Acquired an old car, would like help identifying

[Karma197 2]

My family have been having a clear out and came across this, giving its age thought it would be worth investigating what I now have. So have a couple of questions,

1. What do I have?

2. What to do with it, get it running or keep as is?

I have more pictures if there helpful

tia

[Kowalski86 4076]

Looks like an old Sand Scorcher, if it were me I'd clean it up and find a good spot on the shelf. A shot of the chassis would help others identify it better.

If you'd like to run it, at the very least you would need new tires, a transmitter, and a battery, assuming that the MSC still works.

[Karma197 2]

10 minutes ago, Kowalski86 said:

Looks like an old Sand Scorcher, if it were me I'd clean it up and find a good spot on the shelf. A shot of the chassis would help others identify it better.

If you'd like to run it, at the very least you would need new tires, a transmitter, and a battery, assuming that the MSC still works.

[Kowalski86 4076]

https://tamiyabase.com/chassis/8-srb

Pretty sure thats an old Scorcher, which was released on the SRB chassis.

[Tamiyabigstuff 851]

Might have started out as a Rough Rider looking at the wheels & tyres.

[Juggular 5081]

It came out in 1979.  Nostalgic folks used to pay over $1000 for a clean old one. 

But Tamiya got a wind of that and decided to sell it new since 2010.  Unfortunately, it's not worth as much because a new kit costs about $370. 

https://www.amazon.com/Tamiya-America-Scorcher-Off-Road-TAM58452/dp/B002Z1KVPG?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A1FOADQ21I7U54

But the good news is that if you run it and break it, parts are much easier to come by now. 

 

 

[IXLR8 1275]

Tamiya has made some changes to the Sand Scorcher body for the 2010 re-release.  The changes are mostly with the fenders and are easy to spot so I reckon your original vintage body has some value.  I prefer the vintage body but it's rare to find one in good condition.

[Fuijo 913]

That looks rather nice.

It's a late model vintage Sand Scorcher or Rough Rider as the others have said. The only differences are the wheels, front body mounting post and the body. Your wheels are Rough Rider, but the rest is Sand Scorcher. Kits 58015 and 58016.

So unless you have the box, instruction manual, or a Rough Rider body knocking around, it isn't really possible to tell for sure which it was.

For anyone wanting to restore a vintage Scorcher, this would be a great place to start. The body looks almost entirely intact and most of the detail parts are still present. Although it looks like the driver's door mirror is

somewhat smaller than it once was.

Pretty much every single part is different from the re-release 2010 version. There are still plenty of people out there for whom only the vintage model will do. And while it isn't going to be worth what it once was, as Juggular points out,

it is still quite valuable. I would speculate that it is worth rather more than a new re-release kit, but an ebay auction is probably the only way to find out how much more.

As IXLR8 says, the vintage body is better looking than the re-release body. The fenders are more rounded and the finished car has a more cute look, for want of a better word.

The re-release body has smaller cut-down fenders, and is actually the body for a later vintage model, the Monster Beetle kit 58060.

For a kit that was most likely built during the '80s, it looks  to have survived far better than most. Thanks for showing us!