Northern Mike

I picked this car up on a whim and all I can say is wow. Its unfortunate that I only had it for a couple days before trading it for the sweetest deal ever.
I picked up through one of the local online classifieds a never out of the box 1985 Radio Shack Audi Quattro. The box had signs of sitting on a shelf, but the car was totally mint. The tires had no marks on them and even the battery contacts appeared to have never seen a battery.
I thought I would share a couple pictures of it before it gets packed up.

The second car in the picture is a B chassis Team Associated RC10.

Anyone disappointed I flipped this car will be happy to know, it's being replaced by some rare 1940's, still in their box balsa wood plane kits. These won't be flipped. Will sell for the right price, but doubt they are going anywhere.

Blkft1

The Audi is pretty cool,been trying to find one at a reasonable price along with the Porsche 962C. I have a decent Porsche 935 Turbo beater that runs ok, just needs to be cleaned up. Sometimes these older Radio Shack cars show up on Craigslist, like the Golden Arrow and such, kind'a cool. Been toying around with about ordering a RJ Speed 3.2 pan car and Porsche 962 body and making something cheap and similar to the RS 962C to have fun with.

Northern Mike

The Audi apparently was somewhat rare as I had the mirrors and car antenna. (Not receiver but scale antenna). All the ones I've seen for sale are missing them.
There is a Golden Arrow for sale in my area, mint in box. I'm going to see if I can talk him down a bit then pick it up.

cmarti

Anyone know for how much these Audi Quattros were being sold back in the 80's? I had one but I don't recall how much my Mom paid for it.

karlgbarnes

60$

krispy378

They were pretty cool for their time. We have one of the Radio Shack Audis like the one you had, along with a Nikko Ferrari Testarossa on the same chassis and radio gear. Nice scale looks to both cars and the digital proportional radio gear is a major plus. Working headlights also are worth mentioning. These cars had a very simple, somewhat pancar like suspension i.e; small coil springs over screws topped with nuts. The rear axle actually had differential gearing along with a 360 size motor if i remember correctly. The power source was 6 full size C batteries, alkaline or NiCD. Forget about carbon zinc type batts. This thing GOBBLES batteries. Alkalines do not last long at all, on the order of minutes. Rechargables are much better. Unfortunately the car is way overgeared and can hardly get out of its on way. The box on the Nikko Ferrari Testarossa says speeds of up to 15mph, which seems grossly overstated. Forget about anything other than flat surfaces. The steering servo is very slow too. But, back in the good old days, this was actually a very nice car and a fraction of the cost of a hobby grade car. I have a spare Audi Quattro and was considering installing a more powerful motor. It has a pod like setup in the rear end. I think a 540 can get in there with a little work, but thats probably overkill. Perhaps the Tamiya Sport Tuned or such other 380 size motor...

Overvolted

I just bougjt a small fleet of these Radio Shack/Tandy cars. Two Camaro Z28's and a Mustang Cobra. I have a 1991 Camaro RS that was my daily for about 14 years and is getting some lovin right now. Anyway when I got the first Camaro I was surprised at the steering. Being front wheel drive when you want to turn right the right wheel slows and the left drives through it, pivots the motor box and the car turns right. The Mustang is similar but rear wheel drive and the front axel plate is rivited in the center and floats freely as the two rear wheels speed up and slow down to move the floating front axel. Talk about slow steering response but very cool design.

For the Camaro steering I am using a micro servo with a piece of .023 welding wire from the servo and hot glued to the motor box. It works perfect and is fast acting. I have a mini receiver and 10 amp esc with a 6 volt 2000mah battery to push the dual 130 mabuchi motors. It scoots pretty good now. It has been fun driving it in my garage under my full size Camaro thats on jack stands when I need a break from wrenching. Neither Camaro had a transmitter when I bought it so I dont feel bad about modding the electronics.

I really want to mod the Mustang but I have the transmitter for it and will keep it period correct until it all fries. It is a handful to drive in small spaces but lots of fun.

Anyway, love the old Radio Shack cars and have a Golden Arrow im gonna post about on that thread. Cheers, Chris

krispy378

Ive always liked the tandy radio shack rc cars. We have a small fleet of them... Sounds cool what you did there. Cheers