Turbo Optima Mid SE-X

[HKS_TRD]

So, a bit of background before I get into the build.
In 1989 I purchased a NIB Turbo Optima Mid SE, the only NIB RC Car I purchased. I couldn't really afford to do many mods but over the five years I owned it I managed to collect a few bits and pieces for it such as a Novak4 ESC (an ESC was a big thing to someone with no money), Lazer ZX rear wheels and a one-way diff for the front. I also managed to find an undertray for it at some stage. I ran a HPI Uno motor in it and then a LOSI, I forget what wind but it had a yellow sticker on the can and was really fast, much faster than the UNO
At one point, in 1990 IIRC a model shop offered me the LWB Optima Mid conversion kit for bugger all ($50 I believe) but I didn't buy it and always regret it. The main attraction for me was just the shape of the chassis, I never liked the skinny mid chassis and loved the shape of the saddle pack chassis, to the point that I cut some pieces of black tin to the right shape and screwed them to the chassis just to get that look lol

These are the only pics I have of it, you can see narrowed Mid wheels on the front and the Lazer wheels on the rear







I did however keep the box!

[HKS_TRD]

So, the theme of this build is to build an SE with some of the mods that mine had, but also some of the mods that I had in mind but never got to do. This can also include vintage parts I knew of but never even got to see in person.
I'm trying to avoid using any parts that I never knew about or wanted back when I owned mine but I may make a couple exceptions.

Basically I am building the SE that I had in my mind but wasn't able to execute. As I slowly build it any non original part will be explained along the way.

Below is pretty much 90% of the parts for it, the rest are either somewhere else here or in transit, a few of the specs I haven't actually decided on, and I'll be open to opinions as things progress



One thing you will notice is some fibrelyte pieces, this may seem out of line with my build theme however, at the time I had my SE Carbon Fibre parts were starting to show up and I thought it would have been cool to have the shock towers, chassis, upper deck, motor brace etc all in Carbon Fibre rather than fibreglass and aluminium, so this does fit in with the build theme.

Those paying attention may recall that I wish the SWB Mid chassis was shaped like a saddle pack chassis. So, rather than resort to cutting out pieces of tin again, this time around the heart of the build is this custom SWB chassis I had Fibrelyte make for me



And hand in hand with the chassis is the Carbon Fibre upper deck, keen eyes may spot the difference to the standard upper deck.



I'm aiming to have the gearboxes built and bolted up over Easter if not some more progress.

So, be patient and stay tuned!

[DanB4]

Awesome Dan as always!

Watching with great interest.

Dan

[mintzant]

Loved old kyosho cars...
Send us more pictures...
Fantastic!

[DanB4]

Like this one?

[oli4ke]

Nice Dan