Nostalgia becomes a distortion of the actual history of RC car racing. If you think back to John Thorp's pan cars, the idealism one may have about original pan cars seems false.
John made very innovative pan cars. He created a diff, he had a leaf spring front suspension, and a belt driven progressive transmission. His designs are now some of the most prized pan cars from that time, and in no way do Thorp cars adhear to this idea that pan cars should be bulletproof direct drive single speeds. In fact, the Thorp car (and other designs) are not allowed in this class today. His front end had springs, which are not allowed, and was fragile. His transmission would not be allowed today because it is not a true single speed. It had a belt and a diff too.
When John was creating and driving his cars, there was a lot of backlash from Associated. Gene Husting made fun of his car at races, calling it the "Sewing Machine" because it used actual sewing machine rubber belts. John was very creative and made unique cars that were more sophisticated than some of the others in production. He was an innovator, and thats what rc racing is all about.
This thread has reduced the idea of "original pan car" to the Super J and RC 300. There were many other cars in production at that time, with a variety of designs, various levels of durability, weight, and performance. Manufacturers were not thinking about making one car for all time, instead they were pushing to innovate in order to get an edge. And I don't see why this creativity and innovation should stop now so that we can recreate a time that never existed.