ever seen tethered racers?

[pjtoledo]

was watching 'bitchin today, the guys were checking out a car show in California.
some guys had a tethered racing track, apparently those things were popular 50-70 years ago.
basically a 20' circular board track with a 1:10 or 1:12 scale gas powered racer connected to the center pole. they ripped around the track in about 1 second, converted to scale speed it was way over 500 mph.

I used to have tethered planes back in the early 60's, but they weren't hooked to anything but your hand. the winner was usually the guy that took longer to get dizzy and fall down.

 

[Mac]

I remember seeing one about 60 years ago. Scaled to look like an Indy car of the day.

Dave

 

[Jim Oaks]

Seen one in a video, never in person.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I had a little Piper 140 string plane when I was a kid, I didn't know about cars.

I know guys used to put the little .049 Cox engines in toy tractors have tractor pulls with them though.

 

[buell-eyed-devil]

I used to have A Cox powered tethered car. Kinda looked like an airboat. never ran it tethered. Would haul ass in a straight line though

 

[Ranger850]

Seen them in documentaries and stuff, never in person. There is also carpet racing, rc cars racing on carpet, but I can't remember if it was out west or somewhere in New Jersey.

 

[Snoranger]

Seen them in documentaries and stuff, never in person. There is also carpet racing, rc cars racing on carpet, but I can't remember if it was out west or somewhere in New Jersey.

I know there are a few indoor carpet tracks here in NJ... at least there were a few years ago.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

Seen them in documentaries and stuff, never in person. There is also carpet racing, rc cars racing on carpet, but I can't remember if it was out west or somewhere in New Jersey.

There were carpet tracks all over the United States. Many were in malls, in old stores that had closed up shop. We also had some very nice banked concrete oval tracks back in the day, as well as all types of dirt tracks.

I wish the carpet tracks would make a comeback. I'd find myself a vintage Parma pan car kit, start making my own unlimited parts from scratch again, and start smoking the rich Bolink racers. lol

I don't miss the concrete banked ovals though. They were too fast and you went through a small fortune in tires in one single day of racing.

I still have my vintage Team Associated RC10 buggy. She's very tired though.

 

[Grumpaw]

Back in the late 50's and early 60's, growing up, those tethered cars and planes were all we had once we outgrew plastic models. I had both growing up, and remember standing next to fellow racers and flyers, racing each other.
Tied cloth streamers on the rear of the planes, and tried to chew your opponet's streamer off with your planes propeller, which made it a win.
Good ole days, I remember well.
Grumpaw

 

[buell-eyed-devil]

I used to have A Cox powered tethered car. Kinda looked like an airboat. never ran it tethered. Would haul ass in a straight line though

Now I have a tote full of rc nitro cars and trucks

 

[Bird76Mojo]

I love where RC stuff is at today. People are taking the hobby to insane levels.

I've been following this guy as he builds every single part from scratch.

This is another excellent channel and his truck is completely hand built.

This guy does some pretty amazing and very detailed RC stuff as well.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoEN29f_qrkhx2R0oAQIX1g

 

[86merc5.0]

I had a tether car when I was a kid but always had to wait for dad to get home from work. them he got me one of the Cox gas powered jeeps & my buddie got the pro stock car ( could never get it to turn ). On my jeep it would actually turn, but without r/c we just went in circles. Still have 2 of my original Losi jrxt's. the grandson's love them. There almost old enough/skilled enough to handle my newer r/c trucks ( Losi 22s-sct and an Arrma Kraton ).

 

[Bird76Mojo]

RC got too expensive for me. After I had invested about $2500 in my last Traxxas Revo, I decided to call it quits. The entire thing was either RPM parts or billet, and I had modified the engine with custom billet parts and my own port timing mods until it was turning around 50,000rpm at max rev. The truck was nearly uncontrollable in the end.

I also built this from scratch, using automotive brake line for the chassis, and locked Tamiya Clodbuster axles. I made all of the links myself as well as the servo mounts. The tires and wheels were from a cheap Walmart Nylint truck and I custom cut the tires. They worked well. Very pliable. With the lathe motors and low gearing, the thing would climb a straight 90 degree wall if the front tires had the smallest thing to gain purchase on. Super low crawl speed. Auto centering independent rear steer. I wish I had never sold it on Ebay. I tried to find it again and I located the guy on the RC Crawler forums but never got a response from him.

Not bad for my very first attempt at building a crawler.

 

[adsm08]

That's cool.

I'm just starting to get my Slash back out after not having any time or motivation for it for the last few years. The original 3000mAh battery was trashed from sitting, but it's also 8 years old. My one friend here in town manages an RC parts warehouse and got me a couple Venom 4200mAh batteries for it, 2 packs for $30. He just dropped them off last night, so I still haven't run it yet.

Now I need to get a cheap body for it for letting the boy drive. I really don't want to let him run it with the body that is on it now. It's a Snap-On special edition I got with my toolbox, and just a few weeks ago I saw just the body going for $200 on eBay.

 

[pjtoledo]

from about 33 years ago, I had a '77 F150 4x4 then.