how it all began for you?

[rondoolaa]

My rc history started at secondary school in 1981, I used to watch a guy every weekend race his rc car in a field near my house and it made me want one of my own, to get the funds for my own rc car I used to wheel and deal in watches and game and watch games with my school friends, eventually I built up a nice collection of game and watch games and I got sidetracked and i swapped them for a Diana sp50 air gun, I accidentally shot a friend during a game of cowboys and he wasn't too happy with me to say the least so I decided to get rid of it and swapped my Diana for a dune buggy or frog, can remember which but they were my first 2 cars, I then moved from Manchester to devon and got to be friends with someone that raced rc cars so I went along to the club and was hooked, my next car was a kyosho lazer zx, then a zxr and although I gave up for 15 years as a family and responsibilities came along, I had a son and when he became an age where I could get him a car and he would understand its workings I did so and got myself another at the same time, I now have about 15 cars and enjoy it more than ever, we have great clubs down here in devon and racing is my highlight of the week :-)

[vrooom]

Mine was started by beattlies?? shop in bright, i used to stare a tamiya yellow lunchbox all time. my dad bought me few of tamiya mini 4wd. where i learnt about basic electronic... my first rc car when i was 18 with christmas money i got, was HPI savage SS, took me 2 weeks to build it. now im 33 and i still got hpi savage... and few other cars. I first raced at milton keynes club 2 years ago with tamiya m05 i had for while. i got hooked, then i venture into off road club when it first opened.

Recently i bought a tamiya lunchbox and it lived to my expection, after i modded it (double wishbone conversion, 3rd spring, center servo). it handled brillantly but bit slow compared to my buggy!! I took it around the off road track once..

[Dave Treacy]

Growing up in South Africa back in the early 70's I'd done some control line flying with simple planes with a baby-bee (Cox 0.49cc engine) and after a while got into gliders (mainly because they were cheaper than planes) and spent a year or so "soaring" but one day in a thunderstorm I had to ditch a glider I'd spent perhaps 60 hours building... at that point I deceided to find something less expensive on the heart..

I tried sailboats, but they were too slow, and around '77 or '78 Associated produced one of their early versions, a 1/12th RWD pan car which we raced on car parks everywhere. It it's day it was only ever beaten by the Graupner FWD.

In those days, chargers were resistance wires and you timed the charge from your motor car battery with an egg timer...the "esc" was a ceramic resister wire...and pinions didn't have grub screws... you hammered them on and used a gear puller to remove...happy days Tyres were hard or harder and lasted months, even on tarmac...

[styleone]

These posts are amazing. I am gobsmacked by the brilliant stories and this thread has been really exciting to see develop today!

Keep sharing your tales guys, they are so positive and inspiring for new and old forum users alike. Thanks for all the efforts so far chaps, well done

[Howler]

I always had toy grade RC's as far back as i remember. My dad was a tinkerer and always tried to make them faster somehow, usually with the result of them going really fast for a couple of minutes and then going up in smoke.

Eventually he relented and bought me a Tamiya Falcon in '86. I ran the falcon so much it muyst've been completely knackered. A few friends had Grasshoppers and the more advanced Falcon made mincemeat of them.

In either 89 or 90 he must have realised the Falcon was on it's way out and floated the idea of getting me a new RC car for Christmas. He took me to the local model shop (long dead Bury Model Shop) and i saw a Bullhead "i want that one, the big one" obviously... anyway, the guy who ran the model shop and my dad talked me round into buying something called an "RC10 Team" as the shop originally ran what has now become Bury Metro Buggy Club (then Bury Model Shop Buggy Club), and i could go and race it.

So there i was, 89/90 racing my RC10 Team with an LRP Blue brushed motor in a small community centre on rolled out carpet with drainpipe dividers, no jumps, just flat all the way around. That thing felt so fast back then, i was hooked.

I've had breaks from the hobby over the years, but i always come back to it. I've never been very good at it though

[Marcus.]

I first started racing when my dad bought a team associated b3 because he loves building them, when he built it we gave the shell the dodgiest paint job you have ever seen, just white with orange stickers, looked proppa crap, but I loved it, I would take it out in the street with me 21t motor thinking I was the bomb, show off when girls walked past by flyin it past there feet, fort I was some sort of stud muffin. Used to stay out all day, smash into the kerb, brake legs, chassis, you name it, I broke it. Anyways, when we went down to formby models to get the parts that I broke, the guy told us about Southport radio car club, ever since I went to my first meeting, I have wanted to be Neil cragg, more like Neil crapp but yano, anyways right hooked now, oople addict aswell

[jo90]

When I was a very young kid my dad had a couple of RC cars. One of the metal flat chassis Tamiya Porsche's and a Tamiya Holiday buggy. I saw them and was hooked by how fun they where. I bought some magazines on RC racing and began asking for my own cars. One year though I got my first proper RC car - A Tamiya Grasshopper 2 'Super G' with the yellow illuminous wheels. Built it and used to take it over the local school play ground to run it.

Move on a few years and I wanted to see about racing. I contacted the BRCA and found the local rep who pointed me towards 'Harwood Hall Buggy Club'. I ended up going there for years, helping to run the club nights. Started with a second hand Pro-Cat, moving on to a Kyosho Lazer ZXR. Ended up with the ZXR totally modified with aftermarket parts, a second one built for Touring (small shocks etc), a Cougar 2000 with all the works stuff, Another converted into a truck, A Tamiya F1, an RC10, RC12LW and an RC12L, plus finally a Lazerlite Pro10 converted to do Oval Racing.

I left racing at 18, sold the lot off. At about 24 I decided to get back into it all. Came back running a Mission going on to an Mi2EC, then an Mi4LP to my now HP TCX. I also recently bought a DEX210 and have found the love for off-road once more. I have had a brief spell running an RC12L4, but sold it due to lack of interest in he southeast.

Looking forward to next year a DEX410 is firmly on my cards as might well be a 12th again too.