Car rules vs controller rules

R4? Well I don't know either Fergy

...but they made a

R20, R30 and R60.

So maybe...

Wait.... I've GOT it!!!! Nissan!! Ancient forerunner to the R390!

"Time for your pill, Fergy!"

Yes, nurse.....

Sorted

OK, I have to re-phrase this: I KNEW what company made these, I just forgot because it is not really important... First, controllers are boring, and second, controllers are even more boring.

Now, such controllers as Brian describes were very popular at the time when you could not buy a RTR car because no one made any except for the rather mediocre 1/32 scale plastic junk from UK or USA, and you had to make your own from either brass chassis kits or scratchbuild from the few bits and pieces available. We are talking 1959 to 1963 here. Several companies in fact made similar controllers, some of them had a bicycle handlebar plastic handle, some did not.
It is not ANY of the well-known companies, and definitely NOT Towerstat. It is an obscure name and I can't recall right now because after a certain age, the brain cells are becoming cottage cheese and I am right about there now.
So I tell you what, the next time I run across a pic or an ad for these, I'll post the results and everyone will be happy.
This was also the era of really WEIRD controllers, and I have a few boxes full of these things, from "electronic" to analog, from intensely funny to down ridiculous. Cox and MRC took care of everybody after 1964. Russkit put everyone to the same level by 1969. Scalextric has still not learned how to build a decent one by 2003, and Carrera still has its 1965 Atlas copy in every set they sold ever since.

Mr. Pea

Thanks, Mr P! At least now I have a REASON for not remembering the name. I'm not insane.... it just wasn't a name worth remembering!

QUOTE We are talking 1959 to 1963 here

Just HAD to give my age away, didn't you! Here, I think they may have lasted longer, before RussKit-style controllers took over. Many R4 owners had the add-on external resistors with adjustable tap-points and other goodies and were reluctant to change.

Probably sticks in my mind so solidly because, for me, it was very early in what was to become ten years of single-minded slot racing! Thankfully, sponsored for most of it, because I can't imagine having to pay for everything - even back then!

Fergy, was it made by Ram Engineering?

Bob S.

Bob - could well have been... I just don't remember...

Getting old, I guess!

Hmmm...let's see if this jogs your memory. Ram 4 ohm controller with a bicycle grip stretched over what looked to be something cheap like masonite. The trigger was a piece of brass plate with the end twisted to form a thumb press. There was a tiny return spring below the trigger and the resistor was angled and at the top end of the controller. It looked like something that you could fabricate in your basement. Sound familiar?

They were basic looking but had a smoooooooth trigger action which could be used by the thumb or inverted for index finger use. Our local track used them as rental controllers back in the '60's (that's 19 not 18) but they could be used with a single 24 wind or a dbl 27/28 in a pinch! Must have been dumped on the Canadian market...much like those unreliable rectangular holed Mura B-cans.

Cheers,

Bob S.

Bob, very, very close! But the handle was a metal tube - aluminum, I believe - slit and flattened on one end to mount over the board that had the trigger and resistor mounted. The trigger sounds like it. I recall the resistor mounting on the front edge rather than the top though. Some had bicycle grips, though they may have been added by the owners. The resistor was made by Ohmite - almost identical to the ones still being made by them! Aftermarket parts (possibly made locally) included a reworked resistor that had several isolated bands for connection to a large, high-power external resistor with adjustable clamp rings.

Now that I've talked the subject to death, and bored everyone to tears, I have promised myself to.... forget the R4.... forget the R4....

We are talking about the same controller. I forgot to mention the aluminum tubing and with regards to the resistor position...yep..it's on the front...my mistake.

Anyhow...I think we've lost everybody on this one.

Bob S.

OK!! Ram Engineering R4 it is!! Thanks, Bob! I can finally sleep peacefully... and give this topic back to the rest of the members!

So Fergy, not the Nissan. Renault made an R4 - not sure if it was a controller though