Building the Ultimate Optima Mid

The Kyosho Optima Mid will always have a special place in my heart. It was my first real pro car i bought in 1990 used from a creep named zain. He was a creep becuase he cheated me and my buddy who shared to buy the car by not giving us the graphite chassis that was supposed to come with it. Yes he sold me the LWB version, and substituted the chassis with a flexible kelron type material that was cut rather nicely but flexed too much. At that time i didnt know much and thought i got the real deal. I also acquired the SWB aluminium chassis Optima Mid the following year, i thrashed both cars from that time to about 1997 when the car was no longer servicable anymore and moved to toruing cars.
I recently acquired a used Turbo Optima Mid Special from my longtime friend Jason Yeo at a bargain price, and it came with the orginal kyosho graphite chassis, finally ! Looking at the original suspension and comparing it against the Lazer ZX, its easy to see that it is very dated. The hingepins are before the wheel and upper camber links rather short. So i decided to rebuild this car with a view to keep its original looks, which i love so much compared to todays buggies, but update its suspension. After some studying, i found that the new lazer ZX-5 arms uses 3mm hingpins also, but the arms are more narrow than the Mids. So that means its possible to place it in the suspension mounts, with the use of spacers to space the arms.
Together with Lazer ZX shock towers and ZX-5 shocks from 3 racing, front CVDs for the ZX-5 and rear the original sliding dogbones, with TG10 rear axle, the car now has the ZX-5 arms and hubs on it.


The built up car with Jason Yeo's original Mid Custom body, i bought Marwan repro Mid Special body but havent had the time to piant it yet.

Lazer ZX front shock tower, next upgrade fibrelyte Lazer ZX shock tower

Lazer ZX-5 suspension pieces and CVD from 3racing

Chassis view of all modern electronics

Spur gear view, nice !

Look how i spaced the arms. the rear of the front arm is touching the gearbox mount, and the front CVD is angled forward about 2 degrees. if you want the CVD to be completely in line, you have to grind the garbox mount about 3mm.

The original Graphite chassis- my big deal !



Rear ZX-5 arms hubs and TG10 axle mathced to original optima mid dogbone, and yeah racing hexes



How i spaced the rear arm

Look at the ZX-5 shocks from3racing and the ZX shock towers, next upgrade fibrelytes

I have encountered a few problems with the rebuild. The biggest is the original UM-14 steering bellcrank servo saver. it saves the servo all right, but also is a slouch in steering, it will turn if the car is moving. Next upgrade, change to the lazer zx bellcrank or A&L which will cost me 53 dollars.
Another problem is the saddle pack battery holder. I find that the associated B44 battery post and bar will line up perfectly at 75mm spacing, but i have problem trying to order it from amainhobbies at this time, and definitely will order it when i can, for now i use double sided tape to stick the battery in. Also the body cant really come down completely with the new bulky brushless escs.
Last night i also found a problem with the drivetrain, it was very smooth without the pinion in, but as soon as i put the pinion in, it was extremely nosiy. i swapped a few pinions, name from atlas, then finally when i put in a 20T tamiya pinion, it became silent. Phew, i thought this car was a goner ! Cant wait to test it today. For now its running with Lazer ZX-5 RTR tyres which i got cheap, they are not as good as prolines cause they dont have inserts in them, but they should be better than  my old tyres.