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!

[DennisM]

Nice parts -
What´s the story about the Lazer arms?

[keithrc]

Just saw this on Oople as well. Awesome stuff Dan! Very much looking forward to seeing how this one progresses. I'll have to post up some pics of my SE's later on.


Keith

[HKS_TRD]

Nice parts -
What´s the story about the Lazer arms?

When I had my SE the Lazer ZX had come out and I have never seen a Lazer in person but did see a write-up in a magazine which made a point about the improved suspension design. I didn't know at the time if they would fit but thought Lazer front suspension arms and hubs would work they would be a good upgrade for a Mid. Now that I know they do indeed fit they were a must have for this build, though there is still a bit of a twist on that, I'll explain when I get to building the front suspension

Just saw this on Oople as well. Awesome stuff Dan! Very much looking forward to seeing how this one progresses. I'll have to post up some pics of my SE's later on.


Keith

Yes indeed post up some pics of your SE Mids

[HKS_TRD]

I managed to make some progress a little earlier than I expected.

I had a one-way in the front of my SE so I always had to have one in this build. However my efforts were constantly thwarted, every time one turned up on eBay the seller wouldn't post to Australia

I can't quite remember how but I managed to discover the following piece



Which you can then install into a standard belt driven gear-diff case along with all the other necessary goodies



To give you exactly the same thing as the W-0106



I kept the original ball diff in the back of my SE so that was what would be going into the rear gearbox of this build

I had bought a secondhand parts lot which included a rear ball diff, the older version, which was perfect for this build. However whilst the outdrives were perfect, the teeth on the pulley were toast, which is a little odd. Here you can see the old pulley next to all the parts that came with that pulley, built into a new pulley. You can see what I mean about the condition of the outdrives not matching the condition of the pulley.



I also purchased a secondhand long wheel base Mid a while back which was stripped, a friend has half the parts for his project (when we start assembling that there will be a thread for it) and I kept the other half for some of my builds. All the parts for the rear gearbox bar the casing, ball diff and belt came from that car. One thing I did was dye the yellow washer that sits on the outside of the gearbox black, you can't really see it but I was dying some other stuff so I did it anyway



So now it was time to break out a new set of gearbox casings



To get things up to this stage



Now for the exciting part. I got to break the chassis out of the plastic, along with a few other parts







I actually had a second front plate made which was a different shape, but I decided to use the standard looking one on this build, this one is probably stronger and I plan to put it on my LWB Mid runner build at this stage



So all of that brought me up to here











I plan on making some more progress over the Easter Break

[Kyosho Fan2]

Superb work, from one kyosho fruitcake to another this is going to look stunning when finished.

[Jerzi]

How much did you pay for the carbon parts.
Here is my carbon swb parts that I made out of 2.1mm carbon.
Hope to see the car ready soon.
Jerzi

[HKS_TRD]

Superb work, from one kyosho fruitcake to another this is going to look stunning when finished.

Thanks, I'm going to post some more pics up soon as I have managed to get it mostly together, bar a couple carbon pieces that I will have in the near future

[HKS_TRD]

How much did you pay for the carbon parts.
Here is my carbon swb parts that I made out of 2.1mm carbon.
Hope to see the car ready soon.
Jerzi

That looks really nice!

All the bits bar the chassis and pivot blocks are on their website with prices, I forget what the chassis cost but it wasn't alot more than the regular one, and the pivot blocks were not that much, I'm not sure where I put the receipt

[j0pp3]

Jerzi sold his homemade parts a while ago. Maybe he wanted to know if he got a decent price?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/KYOSHO-OPTIMA-MID-FULL-CARBON-COSTUM-MADE-/261182508785?pt=US_Radio_Control_Control_Line&hash=item3ccfb0cef1

[HKS_TRD]

OK so time for a bit of an update. I'll spread this over a few posts as there are quite a few pictures.

First up was to bolt up these ( I had to mod the front shock tower to clear the bulges on the gearbox cases where the outdrive bearings sit)



And these





I remembered A&L Ballraced bellcranks from back in the day so when I found out you could buy them new I ordered a set right away



So, that lot got things to here











When the Lazer came out, I noticed the new design of the wishbones and the outer link and always thought it would be great if you could have those arms on a Mid. I didn't know at the time that they did indeed fit. I also got the MPP rear arms as they were on eBay, they are period correct and only having a rear pair made them cheaper and they are a closer match to the Lazer front arms than the stock Mid rear arms

[HKS_TRD]

Moving right along, the next step was the front C-Hubs.
Although I wanted to have Lazer front wishbones on my Mid I didn't want the upper link to be past the kingpin like the ZX but rather I wanted it to stay inboard like the mid, for no other reason than I thought that looked cool.

When I saw these hubs on eBay they were just the thing, being the right configuration, vintage, and gold. I always liked gold parts back when I was into RC unlike now where my fixation is with blue anodised parts. Plus they were ballraced and back then I knew of ball raced hubs but never got to see one. They are marked as being for a Lazer ZX but I am not so sure as they have zero caster (left and right are identical) and they can't accommodate the Lazer upper arm configuration.

They needed some flanged bearings to work. I also got flanged bearings for the Andys knuckles I planned to use, these again fit the build brief of being vintage parts and parts I knew of back when I had my SE.







However I very soon ran into issues with the Andy's knuckles fouling on the Lazer wishbones, it turns out that they have a larger external diameter than the standard metal OT-16 knuckles.

This was not such a catastrophe as I had always wanted to polish the stock knuckles back in the day but had no idea about metal polishing. So I had an old pair of knuckles which I had polished up for an experiment. I have removed the front cast mark to make them look a little cleaner. Its hard to capture the shine in the photos



So now armed with these I had no more fouling issues and I could bring these bits along for the ride. The platinums are brand new and were being minded by my Lazer ZX so at the moment its sitting very low, but never mind I have grander plans for it now. The front universal joints are new but I also put this nice secondhand pair on the rear because 20 years ago I thought it would be over the top to have them on the rear as well. I went with turnbuckles because I always thought it made no sense for the SE not to have them.







Here you can see the front suspension assembled, along with a polished hex drive



I had also saved a motor for this build, although its not the same motor I had in my SE I always liked the Reedy motors and this Reedy looked like the best aesthetic match for this Mid. I also polished the motor spacer and the plates for the spur gear clutch.





So with the upper deck and a few other pieces installed including genuine tinted belt and gear covers, its starting to look like a complete Mid now

[Jerzi]

Here is one project that I made last summer.
Jerzi

http://jerryn.kuvat.fi/kuvat/RC.AUTO+KUVAT/KYOSHO+MID+S%C3%84HK%C3%96ILL%C3%84/

[Jerzi]

Hey dude.
If you want I can make the wingstay out of carbon to you.
PM me if intrest.
Will work superb to this car.
Jerzi