justinspeed79 wrote:Hi Steve. I have just found this thread and read it entirely. Thank you to you and your father for taking the time to answer all the questions and share the history. Since most of the major questions have been answered, I would like to know one little thing. Who chose gold as the anodizing color, and if there was any particular reason for it (maketing etc.), or just a personal prefference?
Thanks again!
Justin-
Hello Justin:
Good Question.
We opted to get the chassis anodized, so I picked GOLD,
not only would it look good, but equally important, was that
it looked something similar to dirt, so the dirt wouldn't look
so bad. It seemed to work out pretty good. Everyone liked it.
holy cow! i don't think i've ever been so entertained by the questions asked by everyone, and the great reply's from steve, gene, and curtis. real interesting to know some of the answers to the questions i've also had looming in my head.
on page 3 steve brought up a fella' named topper. this guy was the reason i kept myself glued to my rc10, and racing in general for years. and the reason why i never defected to the darkside. top notch service, and a great great company overall will do it. when ever i had a question regarding my gold tub car, my reedy motor and/or batteries he had the greatest tips and tricks he could throw at me. this guy was truly top notch in my book. always answered my questions. never held back. he helped me with my rc10 tub buggies up to my b2, when i stopped racing. i think it should be brought to everyone's attention, even if you've never heard of him, that he was one of the "silent ones" that made a difference to the ones that asked for "topper" at associated. or put on line with him to answer your rc10 questions.
i can't remember how long ago i called topper for a question i had. but, the secretary broke it to me when she told me that topper had passed on. honestly it was like a frog jumped in my throat and someone punched me in stomach out of no where. i was speechless. the secretary thought i had hung up on her. but after her second "hello" i answered her back and ask for details on what had happened. i'm a pretty serious and (not to toot my horn) tuff as nails kinda' of guy. but after hanging up and looking over to my rc10 tub i cried like a baby. i think i didn't touch any of my cars for a while after that.
not to long after i got back on the saddle and started a project, that i'm currently still working on. i'll always miss "this-is-topper".
I know there were several questions about the 4wd car.
-Ive heard that there was an "arrangement" w/ Yokomo not to produce a 4wd? Any truth to it? Was it strictly a lack of interest/demand for 4wd?
-With that, was there any consideration for Yoke to take over AE given the close relationship over the years? Or was it determined that TT would be the better choice?
-Did the RC10 get the RC from "Roger Curtis" or Radio Controlled? Does Gene want a car/edition named after him? GH10 perhaps? What about A CL10 for Cliff Lett? Does your dad and Cliff still talk? This leads to the following-
-I know that the AE/Losi battle has been around for years, (Competitvely speaking, not so much Hatfields vs Mccoys) and the Gill Jr was responsible for some early product testing and even design of AE products (RC10L I think). Does he still maintain relationships with "Pops" Losi? Gil Jr? Etc. I know that racers like Kinwald still speak highly of him and as having a huge impact on their racing carreers. Does he have a good relationship with the various drivers, More with the Pro level vs the local smaller pros? Or both?
Thanks again for all the insight Steve, You and Your dad are heros to alot of us.
> -How did the relationship with Yokomo begin?
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It began when Masami won a World Championship driving our RC 10 car.
As soon as the W.C. was over, I asked Masami, and his father, Masaki,
if they would like to be part of our Team? It took them 2 seconds to say YES !!
One of the most fortunate things I've done.
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> I know there were several questions about the 4wd car.
> -Ive heard that there was an "arrangement" w/ Yokomo not to produce a 4wd? Any truth to it? Was it strictly a lack of interest/demand for 4wd?
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Regarding the 4wd car. Yokomo made a 4wd car first, and I decided it would
be better for us to wait, because we were working on other R/C models, at the time,
and I didn't want to make any problems with Yokomo.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> -With that, was there any consideration for Yoke to take over AE given the close relationship over the years? Or was it determined that TT would be the better choice?
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There was NEVER any talk about Yokomo taking over Associated,
or Associated taking over Yokomo, at any time.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -Did the RC10 get the RC from "Roger Curtis" or Radio Controlled? Does Gene want a car/edition named after him? GH10 perhaps? What about A CL10 for Cliff Lett? Does your dad and Cliff still talk? This leads to the following-
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The termanology "RC" was in use way before the RC10.
It was used in the early 1/8 gas era, RC = Radio Controlled cars.
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> -I know that the AE/Losi battle has been around for years, (Competitvely speaking, not so much Hatfields vs Mccoys) and the Gill Jr was responsible for some early product testing and even design of AE products (RC10L I think). Does he still maintain relationships with "Pops" Losi? Gil Jr? Etc.
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The problem was more between the Losi - Ernie Provetti combo.
Gil Sr. had to join up with Ernie to get the high quality batteries,
that he needed, in exchange for Ernie running the show.
The Losi drivers started practicing, at So. Cal., to see how to take
someone out, with judges not knowing if it was just an accident,
or if it was a deliberet takeout, meaning an automatic elimination from the race.
They got very good at that.
BUT, I NEVER SAW GIL LOSI JR. TAKE OUT ANOTHER DRIVER.
GIL JR.. IN MY BOOK, WAS ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS.
At another Off Road Nationals race we had, in Texas, I believe, it rained
half way through qualifying. It gave the track a lot more traction. So, all the guys
that qualified after the rain, were faster than the guys who qualified in the 1st part.
I was the ROAR Official, at the race, and I said the first round of qualifying
would have to be thrown out, to make it fair for everyone,
and we have to start qualifying all over again tomorrow.
There WAS A LOAD UPROAR, SAYING NO WAY !!!!!
So, I called a ROAR meeting about the situation, with a lot of guys there.
There was a lot of yelling and screaming going on, and then Gil Losi Jr. got up,
and said "Qualifying has to be fair and even for everyone, so the qualifying
has to be re-run tomorrow. All of the Associated drivers, knew they couldn't
object, and with what Gil Jr. had just said, all of the Losi drivers also knew,
we were going to start over with qualifying. Afterwords, I said to Gil
"THANK YOU", he said "IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO".
I said before, "Gil was one of the "GOOD GUYS"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------.
I know that racers like Kinwald still speak
> highly of him and as having a huge impact on their racing carreers. Does he have a good relationship with the various drivers, More with the Pro level vs the local smaller pros? Or both?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Racers are people. Of course I had a GOOD relationship with all of
our drivers. When they won a race, I was one of the first guys there,
to congratulate them !!! At the races I would go thru the pits and talk to
all the racers, whether they were on our Team or not. They're all guys
doing the same thing, and loving every minute of it!!
After I retired, I still went to all the Reedy races, to see and talk to the
guys. After all, we were still friends.
Hey, I have another question for your dad when you have a chance:
Were all of Associated’s kits shipped with the silver factory seal sticker? Also, were kits shrink wrapped at the factory or at some other level of distribution?
The kits have always been shrink-wrapped at the Associated factory, which means that the stickers were also applied at the factory (before the shrink-wrap process). I don't know when the stickers and shrink-wrap made their first appearance.
Hi Steve,
I have kits with seals only that came from AE. The seals are grey with black writing. I seem to rember getting kits like that in the early eighties and in the late eighties early 90's they started comming with shrink and the sliver seals. But I can't remebr for sure.
Bill Cline
thats a great ? rerelease and orinigal rc10 . Along with that all the parts in WHITE . do this for a limited time only. You will make a lot of restorere very happy
rctenracer wrote:thats a great ? rerelease and orinigal rc10 . Along with that all the parts in WHITE . do this for a limited time only. You will make a lot of restorere very happy
I understand that the possibility was considered, but the molds had deteriorated too much to be useful. It takes a LOT of money to make molds. Not financially feasible.
rctenracer wrote:thats a great ? rerelease and orinigal rc10 . Along with that all the parts in WHITE . do this for a limited time only. You will make a lot of restorere very happy
Personally, I think this would upset alot of people who took the time and effort to restore a vehicle, vs someone who just dropped a large sum of cash on a new "repro" kit.
I would love to get a reproduction RC10 kit! Well, make that 10 kits!!! To keep the purists happy, including myself, you could just stamp the chassis R for you guessed it, repro. Same with all the parts. Stamp them deep enough so they can't be sanded/buffed out. I wouldn't want new parts to be made exactly like the originals. It would make all the parts we collected over the years worthless.
i dont know why that would upset people. it would end alot of endless searching for the correct white parts . check out tower hobbies you can get most parts in black but why not white?
y2kgtp wrote:
rctenracer wrote:thats a great ? rerelease and orinigal rc10 . Along with that all the parts in WHITE . do this for a limited time only. You will make a lot of restorere very happy
Personally, I think this would upset alot of people who took the time and effort to restore a vehicle, vs someone who just dropped a large sum of cash on a new "repro" kit.
just want to say associated produced a true classic in the rc10 it was well ahead of its time . other manufacters have been trying to play catch up since then . so what instore for for us associated lovers maybe a b5 ???
