RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

Hi All,
Been searching this forum for a few weeks, as well as others, and need some advice. Recently pulled my Kyosho Turbo Optima out of storage (original owner) and thought it might be time to sell. I like the idea of restoring it but just cant get over the price for parts. 4 new tires alone would be $60 with shipping, never mind new shocks. I know mine is no shelf queen. I ran it hard when I got it as a kid and it shows. Most everything is original except for the speed control and for the time being I had to improvise with some shock collars. I was 10 when I got it and although my dad helped me build it I insisted on painting the body and it shows. Anyway, I recently bought my son a Traxxas Grave Digger as he's a huge monster truck fan and have been upgrading that truck with him. My thinking has been, let me sell my Turbo Optima and buy a Stampede or something similar with more readily available parts. I put the buggy up for sale on ebay last week http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Kyosho-Turbo-Optima-Orignal-LeMans-240S-Motor-/131135930675?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276 for what i thought was a reasonable price. Assuming someone will just disassemble and overhaul the whole thing. Well I didn't get any takers in the first week so I must be asking too much or people would prefer a "better" buggy rather than one that is obviously been used.

So, at this point, I've gotten to the point where I'm wondering if I should just keep it. Run it every so often but otherwise just store it. Any thoughts would be appreciated. What should i expect something like this to sell for, should I just keep it, etc etc etc???

Thanks in advance!!

If you really want to sell, then heres a little advice. Lower start price. Better pictures. Use larger high def pictures, so that when a shopper mouses over the pic, it blows it up off to the side. For collectors, its important to see some detail. More pictures, better pictures, lower starting price.

If you want to keep and restore,, patience. Very common car on ebay, and parts pop up all the time. There are lots and lots of compatible tires available too. J concepts is making modern rubber in 1.7 size called double dees.

I vote KEEP IT and show us your restoration in progress with big clear pics on photobucket!

I agree the start price is $150 too much. You're unlikely to finish off at $300, let alone start off at that.

That said, your car looks like a great candidate for a resto! Post a resto thread here and share some better pics, lots of us have parts we can sell you for better prices than the eBay rip-offs. You can probably do a pretty decent budget resto on that car if you buy non-repro, non-original tires, for example. There's lots of options out there that'll cost a helluva lot less than originals or repros of originals.

You can upgrade to a modern ESC & motor combo for under $60, and do away with the crappy mechanical speed controller, resistor and servo to control it.

EDIT: I had a closer look at your eBay ad and noticed you already had an ESC. Does it still work properly?

Thanks for the replies guys. Definitely going to look at those jconcepts tires. The esc does work. It doesnt get a little jumpy at times but I have always attributed that to the electronics. I would say the biggest issues are the range with the current transmitter and the steering. As I've read, the placement of the steering servo is terrible.

Perhaps I should disassemble the whole thing, clean and reassemble with as you said, better pics.

A new FlySky GT3B-series radio & receiver will have no range issues, no need to mess with crystals & frequencies, the Tx can control up to 10 cars (just add receivers for about $7 each), may even work with your existing steering servo, and only costs about $39.99 or so.

Restoring that Turbo Optima will give you a kind of satisfaction you just won't get from building a new plastic-fantastic car...and that aluminum and gold anodized parts will look sweet. I think it's worth the effort, and you'll get that nostalgic feeling too.