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Kevinpreston3

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Apr 28, 2005
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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.

 
Very Cool

Kevin. My middle brother Dennis always had the airplanes.
Not enough pavement here in the late 50's early 60's for the
cars. Lots of open fields though; I forgot about the sound of those little engines.
 
Tethered cars

Kevin:

I am amazed at how fast that little car hustles! I've never seen anything like it, so I asked my husband if he remembered those tethered cars. He told me that when he was about seven years old, he won one of these on a television show. Sadly, he never even got to run it. He held on to it for a number of years (unopened) only to have it disappear (or get trashed).

Good luck adding to your collection. They look like lots of fun!

Venus
 
I don't remember them at all Kevin and I can't see your video because I'm on dialup. Doesn't sound to be much fun though, start them up and watch go round in circles, little yay LOL. The planes or helicopters would be cool though I can't really afford one right now so I stick with a few kites I drag out now and then. Fortunately for me I'm in the country,, lots of open space and no telephone poles, few trees anywhere.
 
Pete...I know what you mean.

Two things never appealed to me. When I was young, it was control line flying. Recently, it was these tether cars. Until I took a closer look and tried them both on whims.

Both require skill to get it to work...especially the flying. Now that I have done both, I gotta tell you...this is really, really fun. You have to be there and experience it.

When you control line fly, it's like you are flying the plane. It takes alot of practice, as you will crash. It is different than R/C and has its own pleasures. I never thought of even trying it when I was a kid. I mean, who wants to spin around in a circle with a plane on a string? Then when you do it, it grabs you--like any good hobby.

With tether cars, it seems like nothing. But it takes alot of work to get them to go right, then suddenly, they are racing. It is kind of like Nascar, sure they are going around in a circle, but you are hanging on for every moment that the car won't wipe out.

These are cheap, fun, challenging hobbies.
 
The video was really nice to watch! It brought back memories of the Cox Ford GT I got as a kid. We had a huge double driveway growing up, would hold six large cars.

The GT was raced twice, once up, then back down. You pounded concrete nails in the driveway and it ran along thin cotton or nylon line. My parents didn't like the idea of nails in the concrete or the noise the engine made. So off it got packed back in its box.

Also great video, love the widescreen version. I'm fooling around now with Adobe Premiere 2.0, got 3 hours of Disneyland video to edit.
 
The film was shot...

actually on the film setting of my Sony Mavica digital camera...my digital camcorder was out of battery.

When I edited it, I cut out the middle section and a section of me starting it. It runs about 2-3 times longer than shown. Interestingly, if you look close at the video before the midway mark, the car is on its outside wheels! Then as it starts to get fuel starved at such an angle, the motor slows down slightly and it goes back to 4 wheels. Again, do not know if it was designed to do that, custom made the tether, but I think it's unavoidable once it really gets going. Plus it has that Black Widow engine!
 
Very cool and fast little car.I remember a Cox "String" "dragster" as a child.We had a long driveway so we could use it.The car worked like this-the Cox .049 motor was geared to the cars rear wheels.The car didn't have a steering mechanism.You staked a long string in a straight line.the car had a slot underneath it that followed the string when you put the car on the string and threaded the string through the guide in the car.than you started the motor-had a spring starter on it-and let it go-than it went stright down the string.Never seen the cars that went in a circle like in the film clip.that is one FAST little car.Definitely exceeds the shutter speed of the camera filming it.Also the propeller drive is intersting.I also had an .049 motor by itself that you could mount in any sort of vehicle-remember mounting it on an old skateboard with the propeller-and it made a little car and "grass trimmer" in one!! Did a neat job of trimming the grass in between the sections of driveway-was sort of fun.also mounted the motor on a little wood boat and ran it in the pool-Careful- when its YOUR turn to catch it-that prop BITES!I got the knack of catching it without getting chopped by that prop.
 
Funny you should post this - till this morning I had never heard of tether cars. Then I read about them in this morning's newspaper - The Age.
I have linked the article, which is also on the web...

Do several cars go around the pole at once, or do they run one at a time against the clock? If several at once, how do you avoid the tether wires getting tangled?

Chris

 
Wow, it's been years since I heard the buzz of one of those little engines!

Not that I ever had one myself. I was more the Hot Wheels/Motorific type, myself.

Kevin, did you ever get to play with those Estes rockets? My brother once bought some of the solid-fuel "engines" with the intent to build a rocket, upon which Mom liked to burst a blood vessel.

Apparently, toys that explode were not on her "approved" list. Something about losing an eye or a hand, or something.

I did get to look through the Estes catalog, though, and some of the models were pretty cool. They probably don't still make them any more, do they? I'd imagine the potential for lawsuits would be astronomical. I mean, look at how they bastardized the Thingmaker, and that was only a burn hazard.

veg
 
Veg...you are my kind of guy!

Yes...they still make Estes rockets. Amazingly, Estes bought out Cox. I had a long talk with a long-term employee of Cox and another of Estes. It seems at first, they tried to stream the Cox content into the Estes product line. This did not seem to work and the Cox group is "returning to its roots" and apparently bringing out more interesting product, not less, rare in a company buy out. They will still share office space with Estes and owned by Estes, but will develop their own items. Their customer support was excellent when I called it, although some of the old time Cox guys have left--the guys with the hard core knowledge.

Estes has never gone away. While not as in many toy stores as they were, almost any hobby store has them. I about fainted when I saw a few, just a box or two actually, Estes ENGINES for sale at Toys-R-US! I was assuming that those had been "nannied" out of there by now, but there they were just last week.

They have all types of rockets, although more of them are ready to fly and don't require the old balsa skills of the old kits, but they do have the old style too! I had my son make a few of the old fashioned fin and balsa models to learn everything, and he loves it. I have about 20 kits I have yet to put together with him.

On the pictures below:

On the left, the red white and blue Big Bertha rocket. This was the 2nd rocket I got with my dad in 1969, and my dad built it. It never lost a fin and for laughs we flew it last year, still flies perfect and has original chutes. Next to it is a newer Big Bertha, plastic nose cone, built about 3 years ago. This kit is still available.

To the left of the Berthas is an original Omega, carrier for the (Holy Grail) Cineroc 8mm cinema camera. This is one of the few rockets I ever bought from someone else already made.

To the right of the Berthas is a 90s Ionizer, the first rocket I bought with my eldest son to see if he liked rockets. He did.

The picture on the right shows a small selection from my Cox Collection. Here we have two newer Cox free flight helicopters, and an old Skycopter from about 20 years ago. NONE of these have ever been flown!
 
Questions answered

Gizmo....

I don't believe they ran them together, I think they were timed events. I can also think that in a big gym or outdoor cement area, you could race them side to side.

Thanks for the article pointer. Yes, some of those tether cars on Ebay are going for $300 to $700. I would almost be afraid to race them.

Tolivac....

If you liked the idea of racing along a line, Estes makes Blurzz cars. These are nice little packages...a car and a complete little launch kit with controller, long, very strong string, a parachute and a chute housing. Everything comes together in one portable box. I have fired mine off a number of times, and they are powered by the Estes -P engines, which are plugged and have no ejection charge.
 
Kevin, you are the same kind of dad that I had, and the kind I would be if I were, you know, that way!
Dad and I would spend hours setting up Motorific tracks in different configurations. When we weren't watching cartoons.

Oh man, the cineroc camera! I remember that! And how much I wanted one! The pictures in the catalog were just too cool for words. Wasn't there a still camera as well?

My involvement with rockets was limited to those ones with the white body and clear red plastic top that you'd fill with water and pump up. Sounds kind of weenieish, but they could really take off.

Man, I gotta start taking pictures of some of my toys.

veg
 
Notes for Veg....

Hooray for your dad spending alot of time with you. My dad is the one that discovered and got me into rockets, I didn't even know about them!

I bought, launched and LOST a water rocket, if you can believe that, just a few years ago.

Cameras: The one, and only movie camera, was the Cineroc. The designed launch vehicle was the 2-stage Omega (pictured in above post). They guy that designed it, Mike Dorffler, was really young at the time and still attends big rocket meets.

The original still camera was the Camroc, and the launch vehicle originally was the Delta. This changed to the Camroc Carrier and is still currently available as the AstroCam or some other names, with a revised photographic system.

Estes is also bringing out the Oracle, which takes video!

In the picture below, Case A, notice the display case contents. I was very fortunate to find (after a very long search) a never used Cineroc, complete. There is also a used, but very nice Camroc, a mint in bag Delta, and the original Transroc receiver. A LOT of work went into finding these things (yet I can't find the console stereo I want, go figure!)

In Case B, notice the newer AstroCam, some bagged vintage rockets, etc. On the lower shelf you can barely make out the orange fins of the "helicopter recovery" Gyroc. I built this as a 12 year old but never finished it. I finished it with my son 2 years ago, and he flew it and retrieved it. That was a fun thing to do.
 
And here are some Motorific items for Veg....

Racerific set, with "Crash Mountain", which plays a bizarre recording of a crash if you run into it!
 
"Anything can happen on Action Highway!"

I only have the basic Motorific set that they sold at gas stations during Christmas. Mine came from Flying A, I think. Had bigger sets when I was a kid, but I can't remember which ones.

And while we're on Motorific, I owe you one, as it was from your website that I got the name of the guy who makes the replacement tires. So now my purple Bonneville will race around the track instead of skidding off and across the floor!

Did you ever have Switch 'n Go? Always wanted a set but somehow never got one. From what I've read, Mattel took a real bath with that toy as it took a lot of R&D but basically bombed in the market.

Kevin, it's a good thing I don't know your address. Otherwise, I'd be backing a semi up to your door!

veg
 

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