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http://studio68.no/rc/default.asp?id=1530

Sorry if this is a repost but I just found this link and I thought if you guys hadn't seen it yet, you would really enjoy it!

So if I understanding things after skimming this, the winning car was supposed to be an Ultima but it was a heavily modified Ultima using mostly aftermarket Kyosho parts available at the time. A bit later, Kyosho released the Turbo Ultima and the Ultima Pro which was very similar to the actual winning car. Intersting that my Ultima has the batteris in the same layout as this car except my serve is actually placed in a mounting hole and I only have 5 batteries in a row with the 6th on top. The article says this layout helped reduce understeer.

After 1987 why didn't the Ultima do as well in the World Champs? Were they lucky in 1987? Was the RC10 that much better of a racer for some reason? I always wondered this as a kid and still do to this day. Anyone know the history during this time period? Why didn't the Optima ever win?

locally we never had very competive ultima's, by 88 team losi was in the hunt and i think that sealed kyosho's fate.

jrx2's and wide arm rc10's took over, here at least.

Snaab9-2 wrote:After 1987 why didn't the Ultima do as well in the World Champs? Were they lucky in 1987? Was the RC10 that much better of a racer for some reason? I always wondered this as a kid and still do to this day. Anyone know the history during this time period? Why didn't the Optima ever win?

The Optima did nothing BUT win. I think in my Tower Hobbies catalog from 1986...or maybe 1985...it stated that Kyosho Optimas won 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, and 10th place in the ROAR Nats. Back then, I believe 4WDs were allowed to race with 2WDs, they weren't separate classes really, because hey, 4WD's could never beat 2WDs...until then. Optimas wiped the floor with everything else, and were perhaps the reason for classes being separated between 4WD and 2WD offroad, to keep things fair. The Optima was the first competitive, really lightweight offroad 4WD buggy.

Coelacanth wrote:...The Optima did nothing BUT win. I think in my Tower Hobbies catalog from 1986...or maybe 1985...it stated that Kyosho Optimas won 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, and 10th place in the ROAR Nats. Back then, I believe 4WDs were allowed to race with 2WDs, they weren't separate classes really, because hey, 4WD's could never beat 2WDs...until then. Optimas wiped the floor with everything else, and were perhaps the reason for classes being separated between 4WD and 2WD offroad, to keep things fair. The Optima was the first competitive, really lightweight offroad 4WD buggy.

Back then there was a Stock Class and an Open Class. Stock was 2wd buggies and Open was 2wd and 4wd.

This is what the Stock Class field looked like at the 1985 Roar Nats:
http://www.rcchopshop.com/crp/rcmcnov1985roarcrp.html

I'm sure Optima's won some races back then...against Hot Shots and converted Rough Riders and RC10s....but "wiping the floor with everything else" is a gross exaggeration. At the IFMAR Worlds in 1985 Halsey won Stock and Losi won Open with his Yokomo 834b. Even Joel Johnson's first ever Optima Mid lost to Masami's Schumacher in '87.

From then and through the '90s Yoke and Schuey were the most often seen brands in the 4wd class. Kyosho showed up some in the A-Main top 10 but not in dominant numbers.

I think the '87 win would've meant more if the winning Ultima would've had mostly stock/original parts (minus the battery, motor and esc, etc). It depends on how many Ultimas were racing compared to other cars. They probably had more Ultimas racing at that race and kind of overtook the race and probably why they haven't won since. I could care less if they won any sort of race because I love the Ultima Pro regardless.