Project OptiMutt - Finished

[Coelacanth]

Will this part be in this car.
Jerzi

Hopefully!

[Coelacanth]

After receiving some Tamiya adapters, I was able to mount a set of new Proline wheels that'll be perfect for a runner (thanks, Don!). I can't quite call this project finished until jwscab is able to do some custom machining on a few sets of rear aluminum wheels I was eyeing for this car from the very beginning. I'll save the money shots for when those wheels are finished.

[flipwils11]

Cool body and great looking car.

[knixdad]

That is purty.

[THUNDERSTRIKE1]

Yea you had to have them adapters huh looks awsume now don

[Coelacanth]

Wow! Creative solutions as always, Coelacanth. Your builds are always inspiring. For a 2WD it looks like a heavy tank. It would completely mangle any other 2WD in a battle

I just thought I'd update this, as I've weighed the car, with body & wing painted & mounted, electronics installed, with the Proline nylon wheels & tires shown...without battery, it weighs 1326 grams. And that includes running 8 bearings (instead of 4) in the front hubs & axles to be able to mount either 12mm hex or wheels with bearings inside them as the need arises. I'm not sure if that's considered heavy for a RWD offroad buggy. Anybody have similar cars (offroad RWD) lying around for comparison?

[hondaman]

I just weighed my 5-link Losi JRX-2 for comparison and it comes in at 2lb 6oz which roughly translates in to just over 1077 grams (1077.281g to be exact) with electronics and the stock wheels, tires, body and wing. Electronics are vintage: Losi Revolution Stock Motor, Futaba S128 servo, Futaba FP-103GR receiver and a Novak T4. So I am lighter by 249 g. I bet the "shin crusher" aluminum tub RC-10's would weigh in somewhat closer to yours (yes I have issues with RC-10's. Call it a youth learning experience. At least it didn't leave a scar on my leg, just my head. ).

Hope this helps as a starting point.

Oh and I like your wheels. I have a set myself.



Shawn

[Coelacanth]

Thanks for the info, Shawn. I just checked class rules for minimum weights for 2WD 1:10 scale, stock & modified, is 1500 grams--which I assume includes the battery. That Losi is very light, you must have to add weight to it if you wanted to race, because a battery only adds about 250 or so grams. If I were to race this car, I'd come in at less than 100 grams over the minimum--and that's with all the alloy parts. It would seem that using a lot of alloy would significantly increase weight, but it doesn't increase it as much as people would think.

Does anybody with any flavor of Ultima have a complete car for a weight comparison, without battery? I've basically turned an Optima Mid into a mid-motor Ultima, so that would be a pretty comparable weight.

[Coelacanth]

Just a minor update: Dyed a second set of Prolines and cemented on some tires better-suited for on-road driving. Now I think it's ready for it's maiden road-test.

[Coelacanth]

Before I began this project, I had a set of wheels that I envisioned mounting on one of my cars. The problem was, the wheels were from the 80's and had the annoying taper-fit hubs that would only fit on 80's-era Kyosho tapered axles. Since I've modernized all of my Optimas except for the Zebra gold chassis car, these wheels wouldn't fit onto the modern 5mm straight axles with either crosspins & hexes or slots. The wheels were just collecting dust and seemed like a lost cause until I started doing some careful measurements and got some ideas. I ran the ideas by jwscab, who has machined some spacers and such for me in the past, and shipped him the wheels after sending him some pictures, diagrams & we came up with an idea that worked.

Joe machined off the inner cone-shaped section of the wheels so that the inners would be flat, then machined crosspin slots into the flats. He did this after confirming some careful measurements of backspacing and decided to drill out the wheel axle holes to 5mm.

After having these wheels for a year or two now and not being able to use them, with Joe's machine work, I am now able to mount them on OptiMutt and the car I envisioned a long time ago is just about finished!

I'd like to also thank RedScampi, who sold me the matching front wheels...he had a set of the fronts, I had a set of the rears, and neither of us could do anything with them, so I eventually made a trade offer for some stuff he needed, and was able to finally make a matching set.

[CAT3K]

Very nice Love those wheels.

[Hcp22]

So sharp

[j0pp3]

Looks great with those wheels! I think Kyosho Platina shocks would match the car as well.

[jwscab]

Awesome. Glad they got there, they look great!!!!

[rccars4sal]

Im mesmerized by those wheels! I need those for a scale series,, like perhaps a testarosa, or rs500 cosworth.