Tether car

Modern tether car track surrounded by safety walls

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.

Basics

The little cars are powered by a non-radio controlled model aeroplane engine, ( two stroke, glow plug, piston liner, etc. ) and run on fuel supplied by a fuel tank within the car. Over the past couple of years, electric motor driven cars, powered by batteries, have also emerged.[1]

History

Tether cars were developed beginning in the 1920s–1930s 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.

Today

There are tracks in Australia (Brisbane and Sydney), New Zealand, Switzerland, Estonia, Ukraine, Russia, America and more. World Championships are held every 3 years, and the recent 2013 World Championships were held in Basel, Switzerland. Today, tether cars are run throughout the world.

World Records

Class Date Driver Speed
km/hmph
WMCR I (1.5 cm³)December 9, 2006Sweden Jan-Erik Falk268.697166.961
WMCR II (2.5 cm³)May 31, 2008Estonia Priit Hoyer283.942176.433
WMCR III (3.5 cm³)August 13, 2004Estonia Mart Sepp293.375182.295
WMCR IV (5 cm³)September 9, 2013Estonia Tonu Sepp 317,124197.057
WMCR V (10 cm³)March 29, 2009Italy Gualtiero Picco 344.959214.358

See also

References

  1. ↑ Vector Racing (Electric powered tether cars)

External links