Mardave Meteor Questions: Manual, Pinion Gear, General Advice?

[jamesbeat]

When I was a kid growing up in Birmingham, England back in 1988, I lusted after a Mardave Meteor.
I think it was the race pedigree, the fact that one of my teachers had one (making it a 'grown up' car) and the fact that it was relatively affordable, meaning that the prospect of owning one was at least remotely realistic.

Well, I never had much money, and life moves quickly when you're twelve, so I never did get my Meteor

A lot has changed since then. I'm 40 years old, I have a wife and kids of my own, and I now live in New York.
I never forgot that Meteor though.

My boss is into drones, and that got me thinking about RC in general and cars in particular, so I decided that I would try and buy a Meteor.
I discovered that Mardave never exported the Meteor to the States, so I was limited to searching for one from the UK.
They don't turn up on ebay often, or at least not from sellers who are willing to ship to the States.
They were also surprisingly expensive, especially when factoring in international shipping.

I had come to terms with the fact that I would be waiting a long time, or that I would even have to resort to buying parts bit by bit from the UK until I had a whole car.

Then, last Friday, I was idly browsing on ebay, and I found it!
A Mardave Meteor, short wheelbase (I think?), with the old-fashioned body shell with cutouts for the battery pack - the exact same version that I had drooled over in magazine adverts.
The best part was that it was from a seller in Texas, so no international shipping costs.

I put in a huge bid at the very last second so that I couldn't lose the auction, and won it for a very reasonable $77.

The seller told me that he had got it in a job lot of stuff that he bought from the Netherlands, so that's how it ended up being on this side of the pond.

The car is missing one rear wheel, but I'm going to replace the wheels with some modern red dished ones so they will look correct but take modern tires.

It does not come with a motor, so I'll be needing a pinion gear too.
I am also unable to find the manual online. I hear that it is more like a leaflet and isn't much use, but I'd like to have one anyway for the sake of completeness.

Does anyone have a pdf of the manual they could upload or email?

What size pinion gear should I buy? (I know nothing of tooth pitches etc so please explain like I'm 5).
This car is going to have an easy life as an occasionally-run shelf queen with a silver can motor, so I don't want a crazy pinion gear.

Any other information that I might not know would also be appreciated - I know there are some Mardave fans here.

I haven't got the car yet, but here are some photos from the auction.
Is there anything missing that I didn't notice?: