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Just came in the mail today! Got a great deal on her. This is my first Optima of any kind and I am very happy. Have to clean it up and take off some corrosion but its a nice addition to my collection I think. Anyone have any parts for sale or input on these feel free to let me know.

VERY NICE.... they really are a top looking racer arent they....i only have a mid custom which i dig also...cant wait to see your end result

I don't see which parts you would want? It looks perfect to me.

Don't ever take t to close to me: Imight put a packin it and run it before you can say NO

She's gorgeous with the box-art paint scheme - but isn't it missing a few gold bits, like the motor and side guards for instance?

Paul

Thanks guys. I'm really glad I chose to buy it. You might be right Paul... this is the first one Ive ever owned so if you have some more info then lay it on me. I would hate to have to buy more goodies for her

Sweet ride. They should have came stock with the motor guard. I cracked a couple of motor magnets driving mine without a guard.

That looks great, even got the rubber motor boot. The boxart paint looks a like a good job as well.

It's not missing anything, the gold motor guard and side guards were Option House hop up parts and were never included in any of the Optima kits. Bit of a bummer for me as I ran a development Optima so I had to run it about 9 months before anyone came out with a motor guard.

terry.sc wrote: I ran a development Optima

So you're not working for the CIA as I suspected earlier then.
How come you got to run this car so early on?

It was a preproduction kit and the UK got a small number of them which were made available to a number of racers to run them, see what broke and to report back what changes might be needed. Remember back then the companies didn't have teams of sponsored drivers to do the development work for them. It meant that if I broke anything I had to order parts direct from the importers and wait , the good point is that I had an Optima 6 months before general release The production cars were almost the same, beefed up wishbones (yes the original Optima arms were actually beefed up ) and greater castor angle being the only differences.

I remember seeing the Red/White Turbo Optimas in magazines when I was a kid. I thought they were absolutely beautiful.
And now I see... they still are.. *sniff* (wipes tear)

Terry - do you still have that Optima?

Mine is in the paint booth right now. Hopefully, it will be done soon.

No, it was sold on when I upgraded my buggy. Didn't have much left that was original when I was finished with it either.

terry.sc wrote:That looks great, even got the rubber motor boot. The boxart paint looks a like a good job as well.

It's not missing anything, the gold motor guard and side guards were Option House hop up parts and were never included in any of the Optima kits. Bit of a bummer for me as I ran a development Optima so I had to run it about 9 months before anyone came out with a motor guard.

Thanks TerrySC (I see you're pretty actively sharing the knowledge here too )

When the turbo optima was released I was 12 years old, and I would have swore ever since the thing had all the gold goodies in the kit! Sounds like you broke one of the myths I had built my life on

The optima of mine I still have as a project in a box somewhere in my garage is not a Turbo (no gold shocks for instance) but it has all the gold stuff in a bag... Man I need to build it one of these days, but there are sooooo many projects on my todo list it's ridiculous!!!

Paul

if it has all the gold parts then it's likely to be one of these http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=46197&id=1532

The limited edition gold Optima kit Kyosho released to celebrate selling 100,000 Optimas.

Although later you could buy an upgrade kit of all the standard alloy parts anodised gold.

terry.sc wrote:if it has all the gold parts then it's likely to be one of these http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=46197&id=1532

The limited edition gold Optima kit Kyosho released to celebrate selling 100,000 Optimas.

Although later you could buy an upgrade kit of all the standard alloy parts anodised gold.

yup that's the one I have - gold goodies but "standard" shocks... hey, you made my day my friend Thanks,
Paul