50483 Auto Tech BMW M3 Body Set and Custom Cast Wheels

Stumbled across this Auto Tech M3 body on eBay listed as 'Vintage Custom Painted RC Car body AUTO TECH'. I put my bid in and won it for the princely sum of 99 cents! It's a little beat up with a few scuffs and splits, but not bad for a runner. What's more impressive is how such rare gems like this end up getting bargain-binned and generally forgotten. Shame to think that this probably would have gone into the trash had I not bid on it.

The wheels you see are another eBay buy from a seller in Hong Kong. They are a gorgeous work of metallurgy and look like an exact replica of the BBS wheels that commonly appeared on cars in the DTM racing series. I was a bit skeptical of their quality considering the eyebrow raising price that they were being offered at, but to my delight they are much nicer than I could have ever expected. They appear to cast and machined like the Tamiya alloy wheels, with the sandblasted finish to recreate the sand-cast appearance of the spokes. The aluminum seems to be of decent quality, but I did notice of few tiny pores here and there, so caveat emptor if you are planning to actually use them. More than likely they will end up on my Zakspeed 190E since that will be a straight-to-the-shelf build anyhow.