The fall of old Tekin...

[GoMachV]

Funny enough it kinda fits in with my “never meet your heroes” attitude Back in the day a good portion of the famous racers were drunk, high, crazy or all three Some of the stories I have heard...wow. Most of them were young kids back then.

[RS Chris]

That's no lie GoMachV. Used to race with Frosty St. Clair back around 2000-2001. Nice guy and all most of the time, but he was also kinda strange. Hooked me up with some cool factory parts from time to time though, so there is that.

As far as Tekin products, never was impressed with their "high end" stuff. Ran a speedstar esc for a while, then spent the big bucks to upgrade to a G9 supersonic. No difference at all. Run time, speed, nothing changed. Still have the speedstar 20yrs later and works fine. No clue where the G9 went.

[limestang]

Funny enough it kinda fits in with my “never meet your heroes” attitude Back in the day a good portion of the famous racers were drunk, high, crazy or all three Some of the stories I have heard...wow. Most of them were young kids back then.

I agree. I think when you are really good in one area, it seems to detract from other areas. Hence the term poor bedside manner for doctors. I worked for Dell Computer Corp in the mid 90’s, helping to design their automation and factory layouts. Michael Dell is no doubt a financial wizard, but terrible to work for. There’s a parody on the AC/DC song called “Highway to Dell” that was popular in Austin Tx for a while. Employees could completely relate and used as a rallying cry - 60 hr work weeks, hostile management, nothing ever good enough. I was very disappointed after meeting him.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hw9yjN9FpFA



My first ESC was made by Tekin - so I have been partial to their products. I was never a big racer, I just enjoyed wrenching on all things mechanical.

- Limestang

[Nige55]

Wow ! Really enjoyed reading this. Always love to hear more back stories on brands I love. A sad story, it's a different world now for people with clearly similar conditions. Never the less, adds that air of reclusive genius. I had a 410s as a kid, was ultra smooth, and I got it after seeing how smooth other Tekins were at my local club. I still love the brand, and have a few products.
I'd love to read more stories and history from that era in RC.

[GregM15]

A great read as I always wondered what happened. I run Tekin now, although back in the day was running Novak.

[Lonestar]

That's no lie GoMachV. Used to race with Frosty St. Clair back around 2000-2001. Nice guy and all most of the time, but he was also kinda strange. Hooked me up with some cool factory parts from time to time though, so there is that.

As far as Tekin products, never was impressed with their "high end" stuff. Ran a speedstar esc for a while, then spent the big bucks to upgrade to a G9 supersonic. No difference at all. Run time, speed, nothing changed. Still have the speedstar 20yrs later and works fine. No clue where the G9 went.

Chris, we might have met... I was in TX from 98 to end-00, in Austin, but I was driving to Performance, K&M regularly during 2000, even though most of my touring car racing was in Austin (Discount Hobbies run by Joe and Tony). I went to Killeen and Indy RC a couple of times too, I remember meeting Crosty St Flair a few times too back then. I would hang out with John Hale often... If we met you probably would remember, everyone was calling me Frenchguy, because, well, I'm French and there weren't too many of my fellow co-citizens in TX doing RC back then (and probably not now, either )

[RS Chris]

I definitely went to Performance and K&M around that time occasionally. My local track was Mammoth RC in Pasadena, it later became J's Action RC. That's where I met Frosty. We mostly raced nitro cars together, electric sometimes as well.

[brn2fly]

Wow, I didn’t know. I was into off road racing in the mid 90’s and left the hobby when I entered the military. I started back racing about two years ago. Never new Tekin had these troubles. Now Novak is gone. Sad!

[Avante2001r]

Wow that was some story had no idea this had happened, though always wondered as the new Tekin just doesn’t have the same vibe about their products that the originals had. I became a Tekin fan since buying the 411G back in 1991. Since then have owned the 410K, 411G2 and still have them today.

Such a shame Kevin probably a great electronics engineer but terrible social skills and how to deal with people led to the demise.

[HS-YZ250]

Found a video purportedly featuring Kevin Orton, in case you've wondered what he looked like.

[jcwrks]

Found a video purportedly featuring Kevin Orton, in case you've wondered what he looked like.

Bad link. This one should work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoE1oJWb8mM

[coxbros1]

Which guy was him..dark hair dude?

[HS-YZ250]

Which guy was him..dark hair dude?

From the description in the original post, I presume the awkward guy in the red shirt.

*EDIT* and the camera guy calls him "Kevin".

[HS-YZ250]

Found a video purportedly featuring Kevin Orton, in case you've wondered what he looked like.

Bad link. This one should work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoE1oJWb8mM

Fixed.Not sure why it was wrong the first time.