My old friend Matthew had a tether car when he was about 10 years old, it was a beautiful red racer with a .19 engine, and it ran like greased lightning... However, he didn't want to tether it, so one day he fired it up and turned it loose on the street in front of his house. The car did great for about 50 yards, then veered wildly to one side, spun, and hit the curb. By the time it stopped, it had slammed into the neighbors car, doing about 60 mph. It left a dent and a caused quite a racket, and Matthew got his backside whooped. This was around the Summer of 1968, and these cars were made of metal and were pretty heavy. It looked like their car was hit with a baseball bat. The funny part was that the tether car didn't stop running, and just set there on its top screaming like a weedwhacker while he chased it around and around trying to stop it. Ever since then, it has set on his shelf as a piece of his childhood history, which he tells to anyone who will listen.
I grew up with these things. My Dad was a bad ass u control model airplane stunt flyer. He was a national champion in the 50's. He was also into tether cars from the 50's to the 80's, and raced very competitively in National competitions. You are right. They are almost completely hand made. My Dad would just get the rough aluminum cast car and mill it himself. The fuel tanks and many of the parts were hand made. Once he even made an engine. He was good friends with Dick McCoy, of McCoy engines.
Wow, Mustie - sweet find! I had an old, large (approx 17" long, 9" high, 7" wide) silver streamlined racing car w/closed cockpit, open in rear, made of balsa wood. It had been my former brother-in-law's car that I remember from the '50s. No motor, large Bonneville-looking wheels w/hard rubber tires, and two eyelets on the lower frame on the left side. Didn't have any use for it, didn't have a clue as to what it was worth, put it on eBay for a low price ($50) and said didn't know what it was. Didn't take long for buyers to let me know what it was and approximate age ('30s - '40s). Also received some web links about these tether cars, which were tremendously popular at one time - they were even raced on indoor slot tracks, much like the old electric slot car shops were in the '60s. I had no idea, and was completely shocked at what it sold for it over 5 years ago - over $1400.00. Folks, it's really worth looking these tether cars up on the 'net. Who knew????
I used to fly control line model planes with engines like these but I never got into the tether cars..my favorite engine was the Fox .35 with 65 foot control lines and running on a mixture of nitro and castor oil...what a lucky find for you.. congrats
I've got two tether cars from the 1930s. They were my dad's. One is a Dooling Bros. and the other is a Hiller that has never been run. The Hiller I believe is called a "Hornet" and was made by the same company that built full sized helicopters. I've even got the manual for the Hiller. The cars were run in roller skating rinks primarily where my dad grew up in Illinois. He had told me that the cars would have a pole that would protrude vertically from the car much like an antenna. This was connected to a switch that would turn the motor's ignition off. To get the car to stop you would stick a long pole out that would trip that "antenna" and the ignition would cut off, stopping the car. My two cars have pneumatic tires. I also have an engine, new in the box called a "Super Cyclone" which includes a spare cylinder head that, I believe boosted the compression on the engine for more power. I'm not positive, but I believe that the Cyclone engine could be used either in the Dooling car or with a prop for airplanes, with minor modification. I also have some 1930s and pre-war airplane engines, also. One is a Morton M-5, 5 cylinder radial with a 14" prop and an opposed 2 cylinder called an "Elf". There's also a "Denny-Mite" single cyl. airplane motor that was produced by an popular 1930s actor named Reginald Denny. They all use small spark plugs and not glow plugs. Mustie1, you've got some valuable and interesting cars and parts. Thanks for sharing.
Dan is right, these cars and the associated parts are worth a small fortune, you scored a big time find... that's antiques roadshow type stuff one or two of those engines might be worth a small fortune by itself. That's one of those once in a lifetime finds my friend!
Nice! I flew line control planes with Enya glow-plug engines. Always returned home with a bag of wood splinters and torn doped fabric rags. Great times! Yes, the engines scream! The trick was to know someone who’s Mom was a nurse so you could get a syringe for feeding fuel straight into the cylinder, kinda like that bottle Mustie has.
At 1:40 it was said that these are 19 cc motors. Well they are not as they are .19 of a cubic inch . Their capacity is measured in cubic inches and that would be 3.11 cc. We used to refer to a 60 as 9.8cc were 60 was in fact .6 cubic inches. Hope that this helps.
Hi Mustie 1. You are right !!! I am an old fool of 83 that can go back to about 1947 when I first saw such a car, how wonderful that you have found them. Someone had a lot of cash to have had such great models, I have a book on Model Cars and I think some are in it. Like me, the book is old, I could never afford a car. Some were produced by 1066 Models in kit form..I bought a chassis wheels diff and some chassis fitings hoping to construct a mode MG, wasn't clever enough still have some parts somewhere. Thaks for the memories
The one you called Porky was a Rodzy Standard made by American Precision Engineering. It had a .09 engine. I saved up for a year to buy one as a kid. They also made a Rodzy Racer with a larger engine.
What a sweet treat to see I was thinking of buying an older 40's .19 that is selling for 10$ and building a car by hand I have alot of aluminum blocks laying around just begging to be casted and machined.
What a cool parts kit. Looks like an upgraded version of an erector set. I’ll bet Mustie could put that bigger engine together with all those parts in that kit.
My brother had one of the first style "real McCoy" cars in the very early fifties. We started it by turning a bit over and holding it against the tire while cranking the bike. The one he had was the only engine that I can remember having rings on the piston but I probably just don't remember very well. It would seem that any of the small engines would have some form of rings. The metal "wheelie" tab was not part of the car originally and I remember that the car developed a lot go gouges on the underside, between the rear wheels from the asphalt we were running on They were located right under the rear axel where the tires must have compressed enough to take up all the clearance which was about 1/8 inch. We didn't try to stop the car - just let it run out of gas. I think that the 19 displacement was .019 inches. According to the literature it would run at something nearing 100 MPH actual speed, not scale speed. All I can recall for sure was that it was a challenge to turn fast enough in the middle of the circle.
Wow that some really rare cars you just dont find a nice and valuable collection like that. Mabey 1 car but 5 awesome cool. I would have to say about $800 Mabey more on rarity. Thx for sharing
A friend of mine had an old Cox tether with the .049........I had a p-51 cox plane with the same motor with the spring starter that hooked the prop.... the two tether lines controlled the rear elevator.Man that always made ya dizzy as hell.but was fun.
The Motors remind me of the old Cox Airplanes that you would pilot in a circle with Guide Lines. They may be similar (starting wise) to the Nitro Methane RC cars like a friend of mine Raced in the early 70s. The Planes required a Battery Pack that would plug onto the Glow Plug and you would spin the prop to start it, then pull the battery wire off the motor. The Cars had Battery Packs in the car, and used a (external) High Speed Spinning Wheel to rotate the tires, or a Fly Wheel under the car till it fired up. My friend mounted a motor and wheel in a Foot Locker type Box, and would lower the car onto the wheel to start it.
I know...Glow fuel which is Nitro methane and caster oil...I was into model planes most my life...Still have a lot of the old engines and planes...That ole timey car has a Cox engine in it...The one with the oval cylinder..
Very cool...I used to go to a tether car circuit back in the 70's...The engines burn up real fast because they become leaner the more they go around until they are shut off with a broom..or a Kaboom..!..lol
We raced theme on a tennis Court. And yes they were really fast. If you are interested in all this---let me know. By the way, we held on to them using a length of kite string. Where we raced them starting side by side rolling along in a circle. The track had to be swept clean so as not to flip end over end. You found someones entire kit. Now go have fun.
hey there .thanks for sharing brings back memories my dad ran this one in the 30-40s.i know how it is about tires going flat. I'm looking for a pair for mine. Mine tether car is a dooling F.
Cool cars . I had a girlfriend whose father collects and builds these things. He is a retired airforce fighter piot. He has a complete machine shop in his basement. He also paints them. I know he sells on ebay. He is in Virginia. His collection is valuable and he wont disclose prices but I know he has sold cars on ebay that went for well over 10 thousand dollars. I thought they were neat but never really paid a lot of attention to them.
On the cars with no obvious fuel tank, could they have used pen bladder tanks which would have been filled outside the car then attached to the carb fuel intake just before the race?
Sizing-wise, I think they're like model aircraft engines. For example : a "19" would be 0.19 cubic inch, a "40" would be 0.40 cubic inch etc. In the UK, our early engines were 'diesels' (no spark) these were rated in cc's. Later, we had 'Glow-plug' engines. These had a tiny heater filament that would glow when attached to a low voltage battery (about 2v I think). Once started, you could disconnect the battery and the heat of combustion would keep it going. Even earlier, (20's and 30's ?) the spark ignition ones like you've got there were common. There should be a contact breaker driven off the crankshaft plus a coil and condenser set-up somewhere else. I think the modellers of the day used fairly large 12v lead-acid cells for starting and dry cells for operating once started.
I remember seeing an ad in a model magazine in the late 1950's for a car like yours . The one aluminium coloured one, with the pointed front in Britain .
Yes... they never put the decimal point on the cast crankcase body so my McCoy "Redhead" 19 is actually a .19 Cubic Inch displacement and my Vivell 35 is actually a .35 Cubic Inch displacement in the combustion chamber on my antique model airplane engines, which is the cubic area of the bore diameter and stroke length for the air/fuel mixture's effective volume for combustion.
Mustie1 these cars you have are worth a little Fortune. They are very rare. i think the lot are worth about 3000..4000. If you put Them on eBay they are sold at no time.
mustie, do you still have any of those tether car parts, im a little late, just saw what you bought, I have a McCoy race car but no engine, my uncle blew the engine many years ago and I kept the car, it was a .19 engine you had two that you showed at the end, an orange and a silver one if so could we make a deal. Ronald miller
My father used to have some kind of dealings with similar engines, for racing model airplanes. The older ones were all spark ignition. He told me about one super-tuned engine that ran 40000 rpm and gave 5 hp, made by Ball iirc. Not sure what the displacement was, but not at all large. Being 2-strokes and cranked by flipping the propeller, the engines would sometimes try to start backwards, which could take off a finger when the sharp trailing edge hit mere mortal flesh and bone.
every one of those motors ran on a gas/oil mix, NOT alcohol those are NOT glow plugs they are spark plugs they require a magneto or a coil and battery all of them used some kind of points ignition ( even the magneto ) they did not have any kind of solid state ignition, all of those motors are collectors items when complete and running they are worth a pretty penny to the proper person. the large engine thats dissembled needs a cylinder liner pressed into the block for one of your pistons to fit, the pistons do not run in the bare block. nos parts are still available for those motors however because of the scarcity they are a bit pricey. my friend you have a once in a life time find. if you are not going to play with them yourself i hope you find someone to treat you right when buying them from you. btw the fuel tanks were all made of tin or brass, and all soldered together because gasoline had a nasty habit of ruining the plastics of the day. .
They are glo-plug motors. A six volt battery would be attached to get the plug hot then a spin of the motor would start it an run till the fuel ran out.
These are beautiful, much faster than you probably expect... the "19" is a little over 3cc....I suspect these tether cars would be too unstable for free running!
The weird pistons are actually Schnurle type deflector pistons. The ramp causes the fuel air mixture to be looped (the Schnurle loop effect) into the top of the cylinder, pushing the exhaust gases out of the opposite exhaust port. Deflector piston opposed port 2 stroke engines produce around 30% less power than conventional 2 stroke engine of the same displacement. This type of 2 stroke engine produces only around 30% of the power output of a conventional transverse ported flat top piston 2 stroke engine because it is so inefficient. They appeared in the 1890's and the last motorcycle produced with a opposed ported deflector piston engine was a French 5.5 HP 125cc in 1958 (at a time when transverse ported 125cc motorcycles produced 10 or more HP). In 1944 Jawa secretly invented and experimented with transverse ported flat top pistoned 2 stroke motorcycle engines. right under the noses of the Nazis. In 1946 Jawa produced the 250-11 Perak, the world's first production transverse ported 2 stroke motorcycle, which could attain the then unheard of (for any 250cc) top speed of 75 MPH. All other post 1946 transverse ported 2 stroke engines, with flat topped pistons, are descended from this motorcycle.
It would be cool if you could try and get 1 of the almost complete cars running just to see how it works. I had a remote control truck very similar setup but my truck had a way bigger engine.
More on fuel... the Nitro blends are for Glow plug engines. But you also have some really old time spark engines there as well. I have zero experience with them, but pretty sure they use a plain old gasoline/oil mixture
I saw these run when I was a kid in a elementary school. The guy pounded a large nail into the asphalt to hold it in place and we stood by about 75 feet away. When h got it started and it ran in a circle they went insanely fast and it was scary loud.
I used to live in Southern CALIFORNIA and flew model airplanes and RC boats I used to hang around Whittier Narrowest RC park one Sunday while there I met old man McCoy the owner of McCoy model engine Co. He was in his 90s at the time he was a master machinist He was at the tether track A 60 ft. Diameter circle running unlimited versions of those cars Most of those cars + chassis are hand built the unlimited class was approximately 1 cubic inch the .19 C.I engine you have was manufactured by his contact. It is a rear roter racing glow engine The cars engines chassis gearing bodies and most parts were hand made they are spark ignition and run at close to 30000 RPM putting out app 6 HP turning counter clockwise at spead so well over 100 MPH. They start by placing a broom stick in the cockpit and pushing counter clockwise on the polished 12 " wide track the pilot goes to the center and stands on a pad the track is surrounded by a double 1 inch chain link fence about 2 ft. His I found these machines FASCINATING
My old friend Matthew had a tether car when he was about 10 years old, it was a beautiful red racer with a .19 engine, and it ran like greased lightning... However, he didn't want to tether it, so one day he fired it up and turned it loose on the street in front of his house. The car did great for about 50 yards, then veered wildly to one side, spun, and hit the curb. By the time it stopped, it had slammed into the neighbors car, doing about 60 mph. It left a dent and a caused quite a racket, and Matthew got his backside whooped. This was around the Summer of 1968, and these cars were made of metal and were pretty heavy. It looked like their car was hit with a baseball bat. The funny part was that the tether car didn't stop running, and just set there on its top screaming like a weedwhacker while he chased it around and around trying to stop it. Ever since then, it has set on his shelf as a piece of his childhood history, which he tells to anyone who will listen.
I listened (read).
That’s a pretty cool story. I was also 10 in 1968 and never even heard of these things.
I was 18, and would have loved them! Great story, wish I’d been there…
I grew up with these things. My Dad was a bad ass u control model airplane stunt flyer. He was a national champion in the 50's. He was also into tether cars from the 50's to the 80's, and raced very competitively in National competitions.
You are right. They are almost completely hand made. My Dad would just get the rough aluminum cast car and mill it himself. The fuel tanks and many of the parts were hand made. Once he even made an engine. He was good friends with Dick McCoy, of McCoy engines.
Great history! Do you have his old cars?
Wow, Mustie - sweet find! I had an old, large (approx 17" long, 9" high, 7" wide) silver streamlined racing car w/closed cockpit, open in rear, made of balsa wood. It had been my former brother-in-law's car that I remember from the '50s. No motor, large Bonneville-looking wheels w/hard rubber tires, and two eyelets on the lower frame on the left side. Didn't have any use for it, didn't have a clue as to what it was worth, put it on eBay for a low price ($50) and said didn't know what it was. Didn't take long for buyers to let me know what it was and approximate age ('30s - '40s). Also received some web links about these tether cars, which were tremendously popular at one time - they were even raced on indoor slot tracks, much like the old electric slot car shops were in the '60s. I had no idea, and was completely shocked at what it sold for it over 5 years ago - over $1400.00. Folks, it's really worth looking these tether cars up on the 'net. Who knew????
I used to fly control line model planes with engines like these but I never got into the tether cars..my favorite engine was the Fox .35 with 65 foot control lines and running on a mixture of nitro and castor oil...what a lucky find for you.. congrats
I've got two tether cars from the 1930s. They were my dad's. One is a Dooling Bros. and the other is a Hiller that has never been run. The Hiller I believe is called a "Hornet" and was made by the same company that built full sized helicopters. I've even got the manual for the Hiller. The cars were run in roller skating rinks primarily where my dad grew up in Illinois. He had told me that the cars would have a pole that would protrude vertically from the car much like an antenna. This was connected to a switch that would turn the motor's ignition off. To get the car to stop you would stick a long pole out that would trip that "antenna" and the ignition would cut off, stopping the car. My two cars have pneumatic tires. I also have an engine, new in the box called a "Super Cyclone" which includes a spare cylinder head that, I believe boosted the compression on the engine for more power. I'm not positive, but I believe that the Cyclone engine could be used either in the Dooling car or with a prop for airplanes, with minor modification. I also have some 1930s and pre-war airplane engines, also. One is a Morton M-5, 5 cylinder radial with a 14" prop and an opposed 2 cylinder called an "Elf". There's also a "Denny-Mite" single cyl. airplane motor that was produced by an popular 1930s actor named Reginald Denny. They all use small spark plugs and not glow plugs.
Mustie1, you've got some valuable and interesting cars and parts. Thanks for sharing.
I'm one of the guys drooling over all that cool cars hahahaha
Dan is right, these cars and the associated parts are worth a small fortune, you scored a big time find... that's antiques roadshow type stuff one or two of those engines might be worth a small fortune by itself. That's one of those once in a lifetime finds my friend!
Thanks again mustie1. I never even seen such a thing or heard of it before. Thank you for the history lesson. Those were way cool!
I am actually jealous that you find these thing at yard sales. How do you get so lucky and find these sales fella ??? Thanks, VF
Nice! I flew line control planes with Enya glow-plug engines. Always returned home with a bag of wood splinters and torn doped fabric rags. Great times! Yes, the engines scream! The trick was to know someone who’s Mom was a nurse so you could get a syringe for feeding fuel straight into the cylinder, kinda like that bottle Mustie has.
At 1:40 it was said that these are 19 cc motors. Well they are not as they are .19 of a cubic inch . Their capacity is measured in cubic inches and that would be 3.11 cc.
We used to refer to a 60 as 9.8cc were 60 was in fact .6 cubic inches. Hope that this helps.
Hi Mustie 1.
You are right !!! I am an old fool of 83 that can go back to about 1947 when I first saw such a car, how wonderful that you have found them. Someone had a lot of cash to have had such great models, I have a book on Model Cars and I think some are in it. Like me, the book is old, I could never afford a car. Some were produced by 1066 Models in kit form..I bought a chassis wheels diff and some chassis fitings hoping to construct a mode MG, wasn't clever enough still have some parts somewhere. Thaks for the memories
The fuel tank was a bladder type, sort of like a balloon but a bit thicker that went in the front open area there. Very dope cars man!
Not 19 CCs. That would be nearly the size of a weed whacker engine. American engines from the 1950's wouldn't have been metric.
.19 cu. in.
1,9 cc
No, 0.19 cu. in. or 3.1cc
Right - a 19cc ish weedeater piston is bigger than the jug
The one you called Porky was a Rodzy Standard made by American Precision Engineering. It had a .09 engine. I saved up for a year to buy one as a kid. They also made a Rodzy Racer with a larger engine.
there like all over the place, as far as price, hope l can find someone local to apraise them, thanks for the offer for writting them up
I have one of the Cox Tether cars. No engine.
My late uncle won it in his youth as an outstanding paper carrier.
What a sweet treat to see I was thinking of buying an older 40's .19 that is selling for 10$ and building a car by hand I have alot of aluminum blocks laying around just begging to be casted and machined.
We have one of these in our basement. The Real McCoy springs to mind. We used a bike wheel to start it when we tested it
What a cool parts kit. Looks like an upgraded version of an erector set. I’ll bet Mustie could put that bigger engine together with all those parts in that kit.
My brother had one of the first style "real McCoy" cars in the very early fifties. We started it by turning a bit over and holding it against the tire while cranking the bike. The one he had was the only engine that I can remember having rings on the piston but I probably just don't remember very well. It would seem that any of the small engines would have some form of rings. The metal "wheelie" tab was not part of the car originally and I remember that the car developed a lot go gouges on the underside, between the rear wheels from the asphalt we were running on They were located right under the rear axel where the tires must have compressed enough to take up all the clearance which was about 1/8 inch. We didn't try to stop the car - just let it run out of gas. I think that the 19 displacement was .019 inches. According to the literature it would run at something nearing 100 MPH actual speed, not scale speed. All I can recall for sure was that it was a challenge to turn fast enough in the middle of the circle.
tether cars are still a big hobby in the UK. Run on a track at speeds up to 150mph.
very nice find.
10 cc class is doing around 320 kph
Congrats, even more great stuff! Collectors will buy it for much, much more money!
Not 19cc's, that stood for .19c.i.,
one nineteenth of a cubic inch.
Some of those tether cars today go over 200m.p.h.
Mike and Frank from American Pickers would go absolutely apeshit over these tether cars.
If a box like this don't excite you you there is something wrong with you🤣🤣
some really cool stuff i had a black widow as a kid i wish still had it
What an AWESOME Score!
I'd like to see a first start video on at least one of those, those are absolutely the coolest model race cars I've ever seen!
Wow that some really rare cars you just dont find a nice and valuable collection like that. Mabey 1 car but 5 awesome cool. I would have to say about $800 Mabey more on rarity. Thx for sharing
A friend of mine had an old Cox tether with the .049........I had a p-51 cox plane with the same motor with the spring starter that hooked the prop.... the two tether lines controlled the rear elevator.Man that always made ya dizzy as hell.but was fun.
Wow what a find , I am envious beyond belief
There are videos of these cars running. AWESOME!
I don't know about these but Raddaddy echoed my "thoughts" about these cars.
I am not surprised they are of a mint worth.
The Motors remind me of the old Cox Airplanes that you would pilot in a circle with Guide Lines. They may be similar (starting wise) to the Nitro Methane RC cars like a friend of mine Raced in the early 70s. The Planes required a Battery Pack that would plug onto the Glow Plug and you would spin the prop to start it, then pull the battery wire off the motor. The Cars had Battery Packs in the car, and used a (external) High Speed Spinning Wheel to rotate the tires, or a Fly Wheel under the car till it fired up. My friend mounted a motor and wheel in a Foot Locker type Box, and would lower the car onto the wheel to start it.
I just saw a teether car on TV that was worth like 4 grand might wanna get then looked at for value. Thanks Dan
There only worth what someone will pay. eBay each car separately you will make the most that way.
I can see someone upgrading and putting remote control servo's in it and etc..cool old toys
Now I'm a drooler. Outstanding find there.
thanks, that would make sence,,do you know what was used for fuel
I know...Glow fuel which is Nitro methane and caster oil...I was into model planes most my life...Still have a lot of the old engines and planes...That ole timey car has a Cox engine in it...The one with the oval cylinder..
Very cool...I used to go to a tether car circuit back in the 70's...The engines burn up real fast because they become leaner the more they go around until they are shut off with a broom..or a Kaboom..!..lol
Way too cool. I knew a guy in Seattle who built these
I heard about cars like that from my friends dad 10+ years ago. Those were the days before Radio control cars came out. Awesome find
l agree, a dealer bought them sight unseen
My father had two string racers in his day .alot of fun .
they were sold as a package about a month ago,
We raced theme on a tennis Court. And yes they were really fast. If you are interested in all this---let me know. By the way, we held on to them using a length of kite string. Where we raced them starting side by side rolling along in a circle. The track had to be swept clean so as not to flip end over end. You found someones entire kit. Now go have fun.
.19 cu. inch McCoy engine. Also a .60 cu. inch McCoy redhead........those speed engines are quite valuable.
love to see you get them going .
hey there .thanks for sharing brings back memories my dad ran this one in the 30-40s.i know how it is about tires going flat. I'm looking for a pair for mine. Mine tether car is a dooling F.
I played with slot cars and tether planes. Planes had glow plugs and 6v lantern battery to start it. Reciprocal spring.
most used pressure fuel systems. they used a pen bladder for a fuel tank
Cool cars . I had a girlfriend whose father collects and builds these things. He is a retired airforce fighter piot. He has a complete machine shop in his basement. He also paints them. I know he sells on ebay. He is in Virginia. His collection is valuable and he wont disclose prices but I know he has sold cars on ebay that went for well over 10 thousand dollars. I thought they were neat but never really paid a lot of attention to them.
Lucky DOG! Incredible find. How much did you pay. These are priceless to me.
Hi I made one for about 60 dollars 6 pieces of wood a cox 049 end a few nails it is fan powered
nice find and i would hang on to them pity about the piston but still all collectable good find
On the cars with no obvious fuel tank, could they have used pen bladder tanks which would have been filled outside the car then attached to the carb fuel intake just before the race?
Have never seen this before,would love to see how they run,thanks for the video.
Sizing-wise, I think they're like model aircraft engines. For example : a "19" would be 0.19 cubic inch, a "40" would be 0.40 cubic inch etc. In the UK, our early engines were 'diesels' (no spark) these were rated in cc's. Later, we had 'Glow-plug' engines. These had a tiny heater filament that would glow when attached to a low voltage battery (about 2v I think). Once started, you could disconnect the battery and the heat of combustion would keep it going. Even earlier, (20's and 30's ?) the spark ignition ones like you've got there were common. There should be a contact breaker driven off the crankshaft plus a coil and condenser set-up somewhere else. I think the modellers of the day used fairly large 12v lead-acid cells for starting and dry cells for operating once started.
They lasted this long because they are metal not plastic,I love those cars ,amazing find
Someone really enjoyed building and racing these cars.
Steve Stumbaugh agreed there was alot of blood sweat and tears put into making those cars and getting them to work.
Would the side car bar connect to a track on the right side?
I remember seeing an ad in a model magazine in the late 1950's for a car like yours . The one aluminium coloured one, with the pointed front in Britain .
Yes... they never put the decimal point on the cast crankcase body so my McCoy "Redhead" 19 is actually a .19 Cubic Inch displacement and my Vivell 35 is actually a .35 Cubic Inch displacement in the combustion chamber on my antique model airplane engines, which is the cubic area of the bore diameter and stroke length for the air/fuel mixture's effective volume for combustion.
Beautiful and rare and handmade.
Awesome find!
hi john, any info would be welcome, as l dont know about these,
Mustie1 these cars you have are worth a little Fortune. They are very rare. i think the lot are worth about 3000..4000. If you put Them on eBay they are sold at no time.
Really nice find, I collect old toys, thanks for sharing, Id love to own them. :-)
any vids of these cars raceing? really cool,this looks like one of your best finds.
mustie, do you still have any of those tether car parts, im a little late, just saw what you bought, I have a McCoy race car but no engine, my uncle blew the engine many years ago and I kept the car, it was a .19 engine you had two that you showed at the end, an orange and a silver one if so could we make a deal. Ronald miller
sorry ron, sold it all
worth about 2000 each, no spark plug, that's a glow plug, 1.5 volts heats it up, push it to start, then look out!!
My father used to have some kind of dealings with similar engines, for racing model airplanes. The older ones were all spark ignition. He told me about one super-tuned engine that ran 40000 rpm and gave 5 hp, made by Ball iirc. Not sure what the displacement was, but not at all large. Being 2-strokes and cranked by flipping the propeller, the engines would sometimes try to start backwards, which could take off a finger when the sharp trailing edge hit mere mortal flesh and bone.
They used ink pen bladders to pressure feed the motors. It was a unit that you charged and then installed.
You ever going to make a video of the tether cars wood like to see one running
Do you still have? Almost 4 years since you 1st posted this. I am into RC cars & just got into the world of tether cars.
do u still have? ;)) haja
3:17 1946-1947 Borden Teardrop streamliner. Eric Zausner, of Potomac MD, is the definitive authority on these. I was honored to meet the man
Moped Army here :)
makes sense, do you know what they burn for fuel
That first car looks like the Monopoly car! Very cool finds for sure.
Have you identified the cars, engines, and other contents of "the box"? If not, I believe that I can help.
the auction show?
You got gold mine in cars bro
Joe
Navy vet
recently found your channel love the vids these cars are awesome I use to race modern rc monster trucks
will you try and get thease going??? id like to see them run again but i dont kknow anything about thease
every one of those motors ran on a gas/oil mix, NOT alcohol those are NOT glow plugs they are spark plugs they require a magneto or a coil and battery all of them used some kind of points ignition ( even the magneto ) they did not have any kind of solid state ignition, all of those motors are collectors items when complete and running they are worth a pretty penny to the proper person.
the large engine thats dissembled needs a cylinder liner pressed into the block for one of your pistons to fit, the pistons do not run in the bare block. nos parts are still available for those motors however because of the scarcity they are a bit pricey.
my friend you have a once in a life time find. if you are not going to play with them yourself i hope you find someone to treat you right when buying them from you.
btw the fuel tanks were all made of tin or brass, and all soldered together because gasoline had a nasty habit of ruining the plastics of the day.
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I want that bike. How cool. What is the brand of that bike?
Its homemade almost completely
I like the "suspension" rubber bit in the silver teardrop... nice collection. Are you going to try to get one or two actually running?
Cool stuff!! Love the tether cars! Gotta be more fun than a video game!! lol
They are glo-plug motors. A six volt battery would be attached to get the plug hot then a spin of the motor would start it an run till the fuel ran out.
Those car are a great find,wish they were mine :)
Are these are like the rc nitro methane cars?
These are beautiful, much faster than you probably expect... the "19" is a little over 3cc....I suspect these tether cars would be too unstable for free running!
have u ever dun anything with the tether cars.
The weird pistons are actually Schnurle type deflector pistons. The ramp causes the fuel air mixture to be looped (the Schnurle loop effect) into the top of the cylinder, pushing the exhaust gases out of the opposite exhaust port. Deflector piston opposed port 2 stroke engines produce around 30% less power than conventional 2 stroke engine of the same displacement. This type of 2 stroke engine produces only around 30% of the power output of a conventional transverse ported flat top piston 2 stroke engine because it is so inefficient. They appeared in the 1890's and the last motorcycle produced with a opposed ported deflector piston engine was a French 5.5 HP 125cc in 1958 (at a time when transverse ported 125cc motorcycles produced 10 or more HP).
In 1944 Jawa secretly invented and experimented with transverse ported flat top pistoned 2 stroke motorcycle engines. right under the noses of the Nazis. In 1946 Jawa produced the 250-11 Perak, the world's first production transverse ported 2 stroke motorcycle, which could attain the then unheard of (for any 250cc) top speed of 75 MPH. All other post 1946 transverse ported 2 stroke engines, with flat topped pistons, are descended from this motorcycle.
love the fuel Cell ,all spot welded lol they got to rare and worth some serious bucks .
It would be cool if you could try and get 1 of the almost complete cars running just to see how it works.
I had a remote control truck very similar setup but my truck had a way bigger engine.
More on fuel... the Nitro blends are for Glow plug engines. But you also have some really old time spark engines there as well. I have zero experience with them, but pretty sure they use a plain old gasoline/oil mixture
Castor oil I think.
I saw these run when I was a kid in a elementary school. The guy pounded a large nail into the asphalt to hold it in place and we stood by about 75 feet away. When h got it started and it ran in a circle they went insanely fast and it was scary loud.
I really liked the look of those cars, and found a video on here with a chap who's has build a track and still races them 200mph was recorded from one
I used to live in Southern CALIFORNIA and flew model airplanes and RC boats I used to hang around Whittier Narrowest RC park one Sunday while there I met old man McCoy the owner of McCoy model engine Co. He was in his 90s at the time he was a master machinist He was at the tether track A 60 ft. Diameter circle running unlimited versions of those cars Most of those cars + chassis are hand built the unlimited class was approximately 1 cubic inch the .19 C.I engine you have was manufactured by his contact. It is a rear roter racing glow engine The cars engines chassis gearing bodies and most parts were hand made they are spark ignition and run at close to 30000 RPM putting out app 6 HP turning counter clockwise at spead so well over 100 MPH. They start by placing a broom stick in the cockpit and pushing counter clockwise on the polished 12 " wide track the pilot goes to the center and stands on a pad the track is surrounded by a double 1 inch chain link fence about 2 ft. His I found these machines FASCINATING
The McCoy and the FOX-35 was two of the best engines.
How much did you pay for that lot???
I think that big piston is for the bigger motor, pull the head and see if there is a piston sleeve