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I found this chassis lurking in my pile of optima parts. I can't seem to find good source of what optima mid model it came with or if it was some kind of after market chassis.

First I thought it belonged to the Optima Mid Custom Special but when image googling that model I get confused.

I know it's not from Turbo Optima Mid Special as that model have a carbon fiber chassis. And definitely not from Optima Mid Custom as that model have a brownish alloy chassis.

I found this thread with a similar topic but most images are gone:
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=20962

Here is my chassis in question. It's in pretty good shape...

I'm sure it's a Optima Mid Custom Special.

Very nice find indeed!!!!!!

Mad Racer wrote:I'm sure it's a Optima Mid Custom Special.

Very nice find indeed!!!!!!

Thanks!

I've been researching and found out that this chassis was shipped with early batches of Optima Mid Custom (before Kyosho replaced it with an alloy chassis). Therefore it's kind of rare.

It seems that Optima Mid Custom Special got a similar chassis but without the structure on the surface.

Here is another sample of an early Optima Mid Custom that has the same kind of chassis I just found. The structure can best be seen on the lower right area.

I can say for sure that some Optima Mid Customs had this type of chassis. I bought mine around 1988 in the UK.

Is the ally chassis regarded as cheaper/inferior? I would have preferred it, if anything.

Mike.

I would guess the alloy chassis would be heavier and maybe being narrower, gives less flexibility with mounting the electronics components...but I, too, prefer the aluminum plate. I came close to dropping the dough to buy a graphite or carbon plate for my OptiMutt car, but decided to just stick with what I had.

Tanks for your input.

I restored my OMCS with the graphite version as it was more rare. I would also replace the alloy chassis on my OMC if I could.

For runners I prefer to craft my own chassis so that I'm not dependent on original- or expensive third party parts