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So I was at the track, and some guy saw I was racing my early 90;'s B stamp RC10T buggy conversion. He asked if I would be interested in an old Ultima. I said maybe, so he went and grabbed it from his trunk. He returned with this:




Hardly a complete car, but being the sucker I am for vintage RC, a price was negotiated and it went home with me. Then plan is to do a semi stock rebuild. The body will remain stock. The non-stock shock towers will remain, and I've always hated the "1984 Corvette" wheels. So stock, with some changes.

The goal is a non-runner, although complete, shelf queen.

Here's what it looks like with the Borrego wheels I'm going with. Turns out the RC10 hex is the same size as the Kyosho hex, so the rears will bolt right on. The fronts, were a bit trickier, I had to use a tube shim around the front axle to make the RC29 bearings work. On a show car, it works just fine. It also has a vintage 2 cell NiCd battery in it now.





I have the (minimal) body/driver and wing ordered for it, along with the stickers. I'm going to paint the body black, or dark grey, and then apply the decals.


It will likely never get the love, admiration, and attention that the RC10 does, but I'm OK with that. I just love 80's RC cars and trucks.






The one thing that I REALLY love about the Ultima, is the real roll cage. Gives the car a very scale appearance, that is missing in the vast majority of RC cars.

This is the second time I've seen that roll bar mount. Very cool setup! Surely someone out there has info on it?

Which part exactly are you referring to?

Here's a couple closer shots, to help you see what the roll bar/cage looks like:








I'm assuming those are RC10 gold shocks on the front, but I don't know what the rears are from.

Fronts are kyosho golds, rears are kyosho platinums. You want the golds, sell off the platinums.

The roll bar mount in the front and on the sides is aftermarket. I assumed they were hand made but this is the second one I've seen now, making me think it was a produced part by an aftermarket company. It's not stock, the cage was mounted to the body and rotated up with the body for access.

Interesting. I've seen these cars since new, but have never owned one, so this is a learning experience for me. Thanks for the tip on the shocks. I'll see if I can locate the correct golds for the rear.

Isn't the rear shock tower higher than stock though? Most I see are definitely shorter. Soo how do I know which rear gold shocks to buy?

Would be nice to find a stock motor for this, even if it doesn't run, just to complete the look.

rear shock tower is the optional tower that came with the Turbo Ultima, which is also likely where the Platinum shocks came from. Just get Kyosho Long Golds and you'll be fine.

Yes the optional (turbo) shocktower is higher.
The Ultima is born with red 10mm shocks (8mm bore )

You really should keep the proline front rims and find a matching set of rears.

Stock motor would be mabuchi 540 black endbell IIRC. Perhaps the Lemans 05 but that would be for late run kits.

DennisM wrote:The Ultima is born with red 10mm shocks (8mm bore )

I'll try to find a matching set of Prolines for the front. Those front tires are rock hard. The PO had a matching set for the rear, but they had a crack, so he pitched them, AArrgh! For the time being the car will sit with some more modern tires/wheels, just so it doesn't look so sad with no rear wheels.

As for the shocks, I'm guessing that may be pricey. If it is, I have extra gold RC10 shocks that would at least match the fronts. Only people like you guys would notice the difference

I have ordered a repop of the body/driver, which should be here soon.

DennisM wrote:You really should keep the proline front rims and find a matching set of rears.

I'm with Dennis on this one. I don't dig the Borrego wheel style; the bigger 2.2" diameter plus the 4WD front tires really look too big and throw off the scale proportions. If you're gonna go 2.2", maybe consider going with 2WD front tires instead.

I'm all for going with the old Prolines, I really like them, but finding a set has been an effort in futility so far. I can find fronts no problem, but not rears. I just don't want the 84 Corvette wheels, I've hated those since this model was new.

As for the the Borregos, I have a ton of RC10 stuff around here, and those are from one of my RC1O projects. Being as they were free, I threw them on.

Yep, new long Kyosho golds are pricey, but if You have a rc10 in good shape, it shouldn´t be a problem to trade it for a set of shocks

Stopped into a longtime hobby shop here locally, known the guys for decades, seriously. He said the wheels are in fact CRP, and not Prolines. He said you could tell the difference because the color of the CRP's, as they were meant to be dyed, the Prolines are more bright white. At least now I know what to search for.

He was a diehard Kyosho guy for eons, and said he's check "in his box of stuff" to see if he has anything that would work for me. He knows he doesn't have a matching set of rear wheels, but he wasn't sure what else was in that mystery box. I can't wait to check back in a week!