Australian tethered car scene


Owen has built a record breaking car with front wheel drive. Ground effect skirts and it's a 10cc C class car. That means it has to have exposed wheels no tuned exhaust pipe and no suspension on the driving wheels. Did 220 straight off the bench. Not a bad effort at all.		Rhian Mansell is now the owner of the juggernaut. It's new look has had the effect of increasing its speed. Or is it the new owner that knows how to put it together? 120 on the knocker. Not too bad at all for a vintage OS.

John Uden and friend talk about the finer points of a fast car.

Ric Munro's replica Dooling F car. Looks good and goes good.

Three men in a cage. Left to right, Doug Sinclare, John Rootes and Karl Sepetauc. John's first car, first run. There were a couple of teething problems but it should be sorted for the next competition day. That's what its all about. No shortage of help and advice.

Ric Munro on the pole during a run yesterday.

The axle with the brass sleeves is going to be split through the centre line to afford independent front suspension. The plain one is for a railtrack car. Its Warrens one. Just in case he wants to run it on a rail.
If he ever wants to convert it to independent as used on a cable track then its an easy modification. Actually I've seen a lot of these cars made with the front axle left solid and running on the wire. I'm not convinced that it really makes that much difference.

Mark has made a lot of progress machining up the castings for the 'F' as can be seen from the series of pictures below. Only someone who has done it can appreciate how much hard graft is required to polish a complete body. Being magnesium it will not stay this way long unless lacquered, painted or anodised.

Attached pictures show the magnesium body and chassis castings (straight from the foundry) for the replica Dooling F cars that I'm undertaking to build at the moment.

They don't look like much as they are, but when the machining is done and they get a good polish they will be far more presentable.

Actually, magnesium is a very difficult metal to cast. Especially in such thin sections. It is also a difficult metal to machine because of its inherent toughness. Extremely sharp cutting tools are a must, and of course the ever present danger of the metal catching on fire is always present in the machinist's mind. A bucket of sand being at the ready for just such an occurrence. Water will not put out a magnesium fire.

Partially machined front axle castings are the rail racing version. The 'cable' type are split in the middle and sprung to give independent front suspension.

Mark Mansell is a member of the Sydney Society of Model Engineers down under. He has written a series of articles for the Australian Model Engineering magazine detailing his design and making of tethered cars. The above picture is of his Bantam Midget.

Plans can be obtained from the Retro Racing club in the UK or direct from Mark. email: mmansell@bigpond.net.au

The Australian tether car association encourages newcomers by having an Aussie only built class and a 'M' class which has rules as follows:

'M Class is an Australian class that was developed to attract new members with a limited budget. The design rules are simple, it is restricted to a 3.5cc displacement engine. There is no suspension allowed, no tuned exhaust pipes (also known as expansion chambers), the wheels must be outside the body and the mass of the car, ready to race, cannot exceed 2,000gms. Apart from that, go your hardest!'


Body casting.	Pan casting.	Gearbox and front axles.