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SladeHayes
08-14-2001, 10:24 PM
I wanted to start a thread that is about either things that are gone, forgotten, or sorely missed in the sport. Most of them would be things that are from long ago...or at least a while back.

Here is my list:

Lake Whippoorwill Speedway - Oh how I miss running there. It was the coolest, and probably the fastest way to break a car there has ever been. For the people that are not aware, it was basically a big concrete ('laser poured' no less!) donut, that was terribly hard to get used to, but once you did, it was like crack. I still get upset when I think about racing there. It was the neatest track to run on, and was even better to watch races there. You always knew that nobody, either pro or novice had it all on their side. Kids that ran there once would win a big race, and people that were pro would come off of the stand in horror after destroying car after car.

The Custom Works Dominator - The idea of a 4 wheel drive dirt oval car is like a bad idea and a brilliant idea all in one. Bad because you knew that you would not have a huge draw for them, and a good one in that it was a SICK car to drive. Someone must have said 'Hmm we can go fast with 7 cells, and a 4 wheel drive car, lets put it on a dirt oval, with a chain drive, and some old yokomo parts to hold it together', to someone else must have said 'Fantastic! Lets build it!' They were evil geniuses. It like was a dirt slot car, that would leap off of the turns, with a big nasty loose chain doing all of the driving between the front and rear ends. My dad still has one, which I thought he was NUTS for buying initially, but now I would build my own oval track just to drive it on by myself. Probably the coolest car there has ever been. I only hope that there are still people out there driving them, or better yet racing them.

The Losi C4 - This was the car that was the predecessor to the Yokomo Super dogfighter and the Associated YZ-10. The c4 was this prototype chassis that they built, and had a few of for a couple of years. As I understood it, they were working on it with Yokomo, and it had really innovative things (at the time) in the design. I wanted one so bad, that I would call Losi about every two weeks to see when they were going to be shipping them. The production YZ-10 was similar, but not the c4. Very cool car.

The old (OLD) RC-10 - You all know of this (The GOLD one!), and I still love the car. It was so much fun to take apart and work on, with all of those stupid aluminum screws on the front end, the goofy little metal support tubes that held the front plate to the chassis, and the DUMB stock servo saver/steering system. The funny part of having one was when we first realized to run the batteries down the center of the chassis, and not across the middle. I have fond memories of drilling out everything, and taking the dremel to everything on there as well. The stupid 3-piece wheels, the diff that had to be torn down between races at times, the leaking shocks...all of it...what a cool car. I know that it may seem like I am bashing it a bit, but it was the neatest thing. I got so many kids in my neighborhood mad with it, because they all had hornets or grasshoppers, and had an RC-10.

Thanks for playing along.

jeepinator
08-15-2001, 03:01 PM
Top notch, quality post my friend !
The only one I can relate with is the RC10, but the other experiences you described sure seem worthy of great memmories.

What ever happened to Whippoorwill ? Did they close it to RC ? Out of biz ? Why can't you play there any more ?
I remember reading the insane speed run articles in RCCA (or at least articles about that place).

Here is a pic of the original RC10 (I hope this is not getting reduntant, but I just love to post it. I love the car !):

http://www.theshreves.com/pics/6010b.jpg

I have more pics HERE (http://www.theshreves.com/rc_stuff)

Interceptor
08-15-2001, 03:52 PM
The ski kits for old buggies for running in the snow. I always wanted a set for my Striker.

SladeHayes
08-15-2001, 07:53 PM
Jeep,

Yeah that is it right there. I got mine on Christmas, and about wet my pants when I did. I forgot about the goofy wing nuts for the rear wheels. I think that I used them about 3 times, and then switched to regular nuts.

About The Whip, as I remember it, the owner of the track Bob Hosch (there are a million stories right there...but I digress) used to own the campground property that the track was on, but sold that. The track was still allowed to hold races and large events, but I think that he was finally bought out by the new campground owners. The last time that I remember anyone running there was in late '95, and right before I went to college. It is sad because I still go to Daytona from time to time, and pass by the exit to get to the track, and it brings back all of the memories of the good times.
http://www.rcracecars.com/whip/

Here is a link that I found. It pretty much speaks for itself. When I first saw it I was nearly speechless. My dad won concours at the event too, and won just about every other concours that was held there.

InspGadgt
08-15-2001, 08:43 PM
I miss pan car racing on cleaned tracks with sugar water sprayed in the turns. And stock pan was A through E main in 1/10th alone.

SladeHayes
08-15-2001, 09:37 PM
we used to use cheap orange soda. i remember having to go to the store and getting a bunch of it.

jrkara
08-15-2001, 10:44 PM
I miss my first r/c car, a Tamiya Fox, did I think I was cool. Also, I want the 7 original type RC10's I had back. Wherever that guy is that bought the whole lot, I HATE YOU.
Jim

HauntedMyst
08-16-2001, 12:26 AM
I miss the way Jack Tripper used to fall down when he would get nervous as he hid his girlfriend in the bedroom from Mr. Ropper. I also miss the way Janet and Chrissy would get confused and do something silly which would only add to the whacky predictable hijinx. TV used to have so much more depth...

Oh yeah, I miss the days when they had 2 Sausage McMuffins with Egg for 2 bucks at McDonalds.

[ 08-16-2001: Message edited by: HauntedMyst ]

SteveP
08-16-2001, 01:58 AM
Does anyone remember what a "bump box" is? Haven't seen those in a long time, And I acutally think they still can enhance performance.

Slade, it almost makes me sick to see such a cool track like the Whip mothballed like that. I was there MANY times and really enjoyed the racing action. Lots of good memories.

SladeHayes
08-16-2001, 06:37 PM
Somewhere in my garage still IS a bump box. I made mine from a blue radio shack 'project box' , two old 1200 7 cell packs, a big automotive toggle switch, and 2 alligator clips. I still am not sure what it did, but I had/have one.

I miss when Wally would come home and whine to Beaver about how much of a creep Eddie is, and how that he doesn't know how to ask some girl to the school dance. Then June would bring the boys cookies and it was all better.

SteveP
08-16-2001, 08:11 PM
What was the name of that killer steak house that was in the area? Knarfed a few steaks in that joint....

SladeHayes
08-17-2001, 03:24 AM
Steve,

The steakhouse in Orlando, or in Tampa?
That might be the most important question right there.

bullfrog
08-17-2001, 03:37 AM
lol i miss the original POWER RANGERS!!! and gummie bears the cartoon and care bears man when i was little those were my shows.

SteveP
08-17-2001, 07:35 AM
Slade - I believe it's in Orlando. The one where, if you eat like a 5 pound steak and all the fixin's in less than 30 minutes you get the meal for free (18 mins., thank you). Got my picture on the wall! :D

Interceptor
08-17-2001, 09:00 AM
G I Joe, Transformers, G Force, Starblazers, Speed Racer, and Voltron. How is that for old school? How about when Tony Hawk was part of Powell Peralta's Bones Brigade? MTV Actually played rock music, and rad was only played on a 30 minute show called Yo MTV Raps? How about when kids could play army with cap guns and no one called the police?

bullfrog
08-17-2001, 11:59 AM
and u would say the F word and get arrested! :D and way back in my grandmas day it was considered " lude " to wear a bathinsuit that showed your arms and legs.

[ 08-17-2001: Message edited by: bullfrog ]

Bj747
08-17-2001, 02:38 PM
Not as old school as some of these posts but my FIRST REAL R/C CAR, the Playtron Lynx :D . Now that was a real car, chocolate chip tires, shaft drive, cross mounted battery pack held in with the wire, gear diff that always flew apart when you needed it most. ;) Those were the days, OH and I almost forgot, the ONE SHOCK front suspension. Ooooohhhhh. I still own it, maybe I'll post a pic sometime, I almost have enough spare parts to build a second one, bought this box of spare parts the LHS had :cool: .

1FST2M6
08-17-2001, 02:46 PM
.. the only real friend he had was his Dog.. Arrow... ok maybe a bit too old school..

still have my first blackfoot.. torp diff, and the stock one with the lame hex shaped dog bones what were they thinking? and my Ultima Pro graphite that wasn't ever fast but sure seemed it compared to my truck.

roadrage
08-17-2001, 02:59 PM
Realy?? Sugar and orange soda? I can see how thats good for traction but you guys must have had ant problems. I'm not sure if this is old school but what the heck. I realy like the Tamiya Lunch box. I know the newer version is the Midnight Pumpkin. But I like the Lunch box alot. Oil shocks are great, but friction shocks in a bashing truck like the Lunch Box is insane! Talk about an out of control feeling bounching all over your lawn. And the wheelies rock! :D The good days.

Serius Black
08-17-2001, 03:01 PM
The Whip seemed so popular, it's really sad to see those pictures, almost like a grave site.

SladeHayes
08-18-2001, 03:51 AM
Steve,

I remember hearing about that place now. For some reason, we would NEVER go there. I think that there was someone we knew that had a bad experience there with one of the factory teams, them getting rowdy, or something like that...so we never went. Now that I think about it, they talked about the place all of the time.

I just remembered something even more fleeting than the Whip itself, and that was the electric endurance races that they had there. They ran like 100, 200 and 500 lap races there where you would have to come in for pit stops. There were all sorts of odd looking cars in the pits that were modified for this, but the weirdest thing was the BoLink car that had a big metal loop coming out of the roof of the car. The driver would come into the pits, the pit guy would grab the loop, pull up in it which would release the battery tray (they had this odd saddle pack tray that was part of the car) from the underneath of the chassis, with out doing anything else but lifting up on the loop. Then the pit guy would take the car, and slide it back and down over a little stand that held a charged set of cells and then put it down and it would drive off. This all took about 3 seconds, and was amazing to watch. Someone, somewhere has photos of this, I know it. If I have to I will email BoLink, and force them to admit to this era of their company! That was weird.