The heavy weight buggy with an unknown paint job.
What a car the Ascona is and better looking than the Quattro sister car. This was mainly due to the short wheel base proportions suiting the saloon body better over the coupe. That said it isn’t perfect. Following the success of the SRBs et al. the next generation of Tamiya where all badly proportioned wheel wise. The Lancia 037 being the worst.
As for breath taking chassis developments look elsewhere. For those mesmerised by design, you will be delighted with the power train. A floating gear box connects with the differential via a single UJ. It’s all very inefficient. It really is a feat of engineering. These cars were also not known for their light weight construction with a deep bath tub chassis burying the radio gear. In its defence it was at least sort of water proof.
With regards to driving it, stick to tarmac or flat dusty areas and enjoy the scale fun these give. The suspension is a hopeless mix of undamped coil springs front and rear. The heavily weighed down rear does its best at keeping the flaoting rear axle in contact with the tarmac. The fronts just bounce around with zero control.
Thankfully due to its limited ability for running where buggies never fear to tread it is very hard to find one that has been seriously abused or come with broken bits. It’s a car that you can get very bored with driving if retro isn’t you thing so think hard before you buy.
If you do buy, paint it up nicely for it deserves it. And don’t forget to check out the web for the other race colours it came in. The AKAI theme looks naff but the Rothmans colours looks rather tasty.