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Kyosho Turbo Optima Re-Release!

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I have this spur gear im my Javelin and Turbo Optima and Ultima. All are equipped with a 13.5t brushless motor. This spur gear is much better than the black one from the kit! And it allows to use larger pinions.

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On 2/3/2020 at 11:05 PM, Handyman said:

I love the original Turbo Optima, but this re release just doesn’t do it  for me. The tires and the threaded shocks spoils it, I think. In a perfect world a re release should be an exact copy of the original. I don’t know why Kyosho makes their rere:s with “improved” shocks and tires. What for? To make them race ready? No one’s gonna race them successfully, except in “nostalgia classes”. Why not offer these shocks and tires as hop ups like they always have? I think most of these cars will be purchased for nostalgic reasons by us who was kids when the originals was released, and many of us (I think) would love if Kyosho released the original gold shocks and OT-66 tires. They would sell like hot cakes. This is just my personal opinion. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. 

 

 

With respect to kyosho. They never state that they are an exact re release of the original. If you look closely, none of the parts are identical to the originals. Looking through rose tinted spectacles at the old gold dampers is great but in all reality, as good as they were, they wouldn't cut it today with their anger inducing c-clip bottoms.  The new shocks look close enough and are based on kyosho's modern dampers which are leagues ahead of the originals.  Also regarding the racing, there are vintage classes springing up everywhere so lots of these will end up being raced against cat xls' etc

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To anyone with either a ReRe Jav, Opt or TO, can you please advise the centre to centre length, uncompressed of both front and back shock units?  I'm guessing the gold ones on the TO are going to be similar/same as Jav/Opt red ones, just can't find any reference to this on the net anywhere. Thanks

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16 hours ago, thegorf said:

To anyone with either a ReRe Jav, Opt or TO, can you please advise the centre to centre length, uncompressed of both front and back shock units?  I'm guessing the gold ones on the TO are going to be similar/same as Jav/Opt red ones, just can't find any reference to this on the net anywhere. Thanks

The re re gold TO shocks will fit in place of the red ones.

In fact, they are almost identical, other than the gold have screw-threaded limiters and the red use band clamps. And the color, of course.

There was a recent thread discussing this, FWIW.

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Hi thanks for reply and confirming that, it is what I expected, but good to know for sure. Now I just need to find out the lengths of F&R shocks, as I have some other non Kyosho shocks in mind and want to know if they'll be suitable.

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Well after further searching, not actually specifically on this subject (I was looking into the Xtra Speed Gold repros), I found a post by a guy who bought the ReRe red shocks for a vintage Optima, and he listed lengths as 65mm front and 92mm rear centre to centre.

So, fairly similar to OG golds, which are 65mm front and 86mm rear, but quite different to OG Platinums which are 70mm/94mm.

The other shocks I had in mind for a ReRe Jav are 74mm front and 85mm rear, so could be suitable with a bit of shock limiting and longer shock rod ends.

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Just finished building the Javelin with almost all available Option House parts.  I think this was my favorite build experience so far (even better than the Avante).  About to start building the Turbo Optima and with all the gold parts, I think a black Javelin cage would really highlight the gold.  Does anyone know if the Turbo Optima body will fit over the Javelin aluminum roll bar (OT251)?  I'm hoping to switch between the Javelin cage and the Turbo Optima body. 

Thanks in advance.

Javelin25.thumb.jpg.e18df394d91f3091c446bb41d5a6b5f8.jpg

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11 hours ago, xcopy.exe said:

Just finished building the Javelin with almost all available Option House parts.  I think this was my favorite build experience so far (even better than the Avante).  About to start building the Turbo Optima and with all the gold parts, I think a black Javelin cage would really highlight the gold.  Does anyone know if the Turbo Optima body will fit over the Javelin aluminum roll bar (OT251)?  I'm hoping to switch between the Javelin cage and the Turbo Optima body. 

Thanks in advance.

Javelin25.thumb.jpg.e18df394d91f3091c446bb41d5a6b5f8.jpg

I just tested with a re re Turbo Optima converted to a Javelin. The Turbo Optima body does not clear the Javelin roll bar.

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On 9/15/2020 at 5:58 PM, slimleeroy said:
On 2/3/2020 at 11:05 PM, Handyman said:

I love the original Turbo Optima, but this re release just doesn’t do it  for me. The tires and the threaded shocks spoils it, I think. In a perfect world a re release should be an exact copy of the original. I don’t know why Kyosho makes their rere:s with “improved” shocks and tires. What for? To make them race ready? No one’s gonna race them successfully, except in “nostalgia classes”. Why not offer these shocks and tires as hop ups like they always have? I think most of these cars will be purchased for nostalgic reasons by us who was kids when the originals was released, and many of us (I think) would love if Kyosho released the original gold shocks and OT-66 tires. They would sell like hot cakes. This is just my personal opinion. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. 

 

 

With respect to kyosho. They never state that they are an exact re release of the original. If you look closely, none of the parts are identical to the originals. Looking through rose tinted spectacles at the old gold dampers is great but in all reality, as good as they were, they wouldn't cut it today with their anger inducing c-clip bottoms.  The new shocks look close enough and are based on kyosho's modern dampers which are leagues ahead of the originals.  Also regarding the racing, there are vintage classes springing up everywhere so lots of these will end up being raced against cat xls' etc

The kyosho's are not called re res however but the legendary series. The cars are such good quality that any differences (very minor) are totally forgiven.  You can't really expect kyosho to out out an inferior product for nostalgia sake.  Tamiya could learn alot. If kyosho can do things like adding slipper clutches then I am sure tamiya can also.  People do race these aswell in the new vintage racing series popping up.

At the end of the day, if people need them exactly how they were back in the day then originals are still available second hand

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1 hour ago, slimleeroy said:

The kyosho's are not called re res however but the legendary series. The cars are such good quality that any differences (very minor) are totally forgiven.  You can't really expect kyosho to out out an inferior product for nostalgia sake.  Tamiya could learn alot. If kyosho can do things like adding slipper clutches then I am sure tamiya can also.  People do race these aswell in the new vintage racing series popping up.

At the end of the day, if people need them exactly how they were back in the day then originals are still available second hand

I’m lucky to have a very nice example of an original Turbo optima. And you’re right, the originals are still available and not that hard to find (very pricey though, because of the virus I guess) I also have a few re-re Kyoshos and qualitywise they are superb. But where Tamiya perhaps stays too true to the originals, not fixing the weakest parts (like the Thundershot series A-5 part for example) I think Kyosho should stay a little closer to original.

I find it interesting that Kyosho made the tires for the Optima/Javelin and The Scorpion/Beetle look very close to the originals, but for the Turbo Scorpion and Turbo Optima they put modern tires on.
Of course modern tires will perform much better, but they just don’t look right on a classic car.
The threaded gold shocks: yes they are practical (until the threads get filled with dirt), but again, don’t look right.
Why don’t the re-reTurbo Optima come with the correct suspension arms? The original Turbo optima came with the new improved OT-69 arms. Same as the later Optima Mid. Where the Optima had the OT-13 arms.

Ok, enough with the negatives. 
I’m super happy that both Tamiya and Kyosho re-release all these cars. Great for the hobby I think. 
If only Marui, Yokomo, Nichimo, Hirobo, Losi and AYK would do the same. 
But it likely won’t happen😞.


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


 


 

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11 hours ago, Handyman said:

I’m lucky to have a very nice example of an original Turbo optima. And you’re right, the originals are still available and not that hard to find (very pricey though, because of the virus I guess) I also have a few re-re Kyoshos and qualitywise they are superb. But where Tamiya perhaps stays too true to the originals, not fixing the weakest parts (like the Thundershot series A-5 part for example) I think Kyosho should stay a little closer to original.

I find it interesting that Kyosho made the tires for the Optima/Javelin and The Scorpion/Beetle look very close to the originals, but for the Turbo Scorpion and Turbo Optima they put modern tires on.
Of course modern tires will perform much better, but they just don’t look right on a classic car.
The threaded gold shocks: yes they are practical (until the threads get filled with dirt), but again, don’t look right.
Why don’t the re-reTurbo Optima come with the correct suspension arms? The original Turbo optima came with the new improved OT-69 arms. Same as the later Optima Mid. Where the Optima had the OT-13 arms.

Ok, enough with the negatives. 
I’m super happy that both Tamiya and Kyosho re-release all these cars. Great for the hobby I think. 
If only Marui, Yokomo, Nichimo, Hirobo, Losi and AYK would do the same. 
But it likely won’t happen😞.


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


 


 

I agree regards the tyres. Did you know the turbo optima re re actually comes with the original gold spring adjusters to use instead of the threaded adjuster

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24 minutes ago, kid168 said:

Does the Javelin and the Optima share the same chassis?

 

Pretty much - I bought a re re Optima, made a bit of hash of painting the shell and applying the decals, got fed up with it and bought a re re Javelin cage set to fit on it instead (had to buy a couple of additional parts such as the wing mounts and an aluminum mounting bracket that dont come with the Optima but the main chassis itself is the same)

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1 minute ago, Superluminal said:

Pretty much - I bought a re re Optima, made a bit of hash of painting the shell and applying the decals, got fed up with it and bought a re re Javelin cage set to fit on it instead (had to buy a couple of additional parts such as the wing mounts and an aluminum mounting bracket that dont come with the Optima but the main chassis itself is the same)

Is there a way to add a rear wing on the Optima? 

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Not without cutting out the rear louvered panel of the bodyshell I would think. Which to be honest is a small price to pay for not having to apply all those yellow stickers <shudder>

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3 hours ago, Superluminal said:

Not without cutting out the rear louvered panel of the bodyshell I would think. Which to be honest is a small price to pay for not having to apply all those yellow stickers <shudder>

How can I mount the wing after cutting the rear louvered panel?

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The wing is attached to the chassis with part OT250 

https://rc.kyosho.com/en/ot250.html

You will need to buy this to use with the Javelin roll cage plus the aluminium bit I mentioned earlier

https://rc.kyosho.com/en/ot251.html

Then you are good to mount the Javelin body onto an Optima kit chassis (and if you cut the back out of the Optima shell - unclip the Javelin roll cage and fit the Optima shell back on.

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T

2 hours ago, Superluminal said:

The wing is attached to the chassis with part OT250 

https://rc.kyosho.com/en/ot250.html

You will need to buy this to use with the Javelin roll cage plus the aluminium bit I mentioned earlier

https://rc.kyosho.com/en/ot251.html

Then you are good to mount the Javelin body onto an Optima kit chassis (and if you cut the back out of the Optima shell - unclip the Javelin roll cage and fit the Optima shell back on.

Thank you for the info and links, appreciated. Do you happen to have a pic of the Optima with the wing? I would love to see the finished product.

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I dont personally - I have the Javelin cage fitted. The optima body is in a shoebox in the loft hiding in disgrace

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