My Optima Mid Rebuild

[zuki250]

Thanks guys....i have been working pretty hard on her.....Colecanth...I am going to keep her mostly plastic as I will be racing it. I saw your builds..pretty sick..i actually am going to message you, i have some questions...but the way you mounted your esc...i was going to do the same thing...or use a little tray that came with the car...its pretty cool, hangs down from the chasis...ohhh and these came today....just finished gluing them up....so i am going brushless and the class can only use a 13.5 or 10.5 turn...probably gonna go 13.5..any suggestions and also any on an esc for it...I def want some sensored to take a little shock out of the initial start up

[Coelacanth]

i actually am going to message you, i have some questions...but the way you mounted your esc...i was going to do the same thing...or use a little tray that came with the car

Sure, PM me anytime. I try to put all the info out there in my build threads, but I'm always happy to share further details. I liked mounting the ESC that way, I chose that position to lower center-of-gravity and also move some weight forward. The Optimas are kind of known to have on-acceleration understeer, and I figured while doing that build--due to converting it to RWD with no diff and other drive elements up front--that I'd want to compensate for the reduced weight up front. The one thing you have to make sure of, BEFORE you sticky-tape the ESC into place, is that your steering servo and tie-rod adjustments are all dialed in FIRST...because the ESC blocks access to the servo horn.

I def want some sensored to take a little shock out of the initial start up

I'm not sure what you mean by this...?

To be honest, I'm running a Tacon sensorless system in Barney and a Leopard sensorless system in OptiMutt, and both accelerate very smoothly (I turned the punch down to avoid wheelying all over the place) and have no cogging or hitching at slow speeds. Both are using the same FlySky receivers and GT3B transmitter. I've read of people having issues with slow-speed cogging, but neither of those cars have it. Thus far, I haven't seen the need...but I'm not a competitive racer, so factor that in, too.

[zuki250]

ahh..i have had some cogging in my Short course...but i put in a sensored esc...soooo smooth...just trying to make the drive train survive as long as i can, as i don't have any spares yet... Well i do have a Kyosho slingshot..that uses some of the same parts, so i could rob some i guess

[Coelacanth]

What ESC, motor, Tx & Rx combo are you running?

[zuki250]

In my Race truck i have a Revtech 4 pole 400kv with a hobbywing 150amp esc with a spektrum dx4s...no cogging there!!...and its silly fast

[Coelacanth]

I have cogging/rough acceleration issues with CYANide but I've been too busy with other stuff to fix it. I know it's something in my combination because I'm using the same radio/receiver for all three of those cars, but that one has an older LRP ESC which I think is the culprit. I don't think it's the SpeedPassion 17.5T motor or receiver. I have another ESC to swap in but I have to solder on some ends first, and I haven't been motivated to break out the soldering iron lately.

[zuki250]

Got the wheels on...this is how she sits until i get the motor, and new body

[Coelacanth]

Very nice and clean, looks great. Quite an improvement from how you received it.

[zuki250]

Thnx..not gonna lie my fav part is the servo wire wrapped around the support post...haha that came out so clean

[j0pp3]

Nice work! My favorite chassis

Do you get a matching offset with those ZX-5 wheels? I mean, are the wheels lined up front/rear?

[zuki250]

They are pretty lines...maybe a tiny bit wider

[zuki250]

Quick update...swapped out the servo, and did some mods to make the esc fit...she works great now

Ok here are some pics...I had to make some more changes...she works now and hauls @ss....just need to add some camber links and she is ready for the vintage national race this year!!



I cut and flattened a part of the chassis to fit the tekin esc...I had an lrp in that fit perfectly on it's side...but was unhappy with its performance

[zuki250]

Here it is with the body on...I swapped out the stock wing as it was beat...I took a wing from my Durango 210...I still have to paint a new body

[zuki250]

Wasn't happy with the wing position..moved it forward much better than before

[Coelacanth]

Looks great! I'd probably remove the stickers, buy a repro sticker sheet and re-apply them. Those wrinkly, peeled-up stickers are kind of distracting.

I know you're going with a new body, but that body looks fine...just the stickers need to be replaced.