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I finally finished my Turbo Raider Pro restoration project that started in January when I pulled my old RC stuff out from my parents' attic. It was partially reassembled with the stock Outlaw motor after I had wrecked it in the mid-90s trying to run a hotter motor (which caused the MSC contacts to weld themselves at full throttle and smoked said motor). I don't think I ever ran it again. The original tires were hard, but responded to silicone oil treatment. One of the front hubs was broken and they are quite brittle now. The wing is pretty rough, but the rest of the body is in good shape. I had used some random paint I found at the time, so it had started flaking off the first time I ran it.


It cleaned-up pretty well with only a few missing parts that I was able to find on eBay easily enough. I had made my own dog bone joint boots out of heat shrink tubing in an attempt to keep the dirt out. I had also tried running a wet sump gearbox, adding seals and covers over the external bushings. I think it just made it slower, so I removed all of that. The original shocks leak of course, just like they did from day one.


I was waiting for warmer weather to repaint the original body after stripping the old, yellowed epoxy paint off. It took a long time, but the Krud Kutter stuff works if you are patient.


I got a set of those knock-off Xtra Speed gold-ish shocks and just ran it with the clear body. With an ESC and 2S LiPo, I noticed that the motor had copious torque and was instantly topping-out RPM-wise. So I got some Turbo Scorpion wheels and soft tires for it and ran it with the 32T idler. It was quick on the street!


The decals weren't harmed by the stripper despite soaking in it for weeks, so I was able to just re-shoot it with Tamiya PS-1 after cleaning it really well and scoring it a bit (remembering to mask the windows this time). The shell is very slightly yellowed, but it's hardly noticeable. The wing was rough, but I opted to preserve it and made a clear plastic wing for it out of some scrap to fit it around and give it some shape.


I sprung for a set of rere gold shocks. I had always wanted a set of gold shocks for it; the Xtra Speed knock-offs work better than the stock shocks, but they all have very slow leaks and were a weird gold/purple color. The rere shocks are fantastic (I have an Optima Mid rere kit, so I was familiar with them). The original wheels/tires are just for the shelf. They are too frail to drive on.

I was able to resurrect the torched 16x2 Mega Motor using parts from another motor off of eBay.
Seems to work OK...just needed a facelift.
Ready for some speed runs... I think the Scorpion wheels look great on the Raider Pro.

That's an immaculate job, I agree with your choice in wheels too, looks great.

So I have had some fun with this car, but I seem to break something on it almost every time I take it out. First I broke a front knuckle when I clipped a curb. I found an RD-3 parts tree on eBay and re-made the steering setup to prevent that from happening again. Recently I flipped it and snapped the rear shock stay in half. A lot of the plastics on these are really durable, but some pieces are getting brittle. The car is really quick on 2S with that silly 16x2 Mega Motor, so obviously that makes any mistake a big mistake.
Parts are just a bit too hard to come by these days, so I think it might be time retire this as a shelf queen and drive something else. I doubt Kyosho will ever re-release these.

Then again...
I picked up one of these FRP kits from Pukka Parts. Maybe build a track car?

This was a great read-through as I have a Raider Pro as well that I'm slowly pecking away at. I'm not set on keeping it all original or period correct, so I'd like to go the aftermarket chassis route as well.

My son's friend 3D-printed a replacement rear shock stay on a resin printer. It feels kind of brittle, but it will hopefully hold it together on the shelf.

So I was making some adjustments to the front end of my Optima Mid Rere and I remembered that I wanted to compare the new OTW125C universal swing shafts to the stock Raider axles. Has anyone noticed that they practically drop right in?

You have to leave the red shim out, as it is slightly too thick, so a small about of shimming is needed/available to dial-in the engagement. This is what I get with it shimmed on the outside of the bearings:

Seems perfect? With the Optima hex adapters, there is just enough shaft to accommodate the stock Raider Pro rims: