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The biggest reason I would say that this isn't the original truck is the amount of parts that are on it that were released at a much later date. During my research they didn't even start running the RC10GT in races till mid 1994. Almost all of those hop up parts weren't seen till 1997-1998. You would think the other well known factory drivers, Mark Pavidis, Richard Saxton would run similar parts if not the same if they were available at that time. Really what ruins the chassis for me is it look like it was given an overhaul by the new owner, or its a different truck, and that ruins the authenticity for me. The one thing I think it does have going for it. Is it looks like those prices are white nylon dyed black. Meaning that is is in fact one of the early trucks.

Again, not trying to dog on the truck that's just my feelings on why I did not want to purchase the whole truck.

I don't think there is any questing that it is an early truck. The spur gear, brake cam, steering assembly, servo mounts, brake hex, fuel tank, etc., are all first edition parts. The plated brake cam was one of the first parts to go, and is early/rare, even for a first gen truck. And even if the arms were not dyed, they still date back to 94. The only parts I see that are not period correct are the shocks for sure, and maybe the turnbuckles and pipe, I am not sure about the dates on them. But then again, if it is a legit team truck from that era, isn't it possible that the team drivers had those parts before they were available to the public?

I think the body alone proves they had parts not released to the public or before their time. My thinking is that its seems odd he is the only one with those parts from that time frame.
By all means I hope this truck is 100% authentic for you. I just have my doubts

I have some doubt about it too, but I am going to try to stay optimistic about it, at least until there is some solid proof that it isn't what I hope it is.

You know, talking about shocks and pipe, it is not unheard of for parts to be changed on an rc car in 19 years

Perhaps a previous owner liked the color blue?

Chris

clm wrote:You know, talking about shocks and pipe, it is not unheard of for parts to be changed on an rc car in 19 years

Chris

Agreed.

Or it was just missing a few things, so someone along the line just stuck whatever parts they had on it, just to make it whole again. Which is what I think happened with the shocks, considering they look brand new.

littleVETTE wrote:if you don't get a hold of him through facebook, try contacting him through proline. i emailed him some years ago through proline and got through that way. he's well known with the other former ae factory drivers too. you could also try and relay a message through one of them. he's a very cool dude to boot.

I just sent them an email. Hopefully they will get back to me soon.

I received a friendly email from Mr Tim Clark of proline. He forwarded my contact info to the last known contact he had for Mr Raceles.

nice

Hopefully it is what the seller said it was...It is still a very nice truck...

No biggie if it wasn't his truck, take it out and run the crap out of it and enjoy!!

Unfortunately I still haven't heard from Mr. Raceles, but I did receive the truck, and it is very interesting. It looks like all of the plastic parts are dyed and were originally white. All of the parts look like standard issue stuff, but the rear arms were sanded down on the bottom, smoothing out the "hump" on the bottom of the arms. The shock towers are quite interesting. They are not the standard shock towers. The rear tower has the same dimensions as the standard tower, but it is thicker around the ears where the shocks mount. The front tower is wider at the top, so the shocks mount further towards the outside at the top, and the shape of the machining slightly different on the inner cutouts of the tower. The rear lower shock mounts appear to match the towers, judging by material and the machining marks on the edges. I have never seen shock towers like this before. I may be going out on a limb here, but these look to me like possible prototype parts. The timing fits and the body certainly seems too back it up.

The body is also very interesting, more on that soon...

After spending some time looking this thing over, I am pretty confident this is the real deal. I am going to keep digging!

That's pretty cool those pieces are prototype parts. Can you tell yet if the shocks and muffler are period parts

romulus22 wrote:That's pretty cool those pieces are prototype parts. Can you tell yet if the shocks and muffler are period parts

I'm pretty sure the shocks are not original. For one, (iirc) the blue shocks didn't come out until the early 00's, when the first rtr gt was released, so the timeline is not even close on those, and, they appear to be brand new, never run. I think the the original shocks were removed, and then someone put these on there just to keep it off the ground. The pipe and turnbuckles I'm not so sure about, I think those could go either way. Although I have to say, they certainly don't look out of place on the truck, at least to me. They appear to have the same amount of wear/use as the rest of the truck, I'll call it patina. Hard to explain, and I could be wrong, but they just seem right. The whole truck has very refined feel to it. It was definitely built and setup by someone who really knew what they were doing. The tranny is super smooth, the best I have ever seen. Ican't wait to take a look inside of it.

I received a reply from Mr Raceles! He asked me to send pictures of the truck, which I did, along with a long winded email about it. Lol... Can't wait to hear back from him!