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I was watching this buggy on Ebay last week and even asked the seller some questions, but I decided not to place a bid as the price was too close to that of a new Super Hotshot. It did not sell and was re-listed with a lower price so I bought it. To me this appears to be an honest used car. There is some wear and minor damage but it seems fairly original and complete. It is missing the speed controller and the (I'm guessing rare) Technipower motor. However it does come with a Technigold RS540VZ motor and Tamiya 8.4v stick pack which I think is pretty cool, this would have been one tough car in the 1980's.
My plan is to give the car a tidy-up, fit an ESC and then drive it. As it already shows signs of use I am not too worried about using it some more, and parts should be readily available thanks to the Super Hotshot. I can't wait to see it.

Nice one

Nice score indeed.

Nice buy!! Looks almost in mint condition
Too bad the Technipower motor isn't there anymore, they are hard to get
But Technigold is a very good one also (got one on my SS also )
And it was a though car back in the eighties, bit heavy but the extra power of the motor made it up!
Looks awesome!!

Cheers, Bram

Thanks guys, I am hoping the car arrives later this week as the seller and I are both in Australia. Makes a pleasant change from the usual two week wait while items get flown in from the other side of the globe
The car does look neat but I am aware of some imperfections. There are some cracks in the bodyshell around the front right shock support, apparently the rear wing is damaged (I don't know to what extent, it looks fine in all the photos), the gold is flaking off the rims and some screws have been replaced over the years. I already have a new set of gold rims that were bought for my Boomerang then never fitted, and I have a fair collection of vintage tamiya screws. Hopefully there are no other nasty surprises.

It arrived today, I could not wait to get home so I opened the box in the post office carpark. My first impressions were good as it was well packed and does seem fairly original and complete. I was happy to see the two resistors hanging under the rear wing as I assumed these would have been removed along with the MSC. The body and wing are beat up but I have seen a lot worse.



The body is cracked from the front shock mount cut outs on both sides.



The wing has some aluminium plate holding it together as the screw holes are badly flogged out.



The gold is missing off the centre of the rims, it looks as though someone has taken it off. Weird..



There is also some issue with the front gearbox as it does not spin with the motor or rear wheels. I hope it is not the driveshaft or its cups as I think these may be hard to get. If it is an internal gearbox issue I will get some re-re Hotshot or Super Hotshot gears.
I hooked a battery up to the motor wires to see if the Technigold was a runner and it spins faster in reverse than forward. The end bell has been put on 180* out. I have come across this before on a friend's Bigwig, it took me ages to figure out the first time!!
Tomorrow I will buy some containers and start pulling things apart.

vara351 wrote:

...

The gold is missing off the centre of the rims, it looks as though someone has taken it off. Weird..

...

I've seen that before on other plated wheels - though not quite as badly ... I'm not sure of the reasons, it could be the way the plating is put on, contaminants on the wheels before they're plated, stresses on the wheel in use, incorrect lubrication of the wheel bearings, or a combination of all the above.

Doesn't help you fix it though ... I have seen various "chrome" type paints, but the only one I tried (Plastikoke "copper") was a bad joke

Good news on the front gearbox, the problem was the left and right bevel gears were in the opposite sides so the diff was offset to the wrong side and did not line up with the drive gear. Easy fix. Things were not so good in the rear gearbox as the main drive gear is badly worn in places. I only found a few missing parts which are a liitle pin on the battery door and the little plastic washer from the servo saver. The metal mechanical speed controller mount was still in the radio box which was another nice surprise. If I ever want to return the car to kit spec I think I will only need the MSC itself. A previous owner had done a nice job of painting the driver too.
I decided to reassemble the car and try my luck with the drive gear while I wait for a new one to arrive. I bought a new Esc (this is my first 'brushed' buggy since my childhood Jet Hopper), a 27MHZ AM reciever for my old stick radio, a new steering servo and then fitted a wire antenna post and the new gold rims.

Lookin' good....









I think this is a very beatutiful car, maybe one of the prettiest RC cars of all time. I stop and admire it nearly every time it catches my eye.

Unfortunately it has been raining quite a bit here so I have not had a chance to run the buggy except a few quick runs up my street. The gearbox seems okay and the buggy is a lot faster than I was expecting. I look forward to using it some more when the weather clears up.

Man, the Supershot is one hot buggy indeed. Never get bored of looking at it.

very cool rig! I always assumed the Technigold was harder to come by. I just picked up a Bigwig and am hoping it has the correct powerplant...if not I have a spare technipower I may be willing to swap

Cheers on the great find!

RJ