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This was my first 'real' RC car, a Thunder Tiger Mirage V-spec 1/8 gas powered buggy. I purchased the 'no motor' kit in June 1999 and fitted an entry-level Novarossi then proceeded to use and abuse the buggy for the next few years. During this time it often grabbed serious air at the local BMX track (and had some not-so-graceful landings), it was completely submerged in water, it crashed into many solid objects many times and was the victim of a few drunken midnight floggings around shopping centre car parks.
The Novarossi motor broke its conrod and I replaced it with the SH motor that is still going strong today. As this buggy had no upper chassis brace a decent frontal impact would cause the chassis to flex, bend the driveshafts and the steering linkages would smash the fuel tank. Also that little piston going up and down 28,000 times a minute causes screws to regularly vibrate loose so I would over-tighten everything resulting in stripped threads. I would then jam in a bigger screw and start the process again.
Once spares started to dry up for this car I adapted what I could from other kits but eventually it became hopeless. The car sat around partly disassembled in my parents shed for a while and then I took its radio gear when I purchased a Midnight Pumpkin metallic in 2009.
I started to source my Pumpkin parts online and every now and then I would stumble across some Mirage bits. I started to collect a few things I needed and then this blew out into a full re-build. The buggy now has many new parts including diff housings, suspension arms, wheel carriers, bumpers, new bearings throughout, a few new driveshafts and a new fuel tank and power pipe from a late-model EB-4. The bodyshell is also new but unfortunately I have not been able to find the original decals for the V-spec so I had to settle for Thunder Tiger generic flames. I am thankful the Proline rear wing I fitted many years ago still has a genuine decal on it. I am also glad that I had kept the original rims, although removing the old glued-on tyres was very hard work.
After about 18 months of inconsistent shed-time my buggy was complete and had its first easy run up my street. And after so long that big-block .21 power was...well... disappointing. Plenty of noise, but today my Mirage shares shelf space with a few Tamiya cars running newer technology brushless motors and lipo batteries so the power is not that exciting anymore. Also I could probably have bought a new E-revo for the money I have invested in this car but as it is my first car I am both happy and proud that I still own it and it looks this good after all I have put it through. I hope you like it too.

Looks very nice love the mix of green, yellow and blue.

Thanks. When I first built the buggy it was fluro pink at the front, Fluro green and then metallic purple behind the rear window lol. I taped the inside of the body and cut the shapes with a scalpel and it did look good for a while but the scalpel scored the body causing weak spots that would crack so this time around I went for only one colour.

I just scanned some old photos.

Nice looking car ... and good to see a car kept & restored - the first few I had got thrashed, lashed up, then binned

Cool car and great story.