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#1
08-03-2014
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Vintage Kyosho Car Fan Says Hello!
Hello! I don't know if there is a seperate "introduce yourself" topic on this forums, but as the title says, I want to say hello.
After browsing around here for a while, and seeing how serious you are about vintage stuff, I just had to register. My name is Henk, I live in the Netherlands, and have been busy with vintage Kyosho stuff for a few years now. My first RC car was a Marui Ninja, and while decent, after a while I started eyeballing the Kyosho offerings, and mostly the Optima Mid. Being about 13 years or so old at that time, I didn't have unlimited funding, and had to do chores to save money, study hard for good grades at school, which would also yield extra "income", so I decided to go for the the entry level Optima Mid, and not the more expensive versions. Being my second car ever, the building took a little while, it didn't help that the manual was not in my native language, but I was immediately impressed with the solid engineering, ball bearings all around (the Ninja came with nlyon bushings) low slop and silent drive train. Some classmates also got an RC Car, but it was clear the Optima was of a different level, it ran faster, longer, handled better, and ran more silent than the other 2 cars, even on the same battery. Later I shelved the hobby, started working, living on my own, met a nice girl, fell in love, married and settled down. I had kept my RC stuff, including my boats (that's what I started the hobby with, but with no water nearby, I had switched to cars as main hobbby) stored on the attic. Then I saw a special promotion in a local gas station, with small RC helicopters for a reduced price. I thought "why not, at this price point, the risk of trying is minimal" and got one. I liked being "Radio-active" again, got a better heli (Nine Eagles Solo Pro) that could also be flown outside with little breeze, and decided to have a look at my old RC stuff again. After bringing my main boats back to life, I looked at my cars. The Ninja would still run, the Optima was also in good shape, except, before I shelved it back then, I had fitted some upgrades to make it perform and look better. New suspension arms, not because the old ones were broken, but because new ones looked better, etc. As a result, I didn't want to chance running it and getting those new parts scratched. So, I started looking on eBay and other vendor sites, for a runner. I didn't find a decent priced Optima Mid, but I did spot an affordable Lazer ZX Sport. But to run that, I would need some spares, new body, etc. I met someone you know pretty well, Daniel Rowlands, on eBay, who was offering one of his ZX-R cars. At that time I was still on a tight budget, and decided not to go for the car, but asked if he had some spares. He was able to help me out, and having spares for my Lazer ZX Sport was mostly covered from that moment on. But it still itched that I didn't have a Optima Mid runner. By that time I had been able to free more funds for getting vintage stuff, putting other hobbies on hold, and although my vintage Optima collection can't match what some have displayed here, I can't complain. And having some stuff still on the wishlist keeps you on the alert, right? I will post some pics of my cars later on, either here, or in the special topic I noticed is here for it. Let's keep that vintage stuff rolling, right!?  Edit: Here's a pic of my first Optima Mid:  More pics in the "Show us your vintage collection" thread. 
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#2
08-03-2014
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Welcome Henk!
Here you will find nice friendly people and good help and advice. Optiman
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#3
08-03-2014
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Thanks for the welcome. I know the Optima Mid fairly well by now, but never raced any of these, or any other vehicle, for that matter. I'm purely a recreational driver, parking lot, forest trail, etc. For mild bashing I have some modern cars, most notably the LC Racing EMB 1/14 scale buggy, which is about as capable as a 1/10, but due to the lower weight, has a great power to weight ratio, making it a very zippy car. I do also own a Lazer ZX-5 and while I like it's handling, the open spur gear, in which little stones constantly tend to wiggle themselves between the teeth, made me retire it to onroad duties.
The most rewarding thing about building/restoring a vintage car for me is tuning it as close to perfection as possible, so it runs smooth and quiet, will handle as I like to see it, and be totally reliable. Considering that during racing a car is tested to it's limits, I'm pretty sure I can learn a trick or two here and there, like the center gear being more prone to wear than all other gears in the transmission. And maybe some of the restorations I've done so far will be to your liking.
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#4
13-03-2014
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Quote:
Overall, I had a great time with my optima mid racing and bashing it around near the hills in my neighborhood.
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#5
13-03-2014
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Interesting story, I never raced my Optima, just ran with 2 classmates, and that never was a fair race, as the Mid outperformed their cars by a fair margin.
Btw, you know how much speed I can expect from the trusty LeMans 240 ST? I have a Mid runner that came with it installed, and it's my first 240 ST, since the car I bought 25 years or so ago had the motor removed from the box before I got it. I ran the car with the 240ST this morning, on 2S, and I estimate it's speed to between 30 and 35 km/h. If that is normal for this motor, I know I have to fit a faster one, as I aim for at least 40 km/h for my 1/10 vintage stuff. But maybe the 240ST just needs an overhaul, and it's performing below it's standard now. But before I invest time into that, I would like to know where to rate the 240ST as for possible performance. If it runs just on it's normal level now, I don't want to take it apart if no performance gain is to be expected.
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#6
13-03-2014
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#7
13-03-2014
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I agree about control being more important, that's why I aim for max speed between 40 and 45 km/h speed for my vintage runners. Still quite easy on the gears and tires, but adds a little more zippiness over 30 and a little km/h. With 50 and above, it takes more and more effort and money to keep handling and wear in control
Btw, I was pretty spot on with my speed estimate, with GPS I clocked it on 33.6 km/h top speed, with the lipo about 80% full. Brushless is an option, but I have enough brushes for a while, and I have been told the stock "slipper" and center/idler gear won't stand up very well against the instant torque of a brushless motor. So that would mean modding the slipper and maybe more as well. Still wondering if about 34 km/h is as good as it gets on a 240ST, which I do realize is a stock motor, and no modified speed monster, plus it's not new.
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#8
14-03-2014
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#9
14-03-2014
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That would be an option, but it would reduce acceleration. I just wonder if I've simply reached the top performance of the 240ST, or whether it's just a "tired" motor, with weakened magnets. I was hoping some people that once ran the 240ST in their car, or still do, know what speeds and performance you could wring from it. Like how does it compare to another well known Kyosho motor, the EndoPlasma? I know that can easily reach over 40 km/h on 2S with good acceleration without running hot.
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