[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

I remember the "Vr-room" motors! I only knew one kid that had one, and we were all jealous. We used the poor mans motorcycle sounds, we taped baseball cards to the forks of our bikes, and they slapped against the spokes.

Here's the Vr-room!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC0dK42wOOA

My friend had the Cox Vega Funny Car. Remember how those Cox .049's started? On the airplanes, you hooked a little spring on one of the prop blades, turned a few turns, then let it kick back, and hopefully it would start. On the Cox cars, you flipped the rear tire, and they seemed much harder to start.

I sometimes see guys flying their R/C planes at a Forest Preserve by us, with a dedicated runway and area for R/C planes. I sometimes stop to watch, always looking for scale models. Not too interested in the stunt planes. Anyway, when one of those starts up, I smell that wonderful Cox engine fuel, and it really takes me back.

I found a box of old Cox stuff that I have, but everything is in pieces, nothing complete. An old 3-wheeled motorcycle in metallic purple, parts of a VW Dune buggy, and a blue front engined dragster.

I never would have remembered that vroom motor if you hadn't posted that commercial. I do remember those. That clip brought on a flashback. I remember the fact that it had a key. That thing was beyond any dream of me ever getting one. In fact, my first tricycle was a hand me down bike...lol

I've still got a quart of cox glo fuel, an engine on a wooden pylon that I used to fly gliders with as an adult and the battery starter wires.
As for being hard to start, they were ALL hard to start. You never forget the smell.

[77 TRASHCAN]

I had a VW beetle, my brother the dune buggy, although I don' remember it looking like Steve's ad. Both our cars had a teenie pull cord to start, and the glow plug/battery setup...

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by 77 TRASHCAN

I had a VW beetle, my brother the dune buggy, although I don' remember it looking like Steve's ad. Both our cars had a teenie pull cord to start, and the glow plug/battery setup...

Pull cord must have been later. I remember starting the cars by flipping a bike over on it's seat and handlebars, pedaling up to some speed and placing the drive tire against the spinning bike tire.

[gtohurstjudge]

These are pics of my car when i was a teenager. This is the same car that own today that it is a stock Judge convertible replica(the car in my avatar) The first pic
is from 1972, the second is of me changing the oil in my folk's driveway Thanksgiving
day 1973, the third was taken during the car's second of four complete restos. It was taken
in 1980.

[Deadhead]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

I found a box of old Cox stuff that I have, but everything is in pieces, nothing complete. An old 3-wheeled motorcycle in metallic purple, parts of a VW Dune buggy, and a blue front engined dragster.

I had one of those trikes! They had a pull start. Mine was red. Had those big squishy slicks.

[Steve Barcak]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

I remember the "Vr-room" motors! I only knew one kid that had one, and we were all jealous. We used the poor mans motorcycle sounds, we taped baseball cards to the forks of our bikes, and they slapped against the spokes.

Here's the Vr-room!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC0dK42wOOA

My friend had the Cox Vega Funny Car. Remember how those Cox .049's started? On the airplanes, you hooked a little spring on one of the prop blades, turned a few turns, then let it kick back, and hopefully it would start. On the Cox cars, you flipped the rear tire, and they seemed much harder to start.

I sometimes see guys flying their R/C planes at a Forest Preserve by us, with a dedicated runway and area for R/C planes. I sometimes stop to watch, always looking for scale models. Not too interested in the stunt planes. Anyway, when one of those starts up, I smell that wonderful Cox engine fuel, and it really takes me back.

I found a box of old Cox stuff that I have, but everything is in pieces, nothing complete. An old 3-wheeled motorcycle in metallic purple, parts of a VW Dune buggy, and a blue front engined dragster.

Mike, If you ( or anyone else ) would consider selling the Cox front engined dragster, I would be interested. Any Condition considered.

Yes, the Vega and Pinto funny cars, and probably others, did start by spinning the rear tires. I remember in 6th or 7th grade attending the AHRA Winternationals at Beeline Dragway. Hanging out in the nitro pits ( where else ?) I noticed all the enclosed trailers that were becoming popular. So, at wood shop in school, I built an enclosed trailer for my Cox Vega funny car. It had a hinged roof in the front to store my battery , fuel , tools, etc. Wish I still had it.

One of these days, want to get one of my old Cox control line planes running, or just buy another. I want to fly one again. They are a lot of fun.

On the Stuka- I forgot about the bomb but, do remember their wings made out of a blue, thin foam like substance? They were quite fragile and the life of mine was quite short.
I think the Mustang was the fastes, perhaps because it was the smallest. My fav is the P-40 Warhawk. Second is the Corsair. My complaint with the Corsair was the way the main landing gear was molded into the wing and quite fragile.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by Steve Barcak

Mike, If you ( or anyone else ) would consider selling the Cox front engined dragster, I would be interested. Any Condition considered.

Yes, the Vega and Pinto funny cars, and probably others, did start by spinning the rear tires. I remember in 6th or 7th grade attending the AHRA Winternationals at Beeline Dragway. Hanging out in the nitro pits ( where else ?) I noticed all the enclosed trailers that were becoming popular. So, at wood shop in school, I built an enclosed trailer for my Cox Vega funny car. It had a hinged roof in the front to store my battery , fuel , tools, etc. Wish I still had it.

One of these days, want to get one of my old Cox control line planes running, or just buy another. I want to fly one again. They are a lot of fun.

On the Stuka- I forgot about the bomb but, do remember their wings made out of a blue, thin foam like substance? They were quite fragile and the life of mine was quite short.
I think the Mustang was the fastes, perhaps because it was the smallest. My fav is the P-40 Warhawk. Second is the Corsair. My complaint with the Corsair was the way the main landing gear was molded into the wing and quite fragile.

Now that you mention it...I had the P-40 too.

[MikeNoun]

Steve, that may have been a different version of the Stuka, as I remember mine was all black plastic. I found a pic on the web, and this was just what mine looked like. Note the red interior!



Many considered the Stuka an ugly bird, but I liked them. The gull wing just looked cool to me. The F4U Corsair was my other favorite back them.

[Steve Barcak]

Thanks for the pic. I forgot the Stuka had gull type wings. The German Cox plane I had was different than a Stuka. It did not look like a 190 or a 109, at least I do not think it did.
The plane I got had blue wings that were wide and flat. I do not remember them tapered either and it was larger than the Corsair. Just drawing a blank.

I never had a Stuka.

[OVERULD]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Pull cord must have been later. I remember starting the cars by flipping a bike over on it's seat and handlebars, pedaling up to some speed and placing the drive tire against the spinning bike tire.

Dang! Why didn't I ever think of that? Would have been much easier than flipping that wheel by hand!

BJ

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by OVERULD

Dang! Why didn't I ever think of that? Would have been much easier than flipping that wheel by hand!

BJ

That's ok...It was a major event whenever I got any of those Cox engines to start by any means.
....and the Stuka pictured above is definitely the one I had. I remember the sliding canopy and red pilot and gunner.

[400 4spd.]

I had the blue version of this car, with the Cox .049. Sucked to start, I wish I had Greg's ingenuity at the time.
This was in the '60s, and I had to sell umpteen billion greeting cards to get enough points to order it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-COX-Teth...-/270729262513

[OVERULD]

Greeting cards! Now that brings back some memories too. Sold a blue million of them myself.

Anyone remember the old balsa wood gliders, with the wind-up rubber band motors and wire landing gear with plastic wheels? Rat Finks? How bout those pictures or cards - maybe they were stickers, but they had big blown engines in cars with oversized wheels with a monster looking cartoon character shifting gears with a giant shifter way above his head? What were those things called?

BJ

[goatman65]

I had a Cox dune buggy that very rarely started.

I have a black 57 Chev that has never been run.

[Greg Reid]

Sold greeting cards to get my 049 powered Hovercraft.
And those Ratfink characters you're talking about...they even made plastic models of the cars and montrous characters. I had several of them.
And how about the CARtoon magazines? It was in a MAD Magazine format but all Hot Rod and street car related.

[goatman65]

I still have a few CARtoons mags.Unk and them varmints.Pappy Lemmons.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by goatman65

I still have a few CARtoons mags.Unk and them varmints.Pappy Lemmons.

I couldn't find a thing about that mag using Google. I guess because the word "cartoons" is kinda hard to narrow down to a single magazine.

EDIT- Did find it in Wikipedia...I had no idea that it was still around until '91.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARtoons_Magazine

[77 TRASHCAN]

I sold a weekly newspaper, call Grit (I believe...???), it was 20 cents a copy, I had a route. Boy Howdy I was raking in the greenbacks in those days...LOL

[71GP76TA]

George Trosley did most of the cartoons in CarToons magazine. It was one of my favorite magazines growing up.

http://www.georgetrosley.com/page822.html

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by 71GP76TA

George Trosley did most of the cartoons in CarToons magazine. It was one of my favorite magazines growing up.

http://www.georgetrosley.com/page822.html

Cool site. I see that you can purchase a drawing or your car on a CARtoons cover.

I was a big fan of Millar's style too-
http://www.laffyerasphalt.com/