Nice, I see a treasure-trove of gold nuggets in that pile!

No, Kyosho never did continue with the chain-driven Optimas after the Turbo Optima/Salute. They went to belt-drive with the many flavors of Mid, though, which passed on much of its DNA to the Lazer series.
Like you, I had plenty of spare parts lying around, so instead of buying a modern car, I ended up modernizing two of my Optimas, and turned one of them into a onroad car. To do it properly though required a great deal more work than just mounting road wheels & tires, body mounts and a body, I discovered through much trial & error & research.
