Well I got one now, I'm impressed!
 

For costing 1/4 that of Dnano, spec 2 seems pretty good. So I'll skip straight to my questions:
Does anyone have any dis/reassembly guides or such (namely how to clean the axles)?
Did these EVER get AWD upgrade of any sort or not?
Can spec 2 use lithium and whats the best bet for such upgrade?

i would check out specific site, epoch1-43.com :)

no, spec2 was the end of the line. apex is under new ownership and still alive however there is no word on what the future may hold for the epoch that has been published.