The TA03 was cool, and would have been a fine choice around here if the hobby shops supported Tamiya. I do recall a meathod of turning those Tamiya cars into twin motor rockets. I think it was a combination of TA02-03 parts As long as the local shop had parts in stock, you were in good shape. For me, this meant Associated, HPI, and Traxxas. Losi too, untill they changed distributers.
Those were some fun days. Bashing with an old XXT and Traxxas Rustler. Later racing a RC10 TC3. That was a cool machine, bought it as soon as it was released, then replaced with a factory team version. I got out right about the same time that the T-Maxx was getting popular.