My Brother's 2nd RC Car, The Team Associated RC10

In the year 1987 (somewhere around there), my brother and I got RC cars for Christmas and this set off a domino effect in our neighborhood. All of the kids in the neighborhood got their own RC cars and we used to run them in our cul de sac. Our first RC cars were Tamiya Grasshoppers. It wasn't long before it was time to upgrade our RC cars. I got the Kyosho Ultima and, of course, my brother had to get it's direct competitor the Team Associated RC10.


The RC10 came out in 1984 and was American made. Associated Electronics, also known as Team Associated, designed the RC car and it became a huge success for them. For my brother, the car was durable and well designed. The alloy chassis was a big reason for this. Since we did most of our racing on our cul de sac's asphalt, he also converted this car to on-road. Unfortunately, he no longer has his RC10 so I couldn't get any photos of it or the bodies he had.

Here's something interesting I found when I was looking up information on the RC10. If you have ever seen the movie Dirty Harry, starring Clint Eastwood, you probably remember the San Francisdo car chase scene when Harry is being chased by an RC car. Harry is running from the RC car because it has a bomb in it.


The movie director used a Team Associated RC10 for this scene. In the movie, the RC car sounds like it is nitro-powered but it's actually electric. The nitro engine sound was added later. Before the chase scene begins, the villian is having trouble controlling his RC car because some kids are playing with an RC car on the sidewalk (frequency problem). Before the kids put the car on the sidewalk you can see the distinctive orange chassis of the RC10. What's really cool (for me anyway) is the kid's radio is a Futaba Magnum which is a version of the radio my brother and I had.