Vintage Buggy Car BodyShells

[Will16]

Hi TC,

Firstly, the bodies I'm talking about are the bodies from the 80s made for buggy chassis. These were really wide as they were for a buggy. most memorable ones are the Frewer Metro 6r4, Frewer Escort and Sierra Cosworths, Frewer Escort XR3i, Parma Astra GTI, you get the point. I'm wondering, do people want the 230mm wide car style bodies made for buggies like in the 80s? If companies started producing them would people buy them? I know I would for sure!

Discuss!

[Gruntfuggly]

Somebody remade a few 6r4 shells a couple of years ago - about ten or so if I recall correctly, by a member named Incredible_Serious. I had one but never got round to painting and fitting it, so I sold it on. To be honest, I don't think there is a huge demand for them, although a few people would be interested...

Actually it was 6 years ago (how time flies) according to my emails!

[Dinsdale_71]

It would be a no from me, be like putting a super model in a Mr Blobby suit (google him ).

I bought a second hand Bigwig over 20 years ago and it came with a super wide (extra ugly) Sierra Cosworth body too. Out of scale and ugly I never used it, threw it out recently after it had taken up space, unloved, ever since.

If the shells were in scale and attractive yes but as Mr Blobby lookalikes you can keep 'em.

[Will16]

Do you still have that Sierra body? I'm interested!

[Incredible_Serious]

Somebody remade a few 6r4 shells a couple of years ago - about ten or so if I recall correctly, by a member named Incredible_Serious. I had one but never got round to painting and fitting it, so I sold it on. To be honest, I don't think there is a huge demand for them, although a few people would be interested...

Actually it was 6 years ago (how time flies) according to my emails!

It was actually 20 shells, and they were remade directly by Frewer, at a cost that was (I think) quite reasonable at the time. Frewer said to me when I organised it that pretty much any of their old bodies could be redone as long as the numbers were there (minimum 20 if I remember correctly). This would include the XR3i, Cosworths, and their awesome Peugeot 205T16 Evo, a used example of which I have in my showroom.

The problem was, and still is, that you needed to order and pay for 20 shells before production, so someone like myself needed to know that there was enough interest to justify it. Luckily for us, there was.... I could probably have sole another 10 - 20 more over time, but at the time I kept three or four for myself and the rest went to TCers.

I was lucky in that my last remaining unpainted shell was utilised by Willy at PandaGFX to produce an excellent decal and masking sheet, such that you could produce a factory Computervision 6R4 with just two cans of paint. To this day, though, my car remains unfinished.... I will finish it soon enough though, and mount it on a PB Mini Mustang, with a Technigold and gold Hotshot (re-re) wheels, just like I used to have back in the day

Now, back to the original question.... would people want them and would they sell? A tough one, but I think so, especially if you can get Tamiya re-re buggies past just the shelf-queen / box art fans. All those 30-somethings who have no attachment to a vintage Boomerang or Hotshot, but do have to an RS200 or a 6R4, could get a cheap enough, well-supported buggy, with a body that would work for them. Sure, they're not highly detailed like normal Tam touring cars, but they don't have to be, as they represent something a little left-of-centre to the perfect body fine replica rc bodies of Tamiya and the like (for example, the latest Tamiya Toyota 86GT). They represent an image of a car that they may remember from tv, or from seeing (and hearing) in the forests back as a youngster.

Would I buy them? Smeg yeah, even though I have a bunch myself still. They look great running, and having a field of four or more running on a track, or messing around together, they look great in my opinion.

Alex

[Dinsdale_71]

Do you still have that Sierra body? I'm interested!

Sorry Will but I'm sure it went in the bin some time ago.

[bromvw]

Hi TC,

Firstly, the bodies I'm talking about are the bodies from the 80s made for buggy chassis. These were really wide as they were for a buggy. most memorable ones are the Frewer Metro 6r4, Frewer Escort and Sierra Cosworths, Frewer Escort XR3i, Parma Astra GTI, you get the point. I'm wondering, do people want the 230mm wide car style bodies made for buggies like in the 80s? If companies started producing them would people buy them? I know I would for sure!

Discuss!

Will if someone made a decent Metro 6r4 body that fits a high performance 4x4 rally chassis i would bite their arm off mate . Its THE classic rallycross car IMO

[Incredible_Serious]

Will if someone made a decent Metro 6r4 body that fits a high performance 4x4 rally chassis i would bite their arm off mate . Its THE classic rallycross car IMO

The Controlfreax body will fit normal touring chassis (190/200mm) like the TB01, TA02, XV01, etc. It has nice fitment on that chassis, and comes with the rear wing and decals. I just have a problem with it's front shovel / wing and the decals... but that's just me.

The Frewer one fits really well on 1/10 buggies, and was designed to fit the Hotshot, so there's heaps of cars that would fit under it. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a rear wing or decals.... although wings can be made, and decals can be purchased separately aftermarket.

Alex

[kalsh]

I have a few(OK more than a few) Frewer bodies and wings tucked away(I think I sold Will a Metro body a few years back). I also have a McAllister Pontiac body. I have a couple of escort xr3 bodies and a Porsche 959 wide body, Coswort Saphire 1.10 and one other, Cosworth Sierra 1/12 and mardave/ministock, . I have a list of about 100 which I can email to people if they PM me. You will have to be patient as I dont get on here every day/week. Some of the bodies have decals but the majority dont. I actually need to hunt through a box of decals i have an match a few more of them up