Optima Belt Drive Conversion - year?

[dinglem]

Hi All,

Does anybody know the date (year) when the belt drive was first made available for the rear engined Optima? Did the kit come with gear or ball diffs (were ball diffs even an option in 1986?)...? I just note that the belt drive option comes with the re-re Optima so you would assume it was therefore available prior to the release of the Pro?

Thanks in advance,

Martin.

[coxbros1]

87' on belt conversion, ( i think). Car came with gear diffs (fact)

[Retro rc]

Belt drive was 87 I remember getting 1 for my salute went they came out, I was 12 at the time. Came with gear diffs not ball diffs

[dinglem]

Some great info and input here guys, which is of course very much appreciated.

Please have a look over on my other 'Trinity Optima' thread as I am about to embark on a bit of a childhood wish-list build and am very lucky to have found the car that I have. The issue I have is that in the UK vintage racing scene the cut-off for the class the Optima falls into ends in '86, and the '87 onwards category includes the Pro and also the Mid.

You will see from my thread I am trying to replicate a car I loved from a Dec '86 magazine article, and yet I already have a belt drive conversion available to me. The thing is, if that came out in '87 then it is too modern an upgrade for that class. Technically speaking anyway. People are running the rere Optima in the '86 class and i can be fairly sure they are using the rere belt drive system in those cars.

Would Dec '86 be too early for the first belt drive conversions to be out, and can you see evidence of a chain here?

Basically, i am wondering whether to stick with the chain drive or not?

[dinglem]

Good - chain drive it is. Means I haven't got to strip the car down

[dinglem]

I just did some more digging and remembered a review of the '87 European Championships held in Austria. In that very article it references the French team who are running Optimas against the CATs of the British team, and it states that people were a little shocked to see them running prototype Optima belt drive conversions sent directly from Option House in Japan for the event.

So May, 1987 confirmed in writing

(You were bang on...)

[magic]

-also the Germany Kyosho Team-Driver Stefan Köhler used the Belt-Drive conversation for the Optima in Pörtschach Austria...