Memories of 1st RC cars
 

As im knocking on 30 and i don't have kids i think im turning in to a miserable old git as Christmas seems to be less and less entertaining.
This year however i feel like ive been shot back to my childhood as i decided this year to get my 6 year old nephew his 1st RC car.
I managed to get him a little 1:18 Nikko Subaru WRC and naturally i had to give it a go to try it before wrapping it up yesterday. Within seconds i was whizzed back to 1987 when my dad bought me my 1st car, a Nikko Chipmunk!! which still gathers dust in its box in my wardrobe. I remember being soooooo exited when i first opened the little box lid and i first laid my hands on the car that seemed so big back then and now it looks like it would fit in Tracy's handbag, box included!
This seems to have started a bit of a chain reaction as this morning i have found myself upstairs digging out my old Tamiya Williams i got for Chrismas in 1993 and as i speak my little Nikko chipmunk is whizzing round the landing !wicked! im 8 years old all over again! now it feels like Christmas!

Just thought id ask if any of you remember your 1st memories of your RC world and what car you had?

the same one santa bought me today, tamiya rough rider

Lucky man!!!!!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup:

mmm my fist car was a tamiya frog and then a kyosho optima mmm great car in its day if only kyosho would biuld it again ,,, treated myself to my b max for this year though :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Tamiya TA02, with Acoms radio, Speed Master Silver Star ESC and an LRP 21x2 GT1 motor. Complete with a Protoform Volvo S40 body, Metallic green with sky blue painted windows, and matchstick light buckets.

Secondhand, but I loved it. :)

You not running the pred this year mate?

tamiya cheetah
 

wish i still had it if anyone has one for sale let me know

My first proper RC racing car was a Maruri Shogun (1/10th electric off road) painted in black like the box artwork, looked the business and went well too. The earliest and fondest memory of a RC to car is my Knight Rider, my mate had the hopped up 2000 model but the standard looking car was the best :)

My first car in 1986:bored: was a tamiya hornet, then a gold tub rc10 followed later by my most loved car...an optima. And as a trip down memory lane I have just got another optima and Im slowly doing it up:thumbsup:On the lookout for some original tyres now,just got to sell an organ to aford them:woot:

nikko dandy dash then an original avante

Tamiya grasshopper 2 super 'g' then tamiya king cab, class truck!!!

My first RC car was a Nikko Porsche 956.

First 1/10th buggy was a Tamiya Thunder Dragon.

First "race" buggy was a Kyosho Optima Mid Custom Special ... still very fond memories of that car, wish I still had it! There started the Kyosho afair ;)

Tamiya Hotshot, think it was Christmas 1989... It always went quicker in reverse than forward... weird..

Tamiya Falcon, then a Kyosho Progress. Progress was meant to be my Dads but it was just so much better than the Falcon so I 'commandeered' it. My Dad then got an Optima Mid for himself. I nicked that too, figuring it was better than the Progress, but my Dads hopes of getting the Progress back were dashed when my younger brother decided he wanted to join in!

In the end my Dad got me an RC10 (original gold tub) and my brother a Topcat in order to finally get us to leave his Kyosho's alone.........

I got one of the first Tamiya Hornet cars in 1984. Man I had so many good memories of that buggy. When I started racing I got myself a Tamiya Manta Ray 4WD which was in a different league! I bought a Hornet again last year, for my son, I was surprised how basic it was. It's up the loft now resting for the next 20 years.

Mk1 Mardave mini... £30 c/w charger 'n battery... I sold it on the bay last year for £40!! result!! my first buggy was a Kyosho raider, box art sadly... (I can't for the life of me remember what happened to it tho'...) But my first nitro was the Kyosho Advance(?) c/w 'C' cell strapped to the front bumper and an Enya.09 engine... I've still got it in the garage.. 'n it's a runner..!

I had a Tamiya Boomerang for Christmas 1986, quickly found out that they were no good for club racing and sold it for a Kyosho Optima Mid in '87 -that's the car I have the best memories of! :thumbsup:

1987 I got a Radio Shack Golden Arrow the first RC I ever got
One is on Ebay right now
http://cgi.ebay.com/1980s-Golden-Arr...L-BUGGY_W0QQit

1988 I got one of these Tamiya Blackfoot Trucks(competely stunk the dogbones would only last a couple batteries)
Then in 1989 I got a another buggy I had a used Raider ARR(tranny was weak only could handle a silvercan motor)


1990 Radio Shack Released another RC called the Black Phantom it was a 4wd dual motor buggy, I think twin 360's and it ran on a standard 7.2v stick pack. I had one of those, it was fast for what it was, no were near hobby quality though.

I dont really miss any of them, what I have now is lightyears better.

I had a Tamiya Sand Rover with an Accoms radio "combo deal" when I was 9. It was rubbish - terrible handling, rear wheels bounced along when cornering and that horrible blade speed controller that burnt out unless I drove it at full speed...

1st car was a Yokomo Works 91

Bought March 93 to get into hobby. SilverStar esc (Blue Shrink Wrap Brick). Yuasa Batteries. Powerpole connectors. Demon 19t Motor. Servo??? Stick Radio on 27mhz. All bought from Stockton Modeller.

The spending hasn't stopped since :woot:

Tamiya Sand Scorcher.
Bought a deal from Beatties in Notts (long gone ) Acoms radio , hump pack cells ,16hr slow charger ! ....... Loved it !!
:cry:

My first car too. I agree, it was pants but I shoved a 540 in mine that turned it into a total monster (well, it seemed like it back in 1983). If Tamiya re-re this car I will definately have to get one, or maybe 2 just to see what it's like with a brushless setup in it.

I had one of those silverstar esc's in my Cat XLS! They were the days!

Bit big by todays standards though :)

I had a Tamiya Holiday Buggy. It used to shred servo gears until Tamiya came up with the "fix" of upgraded? steering arms with a u-bend in them!! The days before kimborough servo savers..

First rc vehicle was a Kyosho Eleck Rider motorcycle in about 1979..

My first real car was a Tamiya Subaru Brat which i've kind of restored. I remember travelling to Beatties in Newcastle on the train with my dad. I drove it to destruction! Then i got a Hotshot and raced it quite well, then an Optima and a Turbo Optima MID which i raced in Darlington in the eighties. Still have them all execpt the Optima. :)

My first car was a Tamiya Monster Beetle, I bought it second hand for about 40 quid, had a great laugh with that, then got a Schumacher Cougar Club 10 and started racing at Ashford North School with Clive and Terry Stockham club.

I think I have had over 50 cars now and still going strong!!

my first car was a terra scorcher with a futaba 112b speed controler and acoms techniplus 2 handset 1990 crimbo spent the whole day building it did my first race meeting in the january at beccles and bungy buggy club at the co op canning factory while i was down there at collage what memories barracuda timing and rope for track marking

I was just thinking RC must have been more popular for the 25-40 year old bracket, at my school pretty much most young lads had a tamiya of some sort, this generation seemed to more into gaming etc.

Its a real shame as RC gives you so much knowledge as a kid on engineering, problem solving, socialising at clubs with adults and many more benefits than pushing buttons on a PS3/X-box!

I sound like a grupmpy old man, just a shame thats all.......

Xmas 85 or 86 I got a Mardave Apache kit with cheapo radio system - it was something like 'Daewoo' although I know they don't make them. Apache had solid plastic body and useless hard plastic bumber which snapped with every impact of any note! Also a manual 3 speed speed controller.

Had it for a year and a bit but was just used for bashing with mates who between tham had a Hornet, Kyosho Cosmo, Kyosho Pegasus etc. Was out at a local park with my Cosmo mate when my Apache went out of range of my cheapo radio kit. Apache continued at full speed towards the river, which was almost bursting its banks. I hit various obstacles on its way to the river, even rolling over a few times and still ending up on its wheels, continuing towards the river. I was so gutted. Ended following a stick downstream for about half a mile thinking it was my car.

Next day my mate, know how pi**ed off I was, went and found my car in the river and pulled it out. After a few days dry out, it still worked! However, my mind had been made up - I wanted a new car.

I dreamt of owning the original Ultima, even going into the model shop just to look at the picture on its box! However, funds wouldn't stretch that far, so I got a Kyosho Raider. Raced that one too, coming third over the year and getting myself a trophy. Kind of lost interest after that year, although I built an Optima, selling it on without ever racing it.

That was it until last year when I caught the bug again. Unfortunately, the local club don't have an off-road section any more so I'm racing 1/10 tourers. Having fun though.

Cheers,
Barry

I had a tamiya falcon and it broke in the first twenty seconds of using it. Tamiya plastic buggies were made to break. Utter rubbish

My first RC that I raced was a Tamiya Thudershot. Upgraded it after the first meeting with ballraces and dual shock front end conversion.. It used to break A5 parts every meeting until I got some little metal reinforcement plates. It was a solid little buggy after that!

I then moved onto a Manta Ray/Top Force mix that wasn't much better really, a bit more tunable I guess. Then again on the grass of Parkwood club's track it never really needed any setting up. It used to break rear gearboxes which Alan Harman (then Tamiya A-team driver) and Colin Spinner (manager) deny furiously! Nonsense, as I have a bunch of broken gearboxes up in my loft!! :p:lol:

my first RC was a tamiya holiday buggy, and i even had the higher voltage battery for it,

thought yours would have been a tether car :p:lol:

My first car was a Mardave Meteor shortly followed by a schumacher cougar 2.

schumacher topcat for me when did that come out 88 ish ? with parma cyclone motor :thumbsup:

Tamiya Dune buggy was my first kit second hand.

Yuasa batteries....... now they were crap!!!! sanyo's were so much better:lol:

Ditto, my first real car was a subaru brat for free!!!!:thumbsup:, silver can motor, manual esc, no shell, came with broken servo horn which i got someone to replace for me, broke the gearbox,one of the outdrives and the servo horn again and sold it for £20:lol:, wished i still had it now.
Then there was a Kyosho Zaboon that i ran into the ground and sold that for £25 i think to a mate, 1st nitro was a hpi rush evo, until the engine decided the conrod looked better stickin through the side of the block:woot:

Mine was a Nikko Turbo Panther in 1987,that i drove until the wheels feel off then i got some new wheels by swapping a Kitkat for a mates 'knackered' car however it wasnt the same again(steering servo packed in) & now sits in a cupboard at my folks. Now gotta a Manta Ray & B4 :thumbsup:!!!

Midnight Pumkin for me.Blasting up and down the street.Im pretty sure the front wheels never touched the ground. Wheelie machine!