Sure, be happy to.
First, I'm 50 yo. Born 1955.
I was 9 or 10, don't remember which and I got a Cox PT-19 line control trainer plane. It was powered by a Cox .049 nitro engine. You started it by hooking a spring that was mounted behind the prop on the drive shaft around the prop and winding the prop against the spring and then letting go. You learned to be quick because those props HURT if the nipped your finger. The plane was all plastic and held togeather with rubberbands so when you crashed it came apart. The carb only had one needle and why my brother and I did not blow it up I don't know. The fuel was Cox brand and came in 1/2 pint cans, sorry, I don't know what the mixture was (did not care at the time) and we bought it at the corner hardware store. A can would last us about a week. We used one of those square lantern batterys with a simple copper clip on the glow plug.
I actually have, and it still runs great, a Kyosho ZR-1 Corvette that has an OS.10 engine in it that I bought new in 1986.
Now, to streach your imaginations even more.....There are nitro rc planes hanging on the wall of my brothers garage that my father made the year I was born. They have not flown in at least 30 years but they are there.
Nitro rc's have been around a LONG time. Just go to the airplane section of this fourm and ask around. I think you'll be surprised.
Also, my brother has a very old nitro car (late 50's I think) that is made of cast metal and was a line control car. It's shaped like a very old Indy car. You drove a stake into the ground and attached a steel line to the stake and the car. Started the car and let it run in circles til it ran out of gas. That was the coolest thing for a kid back then.