Kyosho/Atsuhiro Ohno WC'87 spec Torpedo Optima
It is now, to the day, 30 years since the 1/10th Off-road World Championships in Romsey, UK. We all know that Masami Hirosaka won the 4WD class with his Schumacher CAT XLS (back then just called the CAT XL). A little bit down the table we find Japanese driver Atsuhiro Ohno, who drove in to 78th place with what is seen as the last real racing incarnation of the pre mid-motor Kyosho Optima, the "Torpedo Optima". The car got its name from how the batteries were mounted, down along the sides, and was Team Kyoshos preferred setup in the last year of racing with the original Optima. Atsuhiro san made several modifications himself, like the home designed/made carbon top plate, and aluminum rear shock tower. The now famous Yokomo designer, Yasunobu Hosada, designed and made the carbon front side plates for him, and the carbon front shock tower was fitted by Team Kyosho from a modified Optima Mid prototype tower. Kyosho/Auto Model chief designer, Akira Kogawa, provided the car with prototype ball differentials and belt drive, also from the prototype Mid. At the front, the whole bumper support brace has been removed and the aluminum front under plate has been cut accordingly. The body is an Air Supply "Ranco One", designed by Proto/Tadashi Kurihara, who also designed the Marui line of cars, as well as many of the early Kyosho cars and the body for Kyosho/Kogawas Scorpion based Beetle. The body was copied by both Mugen and Panda, and used on their Manx and Cyclone cars. This use was unauthorized by Proto/Kurihara. The body was painted by the legendary Japanese RC-car painter, Yoshiaki Shimotori.
My car is a "replica" of this buggy, and with a little help from my friends, I made copies of all the special parts, based on pictures I have of the original car. It should be pretty accurate, as I also got help from Atsuhiro san, who patiently answered all questions I had. I drew all the special parts myself, including the aluminum and carbon/fiber glass parts, as well as every single decal, apart from the Kyosho decal. The front tower and torpedo mounts were cut for me by Jeff Malar/Factory Works, the rear tower by Derrick Durbin and the top plate and front side plates by Fibre-Lyte in England. Like on the original, the bumper is hand made from kydex. Furthermore the car is fully race spec'd like the original, with ball diffs, belt drive, rear sway bar and universals on all wheels. It has the Kyosho Option House gold shocks and motor guard, and wheels/tires from the Turbo Optima. The original had 32/48 pitch prototype Kyosho spur and counter gears, but I have mounted full 48 pitch gears from Robinson Racing. A lot of the original parts have been counter sunk, like on the original. The body and wing was painted by Raul Garcia/Garcia Graphix from pictures of the original car, and I had the home drawn decals printed by MCI Racing in Canada. The Ultima/Javelin wing is mounted with Kyoshos optional Optima wing mount kit. Of the electronics, only the home made torpedo batteries, the modified Air Supply Trix motor and the Sanwa Contest HC steering servo have been mounted, but I also have the right transmitter, receiver, as well as a distant relative to the ESC that was used. I still need to re-wire the ESC before I can mount it. The ESC I got for free from our dear friend, Daniel Rowlands (RIP), only a couple of months before he passed.
You can find more details in my build thread, as well as lots of pictures of Atsuhiro Ohnos original car:
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3.
