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What was racing like in olden days?

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what a cool thread. whats up w/the fella that has tapes of races. any word? i myself, have 1 5min heat of monster truck racing from 1988. hehe it was cool b'g a kid in the 80s. the times i had w/my dad racing monster trucks were some of the best period.

sadly that club track here in baltimore, maryland is long gone, club was on life support by '92-stopped racing there the yr before when technology passed the blackfoot and beetle by and people started to get serious. luckily still got the video, the trophies, the pix, and the memories. pretty soon i'd like to have an example of the truck as well.

my younger brother had a big brute he ran in the sportsman class for new drivers. u could run anything. usually he was the only truck, against buggies (89/90)...his 2nd race was prolly still the clearest most fun memory i have of doin this. surely is my favorite. the go signal is given and all those buggies shot off the line and into turn 1 (long oval turn w/slight bank). new drivers, of course, flew in there and got all tangled up, marshalls had yet to dive in, bout 5 buggies that couldnt get away from each other. well here he comes w/the brute now @ full charge....the marshall waited for him to pick his way thru he thought. the kid is 7, go around? eh no. he went right over those buggies like a monster truck show it was great. people had a good laugh. he broke an rc10 and turned a jrx2's body inside out (never seen that done since). by time they got them all sorted, he had a lead which he held all the way thru the heat drivin steady and not makin mistakes as they did tryin to catch him. great times indeed.

racing wise from early 87-91 thereabouts... 1st 2 yrs or so it was all about monsters. blackfoots, beetles, big bears, brutes etc. 2wd started gettin people into new kits by 89, think it was 2wd stock and 2wd mod. had a 4wd mod and sportsman class for new drivers as well. by 90, the tamiya trucks (save king cab) were gettin outclassed and they made a 'production stock' class for them, 2wd was the thing, and 4wd was the 2nd car the high-dollar guys had sittin around ready to race. yz10, schu, optima, and occasional 'shot (1 i know quite well in fact). their extra 1700SCEs that had left over usually went into these cars (similar to today, 4wd is an afterthought). by '91, 4wd was near dead and production stock was gone. only tamiya in any class runnin often was the king cab. best gear could keep it in sight of a jrxt. the club in general had fizzled down, the folks runnin it, decisions that were made, and people just gettin tired of the hobby w/lil new blood coming in. it happens....sadly.

yes much more laid back and fun then. not like what i grew to see up to the mid 90s when i quit (1 reason i did).

the term over here 'cut-throat' comes to mind. when i picked this stuff back up a yr ago, i've been dismayed at what i see. lots of yelling at marshalls or pitmen, or just yellin and ventin over mistakes drivers make. **** in the pits people seemingly not in a good mood considerin their out to run their toy cars for fun (dont call em toys in some cases). people are hard core and secretive, if they can go the whole day w/o talkin 2 another racer, they'll be grateful. sad really.

also i missed runnin w/dad. he was my 'chief mechanic' as a kid, makin sure everything was in order and being 'dad'. later on when i was doin much of it he raced as well and we did things 2gether. when i got back and went by myself, it wasnt the same. not at all. he went w/me 1 time (had to drag him), but since he never dealt w/nitro and i did all the work he felt outta place. he watched the entire time and it was still odd. nice that he was there, but still odd. i think i also expected to turn back and see that big strong man that was my father, not the older tired quiet fellow i see 2day.

i dont know if vintage racing will ever take off in R/C, it'd be nice to see if it would and also take the route vintage car racing has in thats it for a good time and just to get the cars out there. yeh some want to win and drive hard, but others just want to be out there. heh....kinda like it used to be.

to that fella who has the videos again, update, i'm gettin a breakout converter box for my video suite so i can dump vhs into my dv station for edit and preservation.

keep this thread goin its a good 1. i really like readin it

-R

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Does this club have a meet where we can have a thrash with our vintage stuff,bring out the avante for a bit of fun!!

Have tamiya ever had a buggy that was competitive out of the box?What was the best they ever made?top force/egress??

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Check the meetings and events forums, there are many small meetings organized by members plus a couple or so weekend events in the Summer months in England.

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I used to race in the late 80s early 90s and started off with an Astute and then Avante 2001. Was about the last to start racing a Schumacher !

Racing used to be a great social event and made some great friends through it.

My local club met on Sunday afternoons on a behind an old school and we had grass and tarmac surfaces. Had great times with my Avante 2001 as it had such awesome grip and won a final with it against much faster but less well controlled cars !

We used to visit another club once a year for out inter-club meets and they were superb ! Our club usually got beat, but one year we triupmhed ! What a year that was !!!!

The cars varied from Tamiya, Kyosho, Hirobo Alien, PB Ace and Schumacher. We even raced Mardave Ministox in the winter...

Was never the same when we had to move to an all indoor venue - pity.

I do recall the spendaholic guy of the club who would buy the latest kit, his car was twice as fast as amnyone elses !

Golden days indeed.

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Wow, where do I begin. So many years of racing I've got 100's of stories to tell. I think the best time I remember racing was way back when I raced my Associated RC12i at the local On-road track. The car was so easy to drive and that resistor style speed control was the greatest. I remember Trinity just started to release the ever so popular SCE batteries over the old SCR style, ( they were once per day run batteries with super run time, voltage, and very lower internal resistance ) and they were the batteries all my friends were after in the shops because it made a such a difference in a race. Basically you won the race if you didn't dump. If your batteries dumped, well you know the rest... Now days we have 3800's and I don't think we could even make it 1 minute in a race with those classic SCE's with the type of motor amp draw we run today.

Anyway, back then it was a lot more simple when it came to racing. The technology was nothing like today, and I never forget the words my father said, "SLOW IS FAST SON, TRY TO KEEP THE CAR FROM HITTING THE WALL AND JUST FINISH THE RACE WITHOUT BREAKING". Great words from a great teacher to make a racer of today.

As for Tamiya the Wild Willy was always the wheelie king and among my friends they would have competitions to see who could drive the longest wheelie.

Ahhh, the good old days.....

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Ahhhh! The Good old Days of R/C racing. The early to mid 80's to me was the most exciting times ever in R/C history. I'm in the NYC area and during the early 80's i used to race offroad at a local hobby shop's backyard. It wasn't much of a track, but it was the feeling you got being there with dozens of kids and adults just getting into the hobby. Everyone was so confused with alot of things. It was total mayhem trying to figure out that your car just flew off the track or caused a pile-up because someone with the same frequency turned on their transmitter or looking at people's new inventions to try and better their car. There were guys who modified motors themselves,guys who made parts they thought would never break,guys who added rechargeable cells to get longer running time and found out the weight difference made the car slower and running time the same anyway. It was great all around. there was always someone showing off their wild design or one of Tamiy'a newest kits. Watching Rough Riders,Sand Scorchers, Super Champs, Frogs Hornets, wild willys, and even stock Grasshoppers run around that truck was the best times of my life. It was a feeling in the air that i know i will never feel again, but will keep locked up inside forever. [:)]

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quote:Originally posted by imagesofmotorsport

If I could get my brother off of his lazy butt to burn our old VHS tapes onto DVDs, I could post some of those "back in the day" races. I think most of them were either (first) with my Hornet and (second) with my RC10. My grandfather, whom got us into cars, was big in bringing his monstrous Video recorder to the races and taping us.

I will give my bro a couple of weeks, then ask him to mail me the VHS tapes and get them burned myself.

My only request if I do post the movies, no remarks about my attire. It had to be 20 some years ago...... NO SA COMMENTS DARREN!!!!!! LOL! [;)]


id="quote">id="quote">

Darren,

if the tapes are NTSC you can send them to me and i will bring them to the studio to have the picture and sound enhanced and transfer them to DVD for you free of charge.

Rob

Darren

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I first got into racing in September 1983 (i think) memories going. I was told by my local hobby shop that they raced in a village hall near to me. So me and my dad went to watch a few meetings - wow I was hooked all these holiday buggys, SRB's even hilux races (didnt like them as i thought they were slow) the hobby shop guy said Tamiya were bringing out a new entry level buggy that Christmas (the subaru brat)

Christmas came and yep thats what i got - thanks santa [:D]

That christmas the club moved on the back of the Brat as they sold that many (if anyone watches emmerdale, you don't have to own up[;)] - the school they use is the one we raced at - in the large school hall !!)

The first race was full of Brats, must have been 2 or 3 heats of em plus scorchers RR etc in the 540 heats.

Upgraded to the Frog the following year (thanks santa again) and then I bought a second hand RC10 for £50 a couple of years later (again memory bad) it had an esc but basic batteries. it was at a time when the hobby was moving very fast technolgy wise.

stopped racing when the hotshot and other 4x4's came out (they used to race em with the 2wd, didnt stand a chance. 16 years old and on £27 a week just couldn't fund the hobby!!

best i got was a A final win at a regional heat with my Frog, appeared in that months model car mag - cant remember which one.

we also held caravan heats and fancy dress runs for the cars every christmas (i have pictures some where - if i get time i'll post some).

glad I got back into it and love the retro runs TC hold now and again. good thread enjoyed reading some of the stories....

[^]

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G'day,

quote:Originally posted by tanker

Optima spoiled the fun!! It was just too good. Yokomo 834b was **** in the stock form, the rear suspension did not work and the chassis was too soft. The idea of the Mugen bulldog sounds good but the 3 differentials were either too tight or too loose, you choose one. And the 4 wheel steering concept did not work, too much oversteering.


id="quote">id="quote">

On the subject of the Mugen Bulldog...it sounds as if you didn't have much luck with this car.

I've always been a fan of the Mugens, and I get the feeling they're bit underrated nowadays. I personally have never been racing, nor even watched a race. However... I do have some old local RC magazines that recount 1/10th buggy racing results in Australia during the mid 1980s, and on those accounts the Mugen Bulldog (either Mark I or II) actually fared extremely well!

I could give a bunch of examples, but in one RC magazine I can count at least 4 result summaries of various races around Australia in which the Mugen Bulldog finished either first or second - ahead of any brands you'd like to name. So they were right up there.

quote:

Racing by then was more popular and more serious, but less fun. until one day I found that there were too many foul mouth individuals around at races and people were spending too much $$ into 'matched' batteries, I decided to walk away.


id="quote">id="quote">

That's very sad to hear, tanker, but I imagine I'd have done the same thing if I'd been there.

I guess it was just part of a change in culture surrounding RC modelling toward the end of the 80s that was equal parts regrettable and inevitable.

cheers,

H.

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quote:Originally posted by Voltar

First offroad races were mostly Tamiya thanks in part to the afterschool Tamiya TV commercials


id="quote">id="quote">

Woah I would LOVE to have seen some of those Tamiya TV commercials. Anyone got any? Surely they would be short clips and could be digitised at high quality and full TV resolution and someone could upload them to e.g. Megaupload.com or something.

Anyone got any of these 1980's Tamiya TV ads?

Cheers,

Alistair G.

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Yeah I know I have them all, those are all from promotional VHS tapes that used to play for hours in the Model shops.

Instead I mean the TV adverts that Voltar was on about. They must have been much shorter and a bit different.

Anyone got any?[:P]

Ali.G.

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Hibernaculum:

I actually had a very good time with my Mugen Bulldog 1. I got it within weeks it was released. The thing I did not like the car about was: (1) differential too stiff, (2) plastic on the steering parts were too soft, (3) 4 wheels steering did not work and it spinned out a lot.

I had to use conventional 2 wheels steering. Modified the plastic parts to stiffen it. Fiddle with the differentials a lot to them working. Still, on most tracks, a hotshot will our do bulldog in cornering tight spots. High speeds, no difference. Comparing with the yokomo YZ834B, in their original forms, I would say, hotshot was better, YZ834B and Bulldog were not too great. Partly because they both used a lot of Kydex for components, too soft. But YZ834B was lower CG, almost dargging like a surf board + front oneway, thus faster at corners.

I love YZ834B and Bulldog. Therefore, I had my YZ834B in new modified condition in my collection. And I am in the middle of building my modified bulldog.

Anyway, what sort of modification did the Aussie do to the bulldog to make it competitive?? Any info will be appreciated.

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As my Profile lists, I got up to all sorts of running and racing RC in the early 80's... After a 100% break of over 20 years i am back :-)

My real love is early 80's 1:8th IC, Buggy's and Circuit. I am just finishing my 'never run' SG Columbia Mk2 and I also have a new PB Nova. Next spring i am promising myself a day at Mendip Race Circuit (WSM, nr Bristol, uK) to give them a blast, if anyone else has similar era cars (and type) and fancies to give their shelf queen a burn around a decent circuit let me know, I will try and organise something. I cant wait :-)

Ferris

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quote:Originally posted by tanker

Hibernaculum:

I actually had a very good time with my Mugen Bulldog 1. I got it within weeks it was released. The thing I did not like the car about was: (1) differential too stiff, (2) plastic on the steering parts were too soft, (3) 4 wheels steering did not work and it spinned out a lot.

<snip>

Anyway, what sort of modification did the Aussie do to the bulldog to make it competitive?? Any info will be appreciated.


id="quote">id="quote">

Interesting. Well I don't know if I can give you much info yet, as I don't have a Bulldog myself (one is on the way), and my fandom was basically restricted to drooling over the Mugen Bulldog Mk II for many years.

I'll check my old magazines, but the details mainly consist of racing results, with quotes like: "So and so lead for the entire race with his Mugen Bulldog, and gave the rest of the field a lesson".

As I said, the Bulldog is mentioned several times as either the winner or 2nd place finisher, in various races around Australia. The year was 1987.

It really seems to me that the Bulldog, and Mugen in general, were an underrated 80s brand who at least tried to be innovative during the 1/10th Buggy boom period, rather than copying Tamiya and others. When the popularity of 1/10th electric buggies dipped in the early 90s, Mugen quit altogether, and have condemned themselves ever since to churning out 1/8th Gas performance buggies that (frankly) all look the same and all look like every other 1/8th gas performance buggy made in the past decade or more. [B)].

Ok, I'm guilty of generalising a bit. But style-wise and realism-wise, I think innovation was thrown out the window.

Sadly, Mugen's own website recalls nothing of their 80s cars. No company history. They went, almost overnight, from being innovative medium-players in the 80s, to something of a niche scale bore. Hard to believe it's even the same company. IMO.

While the Bulldog was a fairly rough and raw looking car (no body, just cage), the Bulldog II was (to me at least) gorgeous. Just how gorgeous, I hope to find out at Xmas [:P].

cheers,

H.

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It really seems to me that the Bulldog, and Mugen in general, were an underrated 80s brand who at least tried to be innovative during the 1/10th Buggy boom period, rather than copying Tamiya and others. When the popularity of 1/10th electric buggies dipped in the early 90s, Mugen quit altogether, and have condemned themselves ever since to churning out 1/8th Gas performance buggies that (frankly) all look the same and all look like every other 1/8th gas performance buggy made in the past decade or more. [B)].

Ok, I'm guilty of generalising a bit. But style-wise and realism-wise, I think innovation was thrown out the window.

Sadly, Mugen's own website recalls nothing of their 80s cars. No company history. They went, almost overnight, from being innovative medium-players in the 80s, to something of a niche scale bore. Hard to believe it's even the same company. IMO.

I agree 100%. I have come back to RC cars after a 20+ years break. Every car design looks the same in each class!![:0]

Circuit 1:8th is dull to watch, 1:10th buggys are cool to watch but how much! 1:8th Rallycross, all the cars are same, all the circuits are all the same. What about the early 80's fast grass circuits that 2wd cars could kick-###, and what about all the different sizes and types of cars, way to confusing for me... I think I will stick to my old stuff for the time being.. [:)]

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This is my first post on the forum guys... Eventhough I've been a member since 2002, I finally got off my duff and subscribed today! I've been involved in RC (boats and cars) since 1975 era and at that time hung out with Joel Johnson and his father Gary racing nitro boats.

Clock forward a decade...

In 1987 I helped start the short lived Innovations Racing Center in San Jose, CA. Then I had a my Porsche 959, a modified Blackfoot, chain driven Yokomo's and later the Schumacher CATs.

Move forward about another decade...

I raced in the #2 (second) Tamiya Championship Series race held in 1994 at the RAMS track in San Jose, CA uSA. Luckily I won the stock 4WD class with my totally stock Mercedes EVO TA01. Check out photos here - enjoy >> http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=4692&id=588.

So, to answer your original question, yes in the 1994 TCS race we raced kits bone stock out of the box right along side the modifieds in the same heats using the mechanical speed controls, silver can motors and plastic bushings. I stayed out of the modified guys way (most of the time[:D] ) and this led to my win! Eric Sands handed me a fresh shrink wrapped NIB Lotus F103B kit as well as the huge trophy to all class winners. Very nice.

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Backlash where did you use to race in the 80s ? I raced at carine in Perth. I was the first to get a zerda in my area i used to win every race when i first got it. 

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Whoa! Brought back from 2005 :o

This has to be some kind of new record?! :D

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2 hours ago, OCD said:

Whoa! Brought back from 2005 :o

This has to be some kind of new record?! :D

"Olden days" is a relative term, it seems...

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Yes excellent topic! I got into it around my 13th birthday. Never could find a racing league, let alone another kid with an rc car. I thought my Wild One was great though.

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6E8DDE5F-4905-455E-AF9B-365DA967FF7E_zps

kinda cool to read what I and others wrote many years ago.  Here in San Jose we have a killer indoor dirt off road track but I really have no desire to race anymore. I prefer to just driving them and having fun.  I’ve been able to get a few friends hooked on them over the years and they’ve have bought cars to run together  over the years I always had cool cars for my son to run but he never really got into the hobby into the drifting and crawler scene really exploded.  Now he has a few cars and trucks he has bought on his own.  Below is a pic of my son’s Yeti from an Easter beach trip.

C089A1FB-FF5E-4ABB-84E4-33BC0FA5824E_zps

 

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On ‎9‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 9:09 AM, Wade b said:

Was a good read lol. Is backlash still on here? 

Yes, I'm still here..

Its interesting reading through this thread again...

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On 10/05/2018 at 10:00 PM, Backlash said:

Yes, I'm still here..

Its interesting reading through this thread again...

What a great read.  Where did you used to race in the 80s mate? 

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