Racing toy cars becomes a sport
What once used to be only a hobby and something that little children used to take part in has evolved over the years and become something of a sport. Racing remote controlled cars or radio controlled cars has become serious business now and people of all
ages can be seen racing little self-powered cars, trucks, boats and planes all over the world. R/C racing, as it is called, has a loyal band of followers with competitions taking place at major parts of the world. The sport has an interesting history behind
it and a strong future in front of it.
There are several different types of remote controlled racing that takes place today. There is the sort that is relatively inexpensive and easy to take part in and this is usually done by children who treat their cars as toys. Then there are the ambitious
collectors of these kinds of cars and even though most of these types of cars are not very technologically sophisticated, they are bought to be assembled, collected and raced on an amateur level. Then there are the very serious type of collectors and hobbyists.
These individuals have turned remote controlled car racing into a sport by using very large, very powerful, fuel powered small scale cars.
The history of this recreational activity and sport takes us back to the 1940s. The first time a specially designed small scale nitromethane-powered engine was developed in the 1940s. This led to the full scale commercial production of small versions of
cars that could be controlled with a remote and had similar precise control mechanisms as a real vehicle. The first production models of R/C cars were available in Italy in the mid 1960s. Around the same time the small cars started appearing in toy shops in
the UK and other European countries. In the late 70s, the activity had moved to America where the small cars were available for the first time. In 1976, a Japanese company called Tamiya started to produce very popular mini cars for the local market.
The first time racing the cars as a sport appeared was in the 1970s when people started to race their cars in the winter as an alternative to other forms of racing. Tracks were built to scale and people started to race their cars for prizes. Over time petrol
powered engines appeared and upgraded parts were introduced to give the cars strength and durability for racing. The sport developed exactly like the full scale version of motorsports but it was simply a smaller version.
This is a very interesting sport because races are held throughout the world and in various skill levels. There is a very serious and professional racing series that takes place in many different parts of the world called the R/C Pro Series. It is an American
racing series for radio controlled cars and races take place nationally in different States, also national American finals take place along with a Caribbean Series, a Canadian Series and a South Africa Series of races. The sport also sees racing series taking
place in the UK, all over Europe, in Japan and the rest of Asia.
The sport is similar to full scale racing in the types of skills a person requires to control the miniature cars. Cornering skills are vital, aerodynamics also play a big part in the sport, as do mechanical upgrades as well as engineering excellence. Racing
an R/C car is very simple; a person stands on a high podium with other racers and they all hold a remote in their hands that are set to different radio frequencies and they then race their cars around a track below them.
With the sport growing in popularity all over the world, we will soon see upgrades to the cars themselves and to the sport as a whole. More money will be poured into the sport and that will allow more competitors to take it up and sponsors will become more
interested as well. The future of this sport looks very bright and who would have thought that toy racing would one day become a serious sport.
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