Did you race bitd, and where is this all going?

[phoenix]

I started building rc-cars in 1987 with a frog or so and begun racing in 1989 when today's lrp touring car masters started out as a big european offroad race. From that on i owned nearly every yokomo, schumacher and losi car, had my first RC company at the age of 18 and quit the hobby after 1:10 touring car racing started with wide track cars. I then got back into the hobby some years ago with narrow touring cars and offroad again, i now join offroad races once a year if time is sufficient. Offroad tracks in Germany usually suck big time, that's why i am still anxious to visit the US or england for RC purposes.

[cherokee]

A buddy and I started racing RC10T2's and we ran a small carpet oval. They would put out small jumps, perhaps 2" tall on the straight. We ran foam tires and had a ball, with out any doubt the most fun I have ever had. This was when the T2 had just come out....when was that?

[Mr. ED]

Yes I raced bitd and have tried/wanted to continue racing as I still am.
All my builds are intended to race or at least be driven ; some concepts just don't fit any class or regulations, or there's just no races for them around.
Sure the cars I work on now don't look exactly as they would have if I had built them back then. There's many reason for that:

- I couldn't have paid some of the parts or material back then,
- none of the stuff made it really to the shops I had access to.
- The parts I buy now are mixed: some vintage, some contemporary, the only things that matter to me really are A)it has to fit somehow and B) they have to be race-ok.
- I got older, more experienced and (a little) less foolish, so I spend more time on thinking it over and trying to make it all look fitting together
- back then you'd put the options as you got hold of them, so ou'd have a used car with that one new option part shining at you
- with the growth of vintage racing it became possible to be competitive even with cars I allways loved but were old-technology by the time I bought my first

this post is getting longer than intended
I just wanted to say, building and racing are what makes rc fun, so don't miss out on one. Just get a re-re or anything and try to spend some time at the track with others, who knows, it may change your look on your shelfers.

[MOmo]

Found some interesting pics. (I think this guy is local to my area, but I can't find any contact info for him. If you are on here I would love to talk to you.

One of the racing shots is from a local track that recently closed)
http://pics.theshreves.com/rc/aero1.jpg


http://pics.theshreves.com/rc/ancientrc7.jpg

http://pics.theshreves.com/rc/ancientrc6.jpg

http://pics.theshreves.com/rc/ancientrc5.jpg

http://pics.theshreves.com/rc/6010e.jpg

http://pics.theshreves.com/rc/ancientrc8.jpg


MOmo

[ROH73]

I got started in R/C in 1986 with a Hornet and then added a Big Grizzly monster truck and Turbo Optima in 1987. I raced both the Hornet and Turbo Optima “offroad” in an R/C club in my junior high school as an after school activity. We marked off a course on one of the baseball fields for the track. In 1988, I got my first RC10 and I raced that for two years on indoor oval; wood floor, in Alburtis, PA. Of course, during all of this, my friends and I were constantly holding improptu races in parking lots, the alley behind my house, etc.

By the time I got to college in 1991, I put my R/C cars on the shelf and really didn’t touch them again until 2006. In the past two years, I’ve added three more RC10s, and RC10T, and RC10 B3, another Turbo Optima, a Kyosho Rocky, a Blackfoot, etc. to the stable. All of my cars are runners; I have zero shelf queens.

I have a lot of fun working on and driving my vintage stuff once a week or so. My daughter is 5 and has shown some interest; I even built a pink and white RC10 for her. My son is only 14 months old, but based on the look on his face when he sees me driving my cars, he’s already interested; I bet he’ll be driving some cars in two years or less.

Even though I have a lot of fun driving my cars, I have no desire to race again, however. I also really have limited interest in the new cars, although I did re-subscribe to RC Car Action after a 15 year hiatus. I’m not into nitro and all the new electric cars and trucks just seem the same to me. The only new thing I find really interesting is brushless and lipo technology; I’d love to add a brushless system with lipo to my B3 when funds are available, just to see how fast I can make it go.

So where does that leave this hobby for me?. Just having fun with the vintage stuff, I guess, slowly adding to my collection. I like buying reasonably priced cars that sparked my interest in the late 80s, such as the Rocky. I also like designing and fabricating my own parts to upgrade, instead of buying expensive hopups from years ago; this is especially true because I run all my cars and would hate to damage “irreplacable” parts.

I’m also enjoying reproducing vintage lexan. After 6 months of work, I’ve finally got my molding, drying and vacuum forming system working great. I hope to sell Turbo Optima repros this summer.

I think the “hopped up” shelf queens that people on this board make are fantastic; most of the time, they are actual works of art. However, I do agree with the sentiment that very few people actually used those hopups back in the day. In oval racing, unless the parts really, really improved things, I don’t recall the other racers using them and I know I didn’t. My old RC10 has a graphite chassis, but is otherwise comprised of pretty much stock associated parts; and it ran very well. If you wanted to win, you built and maintained your car right, had good batteries, a good motor and practiced/raced as much as possible.

In any case, one of these days I’ll get to posting my cars on here. They need a good cleaning first .

Robert

[scr8p]

i raced at alburtis, too. but it looks like you had stopped racing right before i started.

[ROH73]

i raced at alburtis, too. but it looks like you had stopped racing right before i started.

That's cool. I had a lot of fun racing there, especially during the winter when it was tough to run outside. And it was nice and close, as I lived in Allentown then (born and raised), but I live in State College, PA now.

I still have the body and Andy's body mounts I used for racing; I should scan and post some vintage pics of it on the car. Looks ugly now, but it was awesome in 1988!

Robert

[scr8p]

when i bought my rc10, it was right before the 92-93 indoor season at macungie in the big main building. before that i ran my junior-t in the truck class. my first year at alburtis was the 93-94 indoor season.

this is my original graphite team car. it's 95% correct to what it looked like the first time it hit the track at macungie.

[wyldbill]

mmm, big ass crp spikes.

[ROH73]

when i bought my rc10, it was right before the 92-93 indoor season at macungie in the big main building. before that i ran my junior-t in the truck class. my first year at alburtis was the 93-94 indoor season.

this is my original graphite team car. it's 95% correct to what it looked like the first time it hit the track at macungie.

Nice car! Gotta love vintage oval racing . What Lehigh Valley hobby shop did you frequent the most? I split my time between Valley Hobbies & Crafts in Bath and Trains 'N' Lanes in Easton. Valley Hobbies is long gone, I think. Every time I get back to Allentown to visit my parents I plan on visiting Tranes 'N' Lanes, but I just never seem to find the time. My original RC10 was actually bought at Tranes 'N' Lanes by one of my friends in 1986; I was with him when he bought it. Two years later he sold it to me . It's a later Edinger car.

Robert

[scr8p]

trains n lanes is about 15 mins from my house, and it's pretty much the only good place left around here anymore. there's a hobbytown over by the lehigh valley mall, but it's pretty much worthless for the stuff i want. if i feel like taking a ride, i'll go down to raceplace hobbies in the quakertown farmers market. i don't know if you remember jim ncnabb, but he's owned that for the last couple years. he used to own r/c speed and hobbies on main st. in northampton, which is where i worked, and spent most of my life until it closed in mid 1994. valley hobbies closed 10+ years ago. it's a day care center now. dick wetzel's hobbies is still down the street from there in bath, but he's only into planes now. there was also prop and wheels raceway in tamaqua. did you ever race there on the hardwood?

[ROH73]

Ah yes, the Lehigh Valley Hobbytown. I was in there late last year...kinda sucks IMO, unless you like toys and games.

I remember Raceplace in Quakertown; I bought some parts there in '87 or '88 for my Hornet.

I don't think I've ever been in R/C Speed and Hobbies. I remember Wetzels; it was mostly planes even back in the 80s. I remember there was a pretty nice hobby shop in the Trexlertown mall in the mid 80s as well. I think it closed by about 1990.

I used to work at Valley Hobbies on occasion. The owner lived about two miles from my parents in Allentown (well technically South Whitehall township). His wife ran the store during the day and he ran it in the evenings after working all day at Air Products. What a drive everyday! But I guess who cared when gas was 90 cents a gallon.

"there was also prop and wheels raceway in tamaqua. did you ever race there on the hardwood?" - No, never. I ran at Tranes 'N' Lanes on the outside dirt oval a couple of times in 1988, however. Very competitive there. If you wanted to win, you had to run 4WD with a Dominator.

Here in State College, there's one LHS, Nittany Line Hobbies, which is about 2 minutes from my house. It's actually pretty decent with a large R/C section (lots of Associated parts), but it's just about useless for me because nothing I own is newer than my B3. They try hard to drum up business by holding hands-on demonstrations at local car shows and the 4th of July Festival. I don't know if it works, but they're still in business.

My wife is from Brazil and I visited a hobby shop in her hometown in April. Mostly planes, but they had a few electric cars. Prices were outrageous, however. R/C is definitely a rich man's hobby in Brazil.

Robert

[scr8p]

t&l blacktoped the old dirt oval in the mid 90's. then they added an off road track on the opposite side of the driver's stand. with the resurgence of dirt oval around here the past couple years, they put a new dirt oval track in on the opposite side of the building.

here WAS the old dirt oval.

IMG_1609.JPG (119.43 KiB) Viewed 1423 times

IMG_1609.JPG (119.43 KiB) Viewed 1423 times

the off road track (reconfigured since i took this pic)

IMG_1608.JPG (156.66 KiB) Viewed 1422 times

IMG_1608.JPG (156.66 KiB) Viewed 1422 times

and the new dirt oval (track wasn't completed when i took this)

IMG_1610.JPG (139.44 KiB) Viewed 1421 times

IMG_1610.JPG (139.44 KiB) Viewed 1421 times

they have a carpet road course upstairs above the hobby shop, too.

[ROH73]

Thanks for the great pics! I remember the carpet course upstairs. Trains 'N' Lanes has such a nice facility. I wish all hobby shops were like that.

Robert

[MelvinsArmy]

I just scored exactly the type of vehicle I was talking about! It's an LXT w/Tecnacraft tie-rods, a Hydradrive, bb steering (althought I'm not sure it is from the pics) and most of the spares that would be in my tool box in the pits. All for the whopping price of $49!!! I can't believe the difference in prices between Losis and RC10s. I just saw a minty JrxProSE end at $50 with no bids. Hey, low Losi prices is good news for me. You better believe I'll be racing this truck at the vintage nats.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180249405338&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:1123