Tether car
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Modern tether car track surrounded by safety walls

Tether Cars are model racing cars powered by miniature gasoline 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 cars are about 12-24 inches long, 3-4 inches wide, run on rubber tires 3-4 inches 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 0.09-0.61 cubic inches (1.5-10 cubic centimeters). 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 19.9 meters in diameter.

History

Tether cars were developed beginning in the 1920s-30s 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), BB Korn, and many others. Original examples of the early cars, made from 1930s-60s, are avidly collected today and command prices in the thousands of dollars.

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 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, is accurately measured by 1/1000s.

World Records

Class	Date	Driver	Speed
			km/h	mph
WMCR I (1.5cm³)	December 9, 2006	Jan-Erik Falk	268.697	166.961
WMCR II (2.5cm³)	August 3, 2007	Priit Hoyer	283.147	175.939
WMCR III (3.5cm³)	August 13, 2004	Mart Sepp	293.375	182.295
WMCR IV (5cm³)	August 4, 2007	Jan-Erik Falk	308.210	191.513
WMCR V (10cm³)	March 8, 2008	Paul-Otto Stroebel	339.622	211.031

See also

• Cox Models A former manufacturer of ready to run tether cars

External links

• AMRCA - American Miniature Racing Car Association
• WMCR - World Organisation for Model Car Racing
• Tethercar.com
• Vintage Miniature Gas Powered Race Cars, private website covering the early history of tether cars