I then acquired the Ferrari F-40 manual (same chassis) and Optima MID Thorpe hard gear set from Ebay, as well as some parts that needed replacement. I also noticed that the front dogbones tended to pop out at full lock, so the hunt for universals was on.
Some time later I found an incomplete and little used Optima Skyline with box, UNPAINTED body, and several wheel and tire sets

(The box has an error in the description saying that the model comes with front universals. It doesn't.)
I also acquired some Kose universals for the GP-10, which cost me considerably less then what Kyosho universals for the Optima go for on Ebay. Although these would be just too short for an Optima MID buggy, they are perfect for the onroad version. So the car was cleaned up and rebuild with the new parts into this (shocks were very dirty and still need to be rebuild):
Front end: Rear end: To be continued...