Old School Turbo Optima

[Coelacanth]

That uses the Zebra-painted body I did way back in the 80's. The pics in my Zebra Optima resto thread and my gallery are out-dated with different wheels & tires and I removed some of the stickers from the body. I also picked up some Trinity gold kingpins and gold turnbuckles since then. I'll have to find time and take some updated pics.

[Super1080]

I have two runners, and a parts chassis to build a third, I need help identifiying the chassis and my other runner kinda hoping its just a optima cause I already have a turbo optima and I'm wanting to put a golds together also

[V12]

I have had both cars, the Optima as my 2nd 4WD car after the Hirobo Zerda and one of the first batch Turbo Optimas in 1986. Both very good cars. The original Optima needed some more "upgrades" as the RC10 shocks a lot of people were using, also there had been a hardened chain what was much better than the kit item. Infact some Kyosho teamdrivers tried the belt conversion but soon changed back to the hard chain because of less drag.

Regarding that gearbox pinion both the original one and the option pinion were not perfect because of high wear. British manufacturer Nodis made a hardened steel pinion what was reducing drivetrain drag and lasted forever. Just bad they closed long ago.

[Coelacanth]

I have had both cars, the Optima as my 2nd 4WD car after the Hirobo Zerda and one of the first batch Turbo Optimas in 1986. Both very good cars. The original Optima needed some more "upgrades" as the RC10 shocks a lot of people were using, also there had been a hardened chain what was much better than the kit item. Infact some Kyosho teamdrivers tried the belt conversion but soon changed back to the hard chain because of less drag.

Regarding that gearbox pinion both the original one and the option pinion were not perfect because of high wear. British manufacturer Nodis made a hardened steel pinion what was reducing drivetrain drag and lasted forever. Just bad they closed long ago.

People went with belt conversions because the belts didn't stretch like the chains did; it eliminated the need to periodically open up your chain guide cover and remove a few links of chain. I can't understand the belt causing more drag than the much heavier chain-through-teeth, as chains went the way of the dinosaur, never to come back. That was for a reason--in RC cars, anyway.

There were at least 2 companies making hard final pinions for the Optima series; never heard of Nodis, but Thorp/Dirt Burners had one and Kyosho Option House made their own hard final pinion, OT-76. I have gears from the latter two.

One of the major weaknesses of the Optima was the front end; the bumper didn't do much to protect the car from a big front-end collision, as the bumper brace and front skidplate were ALWAYS bending or breaking. I'd say 75% of cars you see on eBay have damage there, if not more. Finding a straight front skidplate is damn near impossible.

[GeneralZod]

keithrc - I am still working on rebuilding the old optima. I want to keep it as original as I can and do a major cleanup. I love to see all the old optima's on this forum and see how they were restored or modified! One of my favorite RC cars ever! I'll post pics in the near future.

[V12]

[People went with belt conversions because the belts didn't stretch like the chains did; it eliminated the need to periodically open up your chain guide cover and remove a few links of chain. I can't understand the belt causing more drag than the much heavier chain-through-teeth, as chains went the way of the dinosaur, never to come back. That was for a reason--in RC cars, anyway.

There were at least 2 companies making hard final pinions for the Optima series; never heard of Nodis, but Thorp/Dirt Burners had one and Kyosho Option House made their own hard final pinion, OT-76. I have gears from the latter two.

One of the major weaknesses of the Optima was the front end; the bumper didn't do much to protect the car from a big front-end collision, as the bumper brace and front skidplate were ALWAYS bending or breaking. I'd say 75% of cars you see on eBay have damage there, if not more. Finding a straight front skidplate is damn near impossible.

From what I remember the gearbox housing or anything was not really working good for the belt so in the end there was more drag than expected. For this reason the Optima Mid was designed what had the belt from the beginning.
Anyway there was also an optional hard chain from Kyosho what was maybe the most important part. The main problem with the kit chain was not the usual stretching of the chain, but if the car touches ground hard on power after a large jump this was affecting the chain to stretch unevenly, causing lots of drag even blocking of the drive train at that chain position. I never had this with the hard chain, even not after lots of use.

Nodis was a manufacturer from England, near London. They were specialized on making drive train parts for all sort of cars also had maybe the first really good pinions and spurs, later copied by RW. I think most guys didn´t know this brand, a teamdriver from the British Parma/Kyosho team told me about these parts as all of their drivers were using these.

I personally never had problems with bumper or bending frontend parts, just remember breaking a few of the early front arms as we drilled additional holes for different shock position. But maybe it depends on the driver or something. If you want winning races you have to avoid crashes.

Anyway I think Optima and Turbo Optima had been the best 4WD cars of that age, before the CAT XL appeared.

[Super1080]

This is the bad boy I picked up just recently , I think it's a optima with alot of turbo upgrades, and a load of xtra parts

[Coelacanth]

That's indeed a Turbo Optima, at least if what's under the body matches the body. And some sweet Gold Celebration chassis parts, a rare NIB belt conversion kit, and maybe some other nice goodies--but the pic is too small to make out any details. That looks like a great build project. Congrats!

[Super1080]

Here's a closer pic of the chassis

[Super1080]

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