Kyosho KX-One

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EvolutionRevolution
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Kyosho KX-One

Post by EvolutionRevolution »

...or Neo Classic Optima Touring Car version, as I prefer to call it.

Kyosho's slogan for this thing is "Beyond the Extreme", and it's exactly that.

Here's how I got it, with a Dodge Stratus body and a Team Atlas 23 Turn motor:
kx-1.jpg
kx-2.jpg
The KX-One chassis is unique in that it uses two vertical chassis plates in between which the transmission system is sandwiched. The chassis has zero options installed and is completely stock, but being a Kyosho competition chassis it is still loaded with goodies. Let's have a look.

The front end has loads of carbon, alloy shocks, foam bumper, a swing bar, full turnbuckles, ball bearings, and a front one-way unit. The front one-way is not shot, which is great, as the KX-One's front one-way is notoriously fragile and might break in less than a single run. Note that the steering links don't use the traditional touring car system but are directly connected to the servo:
kx-3.jpg
More carbon at the rear, which has very similar equipment as the front. The rear uses a ball diff. Metal motor plate with no fins:
kx-4.jpg
It comes with full ball bearings, some titanium screws, and CVD-style universals on all four corners.

A look at the bottom of the car, with the single belt design having the belt run level with the bottom of the chassis:
kx-5.jpg
So where does the battery go in this thing? Well, the two bathtubs on the sides of the chassis can be removed, and the battery fits in the exact centerline of the chassis, in between the bathtubs. The bathtubs don't leave a lot of room for electronics. The steering servo fits into a frame just ahead of the battery location:
kx-6.jpg
So yeah, "Beyond the extreme" indeed.

Removing both bathtubs gives the car even more of a classic Optima look:
kx-7.jpg
And this is the room that's available for the servo and battery :shock: :
kx-8.jpg
But obviously I don't think this car is "Extreme" enough yet, so here's the options I sourced for it:
kx-options.jpg
The ones I'll use are the blue finned motor plate, alloy suspension holders, one-way front universals, racing battery holder, and the aptly named "Insane Sift (sic) Change" 2-speed option (which cost me about as much as the whole car, spare parts, and other options together :shock: ).

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by Coelacanth »

That's a pretty cool unit, there! The little half-tubs are kind of odd. I myself was toying around with the logistics trying to mount a battery longitudinally between the Optima's 2 frame-rails, below the radio plate, but gave up on the idea as it would require some major re-engineering...
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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by tim.sanderson »

Nice! I always love seeing a Kyosho I've never seen before.

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by EvolutionRevolution »

I first took apart the whole car and cleaned all of the parts thoroughly. All parts that could were cleaned in some water with some dishwashing liquid. Since the rear diff was correctly set up and still extremely smooth I didn't bother rebuilding it, I only wiped off the minimal grime. I had one problem: The manual calls for threadlock to be used on part of the CVD-style axles. The previous owner used some kind of extremely sticky thick goopy grease :roll: instead that made taking apart the universals a major pain in the behind, and that also had ran into some of the bearings, fusing them to the CVDs in a sticky mess :cry: . I had to resort to soaking the CVDs in WD-40 overnight to get them apart. I was extremely happy I had some spares to replace the collars that prevent the CVDs from disassembling themselves while running, as they ended up all scratched up from the pliers I used to wrench them off.

A look at one of the chassis plates:
kx-9.jpg
Both chassis plates are the same, and have some extremely scary thin carbon fiber bits near where the motor goes through.

To this chassis plate I bolted the various reinforcement parts, using some spare titanium Kyosho screws I had instead of the steel screws. At this stage I also had to install the suspension mounts, which are screwed into place from the inside of the chassis. I installed the optional alloy mounts at the rear. I also put the spacers for the optional racing battery holder in place:
kx-10.jpg
Then I had to add the transmission system and the other chassis plate, which require special four-handed people :lol: or some inventive propping up of the already assembled part of the chassis (as I did, lacking two additional hands). Now access to the transmission on this car is about as bad as on the Optima MID; the whole car needs disassembly to reach the transmission. The rear delrin diff outdrives are stock, by the way:
kx-11.jpg
Then I installed the blue finned motor plate, 2-speed, and one of the racing battery holder side plates, as well as some other parts:
kx-12.jpg
A better look at the rear, showcasing the alloy motor plate and 2-speed:
kx-13.jpg
Next: suspension arms.

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by Lonestar »

sweeeeet 8)

and to think that car never ever performed well is still stunning given the effort that went in its design!!! It truly is one of Kyosho's biggest flops :lol: Makes me want one even more :lol:

good stuff :)

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by RichieRich »

I wonder if you could make a neo-Optima with that chassis? Might not work well in the dirt with the belt exposed so much.
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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by EvolutionRevolution »

Lonestar wrote:sweeeeet 8)

and to think that car never ever performed well is still stunning given the effort that went in its design!!! It truly is one of Kyosho's biggest flops :lol: Makes me want one even more :lol:

good stuff :)

Paul
Yeah, I frankly fail to comprehend what the fudge Kyosho did around 2000/2001. They brought out the TF-4, which from what I understand was an excellent, hard-to-break, and extremely fast car, then failed to develop that one much beyond a first batch of options. Instead they produced the KX-One, which turned out to have quite a few issues, including parts that were nigh impossible to source outside of Japan, parts that broke if you looked funny at them, and a center of gravity that was apparently too high. The result was that the Tour Force and other Kyosho electric touring cars were killed off until they brought out the Lazer ZX-5 and based the TF-5 on that. :(

KX-One based buggy on this Japanese page, with some serious modifications:
http://www.zephyr.dti.ne.jp/~sheep/radi_kxbuggy_info.htm

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by fredswain »

Wow that's a really innovative design. I wish they'd have refined it more so it became reliable. It is very different than traditional car design and construction.
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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by GJW »

so what year is this touring car? if it's got carbon i like it :) hard to find?

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by Mr. ED »

Always nice to see pics of this one.
I put up a thread on this subject a while ago when I got outbid on ebay germany, but the search engine won't let me find it :(

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by USA-1 »

GJW wrote:so what year is this touring car? if it's got carbon i like it :) hard to find?
I believe it was released 2003-2004. Looks really nice.

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by Incredible_Serious »

Hmmm.... a cursory glance at that chassis plate has me thinking "carbon PB Mini Mustang"...diff at front of spine, then servo, then battery, then motor, then diff at rear......

Course, I'm always thinking of Mini Mustangs..... :lol: :arrow: :oops:

Very interesting looking build, thanks for showing it to us!

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by EvolutionRevolution »

Next I assembled the suspension onto the car. The suspension arms used are those of the TF-4, which means they are hardened and virtually indestructible.

For the front end I chose to use Kyosho's one-way universals, which replace the dogbone part of the stock universals. These should prevent the front one-way from getting damaged too quickly. Each blue part contains a one-way bearing. If I had a second ball diff, I could also use these to have a ball diff and front one-way at once. On the picture you can also see the swing bar and the alloy plate holding the arms together and protecting the hinge pins at the front:
kx-14.jpg
Overview of the chassis at this point:
kx-15.jpg
Where the heck am I going to leave my electronics?!? There's only two very small plates to attach them to!

The rear end, with the alloy suspension mounts. These are shorter than the stock ones, and Kyosho did not include any shorter hinge pins, so I had to improvise using some blue chassis spacers. You can also see there's a spot for a belt tensioner just behind the layshaft:
kx-16.jpg
Some pictures of the completed chassis. Narrow and little room for electronics. Did I mention that to replace the battery I need to remove 3 screws?:
kx-17.jpg
kx-18.jpg
(Hint: This is the bottom of the car :lol: )
kx-19.jpg
The 2-speed instructions point out it should only be used with a 23 turn motor or slower, so I had a look at the 23T Atlas motor I got with it (seemed okay) and put it back in. The 2-speed should also only be used with a FWD-only ESC, and the design seems a bit more sane than Kyosho's Tour Force 2-speed, which lacked brakes :roll: . I wonder whether I'll be able to find a decent brushed miniature ESC nowadays...

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Re: Kyosho KX-One

Post by Mr. ED »

USA-1 wrote:
GJW wrote:so what year is this touring car? if it's got carbon i like it :) hard to find?
I believe it was released 2003-2004. Looks really nice.
I googled it yesterday and saw something with the year 2001 WK touring I believe.
Yes hard to find indeed

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