Dandy Dash

[Karmann 0]

I have aquired a dandy dash, it came with another car.

First, ive got to say im impressed with how its built! Metal hubs too!

Its complete, in good condition and just neesd a clean.

Just a few questions.

Were these kits or RTR?

What are they worth, ill probably sell it on soon unless it wins me over when i run it.

Any weak areas, strength or performance?

Mine has a schumacher super stock motor, i assume thats not origional.

Are there any worthwhile upgrades?

Thanx.

[Karmann 0]

here some pics

[Hibernaculum 933]

G'day,

The Dandy Dash is an impressive buggy IMHO. Twee name, but I really love it's design.

I have two of them NIB, and they basically come with the chassis preassembled, and requiring the installation of radio gear, damper oil, etc. The body requires cutting, painting etc.

The kit came in two versions (that I know of) - one with a really nice quality Nikko transmitter set (probably manufactured by Futaba or someone), and one without the radio set. Either kit is nicely presented and I love owning them.

Value wise is hard to tell as I haven't seen them come up often, but I would estimate somewhere between US$200 and US$300 for a NIB. This has increased 2 or 3 fold since the year 2000, when they could be found for an unrealistically cheap price (it seemed everyone was focussed on Tamiya back then, and no one really knew how nice they were).

The original motor is a standard Mabuchi 540, so the one in yours is definitely an upgrade.

As for performance, I haven't driven mine yet, but I have heard people say that they are very smooth and were every bit a match for, say, a Bigwig. But if you're after performance, then the upgrade options are also interesting....

First, the Dandy Dash had a slightly more hopped up brother called the Super Sprint, which I believe featured things like alloy shocks (correct me if I'm wrong, as I don't own the Sprint). Both the Dandy Dash and Super Sprint could also be taken along an upgrade path toward a high-end racing buggy platform called 'The Brat', via two special upgrade box packs that Nikko sold under the slogan "Brat Works' or something like that. Good luck finding those though - very rare. The Brat was a very solid racer apparently. It looks nothing like the Dash or Sprint - more low and sleek as all racing buggies were from the late 80s onward. As I think has been mentioned here before, it competed in the 1989 Worlds where it finished something like 63rd out of 150 runners (these are approximate figures from memory). I like this story because it showed the peak of Nikko's talent and what they were capable of, back when 1/10th R/C buggies were still at a high watermark in their popularity.

Buggy popularity began to decline after 1989, and Nikko pulled the plug on their efforts to create hobby-level racing buggies.

cheers,

H.

[rhenbelz 0]

Radio gear is made by Sanwa, so it's compatible with that and Airtonics stuff. 27Mhz AM. Also the transmitters work well with Traxxas receivers, Futaba receivers, and even original TamTechs.

The Super Sprint had alloy bodied shocks, a full set of ball bearings, anti-roll bars front and rear, pin-spike tires, an adjustable front-rear Torque Splitter, and the UP240SE mod motor. The front bumper is slightly different. It had a wing mount in the rear and a different body, and a different rear bumper. Otherwise it's mostly identical to the Dash.