...I thought it would be interesting to set the way-back machine to 1986 and see what the pinnacle of 1/8 nitro buggies looked like 32 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJEbeZ80n0s

Very high CG on those dinosaur models, and I sometimes wonder if the suspension was for show based on how much the rear-ends bounce & kick through the bumps. The track itself was relatively flat by modern standards, and even then the buggies were having trouble remaining upright.
From the (electric) buggies I had around that time, proper grip was a luxury because the tire compounds were vastly harder than they are today and tended to wear a lot faster.

In many ways it's a shame that there are so few (if any) permanent tracks: it would be interesting to compare lap times with the newest generation just to see how much progress gets made every few years.