In addition to 1:1 cars I also love the little ones.
A few years ago me and a co-worker were reminiscing about the slot car and R/C racing we did as kids. This led me to go on an e-Bay search for the cars I owned and raced back in the early eighties to late nineties. I discovered a whole group of people like me that are now collecting and restoring the cars we once owned and raced as kids.
Here are a few of my restorations. These cars were my first introduction to all things mechanical. Back then you actually had to
build the cars unlike today. Tires had to be trued and balanced and you had to build and solder your battery packs and connections. Math was required to figure out your gear ratios for a specific track. I credit this early mechanical introduction to where I am today with my 1:1 cars. Too bad today's kids are missing out on this with all the pre-built made in China plastic junk.
1/12 1979 Associated RC12E.
As I found it, rusted and rotted after sitting in a guys basement in New Jersey.
Chassis after stripping away all the rotted electronics.
And today, fully functional and exactly the way it was in 1979. I ran it a couple of times before retiring it to a display cabinet. You should have seen the smiles on us forty year old guys when I ran it at the office.
The body is an original 1979 TOJ Can-Am body I found on e-Bay along with all of the other necessary bits. I'm also in with a group of collectors that trade parts. No original parts are made for the cars anymore.
Very rare Futaba elctronics on this car. It uses a mechanical resistor speed control.
1985-86 Associated RC12i.
Probably one of the rarest in my collection. This is one of the first cars to incorporate a working front suspension. It also was equipped with a carbon fiber rear axle and chassis stiffener. It was rare to see carbon fiber at this time. Several championships were won by drivers using this car. The car is also equipped with a front sway bar and rear ride height adjuster. It also has a rare Associated modified motor.
As I found it, luckily the original owner never ran it.
Now restored to running condition with all vintage electronics.
It's fitted with a vintage McLaren Can-Am body with custom aluminum velocity stacks that I hand made.
1979 Associated RC12E with weight saver chassis. My buddy copied this car using a CNC machine. It incorporates vintage parts and modern electronics. I built this as a runner. The car is crazy light and very fast. Aluminum and titanium screws were used throughout.
Vintage Can-Am Osella body with vintage decals and my stripe tape job.
Something tells me you guys will like this one.
1988-91 Associated RC10L 1/10 scale. Not a rare car, but I had one back in the day. All graphite chassis with carbon fiber braces. All vintage except the receiver as I occasionally run this one.
As I found it.
Restored with hand built 6-cell saddle pack.
1986 Associated RC10 off-road buggy converted to dirt oval. This was a very popular conversion back in the day. I ran several dirt oval cars with friends almost every weekend. What good times those were! This is almost the exact car I had except much better. The car is unfinished, but thought I would show it off.
The old six-gear transmission rebuilt with full bearings. These sucked as an off-road transmission, but rocked for dirt oval.
I had the aluminum chassis powder coated blue. Super rare aluminum rims by Advanced I believe. All parts are vintage.
You need a set of chassis tools to properly dial these guys in for camber and caster. That was the fun part!
With vintage Chevy Cavalier oval body. Waiting on a paint job.
