Ahhh the smell of bean oil on a Saturday afternoon was definitely something to look forward to. Me and my friends had all the COX powered stuff I had a control line plane, a trike chopper thing, a funny car that ran down the string with a knot at the end for the parachute to open. I always got in trouble from my mom for using my pillow to catch our cars in. Also had a couple of cars that went around in circles on strings. I have great memories of me and my good friends spending our whole summers running, working on , and modifying our COX powered vehicles.
Same smell with all the glow diesel nitro/castor oil 2-4 stroke engines. From the .049 to the big ones I use on planes...the .65's Just the bigger ones make a lot more noise.
I just finally started getting finger prints back from rubbing them raw with all the failed attempts at starting my van back in the day. Now, all those nights of sore, castor-soaked fingers and hurt feelings come flowing back. LoL.. As I read all the comments, I am comforted to know that I am not the only one who suffered this fate at the wheels of a super-cool, mostly quiet, small yellow van! 😁
Thanks for the video. 1976 sounds about right. I would have been 10. Got one for Christmas. My Dad got it started ONCE. Very disappointing Christmas. LOL It was a display piece all my life. I still have it. This inspired me to at least get it out and clean it up...maybe a little Armour All to shine her up. Still has the original decals, a bit crooked being applied by a 10 year old kid.
I started mine a bunch of times - I had the Vette But every time I put the tires to the ground even if the thing hit a BB sized pebble, it would flip. These are one of those toys that should be for 16 +
Wanna sell it?? I'd like to get my boy something like this, but there aren't any "simple" nitro cars around anymore. They are all $500, complicated, and go 70+mph. There's nothing small, slow and simple to be bought new these days
I would like to thank you for this. My uncle bought me one for my birthday around 1975 and we never did get it to run. Cool to see it running after all these years. The little toy van that made kids cry. 😂
Brings back memories of a Cox .049 tethered hovercraft... 95% of time starting it, 5% running it. Now I fly an RC drone 3-1/4 miles range with clear HD video and 25 minute flight time. Technology!
I had the Testors Hovercraft & ran it several times including over water(it had foam in the body) Testors engines weren't very reliable as cox engines.
Had the same experience with my Cox .049s mounted on airplanes! Flip for two hours, fly for two minutes... This guy would have been right at home in my 1950s childhood neighborhood. I can tell he still gets excited playing with that stuff. Hope he shares this with his kids. Gas-powered model cars and airplanes were the real deal. Computer games don't come close...
That's how I am with my son, I have 5th scale Rc's running on gasoline to expensive for him to break...I told him to be thankful for the Traxxas he gets to run... LOL!!
My bro sent me link to this, Wow, my first nitro powered toy in late '60's I believe, or early "70's. I got bored with the cam steering after seeing each pattern a couple of times and tore apart a cheap RC car to repurpose the steering servo (not like a hobby servo you can buy, but built into the car), to make the van a RC steerable unit. I had high hopes of it being awesome and the envy of my friends, and it did work too. Only problem was the steering was reversed due to servo mounting at different position front of or behind front wheels, don't remember now. But it sure made it exciting to play with again and not as big of a hit as I'd hoped. I wasn't even a teenager then and this behavior led me to becoming a communication technician in the Army a decade later. I now Know that had I swapped the 2 wires that went to the outside terminals of the RC controller steering wheel it would have fixed it. Oh well.😢 Nice find you have there though. Thanks for sharing.
I just today (02/2025) came across this. I would fill the fuel tank, block the vent, squeeze in a little more fuel to purge and prime, block the air intake on the front of the engine while starting. Fired right up. Back in '74 or so that is. Great video.
Christmas day 1976, Mid morning. On our way to Granny's house for dinner like we always did. We happen to pass by my school buddys house, and he waves at me as he is running his Brand new Cox Van in the street. I couldn't wait to get back from granny's so I could head to Joes place on my bike. I made it to Joes the next day and we ran that Cox Van till dark.
I had the same van...., seems like yesterday! I used to wrap a shoelace around the starter and give it a pull. The continuous cranking would create heat and would get it started much quicker!
I had a funny car. It had a string or fishing line.,that went through two holes on the bottom. You nail the string from A to B...when it got to the end .,it triggered a cutoff plate to the intake..and would shut off engine. Tired probably turned at 5000rpm. Good to see 'The Van' 😬👍👍
My dad bought me one that was on a string. There was an arm sticking out the side, and you attached a string to that, the other end went to a nail in the pavement. It just went around in cirlces, but to us kids in the early 80s it was cool to watch and listen to. It only ran that one time though, the rest of the time we played with it like a giant Hot Wheels. God knows what happened to it.
I've heard stories of my dad's one he had as a kid, it was the purple dune buggy. I really should find one on ebay or something and restore it to working order.
I like the glo driver adapter plug instead of using the old yellow clip they gave you. I just was given some old futuristic looking Indy car by cox that has a similar setup but a finger flip wheel to start it. Sad that they got away from the old pull start engines like I had in my dune buggies. Fun vid. Tks🏁
IN 1981 I got my first aircraft radio control, and I had the idea of buying a COX car and putting the RC in it. This is when I sadly discovered that stores no longer carried COX vehicles.
I remember those as radio control has come a long way now as I've thought back when I had the red car with the 049 engine and it took a time and a half to get it started,but now it's easy as a simple switch with electric cars now!.
What memories! I had the Sand Blaster! as I watched this video, I could smell the fuel the raw and the combusted fumes again. On of the things i would do back then was remove the cyln head and with mom's emory board, clean the piston crown. and I removed the muffler. It was a little louder, but I seemed to have quicker and better starts.
That little knob used to crank the engine over would tear up a kids thumb when it was one of those days that the engine was finicky, and just didn't want to start. Been there MANY times as a kid.... 😬
1977-78 I had the '57 Chevy also a funny car that ran on a string and release a parachute with a knot towards the end of the string. Was mostly into Airplanes cox & testors.
Kids these days wouldn't like that toy because it's not instantaneous fun. Kids need things to be WiFi connected, multiplayer, Bluetooth, etc for it to be interesting.. very cool
I wouldn't dare mod it, but it is honestly tempting to add some servos, a control board and a throttle assembly and go RC with this. If they were more common, I'd say go for it, the gas RC Cox were fun and quite powerful! But as it is, Cox and Testors will never come back with such classics. Better to go with Traxxas and MRC Tamaya. Or the high powered LiPO battery ones.
I received one for Christmas when I was a about 12 years old back in 1970’s. These were popular back then as battery powered RC cars were very expensive back then. I only got it to run a couple of time and then the starter battery went dead so I never got it to run again. but I still remember the sweet stench of the fuel exhaust. I also had a cox gas powered air plane that I had better luck getting the engine to work in. I flew that a few time but these Gas engine Cox RC vehicles were very loud and made allot of noise so I did not have very many places where I could run them. I had the Cox Van, Air plane and Jeep.
Mee too. Check my cox cars here on RUclips...I got them running great..need the good battery and good glow plug.....ruclips.net/video/PEBDRdHRLac/видео.html
Sent this vid to my brother he had this exact van there were different steering cams that came with it went sploink right into a deep puddle once. I forget what became of it I’ll ask him. I think he traded a skateboard for it or something
The "Thimble Drome Glow Fuel" sold by Cox contained 15% nitromethane, and the Cox engines were designed to run on this fuel. They are difficult to start and do not run well on fuel that is just methanol and oil.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
These Cox engines have a unique and memorable smell. Once you smelled it you never forget that smell.
And that taste too 😏
Ahhh the smell of bean oil on a Saturday afternoon was definitely something to look forward to. Me and my friends had all the COX powered stuff I had a control line plane, a trike chopper thing, a funny car that ran down the string with a knot at the end for the parachute to open. I always got in trouble from my mom for using my pillow to catch our cars in. Also had a couple of cars that went around in circles on strings. I have great memories of me and my good friends spending our whole summers running, working on , and modifying our COX powered vehicles.
Same smell with all the glow diesel nitro/castor oil 2-4 stroke engines. From the .049 to the big ones I use on planes...the .65's Just the bigger ones make a lot more noise.
Castor Oil ... which I have been running in my Vintage Racing Karts for decades... it's a wonderful smell!!!
I believe it was a mix of nitromethane, methanol, and castor oil
I just finally started getting finger prints back from rubbing them raw with all the failed attempts at starting my van back in the day. Now, all those nights of sore, castor-soaked fingers and hurt feelings come flowing back. LoL..
As I read all the comments, I am comforted to know that I am not the only one who suffered this fate at the wheels of a super-cool, mostly quiet, small yellow van! 😁
Absolutely! That knob would tear up your finger and thumb... good ole days tho..
Thanks for the video. 1976 sounds about right. I would have been 10. Got one for Christmas. My Dad got it started ONCE. Very disappointing Christmas. LOL It was a display piece all my life. I still have it. This inspired me to at least get it out and clean it up...maybe a little Armour All to shine her up. Still has the original decals, a bit crooked being applied by a 10 year old kid.
I started mine a bunch of times - I had the Vette
But every time I put the tires to the ground even if the thing hit a BB sized pebble, it would flip.
These are one of those toys that should be for 16 +
Wanna sell it?? I'd like to get my boy something like this, but there aren't any "simple" nitro cars around anymore. They are all $500, complicated, and go 70+mph. There's nothing small, slow and simple to be bought new these days
@@davelowets Sorry Dave, I sold it a few months ago now.
Brings back memories you looked like a young man staring that thing I had the dune buggy had a little pull start good times
I would like to thank you for this. My uncle bought me one for my birthday around 1975 and we never did get it to run. Cool to see it running after all these years.
The little toy van that made kids cry. 😂
Had one as a kid and my dad never could get it going. Good to see one finally run.
Thanks
Brings back memories of a Cox .049 tethered hovercraft... 95% of time starting it, 5% running it. Now I fly an RC drone 3-1/4 miles range with clear HD video and 25 minute flight time. Technology!
I had the hovercraft also. the last time i used it it caught fire and melted a bit!
Micheal Ridenoour - Feel your pain..l I traded a pretty good HO-scale train set & layout fir that gas-powered abomination!
I had the Testors Hovercraft & ran it several times including over water(it had foam in the body) Testors engines weren't very reliable as cox engines.
Метанол 50 ..нитрометан 30 .масло касторовое 20..по книге Советской 1972 г
Thanks for sharing this. Mine is sitting in the garage waiting to be restored. I appreciate seeing one run again.
I had one of those in the mid '70s and put a Hobby Shack am radio in it with one servo for steering.
Keep on Truckin!!!!
Came across this today. Brought back alot of memories. Flipped my bicycle upside down and pedaled the back wheel, using tire to turn crank wheel.
Had the same experience with my Cox .049s mounted on airplanes! Flip for two hours, fly for two minutes... This guy would have been right at home in my 1950s childhood neighborhood. I can tell he still gets excited playing with that stuff. Hope he shares this with his kids. Gas-powered model cars and airplanes were the real deal. Computer games don't come close...
When I was a kid back in the'70's, all the cool Dads had these cool COX products. And they never let us touch em!
That's how I am with my son, I have 5th scale Rc's running on gasoline to expensive for him to break...I told him to be thankful for the Traxxas he gets to run... LOL!!
50 years later playing with a cox car on a Saturday morning… the best. The struggle to start them was part of the journey.
My bro sent me link to this,
Wow, my first nitro powered toy in late '60's I believe, or early "70's.
I got bored with the cam steering after seeing each pattern a couple of times and tore apart a cheap RC car to repurpose the steering servo (not like a hobby servo you can buy, but built into the car), to make the van a RC steerable unit.
I had high hopes of it being awesome and the envy of my friends, and it did work too.
Only problem was the steering was reversed due to servo mounting at different position front of or behind front wheels, don't remember now.
But it sure made it exciting to play with again and not as big of a hit as I'd hoped. I wasn't even a teenager then and this behavior led me to becoming a communication technician in the Army a decade later.
I now Know that had I swapped the 2 wires that went to the outside terminals of the RC controller steering wheel it would have fixed it. Oh well.😢
Nice find you have there though. Thanks for sharing.
I just today (02/2025) came across this. I would fill the fuel tank, block the vent, squeeze in a little more fuel to purge and prime, block the air intake on the front of the engine while starting. Fired right up. Back in '74 or so that is. Great video.
Brings back a lot of Great Memories...... spent hours playing with this
Popped up on my feed. Very nice, and what a cool thing to do with your son.
Pretty amazing technology, for the 70's! Had a unique drive train, and steering system!
Cox made them in the 60s too
Christmas day 1976, Mid morning. On our way to Granny's house for dinner like we always did. We happen to pass by my school buddys house, and he waves at me as he is running his Brand new Cox Van in the street. I couldn't wait to get back from granny's so I could head to Joes place on my bike. I made it to Joes the next day and we ran that Cox Van till dark.
Ive had most every Cox powered (toy) 90% of the fun was getting it to run LoL
I had those too. the 049 and 020 were a pain in the ass to start when I was 12 and the same now in 2020.
I had this very same van way back in the 70’s.
I had the same van...., seems like yesterday! I used to wrap a shoelace around the starter and give it a pull. The continuous cranking would create heat and would get it started much quicker!
I had a funny car. It had a string or fishing line.,that went through two holes on the bottom. You nail the string from A to B...when it got to the end .,it triggered a cutoff plate to the intake..and would shut off engine. Tired probably turned at 5000rpm. Good to see 'The Van' 😬👍👍
Keep the glow battery on until it's running better, no need to rush and remove it.
My dad bought me one that was on a string. There was an arm sticking out the side, and you attached a string to that, the other end went to a nail in the pavement. It just went around in cirlces, but to us kids in the early 80s it was cool to watch and listen to. It only ran that one time though, the rest of the time we played with it like a giant Hot Wheels. God knows what happened to it.
This video is a perfect illustration of why I only played with my Baja Bug and P51 Mustang 4 or 5 times as a kid... 😆🤣
Had me on of these when I was 12,now 50,also came with different discs for different driving patterns.
I had the exact same van. It was called a snap start. My hand still hurts and that was 50 years ago.
I had the 049 dune buggy with the pull start in 1970.
Back in the late sixties and early seventies, we used to flip our “banana bikes” over and start the motor off of the back wheel
The cam steering system was ingenious.
I've heard stories of my dad's one he had as a kid, it was the purple dune buggy. I really should find one on ebay or something and restore it to working order.
Dad bought me and my brother to Dune Buggy purple in the chopper 5:00
LOL that's a true representation of the cox engines.
I remember seeing the older kids with these in the late 70s.
Very nice ! I had one 12yrs old 1972 nicely done 🎉
Hey, at least you guys had Cox stuff. We were poor so we had to have Testors.
lol...just bought one for $4.00 at local goodwill, complete and in nice condition,
thats pretty cool i just starting looking this toy van up cause i saw it as a winable toy at the back of a fantastic 4 comic book
Me too I got 2 of them mint in sealed box for .50 each!!!!
@@Smodlee i got a box of them in factory seal and they gave me 50$ to pick it up :)
KHan Reckless Sick!!! Unreal !!! Lucky f'n You 😜👍👍
@@Smodlee A NIB Cox.010 will easily cost you $200.oo. The ones you get at these stores are old and punched out!
I like the glo driver adapter plug instead of using the old yellow clip they gave you. I just was given some old futuristic looking Indy car by cox that has a similar setup but a finger flip wheel to start it. Sad that they got away from the old pull start engines like I had in my dune buggies. Fun vid.
Tks🏁
Nice.... Thanks for showing your car and how to start it.
Really nice piece of mechanic😊😊😊
I asked for one as a kid and got a beating , should have been more specific 😭
Friend had one as a kid. Would run it in a parking lot. Good to see one again.
Ahhhh.... those were good days.... once you get a taste of model fuel you never forget that either.... 😂
IN 1981 I got my first aircraft radio control, and I had the idea of buying a COX car and putting the RC in it.
This is when I sadly discovered that stores no longer carried COX vehicles.
Loved my Baja bug. 1973.
I remember those as radio control has come a long way now as I've thought back when I had the red car with the 049 engine and it took a time and a half to get it started,but now it's easy as a simple switch with electric cars now!.
Scooby doobie doo! I had a 57 chevy and the hellicopter good times and dune buggy
What memories! I had the Sand Blaster! as I watched this video, I could smell the fuel the raw and the combusted fumes again. On of the things i would do back then was remove the cyln head and with mom's emory board, clean the piston crown. and I removed the muffler. It was a little louder, but I seemed to have quicker and better starts.
Man this thing's rad! I want one.
Very nice video! Thanks!
I had the Cox GT car when I was around that age. Crashed that much less than my Cox P51 😃
Long live the SHRIKE!!!
That little knob used to crank the engine over would tear up a kids thumb when it was one of those days that the engine was finicky, and just didn't want to start. Been there MANY times as a kid.... 😬
I remember the sore fingers well.the 60 year old me would tell the teen me to wrap a string around that knob and make my own pull start.
1977-78 I had the '57 Chevy also a funny car that ran on a string and release a parachute with a knot towards the end of the string. Was mostly into Airplanes cox & testors.
What a wonderful time!
Still have my gtp car, hasn't ran in years. It was fast when I first got it and ran it
just like i remember a PITA to start .I had the hippie van and a cox formula racer
The neighbors must love you.
Thats really neat!!!
Kids these days wouldn't like that toy because it's not instantaneous fun. Kids need things to be WiFi connected, multiplayer, Bluetooth, etc for it to be interesting.. very cool
Amazing, didn’t think those little engines could run at such low revs. What does it do? About 100000 mpg! 🤪
DavidAustin - The Cox engines could easily rev at between 2000 to 20,000 RPM and still get 100000 mpg!
Ive got a van kinda like this one but the crank i will call it has a fan built into it and the body of the van has a tank molded into it.
Rubber super ball mounted on a bolt and placed in an electric drill....it was the perfect electric starter for these vans.
I wouldn't dare mod it, but it is honestly tempting to add some servos, a control board and a throttle assembly and go RC with this. If they were more common, I'd say go for it, the gas RC Cox were fun and quite powerful!
But as it is, Cox and Testors will never come back with such classics. Better to go with Traxxas and MRC Tamaya. Or the high powered LiPO battery ones.
Got a control line plane with the cox motor when I was a kid. But was never able to get a starter kit are fuel for it.
My neighbor had one and we wore that thing out lol.
Leave the glow battery on longer , until you get the engine tuned , and you can tune it to a higher rpm for a faster run .
The Cox Action Van
I received one for Christmas when I was a about 12 years old back in 1970’s. These were popular back then as battery powered RC cars were very expensive back then. I only got it to run a couple of time and then the starter battery went dead so I never got it to run again. but I still remember the sweet stench of the fuel exhaust. I also had a cox gas powered air plane that I had better luck getting the engine to work in. I flew that a few time but these Gas engine Cox RC vehicles were very loud and made allot of noise so I did not have very many places where I could run them. I had the Cox Van, Air plane and Jeep.
Mee too. Check my cox cars here on RUclips...I got them running great..need the good battery and good glow plug.....ruclips.net/video/PEBDRdHRLac/видео.html
Buddy of mine had a Cox dune buggy with a recoil start.
What was the fuel plutonium?
Exactly why those cars disappeared, nobody wanted to deal with the hastle of just getting one to run 😤😤
i want one
Great 😊
(Posted by Rick Pickell) I seem to remember 2 1/2 to three turns out on the needle was a good place to start those motors.
Sent this vid to my brother he had this exact van there were different steering cams that came with it went sploink right into a deep puddle once. I forget what became of it I’ll ask him. I think he traded a skateboard for it or something
What is that glow plug ignitor? Im looking for one. Very nice Cox van!
Where can i find thr glow battery
Pain in the a** to start
awesome buddy I remember
Excelente
That looks like a nitro engine not gas. Am I correct?
Yep, using glow plug starter...
Had the first type. Just reminded me I'm pissed my mom threw it away..
I didn’t know they made cars.
I had the dune buggy that had a pull start.
It’s easier to start if you engage the drive and push start it
Super cool
So how do you control that thing, is it just supposed to run wild?
Welcome to toys of the old days 😄
I never could get on started.
good job
Five years ago I forgot to like.
So I'm looking for my final Stone...
The "Thimble Drome Glow Fuel" sold by Cox contained 15% nitromethane, and the Cox engines were designed to run on this fuel. They are difficult to start and do not run well on fuel that is just methanol and oil.
If it had a 049 engine I probably had it at one time or another I had one of these vans and I think I ran it one time ...
Will Run a 3 blade Prop...
12x6 or 12x8 with the 600KV motor
Gotta lean it out clockwise it loaded up
How do you control and steer it?
It has came with 4 discs that controlled the steering pattern , turned buy the power of the engine .
@@rickbennett1292 so it had steering, but it was a driven system that made a pattern?
@@greg0063 yes , as the rear wheels turned it simultaneously turn a disc that controlled the steering . pretty crafty setup .
@@rickbennett1292 pretty cool, I always just thought they were fixed in a circle.
Had one, it was blue...also one of the dune buggy's.....
What a cumbersome way of starting a car, couldn’t they give it electric start?
I dont know how on your street in us theire never any car ... in france 1 car all 2 minutes minimum ....
I have the same engine in mini buggy in 1980...