Kevinpreston3
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2005
- Messages
- 484
Parallel to enjoying RC flying, my son and I have been collecting, refurbishing and generally getting to work a whole seriew of vintage Cox gas engined planes and cars.
One wierd hybrid was something called, in the old days, a "tether car". I had never heard of these until a few months back. These were popular post war, 50s-60s, and then only Cox continued on with something called a Shrike.
Tether cars ran on gas engines either directly driving the wheels, or by a pusher prop. They were "tethered" to a pole and went in a circle. There was no steering needed, and no throttle control, they just went.
So I bought a few vintage ones. I had to invent a tethering system and experiment with it. Of course, being old engines, some are temperamental and require a great deal of patience and time to get running. Most have to be disassembled and cleaned properly.
I acquired an early yellow model, with a "Black Widow" engine. Once I got the engine running, I could tell the engine was hellaciously strong. I tried running it just free on the ground and it was ok performance. I played around with various tether arrangements, but the unit wiped out alot.
Finally, I got the tether dialed in. Then I took the wheels of the car apart to discover they were gummed up and that really just the axles were spinning. So I cleaned and lubricated that.
Upon trying it again, I was shocked. This car was then so fast that the g-forces cause it to ride on the two outside wheels! I put in a big water heater nut to help balance it. One time the nut fell out and the crash was just insane.
Take a look at the video. I caution you that it is 7mb and the server seems slow. It may give you an idea of this amazing toy. It is so fast that it is hard to film it.
More examples are joining The Collection.
One wierd hybrid was something called, in the old days, a "tether car". I had never heard of these until a few months back. These were popular post war, 50s-60s, and then only Cox continued on with something called a Shrike.
Tether cars ran on gas engines either directly driving the wheels, or by a pusher prop. They were "tethered" to a pole and went in a circle. There was no steering needed, and no throttle control, they just went.
So I bought a few vintage ones. I had to invent a tethering system and experiment with it. Of course, being old engines, some are temperamental and require a great deal of patience and time to get running. Most have to be disassembled and cleaned properly.
I acquired an early yellow model, with a "Black Widow" engine. Once I got the engine running, I could tell the engine was hellaciously strong. I tried running it just free on the ground and it was ok performance. I played around with various tether arrangements, but the unit wiped out alot.
Finally, I got the tether dialed in. Then I took the wheels of the car apart to discover they were gummed up and that really just the axles were spinning. So I cleaned and lubricated that.
Upon trying it again, I was shocked. This car was then so fast that the g-forces cause it to ride on the two outside wheels! I put in a big water heater nut to help balance it. One time the nut fell out and the crash was just insane.
Take a look at the video. I caution you that it is 7mb and the server seems slow. It may give you an idea of this amazing toy. It is so fast that it is hard to film it.
More examples are joining The Collection.