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gearheadwilly

Lamborghini countach cs 58008 and road wizard

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Just picked up a lamborghini countach 58008 and a road wizard cheap on a local site. Both came with original boxes and a box of extras and nib parts and original sticker sheets even the original kraft radio gear  from back in the day. The road wizard just needed cleaned up and it's ready to go, turns out to be near mint and works flawlessly. My question is more towards the lambo, it's a basket case with a few important parts M.I.A. (axle, diff, hubs) but to the positive it did come with a nib rx540sd,  nib mechanical speed control and nib wheels/tires and a martini porsche 936 body.  If I build the car using the new extremely hard to find parts,  it'll turn into a shelf queen when I'd actually like to run it at the carpet track a few times a year just for fun, no competition stuff. Or should I use more modern parts with zero modifications to the original car?  I was thinking my old Novak esc and a fresh but tame brushed 19t? mabey even 27t? Or should I dare to run the vintage nib rx540sd? Since I don't forsee selling it and would never consider cutting it up or modification beyond bolt on, plug and play type changes. This would keep the value because I could always return it to stock and would allow me to enjoy this old beauty on occasion. Basically should I restore and just deal with having a couple cars I never run or risk it and run it like it was ment to be run? What should I do with them? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks. 

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Forgot to attach these. The aforementioned road wizard. Stickered but unpainted. Not sure I like that, but I can live with it. Came with lrp f1 esc and the original receiver with metal antenna mast, I swapped in an old traxxas just to test with. 

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Technipower is about 10yrs newer than the 1/12 pan cars. It's made for 1/10 buggies like Hotshot and Frog. The later generations of 1/12 pan cars (aka Racing Master) ran best with either Black Motor or the lesser-torque Technituned.

The original 1/12 pan cars aren't all that great to drive... they were more like a motorised scale model. The base spec (936, first Countach) had 380 motor on rubber radials, the CS (chrome Countach) had a 540 with foam tyres... which already powered it faster than it could handle. Big heavy ABS body on top didn't help, often fell off its twiddly sill mounting system at the slightest bump.

Big challenge today is getting fresh tyres, old foam is useless. Tamiya axle/hub is different to 1/12s outside of Japan so you'll probably need to get some fresh foam donuts glued to old wheels & trued down. Not sure if the latest reincarnation of a Tamiya 1/12 pan cars in recent yrs can provide tyres... they came & went pretty quick, haven't yet touched one in the flesh. 

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Thankfully the lambo has new fronts and came with 4 rears that are all soft and completely usable, 2 of the rears look nearly new. And the wizard tires are the same, great shape and very soft no cracks or hard spots. These cars must have been stored well all these years. If I only run a few times a year these tires should last a long time. I've noticed hub difference between the 2 cars so not sure about using wizard era parts to rebuild the lambo. Looks like I could cut a wizard axle down a bit, use stock wizard diff and hubs if I use wizard wheels in the rear. Or modify the worse of my lambo rear sets to fit the wizard hubs. Definitely some research to do. 

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These things are going on 40yrs, mind! :) Foam rubber might still look good when unused but often soon as they're run they disintegrate to powder. 

There's been various attempts to preserve originals for service... ppl have tried wrapping them in a tunnel of rubber (bicycle/motorbike inner tube) or coat the contact area with silicone sealant then roll then against one another leaving a thin "stippled" film. 

meh, could be less work buying fresh foam donuts ;)

 

Tamiya F1s from the early days were 1/10 scale, had larger back tyres but the fronts were same Diplo as 1/12 - the RoadWizard kept the larger dimension but the front tyres grew to Indycar/GrpC size. 

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I'll keep an eye out for replacement tires. Thanks. All these tires were off the wheels and in labeled zip loc bags when I bought this stuff. Except the new in box lambo fronts. I couldn't believe how flexible and supple they were when I mounted them. I can flatten them and they spring right back up like rubber. No cracking when I smash any of them flat while unmounted. Should I skip even trying to run these tires, just wait until I can find replacement foams? Thanks. My only experience with foams are my teenage years with slot cars. 

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Yeah if they're brandnew never used, preserve them! 

Be a shame to run them.

New foam donuts are cheap, biggest issue would be getting right size.

Foams don't need to be glued with rubber glue or contact adhesive to the wheels, just using double sided "chiffon/tissue" tape will suffice. Same stuff as you'd use on wrapping a birthday present. 

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The recent pan 1/12 is designated RM01. Wonder if it's tyres &/or wheels might fit 

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Lambo rear wheel measures 33.6mm tall in the center, 39.8 wide. Lambo rear tire is 52mm tall and 38 wide. Stands to reason it would be a shame to use the new motor and speed control also? Is it better to just get over it and assemble the old girl and shelve it? No doubt a great conversation peice when friends are over. If it's just too rare or valuable (headache) to run at least it pretty to look at! What would be a guesstimate on value for this old stuff? I've seen prices all over the board online for these parts and cars. I never sell, but good to know what you have. 

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Yeah, keep the speed control & technipower in their box.

That old coiled wire speedy has very limited current capacity, even running 380 motor it's not unknown to catch something on fire. It wouldn't have a chance with anything hotter than a bogstock RS540.

Technipower belongs in a SuperShot, by then the mechanical speedy had grown into a 3-step rotary switch with ceramic resistors. This had a bit more chance at surviving Technipower current.

These 2 items NIB might be worth more than the rest of the bits...! :) 

 

RoadWizard has its own fans but the early 1/12 pans are more curio than highly sought. Prices can get reasonably high for the rarer bits especially NIB consumables, but remains of used wrecks appear regularly.

The Countach and 936 bodysets were rereleased as spareparts in the recent 20yrs albeit in very limited quantities. There were even some Countach telephone dial wheels remade in gold plastic (original is silver) with nonCS rubber threaded tyres sold briefly in Japan.

But the original style CS foam tyres have never been repopped to date nor the Porsche-style wheels with rubber tyres as used on 934/935 nor 935. 

 

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Thanks. Absolutely a wealth of knowledge and experience on here. Should I leave the original decal sheets intact as they are or clean the cars and apply they decals as they appear on their respective boxes? Original builder only used a few on the cars, but they are placed correctly. Also should I leave they wizard unpainted? I believe I have all the original radio gear and servos, etc to put both cars back as they were originally built, is that what I should focus on? These 2 were part of a package deal with an old kyosho, a testors powered model plane from 1970, a dealership promo wired "remote" car from 1954 and a few new giant plane motors from way back. Also a brand new rustler body and Stampede body. Scored it all for $40.  So I'm knee deep in projects right now. Lol. I'll wrap the tamiyas up and dive into the rest. 

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$40?! not just a steal, grand theft larceny hahaha :lol:

Yeah you might as well finish decorating them so you've got something kool to display, won't hurt value either way.

Technipower NIB alone might fetch you $100 on a good day B)

Original radiogear aren't worth much unless brandnew NIB; zero demand for old AM radiogear for ppl that run their cars. A lot of it goes to landfill, not worth fixing if it don't work. And even if it does work, new radiogear is pennies these days. Some ppl like vibtage gear installed in their shelf queens but only if it's period correct.

Show what Kyosho you got!! :) 

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13 hours ago, WillyChang said:

The recent pan 1/12 is designated RM01. Wonder if it's tyres &/or wheels might fit 

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Thats what I used on my Renault Martini Mk 22 to get it to run

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Kyosho is an electric ultima st. Roller with a motor. Don't really know much about Kyosho never had any. I've always heard they make a good rc car though. I need a "normal" buggy because my son and I turned my old rc10gt Blue chassis into a speed car last year so I've been running my 3 terra crushers (all brushless converted) 1stock tnx, 1 stock tnx 5.2r and 1 brushless nitrage at the track. These are loads of fun but nothing handles like a buggy on these little short dirt tracks around here. The little slash's and the like just flat out handle me every time. The nitrage on 4s is a blast and basically keeps up but it's 1/8 scale so the turning radius is the downfall on tight tracks. Hopefully the kyosho fills the void left behind from my beloved rc10gt. On a side note the gt project is moving along nicely, goal is 100mph on 2s (probably not going to happen) but nonetheless we've managed to get it up to 78mph on 2s with some room for improvement still to go. We here in Indiana are dealing with winter now so that projects shelved until spring. 

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9 hours ago, yogi-bear said:

Thats what I used on my Renault Martini Mk 22 to get it to run

Tamiya-50014-Martini-Mk22-Renault-F2_44.

Thanks, great to know it works!! Might get around to ordering some new wheels & foam... got one of those yellow blobs and a RoadWizard lying about somewhere. 

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4 hours ago, gearheadwilly said:

Kyosho is an electric ultima st. Roller with a motor. Don't really know much about Kyosho never had any. I've always heard they make a good rc car though. I need a "normal" buggy because my son and I turned my old rc10gt Blue chassis into a speed car last year so I've been running my 3 terra crushers (all brushless converted) 1stock tnx, 1 stock tnx 5.2r and 1 brushless nitrage at the track. These are loads of fun but nothing handles like a buggy on these little short dirt tracks around here. The little slash's and the like just flat out handle me every time. The nitrage on 4s is a blast and basically keeps up but it's 1/8 scale so the turning radius is the downfall on tight tracks. Hopefully the kyosho fills the void left behind from my beloved rc10gt. On a side note the gt project is moving along nicely, goal is 100mph on 2s (probably not going to happen) but nonetheless we've managed to get it up to 78mph on 2s with some room for improvement still to go. We here in Indiana are dealing with winter now so that projects shelved until spring. 

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Neat modding job!

ah yeah, Ultima ST is latemodel... not particularly interesting :P should run ok but parts can be hard to find in some places

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I've been able to locate most of the commonly broken parts, but I'm pretty sure I need trans parts. Possibly just a failed bearing but feels a bit worse. Haven't had it apart yet and those parts seem to be hard to come by. I've heard some people use the associated trans as a replacement. Bit of mod work to do that so hopefully I can repair the original kyosho trans. I have an old nitro rustler I could run but it's in great shape so I don't bring it out to the track as much. Looking forward to an electric buggy type car for track use. 

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3 hours ago, WillyChang said:

Thanks, great to know it works!! Might get around to ordering some new wheels & foam... got one of those yellow blobs and a RoadWizard lying about somewhere. 

doh, old age must be creeping in, I just remembered, the rear tires where NIP originals and they were a tight fit, but obviously still went on.

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