




and after:








No electronics present at the moment, except a motor. Body and wing are reproductions from Team BlueGroove.



Team Associated RC10 (runner)

One of the most iconic RC buggies is certainly the RC10. I didn't have any past with this car, like with the Optima Mid, but gradually the RC10 started to grow on me. So when the opportunity presented itself to get a runner with some spares, I gave in.

This car came with gold pan chassis, but I replaced that with a black one, to preserve that golden for later. Motor is a Brushed Conrad GZ2000, ESC the X-Car 45A from Hobby King, Conrad 6 cell NiMh pack, and a small but strong digital servo. The first pic does show a different battery pack, but this old and somewhat tired pack was quickly replaced, as it didn't have enough punch, and caused the ESC to go into LVC right at the start of running.













And here's a short vid of it running: http://vimeo.com/110085792