OT: Wicked fun.

country. It was quite a fad for a few years. Lots of fun. But that looks "funner".

Max

I remember the slot cars, people would go to the place, bring their own car and rent a slot to compete with others. ross

Those are gas engines as well.

Kinda timely you would put that up. Just last weekend was the first time I had ever seen those gas powered jobs. I went to a place called Hobbytown USA, where I buy bulk epoxy. (It's good stuff and as much as 1/2 the price of the other joints around here).

Anyway, they didn't have those cool jumps, but they have a permanent track set out on a sloped end of the parking lot, and even have a metal welded racing stand for the operators to stand in while racing. It was fascinating as they were all running some of the old style bodies like the Chaparrals, etc. They first ran electric, and they were so fast you could hear them whiz by. These guys are so competitive that they have tiny antennas on their cars so they will register in electronically when they pass the booth so they can find exact lap times, winning times, and of course the winner.

The cool deal was the gas car race though. Those cars were about 16" in length, and literally screamed when they were opened up. On the straightaways they even blew out a little blue smoke when the guys stood on it.

Those guys had pit crews, extra everything, cradle for their cars, and way too much fun. I had other things to do, but the gas race was about 15 minutes long, and I stood there and watched the whole thing. It smelled like several chainsaws were being tuned up out there as the gas smell hung in the air. It was cool.

Like I said, none of those big jumps on your video, though. Just some hard, flat racing. Man were those guys serious.

Robert

Funny story about those antennas, known as "transponders"...

The AMB Autoscore system was invented for radio control racing:

I used to race competitively in the early and mid-90's, sometimes traveling 3-400 miles to regional races with a local pal. In the summer, we raced electric and alcohol powered dirt cars, in the winter we raced electric carpet road racers.

Every good track had a beat-to-crap 286 PC running Autoscore over DOS, with a dot matrix printer to post results. The system was nothing more than wire loops under or over the track, with tiny, rechargeable, but almost bulletproof, devices communicating back to a simple but reliable DOS application. Visually, it looked like old ASCII BBS software. I can remember a track owner calling for support and actually getting _the guy_ who owned and ran the company.

In the late 90's big time race organizers like NASCAR, SCCA, The Olympics, as well as the sanctioning bodies for the Tour de France and Giro de Italia, realized that silly little r/c cars had more sophisticated timing systems than they did.

Today, the big race car bodies use a large, robust transponder, while the cycling and aerobic sport bodies use an ultra light transponder. With networking, and multiple loops, they have leg times, splits, rough acceleration, etc... all easily posted real-time to the TV stations and web.

After looking at the "About AMB" link, I'll bet you don't get to talk to the inventor anymore.

Here you go... a perfect motor for a router. 4.7 HP!!, 13 cc gas... looks nice too. Hell, I'd love it in a glass case for my office.

I could see that level of determination in the eyes of the racers. They were really dedicated. And forget kids... there were no kids except on the track to right a tipped car or as spectators. These were all late 20s to about mid 60s. They were so damn serious, too. The guy that owns the Hobbytown frachise told me they were out there every weekend, no matter rain, shine, heat, etc. They were ALWAYS out there.

I am amazed by all of this and the level of dedication by its participants. It is something I knew existed, but never to the level of sophistication it now has.

Learn something new every day!

Robert

Here you go... a perfect motor for a router. 4.7 HP!!, 13 cc gas... looks nice too. Hell, I'd love it in a glass case for my office.

Then there are the helicopter guys. Flying those remotely without the feel of your butt in the seat is hard. And I mean hard. One guy likened it to put a marble on an upside down metal mixing bowl and KEEPING it there.

This guy is just nuts... got to love it...

_that_ all by his lonesome he should be able to pretty much write his own ticket in the mechanical engineering world.

To keep it woodworking related, my favorite track was right down the street from CT Wood Group.

Tell me about it. Model Airplane News is based here in CT. I flew r/c planes (and learned full scale) with and from Sikorsky engineers. We've also got Pratt & Whitney local.

One of the local r/c heli pilots has a few videos out.

sale

Now that is something. I've seen similar, but not quite that detailed and working. The amount of skill and work is astonishing.

looks nice too. Hell, I'd love it in a glass case for my office.

OS introduced the OS 29 to the model airplane market back in the early 50's, primarily for U-Control applications.

Never had one myself, but it was a screaming demon and gave my Fox 35 a run for the money.

Back in those days, the biggest engine on the market was an Olson & Rice 60, which predated glow plug technology.

I converted one to an air compressor to spray dope rather than use a brush.

My how times have changed.

Lew

Wow... how long does one have to practice to do that?

Jeez... Can you imagine what the tiniest slip would do to your investment?

Robert

Pretty cool s*it, huh?

It is all about power:weight ratio. Kinda like Angela and I.