One off home built custom--I think. I have never seen another one. A well thought out, well constructed direct gear drive car. Cast aluminum chassis with a hammered aluminum body. A post war Hornet engine. Ron
Oops! On December 20th I posted pictures of a Richter Streamliner and used the text I had written for an Interceptor. I've corrected the text and left the pictures of the Richter in place. Sorry for the error. In my advanced years I think I'm turning into Mr. Magoo! Ron
1949 Homebuilt spur drive. I wished I knew who built this car. For 1949 it had many unique features and I would have liked to give him credit. I think this is the only example of this car ever made. Starting off with the body a one off cast aluminum--very unusual design. It is powered by a Hornet engine and has a centrifugal clutch built into the flywheel. Also, well designed independent front suspension. Each axle has a small spring underneath it and can be adjusted by the screws on top of the axles. It has two gas tanks. A large one that feeds a small one under the Hornet cylinder. There are two air vents on each side of the body with an aluminum shroud to cool the engine. And to the right of the Hornet a battery box holding two AA batteries. See the last two pictures where the car was shown in the Rail and Cable Magazine January 1950. I fell this is a very special car. Ron
Ron, I wondered when you'd show this car. I think it's in the background of one of your other posts, and it looked really interesting...and it is! I see a LOT of engineering went into putting this one together. That front suspension is really slick!
Thanks I am glad you like this car. When I got the car it was in pieces to much for me to figure out. My good friend Wayne Short help me put it back together.
The magazine says its a "Glo Plug job" but it is obviously a full ignition Hornet engine. I assume the magazine was in error. Mick
Mick When we received the car it had all the pieces to run glo or ignition. We decided to put it back to coil and condenser. Ron
The one I sold and wish I didn't. Rare Rare Rare. Way back when I started collecting I bought five cars in a lot. Sold the car below and another for what paid for the five cars. Thought another one would come along. Wrong in twenty years I have seen one other and it had a recast top. The car is a post war Yano Mfg. in Japan. Few were made and I really dicked up selling this one.
At the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan is an awesome display of Tether Cars !! Here are just a few pics I took !! Definitely a must visit !!
Glad to see they are displaying the cars. Every time I've looked at pics on their website in the past, they've been labeled as not on display.
Here is a tether slingshot slot dragster built and raced in the 60s in second owner. I JB weld almost everything the rest I use bubble gum. Life is to short to do it right the first time
Really getting old worked in a hobby shop where they sold these Sent from my SM-T387V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
1940 Atwood Cabin Car as raced. This Atwood was manufactured by Champion Products, Los Angeles, CA . It has an aluminum cast top and bottom. The car came in front drive but this one shown is driven by a gear box in the rear. I have seen others that were either converted to rear drive or Bill Atwood built a few as prototypes. The Atwood car was competitive coming in first place in the April 1940 California championships in front of the Dooling Team who came in 2nd, 3rd and 4th. My car runs a Super Cyke engine and Voit wheels. Ron
D&M Special 1946 manufactured by Decker and Madsen. After the war Roy Richter was involved with his new company Bell Products. He sold the molds and the rights to build the Richter Streamliner to Bill Decker. The chassis is almost an exact copy of Richter's car. The cars were sold in kit form. All machine work done, but the buyer had to carve his own top. The castings on this car are magnesium. I took a closeup of the front axle in the middle and you can see the D&M logo cast into it. Whoever put this car together did an exceptional job laying out mechanics of the car. Ron
Home built--sort of. About 15 years ago there was an auction in a small motel in Kansas City. The deceased owner had turned the motel into a machine shop. He spent the last years of his life living in one unit, and doing miscellaneous small jobs, but mainly building tether cars in the other five units. About 20 cars were auctioned away with the lathes, Bridgeport, and other equipment. I ended up with three of his cars. I kept the one I liked the best. As you can tell he did very nice work and custom built all of his cars including the 60 size billet engines (similar to a Yellow Jacket engine). The aluminum pan is machined and top is carved out of wood. Ron
1939 Dooling Mercury Midget, also known as First Series Front Drive. The most elusive of all the Doolings. It was the first production car by the Dooling Brothers. It came in kit form with a wood tail and aluminum sheets to construct the main body. Mine had a custom aluminum body put on at a later date. All series one cars are front wheel drive and usually have a Dennymite engine. I bought this car at Sabbatini's tether car collecto and was told by the seller that it was found under a house in Los Angeles. It was in very rough condition (see last picture). I had Wayne Short do a mild restoration on it cleaning up the oxidation and putting on new front frame horns. There is no record on how many were originally built, but Eric Zausner estimated in his book between 75 and 100. There have been many reproductions of this model. Ron
1940 Matthews Achiever. Manufactured in Fresno by Percy Matthews. Percy was known for his excellent quality castings and was successful as a company building tether cars. The Achiever was unique in that it could be purchased as a front or rear wheel drive according to your preference. This car came from the Franny Wolf collection and uses a SuperCyke engine. Only between 100 and 150 units were made. In my opinion it is one of the best looking cabin cars. Ron
Lepus nice find. with your skills as a machinist I know when you finished with it, it will be outstanding.
This Speedway Pacemaker is one of my favorites in my small collection. The color is great and it looks like it's ready to get back on the track. It was one of my first cars. You can tell from the pics where it came from (thanks J.P.A.!).
The last part of the auction where I got the Dooling Frog ended yesterday, and I put in a last bid that would have won this car a second or two too late. Can anyone tell me what kind it is?