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I have posted this up on a couple of Fb group pages earlier today and I was rather surprised at how many people studied and comment upon it.

A friend of mine was a freelance journalist who wrote for the two big RC magazines in the UK, and was at the Reedy Spring International held at Romsey in 1987.... basically a practice run for the Worlds later that summer. The event itself was dominated by the then new LWB Schumacher CAT, and British driver Glyn Peglar seemingly ran away with the event and won it. This was a fairly controversial result as he had not been selected for the British team for the up-coming Worlds event at the same venue.

Anyway - both UK mags mentioned that Jay Halsey and Cliff Lett were running a very secretive prototype 4wd RC10, which was not seen without the bodyshell it seems. They were also not allowing photographs to be taken, but it turns out he managed to take this one, albeit with the bodyshell in place. The mag pictures were of much worse quality, so i thought this might be of interest to folks on here..... there is more than a hint of Optima from what I can see(!)

Hmmmm... using an Optima donor car could be an interesting way to make a 4wd RC10

Very very cool stuff, is that this car ? I’ve always wondered what it really looked like if so.

Another screen grab from the same vid. Definitely looks to be a different setup.

Frankentruck wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 5:31 pm Hmmmm... using an Optima donor car could be an interesting way to make a 4wd RC10

Lol looks more like he put rc10 rear arms on a optima and a custom chassis, whole front end and rear gearbox look to be optima

Was AE not yet besties with Yokomo in 87?

The Trinity and Hot Trick chassis for the Optima were flat plates like that Associated car. A lot of conversions for the re-release Optima change it to a flat plate chassis.

The photo of Cliff Lett holding the two cars shows it has the Optima front bumper brace, the underside view shows it has a complete Optima front end. The side view shows it has an Optima rear gearbox with RC10 rear arms.

It's an Optima with a flat plate chassis added so that RC10 rear suspension mounts can be fitted to it.

1911Colt wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 3:39 pm Was AE not yet besties with Yokomo in 87?

When the fastest Yokomo available in 1987 was the RPS Losi version from 1985, you can see why they looked at the Optima that had been winning everywhere at the time.

It is interesting that Cliff ultimately raced an XL at the 87 Worlds instead of an Optima or the AE/Optima prototype.

terry.sc wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 4:01 pm The Trinity and Hot Trick chassis for the Optima were flat plates like that Associated car. A lot of conversions for the re-release Optima change it to a flat plate chassis.

The photo of Cliff Lett holding the two cars shows it has the Optima front bumper brace, the underside view shows it has a complete Optima front end. The side view shows it has an Optima rear gearbox with RC10 rear arms.

It's an Optima with a flat plate chassis added so that RC10 rear suspension mounts can be fitted to it.

Yup exactly what I said

I am anxiously awaiting the part of the thread where Dinglem reveals that he has acquired the actual car and 3more like it

1911Colt wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 10:27 am I am anxiously awaiting the part of the thread where Dinglem reveals that he has acquired the actual car and 3more like it

That would be a typical dinglem narrative build up
It's amasing what super nice rare oddities finding their way to his work station...

But really, the spring of 87, boosted by the upcoming worlds, was maybe the most innovative in 4wd. Everything from inspired scratch builds, new MIP conversion, extension of the CAT wheelbase, making the final touches to C4/870C and Optima Mid, new Mugen etc etc.