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  #41  
Old 29-08-2012
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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...
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  #42  
Old 30-08-2012
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Great read,
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  #43  
Old 30-08-2012
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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.
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  #44  
Old 30-08-2012
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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 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
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  #45  
Old 31-08-2012
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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!
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  #46  
Old 31-08-2012
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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.
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  #47  
Old 31-08-2012
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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.
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  #48  
Old 31-08-2012
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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.
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  #49  
Old 31-08-2012
Skelbo Skelbo is offline
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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?
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  #50  
Old 31-08-2012
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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!!!!

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Originally Posted by Skelbo View Post
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.
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  #51  
Old 31-08-2012
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Skelbo View Post
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!!!!
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  #52  
Old 29-08-2014
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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?
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  #53  
Old 30-08-2014
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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...
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  #54  
Old 30-08-2014
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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.

Last edited by OptimaFan; 30-08-2014 at 09:17 PM.
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  #55  
Old 01-09-2014
Luke Burley Luke Burley is offline
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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!
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  #56  
Old 15-10-2014
alcyon alcyon is offline
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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.

Last edited by alcyon; 15-10-2014 at 10:57 AM.
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  #57  
Old 15-10-2014
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Ashlandchris Ashlandchris is offline
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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?
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No 4WD because nothing lives up to my original Optima. Until now maybe?...
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  #58  
Old 15-10-2014
Chrissy C Chrissy C is offline
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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
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  #59  
Old 15-10-2014
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OptimaFan OptimaFan is offline
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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.
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  #60  
Old 16-10-2014
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RogerM RogerM is offline
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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
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