The Dream
In the 1930s, the first radio-controlled model airplanes were flown and documented. Did model car loving hobbyists adapt RC to their cars back then? We are still looking for documentation of 1930s and 40s RC cars. In 2017, I began serious research to find documentation of the beginnings of the Radio Controlled model car hobby.
History – Document It While We Can
As the years go by, history becomes faded. In order to properly document early RC car history, I have decided to gather first hand information from back in the day. One excellent source is ‘Car Model’ (CM) magazine. They covered all aspects of model cars – building plastic kits, collecting die cast models, racing slot cars in various scales and, when remotely controlled cars appeared on the scene, they were very involved in reporting about the various types, primarily cars being controlled remotely by radio. As the RC car hobby began to gain popularity, several of us wrote articles and columns in ‘Car Model’ as well as, ‘Model Car Science’, ‘Model Car & Science’, ‘Pit Stop’ and ‘Rod & Custom Models’. Other excellent sources for documenting early RC cars are general modeler magazines and model airplane magazines from back in the day, many of which surely have information as yet undiscovered.
History – As Documented in Print So Far
You can see an Index of books and model magazine articles about RC cars from the 1950s through the early 1970s HERE.
History – According to the Internet and Other Sources
The internet will name various people involved with early radio controlled cars when you search RC car history –
Try it and you will find early tinkerers, big companies, small groups and a lot of speculation and, unfortunately, a lot of misinformation. Some early Wikipedia articles, for example:
02:20, 18 September 2002 – The first Wikipedia page devoted to radio controlled model cars. No mention of history, just an explanation of the types of RC cars available at that time.
02:04, 19 March 2004 – The first History section – it mistakenly says that RC model cars were not technically feasible until the “late 1970s”.
07:03, 20 December 2006 – The edited History page mentions internal combustion engines for model airplanes as available in the 1940s. Actually they were in common use in airplanes in the 1930s. The late 1960s is said to be the advent of solid state radios that made RC model cars practical – a reasonably correct statement. The British company Mardave was incorrectly identified as the producer of the first commercial RC model car.
19:30, 29 April 2007 – A rather snarky editor disputed the Mardave comment above and listed El-Gi (Elettronica Giocattoli) from Reggio Emilia, Italy with their 1:12 scale Ferrari 250LM as the first commercially produced RC model car. That is close to the truth but the facts are complicated. Let’s take a look at the actual facts that I have documented from information written back in the day HERE.