Snappy1

No ESC in my Bigwig kit in Australia, just the gold label motor, iirc no kits of the re re came with an esc

I run a similar event in Australia to Iconic, once a year

My two favourite vintage 4WD’s, I have used both as runners/ vintage spec racers for years now. You have pretty much summed up the weak points of both buggy’s.I’ll add that if you run a centre diff from a Vanquish in an Egress the driveline becomes bulletproof, it also removes the “Twitchy’ behaviour .When I say bulletproof, I mean 6.5 t brushless/3 cell tough, although I probably prefer to race the TF Evo, I feel the Egress was far stronger, but I suppose comparing relative weight vs durability they are close nonetheless. Both have a form of splitter although very different. Another tip for the TF Evo, you can run TA-03 ball diffs, they are stronger, far less prone to maintenance requirements and are lighter than the lightweight alloy units, which also reduces rotational mass. So win win win. The first time I drove a Top Force I really couldn’t get over just how great they feel, the level of control just hadn’t been available in a Tamiya 4wd previously, I remember I just kept saying WOW, WOW, it was so good I even said it backwards……

For speed runs the Manta Ray has a longer wheelbase which is crucial for high speed stability

82 mm is the distance between the inside of the front towers….

Unfortunately that would be probably the hardest part to find for an Astute, not what you want to hear, keep looking but you may end up with Madcap rear hubs, or Super Astute

On. my vintage runners I typically run a hw 1060 or 1080 esc, super stock BZ and a 2 cell lipo, this is pretty good power. If you can find one you should try vintage brushed motors of decent specs, I have a 14 turn triple brushed, feed that some lipo amperage and wow….. Speed and power are relative, some people think that a 13.5 t brushless is quick compared to a silver can, years ago I ran a re re Egress on a 6.5 t brushless and a 3 cell, that was stupid fast. Back in the day from Tamiya , a Technigold was the top shelf of motors, a BZ is considerably faster than that , I feel a BZ is the perfect balance

Pricing will be interesting, it was expensive first time around, from memory the spares on eBay took a long time to be available

I jumped on one originally but I am very happy for the spares for my vintage Astute and Super Astutes……

Avante/Avante Black/Egress, best Tamiya build and runners imho.

The original MO-1, it is front engined/front wheel drive, just like the real thing……..

I have soaked original Rims and tyres in glycerin for a few weeks, then peeled the tyres off successfully, then continued the treatment, tyres only

Again with Glycerin, I have soaked very hard vintage tyres in a sealed container for up to two months, works well.

The vintage c clips are painful. You will need to secure the joint in the gearbox. Have you tried using a strong magnet to search the room? I hope you are not going to trust the vintage radio gear?I have had too many vintage cars jam and run with vintage am/fm gear, I suggest a cheap new 2.4 ghz controller and receiver . I would also throughly test the mechanical speed controller operation before use.

Thanks, I must admit I have a H arm conversion set too 😁