An original Kyosho Salute. I always wanted one of these back in the 1980s when I first raced. But it was one that got away. They were difficult to find at the time, and was quickly superseded by the Mid Motor Schumacher CAT and it’s own successor, The Kyosho Optima Mid. I went in the Schumacher direction, but was always sad that I never got to race it in it’s heyday.

Fast forward to 2021, and one popped up barn find style on Ebay, dirty and uncared for since the 1980’s from what I could tell. Original mechanical speed controller, Acoms 27ghz receiver and servos, no obvious signs that it had been seriously raced, so a real authentic find. I picked up for a very reasonable price. On arrival 2 things struck me, it wouldn’t need a complete restoration to get it running, such was the quality of the Kyosho parts, very few had deteriorated much over more than 30 years of storage. The other, was why it would have struggled against the Schumacher CATs that did for it, it was over-engineered in a way that’s wonderful to work on, but hopeless for going fast.

Anyhow, I took it apart right down to component parts and cleaned them all individually. The front shocks told the tale of how it’s first owner was an inexperienced engineer. One shock seemed empty, the other stiff and over pressure. I took apart the first and there was some black insulation tape where the volume diaphragm should be.. oh dear. But there was a lovely moment when I opened the shock from the other side. I found where the other diaphragm was! Somehow he’d put two in one shock and never figured out where it went missing 🙂

The only other problems were the Servo saver was mashed, and the front bulkhead brace bent suggesting the probably cause of going into storage all those years ago. Thankfully, RC Jaz in Japan made superb alloy replacements for both, and were the only chassis parts that were replaced with non Kyosho original parts. I have since bought one of their Alloy Servo mounts which will be installed when I get it fully up to racing condition.

The transmission seems fully capable of taking a mid powered modern brushless motor, such was the built to last design. So it’s currently got a Surpass Rocket V4S 10.5 turn motor mated to a Hobbywing Quickrun 10BL120 ESC. So far I haven’t been able to source Lipo batteries in the stick pack form needed for this, so have been running some cheap Nimh packs in there. But I have also used them in the Truck and think they aren’t the future. Receiver is a Corona C4SF-HV, which goes nicely with my Futaba Trannie. The SVT servo is the one that I first got with my Cougar KD and is hopelessly slow and will be consigned to the spares bin and replaced with my preferred Savox when finally refitted. The refit will happen when the last few part’s come from Japan. Namely RC Jaz’s Front UJ Driveshafts and rear Motor Guard, which are on backorder. I’ve also got 2 new Bodies and Wings from Team Blue Groove in Canada one already prepared in my usual Van Halen Frankenstrat racing colours, the other will be done in Box art when I get the opportunity. I also want to find front and rear diff seals.

To-do List:

  • Front and rear diff seals
  • Install front UJ drive shafts
  • Find wheel hexes that fit new front UJs
  • install Motor guard
  • Install Savox servo on RC Jaz Motor Mount
  • Tidy wiring… a lot
  • Box art paint spare shell.
  • Maybe find some adjustable turnbuckles?
  • Find some Lipo Stick packs
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