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Tether car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tether car
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tether Cars are model racing cars powered by miniature internal combustion engines and tethered to a central post. Unlike radio control cars, the driver has no remote control over the model's speed or steering.

Contents
1 Basics 2 History 3 Today 3.1 World Records 4 See also 5 External links

Modern tether car track surrounded by safety walls

Basics
The cars are about 1224 inches (3061 cm) long, 34 inches (7.610 cm) wide, run on rubber tires 34 inches (7.610 cm) in diameter, have a cast metal body (usually magnesium and aluminum, but also fiberglass and wood bodies), and have robust gear drives. Engines are nitro or methanol fueled, with displacements from 0.09 to 0.61 cubic inches (1.5 to 10.0 cm3). Early engines (prior to 1960s) had spark ignition systems. Later engines use glow plug ignition. The cars are tethered to a central post hitch by a steel cable and run around a circular track of 65 feet (19.9 m) in diameter.

History
Tether cars were developed beginning in the 1920s30s and still are built, raced and collected today. First made by hobby craftsmen, tether cars were later produced in small numbers by commercial manufacturers such as Dooling Brothers (California), Dick McCoy (Duro-Matic Products), Garold Frymire (Fryco Engineering) BB Korn, and many others. Original examples of the early cars, made from 1930s to the 1960s, are avidly collected today and command prices in the thousands of dollars.

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Tether car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Today
Current racing activity in the U.S. is governed by the American Miniature Racing Car Association with three racetracks in NY, CA and IN. Contemporary cars run at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) or more giving them the reputation as fastest model cars in the world. After push-starting the car the driver decides when to take the speed measurement. As soon as he presses a button the time for 8 laps, which equal to 500 meters (1,600 ft), is accurately measured to 1/1000 s.

World Records
Class WMCR I (1.5cm) Date December 9, 2006 Driver Jan-Erik Falk Priit Hoyer Mart Sepp Jan-Erik Falk Speed km/h mph 268.697 166.961 283.942 176.433 293.375 182.295 310.708 193.065

WMCR II (2.5cm) May 31, 2008 WMCR III (3.5cm) August 13, 2004 WMCR IV (5cm) July 1, 2012 WMCR V (10cm) March 29, 2009

Gualtiero Picco 344.959 214.358

See also
Cox Models A former manufacturer of ready to run tether cars Control line flying model

External links
Vintage Miniature Gas Powered Race Cars (http://www.tethercar.net), private website covering the early history of tether cars AMRCA - American Miniature Racing Car Association (http://www.amrca.com) WMCR - World Organisation for Model Car Racing (http://www.wmcr.net) Vintage Miniature Gas Powered Race Cars (http://www.tethercar.net), private website covering the early history of tether cars GMBK - Gvle ModellBil Klubb (http://www.gmbk.org) Speed Modelcar, Most updated site with results and info Worldwide (http://www.speedmodelcar.com)
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Tether car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tether_car&oldid=558692678" Categories: Toy cars and trucks This page was last modified on 7 June 2013 at 01:27. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

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