These are my 'very' retro memories

[maineyak]

As a schoolboy my first RC car was a Tamiya Renault F2 car back in 1979 but its low ground clearance and having little flat area to run in meant it was superceded by a Holiday Buggy the following year. A move to Gloucester in 1981 meant my first competitive races at the Gloucester YMCA racing 1/12th cars indoor on carpet on Friday nights. I started racing with a Gemini SLX then Associated RC12E but in 1982 purchased a Schumacher C car, which was the car of choice in the UK at the time, and began club racing at Gloucester, Stafford and Watford while also following the BRCA national series around the country.

Off road racing was not big at the time but buggies were receiving more and more press through Model Cars and RRC and the first ever off-road race I witnessed was at a model show in 1983, the location of which I can’t remember, but I believe it was towards London. There were a lot of recognisable names from the 1/12th circus taking part including Pete Winton who was commentating.

Cars were a mixture of Kyosho Scorpions, Tamiya Frogs and slightly less competitive, and now outdated, Rough Riders and Super Champs. We didn’t stay for the finals but I remember the Bolink Digger driven by no other than Robin Schumacher was probably the fastest car on the circuit. Tracks at the time were usually fairly high grip flat grass tracks which suited the Digger. It was almost like racing on carpet again - apart from the rain. The Digger was basically a 1/10th scale C car. See here for details http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=23876

Having a stock of GRP and being pretty handy with a file I constructed my own Digger creating my own chassis and wishbones and purchasing the plastic parts from Schumacher. I ran this car and then bought a 2nd hand Scorpion for mucking about but didn’t really get involved in racing then as I was living and breathing 1/12th scale, sometimes racings 5 nights a week! At the time (1983) I don’t believe there was an official BRCA off road race series anyway. (first in 84?)

During ’84 and ’85 the off road craze was grew rapidly and a new outdoor purpose built buggy track was built near Gloucester. That and the fact that a lot of people were putting their carpet cars away and joining the buggy ranks persuaded me to join in. At the time 2WD and 4WD classes were still being run together and it was the technological showcase that was the Kyosho Progress that was my weapon of choice. Unfortunately it was not progress at all:(

The Gloucester track was a ‘proper’ off road track with bumps and jumps and multiple surfaces including concrete and dirt and the ¾ inch suspension travel on Progress could just not cope. Should have bought a Hot Shot, even with its weight, inefficient drive train and sloppy suspension it looked unbeatable at the time. At the tracks opening event Rory Cull and his Hot Shot ran away with the win. Little was I to know at the time that Rory was to go on to be a good friend and personal nemesis in the years to follow.

Even with this set back I was bitten by the off road bug. Almost at the point of joining the Hotshot clan until news broke of the first Associated buggy from the U.S. – the RC10. It was only 2WD but national results declared it a winner and my friend and I ordered ours from Ted Longshaw Racing, much to the amusement of the Hot Shot Clan. Due to low stocks they didn’t arrive until early 1985 but when building them up you realised these were the first serious off-road racing machines. To be continued…

Great times. Would love to hear anyone else's memories from the very early days.

[john333]

Some good memories there and very similar to mine as it was exactly the same time I started racing, I got into 1/12th scale in 87 though and did the nationals for 2 or 3 seasons.

I went down the hotshot and rc10 route when they came out, but much preferred the hotshot and got some good results with it (don't think I ever beat Rory cull though!)

They were the good old days as far as racing club nights was concerned, we raced derby on Tuesday night, rolls Royce on wed night, Kimberley on a Friday and then an outdoor or national etc on a Sunday, if no big meeting was on a Sunday rolls Royce was on that day too!

Agree with you about the progress, my mate had one and it was a turd of a car, unlike the optima which is one of my favourite all time cars

[Naushad]

When I was younger I always scanned the catalogue magazines to look at the remote control cars. I would also see the occasional races on tv (remember those Saturday morning kids shows) and in Hyde park, London. I had several when I was younger including a radio shack porsche 959 (I think). However I was fascinated about the tamiya cars. At that time I wondered why they were sooooo expensive! I like the grasshopper but loved the rugged looks of the hotshot! I would show my parents so often but they said it was far too much. It was only later I realized they were kits and not complete cars. The magazines sold them for more anyhow and I remember phoning around shops (e.g. Beatties and Antics) to find cheaper deals but my parents were still refusing.

Anyway, when I was ten my parents bought me a turbo blaster...I would consider it my first 4wd. It had a black body with a few decals and on back of the rear gearbox had a switch to change from low to high gear and vice versa. It took 8 AA batteries. The remote was a stick affair but had trim control...so at the time this was no cheap and basic package!! However, it broke down twice for reasons unclear to me. My father took it back for repairs but by the second occasion it was beyond repair. After that I forgot about it and we moved to Gloucester. My interests then changed to computer gaming.

In the last 3-4 years I have come back into it and not looked back. I bought that hotshot I always wanted. It was a pleasure to build and since then I've caught the building and renovating bug! The racing aspect is something I want to get more into though.

[Kelk]

Well I'm 3 weeks into a return to RC racing after a 20 year hiatus.

At school a few friends and I got together to bought our respective cars - my first non-Toys'r'US RC car was a Tamiya Thunder Dragon. Compared to what else I'd had before this felt like proper engineering and my now dear departed uncle helped me build it over a weekend.

I loved this thing - it was quicker than I dare believe and had that heavy feeling of quality rather than the cheapo plastic junk I'd played with before. So we started racing at a nearby club and at one point I even won a race or two. Many a day I would wander into JS RAcing in Wolverhampton and stare at all the new shiny racing kits - Schumacher Cat XLS's, Yokomo and Losi JRX2's never mind the myriad of parts bags that hung on the little spline arms like baubles on a christmas tree.

2 years later on Xmas day I got my Procat - now this was fantastic for me - composite-esque chassis, belt drives and grip till Tuesday.

So I went racing for another year or so but University beckoned and the ways of RC cars went by the by - I simply couldnt afford to stay racing. :(




I always looked in on stuff from time to time - browse the odd copy of Radio Race Car in WH Smiths or poke around in Modelzone but never did anythnig about it.

Last year my uncle died and the nostalgia and thoughts of the time he spent helping me build the cars and take me racing came flooding back and for the last year or so I've been hankering with getting back into it. I did a lot fo internet research, I bought magazines and posted up on here.

So I got a Losi 22, spent a weekend building it, reminisced a bit and with help from people at SHRCCC I'm up and racing, well steering round a track and hoping to finish each race.

[john333]

I love threads like this, keep the stories coming :thumbsup:

[Stretch]

My first car was a Tamiya Rough Rider, bought for £55 new in 1981. My parents bought me the radio gear as a Birthday prezzy. This car never raced, but the body and rear cage were quickly broken (heartbreaking as I'd painted it up exactly like the box art...)

Next I had a Kyosho Skorpion. This also never raced, and barely got driven as it was building them that I really enjoyed.

Next was a Tamiya Toyota Hilux. This raced. Against Skorpions. Indoors. Thankfully only once, but then I was hooked.

Next came a Hotshot, an AYK, an Optima, an RC10 (original gold/white), a CAT (I finished 3rd in the C at the 1st BRCA Modified meeting of the year - I was the 3rd highest place CAT at the meeting, which had 10 cars per final, and A to O Finals...), CAT XLS, Yokomo YZ870C, and the rest just get boring...

[cjm_2008]

I reckon new racers should be forced to race with brushed motors and 1200mah sc packs just so they know how good they've got it nowadays!

[maineyak]

So because I've raced against a Bolink Digger I guess that must make me the oldest racer on this forum? :cry:

Writing up some more memories as we speak. It's good exercise for my brain:)

[dirt track date]

Wow what a cool thread....................................
I remember going to thee Eastor model show with my parents in 1982 ?? maybe 83 and watchng the boats and planes, but being totally obsessed with the buggies, I loved it when they wheelied off the line!! I was so exciting because unlike real motor racing you could see the whole track. We went every year after that, me and my brother used to choose a car that we liked the look of at the start of each race and see who came in first, we begged and begged for our own car but my dad used to say 'they're not toys' and 'they're too expensive etc....'. I used to look forward to Eastnor all year just to watch the buggies and see 'whos' car would come in first every race. In mid /late 1986 my dad heard about racing at the TA centre in Hereford so we used to go and watch the racing (I think it was on tuesday night) still dreaming that one day I'd be able to have my own car. I remember the fast drivers were driving SWB Cats and PB Mini Mustangs, Dave Rogers and Clive Hall ruled supreme in Hereford back then. In early 1987 after 5 years of begging and nagging my parents finally conceded and my dad swapped his prized model boat for a Marui Samurai. That car was so bad, the diff gears used to strip every other race. Me and my brother race alternate weeks. I used to practice at home in the garden after mowing a track into the front lawn but the Samurai was really no fun and the majority of the time it was in bits, I remember frantically trying to change those stupid diff gears in the back hall of the TA centre. Christmas 87 was the best year ever my parents bought us a Mardave Meteor to share between us. I remember building it on the kitchen table with my dad. It took 2 days to build!! I think my dad let me and my brother do most of it and at 12 and 11 respectively i don't think we had a clue!! For my birthday we got a new body shell (I'll post some pics because i would love to try and identify it so that I can rebuild that car) and painted it british racing green with some white stripes, our Meteor now looked like the fast cars. Some time late 87 we got another Meteor so we could both race at the same time, loads of other kids had Meteors so we had our own little Meteor pitting area. Racing by this time had moved to the Shire Hall and the Meteor was now long wheel base with long wishbones, MG Orange Dot with a Speedmaster Silver Star speed control. I got that car in the A final one time, soooo proud, but spent most of the time getting out of the way of the fast boys ha ha ha!! During the summer we raced behind the Bulls Head Pub in Hereford, various other school fetes, steam rallies and Eastnor Model Show. Some time in 89 I sold one of the Meteors and got a 2nd hand Top Cat, I remember racing this outside at the Bulls Head and racing at Eastnor with a Trinity 19 double which I bought from a team driver (so he said) managed the C final and was the highest placed 2WD. I sold the Top Cat in early 1990 and bought Clive Halls old PB Mini Mustang which I remembered from the TA Centre days of watching and dreaming. The Mustang was a little out of date but at least it was 4wd and I could win the B final from time to time at club level. I think I had the Mustang for 4-5 months before I sold that and got a second hand worn out Lwb Optima Mid with a red anodised tana plan chassis. I really loved that car and regularly used to win the B final. This car was great indoors and outside on grass. Sadly this was sold in early 1991 and I bought a Swb cat for £20 (Oh how I wish I'd kept it) and sort of converted it to a Pro Cat, well it had a Pro Cat Body and Chassis, I hated this car, it was horrible to drive, but by this time girls and music were taking over and nothing puts off teenage girls more than 'going to play with toy cars'. So in the summer of 1992 aged 17 I took my 'Pro Cat' to Eastnor Model Show and sold it for £35. I've still got my original Meteor although it needs a new chassis because the endless modifications finally cause it to snap. Occasionally I'd go and watch the racing at Hereford but soon I was playing in bands and that was the end of that....... Until May 2010 when I got a Mardave Cobra off ebay and bashed around the garden for a bit of fun. I liked it A LOT. September 2010 I started racing an Associated B4 at Stoke Model Car Club and tried to collect all the cars I owned as a kid. So far I've got all of them except a SWB Cat, but these are rare and expensive now. Any way thats my memories of the happiest times growing up and the best time I ever had with my dad. :thumbsup:

[Dave 1975]

Love the old days...

My first car was a kyosho optima..loved it... complete with mechanical speed control and 540 motor lol.. had quite a few hop ups too like the belt conversion and ball race kit.

Then went on a Cat XLS and a JRX2 ! :)

[Dave 1975]

Don't miss the old batteries though.. and skimming motors :)

[john333]

So because I've raced against a Bolink Digger I guess that must make me the oldest racer on this forum? :cry:

Writing up some more memories as we speak. It's good exercise for my brain:)

Lol, no I raced against some bolink diggers too. I remember them being incredibly fast for the time and only touching the ground about 3 times each lap as they had sort of 1/12th scale flexy fibreglass suspension

[maineyak]

Even though 2WD & 4WD were still being raced together the RC10 with its lightweight, efficient drive train and fantastic suspension ruled the day. I really got on with the RC10 and started producing some reasonable results in the Std class at Radio Race Car rounds. I was using Demon motors at the time and there seemed to be a new model every month started with a 28T, then 27T, 27HT, Mr T, Mr T Special. At a RRC round in Oxford I purchased a ‘works’ Mr T special standard motor from Nick Adams out of the boot of his car. Turns out it was faster than any modified I owned…

At the same time as the RRC and occasional BRCA rounds I also started racing in the Tamiya series using a HotShot. I used to travel to a lot with Rory and his dad and we shared a lot of TQ’s and wins and we were both offered sponsorship by Keith Chaplin of Malvern Models. I think it’s fair to say that initially I had the upper hand over Rory but he just got better and better each week. While I found my level in the RRC rounds Rory attacked the BRCA series and started making A’s. Keith was happy with this as Model Cars usually followed the BRCA rounds so with me in RRC race reports too he got great coverage.

As part of the sponsorship deal Rory and I received a PB mini Mustang. I hated that car. It was like a fragile Airfix kit and I rarely finished a race with all 4 driveshafts. A group of us entered a race at Romsey and in frustration I ended up drop kicking out of tent and never used it again. Thus ended the Malvern Models sponsorship.

It was at around this time from racing at Worcester I met Nick Marson who for his sins also struggled with a PB. It was kind of out of the blue one Friday night racing at Glos he asked me to try one of his new speed controllers he had been working on. At the time I was running a Laser packed with relays but Nicks was slimmer and smaller and had something called mosfets in it. The difference between the two was amazing. I described it as it made my std motor into a modified motor. I believe that was the 2nd controller he ever made and I kept it for a while and then became a test mule as new modifications came out. The rest is history Marson became Nosram and he started selling speedos to the public. I’m still in touch with Nick today. He lives in Texas now and is still into RC but planes rather than cars.

After the PB I bought an Optima and proceeded to bling it up with one way rollers on the front and an orange wasp? belt drive. On a smooth grass track at Eastnor Castle I won the A final with one way rollers on front and back! The car really suited my fast and flowing style of driving. Having no reverse and no brakes didn’t really affect me. I was bought back down to earth again the next weekend back at an open meeting at the Gloucester track. The car was a pig, with no traction and the belt constantly jumping. Rory walked away with it again, with a PB no less. Another lesson learnt.

Next Up: THE Reedy International.

[cornishboy176]

What a brilliant read this has been so far,

I started off RC racing when i was 10 years old with a Mardave Mini Stock that my Dad bought at our local club at Leedstown Village Hall in Cornwall,then swopped my BMX for a Tamiya Falcon,tried racing that indoors but found it too brittle on parts (especially after my mechanical speedo decided it wanted to go flat out into the wall and smash the front end off completely!!),my parents then bought me an MRC MRX for Christmas,i raced that at our local outdoor track in Hayle for a season what a nightmare car that was!!,I then got my hands on a Kyosho Ultima which was the car to have then,after another season of running the Ultima i bought a second hand Schumacher Topcat with a Tekin 410s for £75 from RSW in St Austell no sooner i got it the Cougar came out and we bought the cougar front end,that was one brilliant car,had some good results with that car,then i had a second hand RC10 for Christmas,and started going to the regional series in Cornwall (SWORDS),i had 2 seasons with the RC10 after upgrading it to the current spec FT at the time,The Losi XX was the new kid on the block then and i managed to get my hands on one and also Sponsorship from Kevin Waite at RSW in Plymouth with his PLAZMA batteries and also Corally for Motors,i started getting into the top 5 at regional level and then......passed my Test and found Cars,Beer and Women!!!!

All the RC gear was packed away and left after spending Saturday nights on the p**s and duly lost interest in the buggies for a few years and then 3 seasons ago a mate of mine phoned up out of the blue and i got hooked again and i havent looked back since,apart from throwing my toys out the pram with the Cougar SV and selling it all,i have recently bought a 210 but then sold it after a Centro come up,

I cant believe how much had evolved from my early years of buggy racing,back then you would have your gearing exact so the batteries would just last 5 minutes or so,no practice laps before the race,running more weight than you can shake a stick at!!,back then we used to cut the chassis tub down on an RC10 to get rid of weight,now we are piling brass into it!!

All in all i am enjoying my racing but our only problem is,apart from our 1 local track the next one is a 220 mile round trip to Tiverton every 2 weeks just a shame we are that far down from everything here in Cornwall

[tisher]

Great thread guys I will try and give a little insight on my racing:)

I started in 84 with my first car which was a grasshopper great car but when I started racing at my local club I soon realised that it was not really a race car.
So then after a few meetings I persuaded my dad to get me an optima I soon started raising up in the club winning a few b finals etc.
About a year later we started racing at oldham and bury metro
i got better and better over the next year or so then came the big turning point for me the release of the optima mid:thumbsup:
this put me from B finals to near the top of the A finals I remember alot of the the older guys giving me loads of abuse because a 13 year old was beating them by this point lads at oldham then started to get the new car on the block the cat xls.
I remember thinking I really need this car to keep up so with some persuading my dad got me one.
The cat xls was an amazing car in its day and kept me pretty much top three in the A final for the following years to come. I f remember correctly it was me Antony lomas and Chris ellis always battling for first place at oldham.
By 1989 I was running a cougar outside and cat indoors we had a team set up from oldham that did some national events and the best result I got in these was a B final 1st.
I stopped racing in 1991 when I got in to real cars beer and women :thumbdown:
I restarted again at the beginning of last year when my son was older enough to start I now get more of a buzz watching him race than I get racing myself but now I realise how much it must have cost my dad to keep me going back then god bless you pops:lol:

[cornishboy176]

I stopped racing in 1991 when I got in to real cars beer and women :thumbdown:

Haha this sounds familiar now we have gone back racing to get away from the missus for a bit of piece and quiet :lol::lol::lol:

But always remember,

Growing old is inevitable,Growing up is optional!! :woot::thumbsup:

[john333]

Here is what I remember of my early years in the sport.....

In around 83 I saw someone at school with a tamiya rough rider and thought it was the coolest thing ever so the following Christmas my parents bought me a holiday buggy which I spent the next few months bashing around the local parks etc. eventually got a bit bored with this and stumbled across a mardave mini stock for sale new in a local shop, me and a mate both bought one and started racing them in our school playground.

About a year of bashing around passed when we found out about Ilkeston model car club (now Broxtowe) which raced on a Friday night, one visit to this wonderous place and I was hooked! On my first night there met Phil booth who was racing 1/12th scale and was only about 5 years on from winning his 1/8th circuit world championship, after this I spent many an hour in his shop and travelling to race meetings with him and Christine, acting as his pit crew occasionally which scared me witless!

My trusty mardave made way for a succession of buggies from Phil booth models including an ayk sidewinder, hotshot, pb mini mustang, rc10, optima, tamiya fox and an original short wheelbase cat.

Of all these cars I think it was the hotshot that gave me the most success, after Phil had put universal joint drive shafts and a one way centre drive shaft on it that is, with a tq and win at Dudley and 2nd overall at the "midlands championships"

At around the age of 17 I got into 1/12th scale as my local club, derby had always been predominantly for this scale and only tolerated buggies lol. I bought an RC12i with a corally conversion kit (all ally bits) and over 2 seasons of BRCA nationals worked my way up from the bottom heat of formula 3 to the top heat of formula 1 (beating a young Dave splashett in the process (if only that could have carried on! Lol)) to be honest my first run in this top heat against drivers like the late Phil davies and Tim dakin really demoralised me as I was being lapped mercilessly and I think I actually left the meeting early, never to race 1/12th again!

A break of 7 or so years ensued, and purely by chance I was passing through Worksop and heard that there were Rc cars being raced in the sports centre there, putting my head round the door the first people I see are Phil and Christine! So one major credit card session later I'm all set up with a schumacher SST and all the gear (god I loved that car)

Took to touring car racing really well and again worked my way up the rankings and got some sponsorship with GM and latterly CML with the Associated TC3. My best result was at the Broxtowe national when I had FTD after heat 9 of round 4 after a very rain affected day, but then the bloody sun came out and I was punted into the b final! (still had a good final though with my one and only win against Jamie booth after years of failure lol)

At this point I became a dad and had to give up racing completely, up until early 2011 when yet again ANOTHER chance meeting with mr booth at ardent raceway (I'd seen it advertised so called in for a look) and a tax rebate convinced me to get a cat SX2 and do a bit of racing "just for fun"

A year on and I'm back doing regionals etc and loving every minute of it with the new technology etc.

Thanks for reading, John jones

[maineyak]

Too true Cornish Boy:)

I've just started racing buggies again after a 23yr break. Haven't done many races yet but it's a lot more difficult than I remember:confused: I seem to have no subtlety in my thumbs whatsoever. I need to race more than once a week to get anywhere good again.

The problem is my wife needs to understand I've got a hobby again now:)

[cornishboy176]

I am really enjoying being back racing,my missus thinks i am a big kid (i have just turned 35 and reliving my youth,just shame i havent got the reactions with my thumbs like i used to have)

I doubt i am the only one that is like this but i am always tinkering with the Durango and Centro (my new nickname is "Tinkerbell"),going up to it pushing down on the suspension,generally fiddling with the car and checking oople for new parts,upgrades,updates,set ups and reviews etc

I think i have caught the bug again after last season having a Cougar SV and nearly pulling my hair out trying to set it up,the Centro is so much easier to drive and set up

like i said our biggest downfall is we are so far away down here in Cornwall we have got 1 track down here for 1/10 buggies,i would love to travel but we have got at least a 2-3-4 hour drive to get to anywhere like Tivvy,Weston,Yatton etc,there is a group of us that travel up to Tivvy every 2 weeks (when the weather is good) and we have a really good laugh and always a good days racing

[tisher]

I wonder how many people have just got back into the sport in the last two years that raced 20+ years ago:)

[daveyboi1973]

Dont race but bash really.Used to race mids and procats at an indoor club in tilbury in essex.Remember making a alloy chassis up with a tamiya falcon front end and a kyosho outrage rear for a laugh and actually beating a few "pros" with it. :)

[Ant]

Used to race my Mardave Apache at Chingford Car Club in Essex. We used to race on the outskirts of Epping forest, but in a small clearing under the trees.
I remember Pete Stevens and George Land quite regularly turning up with their Zerdas with the belt slip clicking. Lap counting was a manual affair, calling out the numbers and finals went down to k on a regular basis.
In winter we raced indoors in 'the Lid' at the nearby scout park where we later had a permanent track.
I remember there being lots of home made and extremely modified cars.
The Hotshot wasn't so popular at our club.
Then the RC10 came along - and I stared in amazement when I saw people drilling holes, cutting down the chassis and sometimes making a complete mess of these brilliant machines. We were still running Apaches and a Frog.
We stopped racing for a while and came back with an ultima based bitsa which my brother got into the A or B finals (2 & 4wd raced together) and a Raider until he got a Procat and I later got a Topcat- which became a Cougar then a Cougar2.
You used to see the look of panic on people's faces for the last 30seconds of a race as their cars started dumping .....

When I first started I remember reading an article in Model Car Monthly by George Land about speed controllers. The general jist was that variable resistor speed controllers fitted to small fast servos were the way to go, and it would be very unlikely for electronic speed controllers to become small enough or efficient enough to challeng them.
How times change!

[MHeadling]

Great thread, well here is my story....

First car was a Tamiya Moster Beetle bought from a family friend for £30 this was around 1990 when I was 10, had loads of fun with this and set from there, had various tamiya's, Manta Rays, Thunder Dragon, Clod Buster, just used these for fun in the garden.

I went to my local shop alot (buying fast motors and lots of resistors! Lol) Model World Ashford and heard about the racing club at the North School in Ashford , i Kent.

This was a great club ran by Clive and Terry Stockham of MRT fame, I remember being dropped off the first time and couldn't believe the speed of the buggys and the Pro 10 cars they used to race. I got the bug big time and went most Sundays.

I started in 92 with a Schumacher Cougar Club at Ashford club and had many cars during my time there, Cougar 2000, Pro cat, Kyosho Lazer Alpha, t tech pred international, Losi XX and a AE B3 and probably lots more!

My main retro memories from this time as a kid racing were:

- Clive Stockhams crazy transmitter style, people who have seen it will know what I mean, he was pretty handy so we'll let him off!

- Foam donut tyres on the buggy rims

- Predators howling around the hall!

- Wide body touring shells, 405's, Escort Cosworths, Mondeos

- A certain David Spashett coming along to a meeting with narrow touring car (proto SST on mini pins), we all
Thought that will never take off! Lol

- The fantastic range of MRT brushed speedos

- Big Velcro numbers on your cars and number crunching as each car went by on a green screen BBC computer

- Richmond Rogers and Richard Bettany visiting the club at times and being super fast

- Comm lathes and £2 a skim!

- Home made ply pit boxed

- A husband and wife race team who had matching home knitted brown tank tops! Lol

Great memories!



I then got into Basket Ball and girls and left Rc alone whilst at secondary school.

In 97 got a Hyper 7 rally x car and raced that at Kent Rally x club once and then got one of the new Schumacher SST, raced this at West Kingsdown club near Brands Hatch, had a break then worked at local model shop for a bit and got into TC as not much off road in Kent.

I raced a AE Tc3 and a Yokomo at Barham club on a Thur night and lots of familiar faces there from Ashford club.

Had another break from racing and bought a few cars for fun FG's, AE B4, Xxx etc and had a dabble with 5th bikes and did the first World Champs at Brooklands raceway in Kent, was good fun that meeting!

Moved to Maidstone and raced each week at Maritime with various TC cars and 12ths then I saw the light and went back to my roots of off road 10th.

I bought got a Cat SX and went to Faversham club and the rest is history...... Over 60 cars I'v owned and still loving it!

[maineyak]

Good stories!

Ant - I'd forgotten about Zerdas! They weren't really big around our way though.

So it got me thinking, just what was the first commercially available 4wd 1/10th car - Hotshot, Progress, Zerda or Wonder Dogfighter? or something else AYK?

[Stretch]

Progress was pre Hotshot.

[Jason A]

I wonder how many people have just got back into the sport in the last two years that raced 20+ years ago:)

Haha thats so true.

I raced in the late 80's with a cat XLS then had a break for 20+ years and have now been back racing for 3 years.

:thumbsup:

[Ant]

There were a few very modified hirobo rock'n city's around before the Zerdas.
We had a few Progresses race, but the Rc10 came along and beat them all.
Lots of original Optimas, Cats, Cougars, Optima Mids and then losi after that

[traffman]

My foray into the world of rc began after purchasing a Tamiya Grasshopper and paying it up weekly via the Janet Frazer catalogue.

I ran the car for a while trying not to lose interest as i didnt want it to turn out to be another five minute wonder.

My best mate purchased one soon after and so began the bashing.

After my friend returned from a caravan holiday in yorkshire he brought me back some radio controlled magazines to browse through.

This is where events took a more serious turn , i ballraced the rear axle of my Grasshopper to improve the efficiency! They cost 7 pounds back then circa 1985!

Shortly after i ventured into Marionville models and purchased a second hand Optima with a salute bodyshell.

I replaced the worn wiper board on the speed controller , rebuilt the entire car and with my mate whom had purchased a Boomerang we began racing at Queensferry rc club on a Friday.

Those days were very interesting , a multitude of mainly Cats Pb Mustangs and the odd rc10 were the order of the day.

My friend purchased a secondhand Optima turbo and i went onto a mustang and fitted Brimod shocks to it (machined exquisitely but leaked allways) .

As we got more serious i received a brand new Optima Pro for my birthday , then onto a Mid optima Turbo which i still rate to this day as being one of the best performing rc cars out there.

Before i left the sport i had moved onto a Lazer then lastly a Tomy intruder with fibrelyte shock towers. Lovely car and ran well with a 17 quad MG motor.

I took a short dive into 1/8th scale and traded my electric buggy in for a Kyosho Turbo Burns but sadly the 1/8th scale club in Scotland folded.

So fast forward to circa 2009 after coming back to the hobby via yokomo mr4bx , followed by a b44 mid , Durango , Kyosho lazer fs2 i have now settled for the best compromise to my smoother style driving and currently loving the Tamiya 502x.

Happy days .

[Si Coe]

I really liked my Progress. It was much better than the Falcon I had before it, even though the Progress was a dated design by the time I got one. It was also superior to the Boomerangs my friends ran too - which seems odd if it wasn't as good as the Hot Shot!
But then my Dad got an Optima Mid for himself and the Progress just looked silly next to that. I wanted to start racing, so the Progress was shelved and I went to Springfield Buggy Club with my Dads Mid, Futaba 112b esc, 40mhz Attack and an MG Brown Dot.
My younger brother wanted in too, and my Dad managed to score one of the first few Top Cat's from RadioActive models. At first we ran together, but as more people got Top Cat's, 2wd and 4wd split. My brother got a PB Ace to run in 4wd, but abandoned it after just 1 meeting saying it was awful to drive. He eventually got a Yokomo (heavily modified Yz870c) which was just all round better than my Mid. 4wd was dominated my ProCat's and I considered one, but then a random chance got me to switch to 2wd.
Years earlier I'd got an RC10 - the original gold pan, but never really used it. But a friend of mine managed to acquire an early pre-release Stealth gearbox, which mated with my RC10 chassis became a force to be reckoned with. 2wd used to consist of a dozen Topcats/Cougars and my sole RC10, running a Lazer Comfet Mini-pro and Parma motors I used to acquire off Andy Carter and Danny Conway.
Things looked good for a while, especially during a cold, wet winter series outdoors on tarmac where I was running the only 2wd with a slipper clutch, but the rest soon caught up. Besides by this point I was doing my GCSE's and too busy.
My brother carried on racing for a while after me which meant he and I blagged places helping out at the '93 Worlds. He quit when he went off to Uni and swapped his Losi XX with me for a mountain bike. The XX prompted a return to racing for me (having just left Uni myself) but the scene was all touring cars and I quit again around 2000 having got back into cycling
Then in 2007 I was working on a bike on my drive when a neighbour started running a Hyper 7 up and down the street. This got me to dig out my old Cat'98 from the loft and somehow I ended up racing at Bury with it.

I still love my retro cars though - specifically RC10's. I now have a pair (Truck and Team) which have been upgraded to modern electrics and still take on todays cars. Things have moved on a lot, and yet they haven't changed as much as you'd think.......

[maineyak]

LOL Brimrod shocks - I remember them traffman. I went to Mick Goddards factory once over in Wales. Nice bloke he would put together a lovely 'standard' motor for £50......

Anyway here's may latest instalment. As far as I can remember its all true.


I guess the highlight of my RC career was the Reedy international race at Romsey in 1988. It might have been ’89 but I believe it was ’88 because Masami was driving a YZ870 rather than the Cat he had used to win the worlds the previous year. It was the first time we had seen a Dogfighter and its shocking pink wheels and it was awesome.

We turned up a whole 2 days before official practice began so had plenty of free time to learn the track and dial the cars in. I was equipped with my trusty RC10 and a borrowed Ultima, which I quickly discarded after a few runs. Masami was already there too, but funnily enough he wasn’t camping on the dog poo infested field opposite like us. He was hammering round the track and we were totally stunned by this guys talent. I watched him on a qualifying run when a bad pot hole had appeared on the racing line on the final bend before the straight. There was *just*room inside but with the barrier so close it was a risk you wouldn’t take. I watched him go through this gap flat out for 12 laps in a row.

Looking back now I realise that the most valuable single piece of equipment I had that week was a set of custom cut crystals that Nick Marson had lent me. They were an expensive item but they were also guaranteed to be a one-off, with no one else on your frequency. These meant I could bypass the practice queue and grab any coloured peg as I walked past. I got some very strange looks but it meant I could drive all day and by the time official practice began I knew every inch of the hard baked slippy dirt track and my RC10 was dialled.

The pit marquee which was once empty started filling with faces we had only seen and read about in magazines. Mike Reedy, Masami, Cliff Lett, Butch Kloeber, Jammin J, Joel Johnson, Gil Losi Jnr, and the list went on. So to the start of official qualifying and on my second run and BANG fifth fastest 2WD overall and as my trusty RC10 was sat on the finish straight Masami wandered over to it and bowed towards it. To say I was happy is an understatement….. Nobody really knew who I was till then but people soon started to find me and I was quickly offered a sponsorship deal by Central Models and a team coloured shell was hastily cut out and slapped on my car.

Early days though. There was another 1½ days of qualifying to go but the track started getting worn, rutted and even slipperier and my position stood. I never matched my 2nd round pace again. Unfortunately disaster struck on the final afternoon of qualifying when rain started to fall. Now you would think that was good news but no, they sprinkled the track with sawdust, and the grip came back up. The top drivers started putting in fast motors to take advantage of the conditions and I was quickly knocked down into the B. I couldn’t believe how much grip there was but I just couldn’t take advantage of it as I had no speed. The masses of practice laps had taken their toll and motors, Nicads and everything were on their last legs. While others were power scrubbing on the start line in an attempt to get rid of peak volts my mate was plugging mine in at the last possible second.

Mike Reedy was sat ahead of us and just to the right. I watched as a never ending queue of works drivers approached him for advice. Often he would reach into a big leather case and hand over a clear sealed bag which contained an RC10 gearbox with a correctly geared Reedy motor already attached, plus a set of nicads. Screw it in and go. I was so tempted to go over and introduce myself and ask if I could borrow a motor for just one run. I practiced over and over what I would say to him but even when he was alone I just never had the bottle to do it. I have big regrets over that as I’m sure with some power I could have got back in the A, and after all the worse he could have said was no.

Still the B final was full of top names too and as the countdown began I’d never been so nervous. I think I was ahead at one point but got tagged and spun out at the hairpin. Basically I was overwhelmed by the people I was racing. It was a really aggressive race and I was too polite and just got swallowed up. I think I came last in the end.

However marshalling the 3 legged A final was even more nerve wracking. I think I had the worst marshalling position of all were if a car crashed in the centre of the track I had to run out, crossing another part of the track to get there. Nightmare – drivers screamed at me from the rostrum. Masami won and treated us all to his trademark ‘sitting down driving with his feet’ trick. What an amazing week though. It’s one trophy I wish I’d kept.

Next up: CML sponsorship

[john333]

Interesting about the custom crystals, I had a futaba 3EGX gold transmitter which had a 40 meg module in it supplied by Phil booth, at the time 40 meg wasn't available in this country so the same as you I could just practice whenever I felt like it, much to a few fellow drivers disgust lol.

[TARTMAN]

:thumbsup:long story short. ish........

My 1st buggy was a Subaru Brat, the base version of the Frog with a pick up truck shell in solid plastic....... great fun off road outside, not mucjh of a racer....... My next door neighbor, Andy Shaw(anyone remember him?) was already into racing, both of us about 13 yrs old i think..... So i went along to the track, indoors, in langley....... Friday nights....... LOVED IT!

Hooked from day 1............

upgraded the brat to a Frog, oh yes, i was well in to it lol.....

Then, after much bribery of promising the housework etc to my mum/dad, got them to help me buy a Hotshot......... WOW big time, that was soooooo much better!

then stated outdoor racing, west london, cranford, aylesbury, chesham etc etc.... progressed through the ranks. got a job at Richmond model shop at 16 then sponsered by them, helped me get to club A final level and some decent finishes all over........ raced with some top lads, Jamie Booth, craig dresher etc etc.......
had all the greats, optima mids, yokomo dog fighter, Cat xls etc etc....

the ply home made pit box. 12v battery......
loads of nicads for the one use a day charge/race. motor tuner, box of 20 plus motors, the Demon standard/stock motor( and we all know they were never stock one tweaked lol)
£5,000 of RC stuff in the boot of my £500 mk4 cortina........ hit 18, found women and real cars and nightclubs a bit of a distraction........ left racing............ now, 22 years later............ I AM BACK! Love it.....
Spend to much money and time on the 2wd and the 4wd and the SC, but what the hell, married and settled, need the break!!!! LMAO!!!!!!!!

SHRCCC is now my 2nd home, and part run it..... always wanted to run a club back then, so now, involved in it big styley. Great fun and looking forward to the senior years of thumb twidling and wife avoiding !!!!! HEHE!!!!:thumbsup:

[MILKY]

Blimey Darren i thought we were a rare breed,another cranford buggy club racer from back in the day.:thumbsup:
I love this thread so here is my contribution...

IT starts as most do,a friend of mine had a tamiya buggy(falcon i think) and of course i wanted one but my parents thought it was just another of my fads!!
Then another got a Tamiya vanquish and desperate begging earned me an increase in pocket money,a few months of saving bought me a second hand optima from a friend of mine.What a beast,easily out performed the tamiya's of my friends but this was only down the park so i looked for a club local to me.

Cranford buggy club was my first club and one which i have the fondest memories of,Andy Shaw,Les Grimmet and of course Pete Stevens are a few names that instantly spring to mind,but there are many more i have forgotten which i should'nt have to be honest.
A very friendly and well run club with the pete's awesome products spares in the corner,large rostrum with manual counting and i think one jump which used to scare me being so young but is nothing now a days!!

Went on to a cougar then a yokomo super dog fighter works 92 and of course the inevitable,evenings out with your mates and real cars and a break from the hobby ensues.....

2001 rolls around an i am in SMiths and see radio race car and mmmmm i remember when......Associated tc3 later and i am back rocking and rolling at langley model car club and wlrc.

Another break and we are in 2010 and taplow model car club and surrey and hants are my regular clubs, off road has re emerged as the dominant class and of course i have to have another go,a series of cats,yokomo's and so on and its in my veins and to be honest i don't think i will ever stop now:thumbsup:

[J'MM'N]

I've just started racing buggies again after a 23yr break. Haven't done many races yet but it's a lot more difficult than I remember:confused: I seem to have no subtlety in my thumbs whatsoever. I need to race more than once a week to get anywhere good again.

The problem is my wife needs to understand I've got a hobby again now:)

I'm guessing this is Mark, if so hello again.

I've just made a return after 17 years, drove one of my lads old TC3's for the first time last week. But their was no compatibility between car, brain and my thumbs whatsoever:lol: Plan to get myself a 2wd buggy though and have some fun.

Trevor.

Time machine back to Dowty's track with RC10's and five link JRX2's:)

[Dandare]

Loving these stories.

I remember me & a few mates used to go into Model Junction in Bury St Eds & prod the suspension of Brats, Strikers, Porsche 959's & the like, & on the way out we would gawp at the Avante that sat on it's own shelf, lol. I guess it was '83-'85 ? I'd have been between 11-13. I remember the Brat was £55odd ! On the occasions when we didn't have the courage to go in (lol) we'd watch the Tamiya vids on the tv through the front window :D

I even took their black & white photocopied a4 brochure with me on holiday to Menorca & would look through it repeatedly, deciding which kit to buy, as if i could afford any of them, lol.

A mate eventually beat me to it & had a Thundershot bought for him, then i got a Boomerang, other friends got Super Sabre's, Hotshots etc. Iirc he replaced the Thundershot with a Kyosho Maxxum FF !

The Bury Buggy Club used to race at the back of the Shimpling Bush pub, we only made one or two meets spending more time 'bashing' than racing.

In 1990 i got a job/apprenticeship, i became mates at college with a chap called Ian Kemp, he had a mate called William Mitcham ;) Ian was sponsored by Schumacher & raced a Cat XLS, he even got William to rebuild one or two of my Reedy motors !

I then went 2wd with a Cougar Club 10 but never actually raced it. Annoyingly i sold it for parts only last year & now wish i hadn't as i would've liked to do some vintage racing with it :cry:

So, i am another who has returned after a 20 odd year gap, now at the age of 39, i never would have thought i'd be racing clubs, regionals etc now...

[gainsy]

These are great stories guys, keep them coming :D
There seems to be loads of us who have recently returned to the rc world, does anyone remember the old Tamiya adverts on the tv? this is how i became interested, saw the advert for the tamiya fox & immediately wanted it, after 6 months of visits to Beaties to lust after it & constant "please dad can i have one" my parents relented & got me one for christmas :)
Started racing at the cottonmill club in st albans a few months later & was instantly hooked, the fox wasn't up for much & i was regually whiped by the other tamiyas, my dad used to race with me & had a hotshot, he quickly upgraded to the supershot & gave me the hotshot which compared to the fox was amazing, as i got more into it my dad said if i could beat him he would give me the supershot, i tried my butt off but couldn't beat him, 1 day i was sitting in my workshop/shed & thought i would lighten the car so it would go faster, i set about the chassis with my dads drill & soon it looked like swiss cheese, i was sure this would give me the edge over him :woot:
Race day arrived & my dad set a great time with the supershot, i was in heat 2 & the hotshot flew off the line, i was thinking this is good, went round the first corner & over the big jump, as i landed the front half of the car seperated from the rear & went flying into the bush!!! :lol: the rear stopped about 10ft from where my old man was marshalling, he just picked it up & gave me that look that said i was for it :mad: lol he wasn't happy with me but once he realised i was just trying to beat him he took pity on me & gave me the supershot :D
Went through a few more cars with the xls, optima mid, top cat etc until the lure of motocross got the better of me & swapped my cars for my first bike the kx125, i quickly realised i was hopeless at this & before i killed myself decided to buy my first real car, beer, women, holidays & kids followed but now the kids are old enough to start their rc journey i have been back for a couple of years now & love the modern tech we have, just not having to take the motor out to clean it after each heat is a god send in itself :lol:
This is the ad that got me hooked
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66OygXbxfFw

[HKS_TRD]

In the spirit of blast from the past, I unearthed these photos of my Turbo Optima Mid SE. Bad photos and not a great scan either but this is all I have as a momento from those days

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/MySE1.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/MySE2.jpg

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg152/HKS_TRD/RC%20Cars/MySE3.jpg

[traffman]

Loving the mid optima, that looks like the mid i used to race.

The body was yellow , i fitted a graphite wing on it . The rest was standard turbo fare though.

Does anyone remember racing under the Forth road bridge in South Queensferry?

That was where i first got a taste of racing.

[Teaboy]

I will have raced with / against you in the TA Center days, i use to love it there with my Hotshot, we as the Bromyard bunch always use to pit together in those days. I went past the old Bulls Head track a few weeks ago and was shocked to see nothing there at all now.

Those names ring a bell, i seem to remember a James Bond (really) with a PB and also Chris something with a Gold and white Cat.

From my Hotshot i went to a PB Mini Mustang which i have just restored to run in the Vintage class at Caldicott.

When Hereford moved from the TA Centre i raced at Kidderminster and Worcester.

Cheers

Rich

Wow what a cool thread....................................
I remember going to thee Eastor model show with my parents in 1982 ?? maybe 83 and watchng the boats and planes, but being totally obsessed with the buggies, I loved it when they wheelied off the line!! I was so exciting because unlike real motor racing you could see the whole track. We went every year after that, me and my brother used to choose a car that we liked the look of at the start of each race and see who came in first, we begged and begged for our own car but my dad used to say 'they're not toys' and 'they're too expensive etc....'. I used to look forward to Eastnor all year just to watch the buggies and see 'whos' car would come in first every race. In mid /late 1986 my dad heard about racing at the TA centre in Hereford so we used to go and watch the racing (I think it was on tuesday night) still dreaming that one day I'd be able to have my own car. I remember the fast drivers were driving SWB Cats and PB Mini Mustangs, Dave Rogers and Clive Hall ruled supreme in Hereford back then. In early 1987 after 5 years of begging and nagging my parents finally conceded and my dad swapped his prized model boat for a Marui Samurai. That car was so bad, the diff gears used to strip every other race. Me and my brother race alternate weeks. I used to practice at home in the garden after mowing a track into the front lawn but the Samurai was really no fun and the majority of the time it was in bits, I remember frantically trying to change those stupid diff gears in the back hall of the TA centre. Christmas 87 was the best year ever my parents bought us a Mardave Meteor to share between us. I remember building it on the kitchen table with my dad. It took 2 days to build!! I think my dad let me and my brother do most of it and at 12 and 11 respectively i don't think we had a clue!! For my birthday we got a new body shell (I'll post some pics because i would love to try and identify it so that I can rebuild that car) and painted it british racing green with some white stripes, our Meteor now looked like the fast cars. Some time late 87 we got another Meteor so we could both race at the same time, loads of other kids had Meteors so we had our own little Meteor pitting area. Racing by this time had moved to the Shire Hall and the Meteor was now long wheel base with long wishbones, MG Orange Dot with a Speedmaster Silver Star speed control. I got that car in the A final one time, soooo proud, but spent most of the time getting out of the way of the fast boys ha ha ha!! During the summer we raced behind the Bulls Head Pub in Hereford, various other school fetes, steam rallies and Eastnor Model Show. Some time in 89 I sold one of the Meteors and got a 2nd hand Top Cat, I remember racing this outside at the Bulls Head and racing at Eastnor with a Trinity 19 double which I bought from a team driver (so he said) managed the C final and was the highest placed 2WD. I sold the Top Cat in early 1990 and bought Clive Halls old PB Mini Mustang which I remembered from the TA Centre days of watching and dreaming. The Mustang was a little out of date but at least it was 4wd and I could win the B final from time to time at club level. I think I had the Mustang for 4-5 months before I sold that and got a second hand worn out Lwb Optima Mid with a red anodised tana plan chassis. I really loved that car and regularly used to win the B final. This car was great indoors and outside on grass. Sadly this was sold in early 1991 and I bought a Swb cat for £20 (Oh how I wish I'd kept it) and sort of converted it to a Pro Cat, well it had a Pro Cat Body and Chassis, I hated this car, it was horrible to drive, but by this time girls and music were taking over and nothing puts off teenage girls more than 'going to play with toy cars'. So in the summer of 1992 aged 17 I took my 'Pro Cat' to Eastnor Model Show and sold it for £35. I've still got my original Meteor although it needs a new chassis because the endless modifications finally cause it to snap. Occasionally I'd go and watch the racing at Hereford but soon I was playing in bands and that was the end of that....... Until May 2010 when I got a Mardave Cobra off ebay and bashed around the garden for a bit of fun. I liked it A LOT. September 2010 I started racing an Associated B4 at Stoke Model Car Club and tried to collect all the cars I owned as a kid. So far I've got all of them except a SWB Cat, but these are rare and expensive now. Any way thats my memories of the happiest times growing up and the best time I ever had with my dad. :thumbsup:

[Matt cannon]

I wonder how many people have just got back into the sport in the last two years that raced 20+ years ago:)

That would be me, my father was always a bad infulance with regards to Hobbys and kept my two younger brothers, my sister and me busy every night of he week. If we where not at the athletics track we where at the gun club and if we had nothing ele to do then we where all racing rc cars in different classes. My first car was a holiday buggy back in 81/82 which I used to race at the white heart pub at calow in chesterfield ( I remember filling fag packets with snow and atatching it to the rear of the HB -to get weight and grip when we raced outdoor in winter - it was fun but hard going). The rough riders/scorchers used to dominate and the races where packed with at least 15 cars on the grid race after race. Things moved on car tchnology-wise and I remember Jamie booth running the first Schumacher cat and wasting all comers.

I remember begging my mum and dad to take me to "pepperdays" model shop in chesterfield town centre every saturday, dave P was a bad influence so we came away with a 1/12 electrocar oval stock car which I used to race on a Tuesday night in clay cross community centre. (now Reminiscing over prepping tyres with silicone in advance of race night and the exitement of climbing thru the ranks and being able to change the roof colour of the car to signify you where no longer a novice.)

My younger brother longed for the same so my dad bought him a mardave mini stock car and he raced this against the early 1/12 pan cars at the goldwell rooms on a wednesday ( I was downstairs at the gun club in the basement til 9pm then met my family upstairs for the last hour or so). Once James had picked up his race craft my dad splashed out on a Schumacher c-car and that was how things progressed for a few years until the club had to move to the winding wheel and then coal aston.

Sadly my mum passed away and then life got a little more serious so the Hobbys dwindled as my dad struggled to bring up a young family on his own. The inevitable happened - girls,music,pubs and cars all took their toll and rc racing fell into the past. The good thing was that my dad didnt part with any of the old cars, for the last couple of years I have been reclaiming the old cars from the back of my old wardrobe and restoring them.

The passion for old rc really kicked in and I started collecting all of my 80's favorites (I remember drawling over hot shots,boomerangs and bigwigs on the way home from school in the mid/late 80's) and now the collection is ridiculous.

I am going to take a pic of the old period cars that we all ran and post them up on this thread as this has been the best walk down memory lane for a long time.
The upshot off all of this waffle is that 6 wks ago both James and myself visited c.a.r.s at sharley park leisure centre for the national meet and the rest is history as I took the plunge and bought a gt12 car so that I can get back into a hobby that was a big part of not only my life but that of my whole family's. (yes the wife thinks I am loosing the plot slightly but it's either rc cars or I take one of the proper rally cars I pamper out for a thrash and that is deffo more expensive - either way I'm happy) :D

[Groomi]

My hazy, distant memories take me back to my home town of Rugby when I was about ten, so around 1988. My Brother was 14 and had just been taken to hospital, unconscious, after dropping into his bicycles front wheel, half a Tamiya Hornet a teacher had given him to cannibalise for a technology project. Fortunately he recovered with just a chip on his shoulder, but the Hornet sat untouched for a few years.

By the time I was about 12, a mate had bought a couple of the 4wd Tamiya rally cars which shared the same chassis as the Manta Ray. Borrowing his spare we started meeting up with a few strangers who used to jump over the fence of a local school and mess around with RC cars in the playground (A bloke called Trevor and some lads a year or so older then me IIRC). Eventually we formally started up a small club and put an a notice in the local paper, having got permission to use the playground. A few others started showing up and we had all kinds of races featuring mostly Tamiyas such as Madcap, Grasshopper, Fire Dragon etc.

Around this time I bought an old Schumacher XLS with a Parma Fat Cat shell from a mate. Unbeknown to me this should have been far superior to the others, but I had no money so it was powered by whatever scrap I scrounge off people - 1300 nicads anyone?

The club moved to indoor racing when we negotiated an evening a week in the Rogers Hall, and helpful mums provided refreshments for sale etc. The club grew and the racing got better on the dusty wooden floor - where my CAT started to clean up.

Then came the decision to invest in carpet and an old fire hose and racing suddenly got a whole lot more competitive and expensive. Gone was the 4wd advantage, now we needed light weight and grip. An unfortunate sticking throttle caused a broken chassis for the CAT and funds didn't allow a replacement for some time, so I managed to acquire a few Hornet parts and after a few evenings of messing around, brought back to life that old scrap Hornet of my Brothers. Compared to the CAT it was rubbish, so I hatched a plan and installed a 14quad motor, removed all suspension, replacing with adjustable rods instead so I could lower the CofG as much as possible, then modify the wheels so I could glue on sponge tyres. Once I'd worked out how to mount a useful wheelie-bar, it was massively quick!

This served me well until we managed to acquire a patch of land off the A5 where we made a basic off-road circuit and used an old railway carriage as a clubhouse. The CAT was fixed up with a replacement ProCat chassis and racing continued for a while until a few people started to get into nitro.

I had a final dabble with a bargain Bosscat Works purchase, before hanging up my controller for real cars and women when I reached 17 and eventually moved down to the South East to do the whole growing up with wife and kids thing...



...until a mate and I went to Le Mans this summer and discovered that we both used to race 1:10 RC when we were teens. He had recently started getting back into it and was back racing at Eden Park with a modern 2WD Schumacher.

So a few weeks ago I dragged all my old RC stuff down from the loft. The Hornet has been rebuilt (minus shell at the moment) for my 3 year old Son to learn some racecraft with and my CAT XLS is all ready for restoring. The Bosscat will get stripped and rebuilt shortly and then raced at Eden Park just for fun. If I get back into it properly, then perhaps I'll invest in the latest Schumacher - although I have some serious mods in my head for that old Hornet...

[rondoolaa]

Great read, :)

[richardj]

First got my hands on a TX early 1977 Tamiya Porsche 934 Turbo RSR. Ilkeston Model Car Club (Now Broxtowe Model Car Club) was established 1978. Started by racing round petrol pumps at a local garage, then went into a small hall run by the Girl Guides. Track was marked out by 3 paint cans filled with concrete. Frist off road track the club had was on Cosall Coal Tip, first meeting was won by Derek Bailey (Dad of Dave Bailey from 1/8th Buggy racing). Then we went to Munday Arms Pub at Heanor in Derbyshire. Will try and remember more at a later date.Now i'm feeling old and depresed.

[dicky14]

:lol:My grandparents got me into RC when i was 9 which was 1980, they bought me a cheap one for christmas (it used loads of batteries and they didn't last long, god it was expensive to keep running) had that fro about 18 months before my parents bought me a tamiya subaru brat, it took my dad 3 nights to build and i thought it was the muts nuts, that soon got converted into a frog and got hammered on our local bmx track. When that got tired i went to beatties at nottingham and bought a hornet with my saved paper round money, that car was awesome. Then we had a new model shop open in sutton in ashfield called C&T models and thats where i found my tamiya Hotshot/Bigwig/Boomerang hybrid which used to belong to a guy called Phil Barlow (anyone remember him?).
I joined the origional Mansfield club at Mansfield leisure centre, this was early 1987 which was run by a guy called Malc Webb. The boomerang hybrid served me well for my year in racing, it was run on a Tamiya Technigold motor, I thought it was fast at the time, i then went on to buy a mardave meteor with my first weeks wages and bought the full ball race set for it and modified front wheels to accept ball races. That car didnt get much use because my parents bought me a PB Maxima which on its first outing was awesome. That run on the same technigold motor as the boomerang. I then bought 4 sets of sanyo matched 1400 scr's, wow what power in their day.
I soon found the PB to be very fragile and ventured into a Schumacher CAT xls (second hand and 2 wheel drive) that soon got changed with mms diffs and lay shaft and it also had wide shumacher wheels fitted with sponge tyres for carpet racing, that soon got moved on for a pro cat and then i decided to move to 2 wheel drive with a cougar 2 team car, it took a while get used to but when i did it took me to the midlands carpet championship win in 1993. The othe 2 wheel drive car i used to race out doors was a RC 10 worlds with stealth gearbox which i still posess to this day, that car was so planted and drove like it was on rails, awesome.
In 1995 i decided to move from electrics to 235mm i.c touring cars (serpent impact 1 which used to belong to Gavin Reece R.I.P) the power took some getting used to then i sold that and got an impact 2 which ended my i.c racing when i blew 3 engine up at tibshelf, i gave all my gear away to Phil Barlow(which he still has today).
10 years later my son turns 11 and says dad i want an RC car for christmas, so i went to PBM and bought him and myself an LRP S10 blast just to get us started:mad: any way 9 months down the line we now have shumacher cougar sv's which are both competative and dont breake like the lrps did.
But i only have one gripe about modern RC (ok mabe more) there is no art to making your car go as quick as possible on low capacity batteries and last 5 mins, i mean lipos they can do 3 races with a car that breaks the land speed record without being charged????????? and the other is, there arnt enough people doing racing anymore, i can remember club nights at mansfield havin 12 heats 10 cars per heat, 3 rounds and finals?????
The good old days:D

[AndyF]

Gone are the days of the correct pinion choice being the diffence between finishing the race or watching your car grind to a hault 30 seconds before the hooter sounded.

However - Does that not make things more equal. Back in the day I gave up because I couldn't afford the 5 sets of super duper (also known as phil greeno!) matched 1700s that I needed to compete when Batley changed the rules so they no longer ran a 27t class. Now even the cheapest lipo will finish a 5 min race.

I'm sure I have photos from the 80s of Batley at the hare and hounds. I will try scan them if I can find them!

[AndyF]

I started out with a Hornet, I had watched lots of buggies on tv (blue peter etc) and got old of a copy of RRC. I remember spending a holiday at butlins pouring over the magazine.

My parents bought me a Hornet for my birthday (10th maybe) and I built it with my dad over a few nights. I just used it at the park etc for about a year before my mum rang the hare and hounds about the track in their garden. They had just swapped to the inside season so I turned up with my hornet at batley sports centre with my new "fast" charger with a timer.


I only had orange crystals but that was ok as I was first to book in! I was given my little orange flag and off I went to race. After one race, race control banned my car as I had a metal bumper!!. Not a good start but I can see that my driving and a sheet of steel would worry most marshalls. So the second round was done with out a bumper. I qualified in the J final (it went to K so I was pleased!) I then went on to win the J final and get a trophy at my first event. I actually won because my speed control jammed on the middle speed for the entire race and so I never went fast enough to crash!! A lesson in there somewhere!


I then went on to an optima which ended up with a belt conversion and then on to a optima mid CS before I ended my days with a Procat that I still have.


It wasn't women :-( that ended my racing but being put off by the money I needed to spend on cells and motors to remain competitive after the classes changed that ended it for me. I just wish it was the women!!


Anyway, not raced again since the early 90s, but recently got a madrat to "bash?" with the kids and may look at taking them racing if they get a feel for it.

[dicky14]

to true about the batteries being expensive,i had 8 set of scrce's 1700 from phil booth and they cost me well over £300 and could only be charged once a day, so yes lipos in the long run are the cheapest option, and to get my car to last i used to run 64dp gearing so the gear ratios were closer together, but the cars are now so fast that a lot of people lack talent because they think a quick car will make them a better driver, its took me a while to learn to drive on lipos but its coming.:woot:

[Skelbo]

It all sounds sooooo familiar.

My early days started around 1986 I guess when I convinced my mum that dad would love a Tamiya Grasshopper for Christmas. What a selfless act that was! Dad unwrapped it, wondered what mum had been smoking and saw straight through my 9 yr old cunning. He then asked mum just how the hell he (I) was supposed to use it without any batteries, charger, radio gear etc. The model shop (Keens in High Wycombe) had neglected to mention to my mum that a kit on its own was pretty useless. So come the 27th of Dec, dad was down there forking out another hundred quid or so to get the thing working. Dad soon discovered that the whole "right is left and left is right" when it is coming towards you was too much for him to cope with and sure enough, little Nick became the proud owner of the hump pack, 380 motored mean machine.

Little did the old man know that the following years would be much more expensive.

Proper racing started in summer 1988. Dad knew John Chamberlain, who at the time was a works sponsored 1/8th nitro driver. John moved to the new Kyosho team to race the Kyosho Burns and dad bought his Siccom Magnum Force, with a couple of OPS motors and a big old Sanwa radio. Day one I took it down the local rec, blitzed it around at full throttle and seized the motor...... Dads first repair bill! Three days later I raced in the BRCA national at Slough and made the C final. Not a bad debut.

Nitro off road made up the next coule of years using the Siccom, then a Garbo Ghibli (world champs winning car of 89 I think), and then a Mugen. Various BRCA nationals and the odd Euro GP at Slough. Club championship trophies were coming my way.

1/10th started to appear on my radar, initially the very beginnings of 1/10 electric circuit racing with a PB Sizzler. I used to go to Southampton and Crystal Palace mainly.

1/10th off road also came into my life. In approx order I went through Lazer ZX, Lazer ZXR, ProCat, Cat 2000 and Yokomo. This was 1991-94 I suppose. Racing was the usual local area stuff at Chesham, Aylesbury, Slough, Friday nights indoor at the Centre in Slough, Langley sometimes, Apex Models GPs and the odd race somewhere Newbury way.

Best success came at the Radio Race Cars nationals with a pair of A finals in 93.

I did get an RC10 team car on my 18th birthday, but by this time I was already rallying as well, so it was hardly raced... And still sits in the shed today.

So rallying became the big thing, and I was much better at that than I ever was with the little ones! I rallied through to 2002 and then moved overseas, found love, got babies and everything came to a halt.

And then, just like everyone else on this page, I got itchy for some rc action again (rallying remains politically incorrect and too dangerous according to the Mrs.... She's wrong, but let's give her some time to learn) and so in 07 I got back Into 1/8th at Slough all over again for a summer season. Baby number 2 and new houses paused it all again, but in spring 2011 me and my 6 yr old took a trip down to Slough, bumped into some old pals and we now both race 2wd down at SHRCCC with Tartman, Dudders and a really great gang of mostly old timers, with a nice smattering of young blood.

Ben, now 7, loves his Mad Monkey and his driving gets better every time. My old fingers are at least getting me around and I love my Centro. I've spend far more than I intended (cheaper than rallying darling) but we love it.

[Skelbo]

Ooh, I forgot. I also used the off road cars for the very early touring car racing down at West London, Stafford etc. I set up my own little model shop (Fastrak Models) trackside and brought a batch of BMW M3 shells over from New Zealand. Good old Peter Stevens saw how they transformed the handling of the half dozen cars I had supplied shells for and grabbed the sole importing deal. Fair play.

We also did a round at Brands Hatch on the day that the actual BTCC was there. This was when the Listerine BMW team was in action and we had a few replicas being raced. Anyone remember this?

[TARTMAN]

Mr Skelton, you raced at langley, chesham, aylsbury etc........ me to. wow, the old days man....... you must know many of the same olders like me then, chat at next shrccc.........................

damn small world........................

and Ben is doing soooo well........ beating you soon enough i reckon!!!!:p

It all sounds sooooo familiar.

My early days started around 1986 I guess when I convinced my mum that dad would love a Tamiya Grasshopper for Christmas. What a selfless act that was! Dad unwrapped it, wondered what mum had been smoking and saw straight through my 9 yr old cunning. He then asked mum just how the hell he (I) was supposed to use it without any batteries, charger, radio gear etc. The model shop (Keens in High Wycombe) had neglected to mention to my mum that a kit on its own was pretty useless. So come the 27th of Dec, dad was down there forking out another hundred quid or so to get the thing working. Dad soon discovered that the whole "right is left and left is right" when it is coming towards you was too much for him to cope with and sure enough, little Nick became the proud owner of the hump pack, 380 motored mean machine.

Little did the old man know that the following years would be much more expensive.

Proper racing started in summer 1988. Dad knew John Chamberlain, who at the time was a works sponsored 1/8th nitro driver. John moved to the new Kyosho team to race the Kyosho Burns and dad bought his Siccom Magnum Force, with a couple of OPS motors and a big old Sanwa radio. Day one I took it down the local rec, blitzed it around at full throttle and seized the motor...... Dads first repair bill! Three days later I raced in the BRCA national at Slough and made the C final. Not a bad debut.

Nitro off road made up the next coule of years using the Siccom, then a Garbo Ghibli (world champs winning car of 89 I think), and then a Mugen. Various BRCA nationals and the odd Euro GP at Slough. Club championship trophies were coming my way.

1/10th started to appear on my radar, initially the very beginnings of 1/10 electric circuit racing with a PB Sizzler. I used to go to Southampton and Crystal Palace mainly.

1/10th off road also came into my life. In approx order I went through Lazer ZX, Lazer ZXR, ProCat, Cat 2000 and Yokomo. This was 1991-94 I suppose. Racing was the usual local area stuff at Chesham, Aylesbury, Slough, Friday nights indoor at the Centre in Slough, Langley sometimes, Apex Models GPs and the odd race somewhere Newbury way.

Best success came at the Radio Race Cars nationals with a pair of A finals in 93.

I did get an RC10 team car on my 18th birthday, but by this time I was already rallying as well, so it was hardly raced... And still sits in the shed today.

So rallying became the big thing, and I was much better at that than I ever was with the little ones! I rallied through to 2002 and then moved overseas, found love, got babies and everything came to a halt.

And then, just like everyone else on this page, I got itchy for some rc action again (rallying remains politically incorrect and too dangerous according to the Mrs.... She's wrong, but let's give her some time to learn) and so in 07 I got back Into 1/8th at Slough all over again for a summer season. Baby number 2 and new houses paused it all again, but in spring 2011 me and my 6 yr old took a trip down to Slough, bumped into some old pals and we now both race 2wd down at SHRCCC with Tartman, Dudders and a really great gang of mostly old timers, with a nice smattering of young blood.

Ben, now 7, loves his Mad Monkey and his driving gets better every time. My old fingers are at least getting me around and I love my Centro. I've spend far more than I intended (cheaper than rallying darling) but we love it.

[TARTMAN]

Ooh, I forgot. I also used the off road cars for the very early touring car racing down at West London, Stafford etc. I set up my own little model shop (Fastrak Models) trackside and brought a batch of BMW M3 shells over from New Zealand. Good old Peter Stevens saw how they transformed the handling of the half dozen cars I had supplied shells for and grabbed the sole importing deal. Fair play.

We also did a round at Brands Hatch on the day that the actual BTCC was there. This was when the Listerine BMW team was in action and we had a few replicas being raced. Anyone remember this?


remember Pete Stevens well. RIP...... the good old days eh!!!!

[Ashlandchris]

What a great thread!!

I started out with a Grasshopper back in the early 80s, which I used to run on the field behind my house (council used to keep grass nice and short as it was used at weekends for football). I began racing at Batley and they even had a 380 class for beginners. I don't recall doing too badly, but nothing to set world (or even Batley) on fire. After a while I moved up to converting it to a Hornet, but all the problems of the Grasshopper were still there - bouncy suspension, easily snapped bits etc. I can't remember whether I went via a 2nd hand frog, but I recall that I eventually switched to a Hotshot when they came out after pestering parents in the run up to a birthday. The difference was massive, although I also remember it being a pain to work on due to the enclosed chassis. This was solved when it was discovered that the chassis was the same width as the box section square plastic drainpipes and suddenly a roaring trade in custom made drain chassis sprung up. That did me for a while and I did OK with it, but I can still remember the first time I saw an Optima. So around comes another birthday and I was lucky enough to receive an Optima which I built and raced and loved. That said, this was just the era of the RC10s starting to arrive and I can remember with awe the first time a saw and RC10 go over a jump - wow - real damping rather than bouncy springing!!
The RC10s blew most things away due to their speed and handling, but I still loved my Optima so stuck with that.
Eventually, in around 1986ish I decided that I wasn't going to be able to carry on as I was also playing lots of ping pong and most tournaments were on a Sunday, same as Batley race day, so I sold up and didn't have another go until approx. 4 months ago when my son suddenly asked if he could have a proper RC car. I think I am more keen than him, but had genuinely forgotten how much fun it is. I had also forgotten the constant grubby fingers I used to have!!

Back in the day, Batley used to race at Batley sports centre over the winter and the Hare and Hounds pub over the summer as the Landlords son (Tim) was a keen racer. I remember thinking how cool it must be to own a pub and a racetrack. Who could ask for anything more?

I have posted an old photo on the Batley forum page - any more old Batley members from mid 80s out there?

[Gnarly Old Dog]

Superb Read!
My tuppence worth...
Volume I - the roots of it all

Got hooked in 1981 whilst on Holiday just outside Cromer - saw a Holiday Buggy in the woods and even managed to get to have a go. Two months later, for by birthday, I can still remember my dad coming home from work clutching this blue beatties holdall and a carrier bag with my own Holiday Buggy 'deal' with an extra 6V battery and fast charger. Immense.

'Bashed' (how I hate this term) for about 2/3 years and upgraded my Holiday Buggy for a Grasshopper after Colin Strauss (now a director at Ripmax - then working behind the counter at Radio Active Models in Chelmsford) told me that it was faster than a Rough Rider.
Tore down the Holiday Bug to take out the R/C gear to fit into the Grasshopper and 'bashed' that for a bit. (Still got the Holiday Buggy even today)

Must have been about late 1984 when the Springfield Buggy Club started - racing on a saturday afternoon. I was working on a Saturday but managed to get a day off and went racing. Finished 2nd to a guy called Phil Olson (now my brother-in-law) who was 1/12 Euro Champ at the time. He was running an RC10. I didn't even see him lap me but he blew us all away and finished 5 laps ahead of me.

One race meeting and that was it - I HAD to go racing.

The guys who ran the Springfield Buggy Club back then (even before the legend that is known as Keith Wright started to run the club) put on a one-off meeting at Blake Hall in Ongar - behind the model railway shed. My 2nd race meeting - my grasshopper was, by then, knackered and I was rubbish. But I met George Land there for the very first time. He also had an RC10 and it was so cool that he could drive it straight off the straw bales we were using as a rostrum and it didn't break! Now I HAD to have an RC10 and NEEDED to go racing.

My Dad attempted to buy me an RC10 from Nick Adams but he didn't get on well over the phone with him. Nick's pretty laid back and my dad didn't think he really wanted 'the sale' - so in a pique of rage, he slammed the phone down and took me down to Radio Active where I got my first 'race' car - not the RC10 I so desperately wanted but the newly released Turbo Scorpion.

Ditched my saturday job working in a shop, started cleaning windows and cars (which meant I could be finished by midday on a Saturday AND go racing)

Raced my Scorpion during the winter (my dad reckoned that he would fit wheels to the roof of it cos I'd do more laps that way) but didn't really gel with it. Bits kept coming loose and I didn't really understand the car's geometry or set up.

Began to desperately want a Hotshot so, with Xmas 85 looming, Mum and Dad bought me a Hotshot from Radio Active and told me that I couldn't build it until Xmas day. Good job they did as two weeks after they bought it, the Optima was released which threatened to blow the Hotshot away. John and Sylvia at Radio Active were really good - took the unopened Hotshot back and I got one of the first 3 Optimas they received. The other two went to Michael Wray and my best mate Rich Gandy I seem to recall as all 3 of us then started to dominate the Springfield racing back in early 86 - when Terry Lawless wasn't there anyway.

Raced the Optima during 86 - even fitted RC10 shocks to it and got a SWB Cat for the following Xmas. That's when the 'bashing' officially stopped and all I did was race. Upto 4 times a week, I craved racing like an addict. It was insatiable.

Was only still racing club events in and around Essex but went to Wings and Wheels where I finished 2nd in atrocious conditions and where I managed to borrow a motor from George Land on the day. At the end, George said I could keep the motor (a team Parma modified with #232 hand engraved on the can) cos he said I drove really well.
I was super stoked and, by then the relationship with Radio Active had grown to me cleaning their cars and shop windows and helping out in the shop. The suggested I contact George about sponsorship (in hindsight, I suspect this had probably been discussed between them both beforehand) but I nervously phoned him and he discussed that he was interested in sponsoring young ans upcoming drivers and so I became a Parma (Helger) / Radio Active team driver in te late summer of 1987 after the Romsey Worlds.

Coming up Volume II - the Sponsored early years...

[OptimaFan]

So, deep breath, here's my story when it comes to RC cars. Almost 30 years ago, I started out with RC boats. I love to see water in motion, and my mother has been on a ship for years during her childhood, so she probably passed the love for ships into my genes.

However, there was no suitable water to run the boats near my home, so I was always dependent on my father to drive me there, stay with me while I ran my boats, and then take me back. To be less dependent, I saved money for an RC car. That was the Marui Ninja, a pretty nice 4WD buggy. I liked this extra dimension of the RC hobby, and got another car, an Optima Mid. The Ninja was nice, the Mid was awesome, with full ball bearings, low slop, many metal parts, smooth drive train, loved running it.

Even managed to get 2 classmates from school involved in RC. One bought a Marui Hunter, which I wrenched on, as he was not interested in the technical aspect, he just wanted to run the car. I didn't mind, though it was a challenge to keep his car running, as he ran it to the car's limits.

The other classmate had a HotShot, but insisted upon building and doing maintenance himself. Sadly enough, he didn't have much talent for wrenching, and his car ran half to 2/3rd of the speed our cars were running, with similar stock motors. Het also had trouble with the plastic shock caps popping off. So he wasn't enjoying his car much, and I don't know what happened to it, after we graduated and lost sight of each other.

Some years later, my interests shifted, and I wasn't able to get my battery trouble (almost always empty too soon, not well charged, leaking cells) under control, so the RC hobby was shelved on the attic.

A few years ago, I noticed a local gas station was selling toy-grade micro helis at discount. I've always wanted to expand my RC activities to flight, but the risk of losing lots of time and money when a plane or heli would crash, held me back. But with these cheap helis, the risk was about zero, should such a small heli crash. These small helis performed above my expectations, and woke my love for RC again.

I took the cars and boats of the attic, and started restoring these to running condition. With the aid of eBay, some friends I met online, and the advance RC technology made since then, I am enjoying RC more like ever before.

[Luke Burley]

What a great thread, I thought I'd share my start in the hobby. Unlike many once I started I never stopped racing, but have loved every minute since I started.

Like many my first memories of proper RC cars came from watching the Tamiya videos in Harrod's. My dad would take me for a free trip to show me toys I couldn't have, and this started my fascination. Eventually after much saving I managed to persuade my dad to help me buy a Frog, that was in 1985. Neither of us were at all technical and it took us weeks to build the car, we were total technophobes and if the pinion fell off we went back to the shop to get it fixed.

I spent a year driving round the local park, which involved my mum bringing me home from school and then driving to a park that was big enough to drive in! I never raced anyone but knew from magazines about the racing that existed. Eventually my dad gave up one Sunday a month and we started racing at a little club in Epsom called Surrey Radio Control Car club. I had managed to get a Samurai by then and it was much easier to drive compared to the frog.

My first meeting was a revelation, with so many cars and drivers. Somehow I managed to make the A, but the Samurai broke in the last round and we couldn't fix it, so the frog got an outing in the final! This meant I was shying away from all the drivers for the full five minutes. After the first meeting I never got near the A for another year.

The fast drivers at our club were in another league, Guy Walker won every week and Mark Sadler was always second, both with SWB Cats. Mark's family would later set up Wasp. I went through an Optima, PB Mini Mustang and a Cat XL and was equally slow with them all.

In 1987 I watched the Worlds at Romsey and was blown away by the drivers skill and being so close to the people I saw in the magazines. My hero was Pete Stevens who made the A with the prototype optima mid.

After the worlds my dad took my mini mustang to Aeronautical models in Camden as we just couldn't get it to work. I was at school, but my dad came home looking amazed and said that he had been in the shop and some bloke spent the whole afternoon rebuilding my car. Dad said they'd gone for a coffee and got on great. After a bit my dad pointed at a picture in the magazine and said "that's the bloke who built your car", which happened to be Pete Stevens. Pete turned into a great friend for over 20 years, but to me that act of help summed up what I love about RC.

With more knowledge and help I started to finish more races and make a few A's, my dad got talked into travelling a little more by Pete and by 1988 we were racing at Oaks Park, Eden Park and Toddington. I got to watch many of the greats of the time (Pete, Glyn Peglar, Kevin Moore, Andy Powell, Andy Langdon, Ben Sturnham). I also did my first nationals, a 2wd at Eden Park with my Ultima, coming in the G final, and racing George Land, and a 4wd national at Chingford racing my Optima Mid where I also made the G. Finals were 8 cars and the top guys were gods to me!

I'll write a few more memories at some point, but the early years were magic, so much to learn and lots of firsts. I think it took me nearly two years to win a club A final, and then only two more to make a European A!

[alcyon]

I was born in 1976. My first foray into RC was in 1981 when I was 5, seeing one of my dads friends son bring a full function porsche 935 to the house, I really wanted that car. It was those dry cell type supermarket car, but I thought it was awesome.
I got one for my birthday but not long after my nitwit brother dropped a few drops of water in the battery compartment and it was a goner. Never forgive him for that.
1983, my dad was working in borneo, and I chanced upon a RC shop that sold Tamiya stuff, we saw for the first time large buggies, which I think were the rough rider and sand scorcher, my brother used to say these must be the good high end cars cause they were made of metal and had a "straw" antenna, unlike the cheapo ones with steel antenna.
In late 87, I got a birthday present, another toy store le mans car, man I trashed that thing for more than a year till I wore out the gears, I tried fixing it but being 12, my knowledge was very limited. My brother had a digitcon buggy with a 2 speed selector, and also a Toyota celica rally car with headlights, that thing was bitchin, but all AA cells cars.
By 88 my dad was working in Kenya, so we took a trip down there for 2 weeks in 89.
At the airport, my brother and I saw RC Car Action magazine for the 1st time. We pestered our dad to buy it, I think it was the October 89 issue. In it, we learnt about all the brands and models that was hot at the time, Tamiya, yokomo, kyosho. One ad really caught my eye, it was the kyosho optima mid/Turbo Optima Mid SE ad, which was painted half white half yellow. One day in 1990 while cycling by a big grassy field, again with my brother, we saw a tall big guy with curly hair, driving his RC car, it was defininitely hobby grade, it was quick, looked rugged, and it kicked lots of dirt. We talked to that guy, Bryan Param, and thus a friendship started.
I learnt a lot about rc from him. That's when he introduced a friend of his wanting to sell a used Tamiya boomerang for a really cheap price.I bought it in 1990, my first hobby grade RC car. It was a piece of junk as it had a damasged front gearbox and had no body.
Nevertheless I had fun with it.
My brother bought a used Hotshot. We bashed on them good and proper, and a year later we heard there were Optima Mids for sale, one a Custom and the other a SWB.
So i pooled some moeny with my best friend and we shared the custom. My brother bought the SWB. We rigged the tamiya MSC to work in our mids and off we went. It wasnt long later we got ourselves a Novak T4, and started racing the Mid Custom.
First unoofical race was with Boon Chin, a rich kid who used to challenge us with a Nikko Dictator II, but then prompltly bought a Lazer ZX after seeing us with hobby grade cars. You can see our race video which is on youtube. For that race i remember being really worried about losing to Boon Chin as his ZX was the latest car and the Mid was obsolete.
Well my fears were unfounded, as I won that race.
I also shared some money to buy a used good condition egress, but we decided to sell it off as spares were expensive and the Optima Mid was more ubiquitous.
In 1992, i raced my LWB mid in melaka, against the TOP force and Lazer ZXR. Didnt get a really good placing, becuase my batteries were dead lousy, but I had fun.
In late 92, my buddy and i decided to seperate our racing careers and he bought a Top Force. In 1993 we both raced at the Alpha Angle rooftop race, which is the first race to allow touring cars to run. While they looked nice, they seemed like a joke at the time cause they kept overturning compared to the buggies. Nevertheless, an obsolete car won that race, the top 2 places went to SWB mids. We surmised why those drivers chose the SWB mids..was becuase of the tight course.
It was proof that old cars could still compete. I beat my buddy's Top Force, and he wasnt too happy about it. Not long after he discovered Jesus and quit RC becuase he said it was taking his attention away from God.In 1993, Brian convinced me to buy a Lazer ZX since it was loaded with new tech. I bought one for avery cheap price since the ZXR was out now. It came with a few hop ups, like a finned GPM motor plate, ball diffs, and a cut chassis. Man i thought this thing was bitching. I didnt have to fuss with belt covers anymore and the rear belt seem to lastr forever, no problems with stripping gears on my mid because i did not have a proper belt cover.It was also easier to service. I raced it a few times, usually DNF becuase a shock popped off.
It was difficult to maintain my cars in top condition when you have no regular income except pocket money. One of the last race I entered my SWB Mid in was a 1995 mahkota parade Melaka race. It was an onroad buggy race, my futaba magnum Jr glitched a lot, suffice to say I did not get a good placing then.
It was the last buggy raced i entered in before moving on to touring cars in 1997 with a TA02.
In 2001, while still very active with Touring cars with a Kawada SV-10 Alcyon, I attempetd to revive My Lazer ZX one last time while it was in pieces. As i did not have all the proper parts, i put it back together rather shoddily ,and it ran terribly, with the diffs seperating. I then ditched all my Offroads to my store room. Fast forward 2011. I was still into touring cars, but seeing some guys bashing with their 1/10s made me think of buying a new buggy. Then one day i bumped into my Old RC friend Jason Yeo, I remembered this guy was a total nut, he used to keep his Optima Mid Custom Special in a airtight container.
This guy used to apply all kinds of go fast tricks, but he wasnt really a good driver, hence he burned out. I asked him about his Mid, and he said he has it in pieces, he wanted to sell it to me. He brought it ot the track the next week, in a red plastic bag. I rummaged through it and sure enough all the parts neccesary to build a LWB mid was there. When he told me how much he wanted for it, i did not even have to haggle. Between the parts i just bought and my own ammased parts, it is enough to keep my mids running for years to come.
SO this is my story thus far. Its 2014 and I am still pushing my LWB mid to new boundaries, and just started pushing My lazer ZX after a 13 year hiatus.

[Ashlandchris]

Still loving this thread, but it also got me to thinking about the LHS I used to use.
My first car came from Morley Models (when they had the big double fronted shop in Morley at the bottom of the hill), but I also recall using a small model shop in Birstall called Les Brown Models. I have no idea where it was and presume it closed donkeys years ago as I can't find it on internet anymore. Alternatively, and actually I'd much rather the following was true as it may have been one of those magical shops that only children can find such as in the stories of Enid Blyton etc when you stand in a grass circle and are suddenly transported to a hitherto unknown world of elves and pixies. Whenever I read my children wishing chair or faraway tree stories and the characters end up in magical shops with funny smells, and whirring noises I am transported back to Les Brown models as that was exactly what it seemed like to me.
I am probably doing him a disservice, but I can almost even recall Les himself being half pixie and half wizard... Anybody else remember?

[Chrissy C]

Re Andy's Pt 1...

We (my uncle, cousin and myself) brought our first cars from you in Radio Active, loved that shop! We got Kyosho Raider's on 'the deal' with the cigarette lighter charger and that oh so desirable red radio active holdall! have attached a pic - we were so chuffed lol!

We raced at Hatfield Peveral buggy club at the time before heading to Springfield a few years later having acquired some better gear (Lazer ZX-R MkII and/or Cougars) - great memories.

I also remember attending a meeting at Highlands Park that was trying to raise money to help send you to a worlds, was it Oz? That may be way off...I remember it rained a lot that day though.

I recall the day at Springfield that you and Neil Parrot turned up with this new car in 1993/4 - a Losi XX...I was gutted, I had just brought a Cougar 2000 and your Losi looked ace! A lot of the old Springfield lot are now racing at Colchester, you should look in if you can at some point.

Anyway, enough of memory lane, back to work!

Cheers,
Chris

[OptimaFan]

Nice pic with those 2 Raiders. I prepped a Raider for our daughter, who takes some liking towards RC cars, and occasionally we go driving.

[RogerM]

Some great memories being brought back by these stories!

I too will always be eternally grateful for the help and assistance that Nick Marson along with Rory/Roger/Fran Cull offered me.

I was also around the Alcester / Gloucester / Worcester tracks at that time and would probably recognise you Mark if we were to meet. If you're still in the area pop over and say hi at a meeting (easy to spot as I'm likely to be in red Kyosho race wear & have long hair).

I'll have to try and find time to recount some of my tails from back in the day :)

[lost?]

I was first attracted to rc cars at butlins in bognor regis on a family holiday in the mid 80's.
They had an indoor slotcar track there and a selection of rc cars where the papa johns now is. Anyone else remeber this?
I came away desperately wanting a grasshopper, i seemed to think as it was the cheapest one they had my mum and dad would be able to afford it.
They wouldnt budge so on the santa list it went. Christmas morning couldnt come soon enough. Oh the dissapointment when i unwrapped a remote control car, one of the dodgy ones where the wire from the remote was attached to the car and gave you a range of about 2 foot.
I didnt give in with wanting one but did have to wait till the following year when i got a monster beetle.
As my parents were not confident in me building it they purchased me one from harrods the guys there had alread built for a display model. I still have it in the loft now tucked away in a beatties bag..
My next car was a terra scorcher, which was the first i built myself (think i was about 11). Happy days!