Awakening!

Many moons have drifted across the horizon since the day this subject has seen the light of day. Had it not been for the ever increasing need for horizontal space, many more moons may have simply drifted by until one day this blast from the past would simply have found its way onto a table at the local flea market or neighborhood garage sale.

"What the heck are you talking about!" I hear crowing in the distance...

In a past life, many days were spent with a hobby so gripping that hardly anything else was important. It started out innocently enough... a small investment in a toy remote controlled car simply to pass the time. A pretty natural hobby choice for a technical tinkerer. Well, if I had only known all that followed for nearly a decade.

The RC car I choose was a KYOSHO JAVELIN. A 4WD 1/10th scale off-road racer. Little did I know that this model would one day become a very competitive race car.

Of course, the first thing one finds out about RC cars is that "upgrades" are available... which brings you into the hobby store... where you find out the "hobby" is also a competitive sport! Sport! ...you say? "Ha... another hooked" is what was going through the mind of the owner of RC Modeler NW, one of the ma and pop shops in Beaverton Oregon. Yep... that's how it started.

The purpose of this blog is not to reminisce about the good 'ol days. No, the purpose of this blog is to chronicle the rebuilding of one of the offspring spawned from the bags and boxes of parts that originated from what I affectionately refer to as "the pegboard catalog"... meaning the wall of replacement and upgrade parts at the hobby stores.

3rd party parts suppliers were not going to be outdone either. For every good race car, there are others that feel they can do better. Companies like Thorp, MRC, A&L Manufacturing, and many others help contribute to the fever of faster, further, and higher. Some great advancements made the sport more competitive and ever more addictive.

We fast forward several years to when Kyosho pretty much ended their rear engine Optima series. Kyosho's next offering was a mid-ship motor model named aptly, the Optima Mid. Some vast improvements were made in the gear-train as well as standardizing many of the upgrade parts that Kyosho offered under their OptionHouse brand. The real wisdom in Kyosho's line is the backwards compatibility of so many parts and options.

Having invested heavily in the 1st generation Optima, and being intrigued with the new generation, I began a project joining the best of both models. The new mid-engine design was pretty much a no-brainer. Longer wheelbase models were pretty much the rage as well... and on the track, one model was just a smoking machine that glued itself to the track and flew! I'm referring to the Yokomo 4wd. The unique feature of this car was an independent mono-shock front end.

Another influence in the new build was a little known, short lived 1/10th scale model that I cannot even recall the name of. The chassis was made form 2 carbon fiber side plates, orange a-arms, and the very same chain-drive as in the original Optima. What was unique about this car is the fact that not only the fwd was chain-drive, but the final pinion was also a chain-drive, eliminating a counter gear in the setup. Another unique feature of this drive train was the simple spur gear adapter plate. This made it simple to bolt on just about any spur gear.

Okay, I am armed with all I want in a 1/10th scale 4WD off-road racer. My skills were honed to be dangerous with a Dremel tool... specifically the cutoff wheels. I learned to fabricate plates from a single carbon fiber sheet I purchased off the pegboard catalog. That sheet was used for years of fabrication. The bigger challenge was the chassis. Having learned let level of punishment these cars have to endure, this was not an easy choice. Cars have been known to fly 6-7ft in the air and land 20 feet later. These machines are not always to graceful about landing, either. That is why most come with bumpers [like that does any good!].

Oh yea... the purpose of this blog is to recap the building of this unique Optima Hybrid Mid RC car. I will chronicle the rebuilding of this car in order to capture the nuances of its design. I will likely rebuild it differently that the original intent simply because today's motors are much more powerful and run-times are 3x what they use to be. I do not envision this creation finding itself back on the racetrack. Not that it cannot do this, but more that there is no reason to. This will be up to the new owner. Yes, the new owner! I am rebuilding this car with the intent to sell it. This blog will capture the subtleties in care and maintenance of this car.

Please follow along as this journey commences. This is the status today: