Gene Husting répond à quelques questions...

[Asso_man]

Tout ce que vous avez toujours voulu savoir sur la RC400, par Gene Husting lui-même... Ces questions ont été posées directement à Gene Husting par son propre fils, Steve. Je vous laisse vous dépatouiller avec l'anglais...

1st Question. What prototype vehicles and parts DIDN'T make it to production ?
The only Prototype vehicle, that didn't make it to Production was the RC400 1/8 gas car.

After making the 1st RC100 car, I upgraded it to the RC 200 car, and then
the RC 300 car. All three of these cars won the majority of major races around the World.

Then I decided to upgrade again, with a new RC 400 car. I made a prototype RC 400 car,
which featured a new suspension front end.

As luck would have it, the first place I got to try it out, was in a race, I believe in Arizona.
It was on an old, unused aircraft landing strip. It was the worst track I'd ever seen.

They had these popular, yellow, 2 foot, steel cones, as corner markers,
which is what most tracks used. Normally you could cut the corners pretty close,
because even if you misjudged by a couple inches, it didn't throw the cars off too much.

But, when I looked at the cars running around the track, everyone was on a line, at least
3 feet away from the cones. In a few moments I found out why. The track was so bumpy,
that the bumps were throwing the cars every which way. The only safe way,
was to stay away from the cones, or watch the cones throw your car 3 feet in the air.
Pan cars don't really like that.

So, when I got unpacked, and got on the track I did the same thing. I remember watching
my car go around the track, and I started laughing to myself, because the suspension front end,
was glued to the ground, and going exactly where I drove it, but the rear end was bouncing
along every which way, just like the other cars. But, the car was following my instructions,
and was on a smooth line, even though the rear end looked like it was trying to throw the car offline,
just like the other pan cars.

This was one of those races for me, that you could only dream about.
I could put one tire on the cone, and it didn't even affect where the car was going.

I used my head, and took it easy, winning the race by 3 laps, over the fastest racer in the world,
at that time, Bill Jianas, who was 2 laps ahead of the 3rd place finisher.

This showed me the difference, visually, in what a suspension car could do, versus a pan car.

So, I didn't want to make the RC400 car anymore, I wanted to make a full suspension RC500 car,
and that's what I did.

The other part of the question was " What Parts Didn't make it into production?"
Offhand, I can't answer that question too easily. Because we'll try a number of different type
tires on the front and rear, and then decide on which tires would be best for most circumstances.

And, at the same time, after testing the car, we may make some minor alterations, on shock angles, shock oils, shock springs, etc. And then, "Choosing the right body is very critical".

Gene Husting

2nd Question. I want to know the Original history about Associated seeing Roy Moody's
electric Jerobee car run on the west coast, and how that monumental idea developed into
the long and prosperous life of Associated Electrics?

The first time I heard of 1/12 electric on road cars, was when it had started to grow in the Midwest. Here in So. Calif., we raced outdoors all year round. However, in the Midwest, they get snowed in, during the wintertime, and they still want to go racing. So, someone in the Midwest started promoting 1/12 scale racing, on indoor portable tracks.

It grew to the point that ROAR made a set of rules for the cars. I was in the midst of designing
the RC500 4wd gas car, at the time, and I couldn't stop, so I told Roger that we need to design
a 1/12 scale on road car. He said, "Get me a set of the Rules." , which I did.

Roger then designed the famous RC12E car. It was just a straight forward basic car,
according to the rules. And we could race it outside, too. When we had the first chassis done,
Roger went around asking our 1/8 scale drivers, if they would like to go 1/12 racing.
They asked " How fast does it go?". He said about 30 miles per hour. They all said,
"That's not a race car, it's too slow.", and no one wanted to race it.

My wife, Midge, heard Roger asking these gas drivers, and she said she would volunteer
to test the car at races, at the Briggs Cunningham Car Museum track.

She'd never driven an RC car before, and Roger wasn't going to do the testing,
so he said OK to Midge. So, I told my wife that I would go to the track, and help her.
She said, " I don't want you to go to the track and watch me, you'll just make fun of me."

At the time, we had Beginner, Amateur, and Expert Classes. So, she could run as a beginner,
and we could see what parts could break. So, it worked out quite well, and then we went into
production. It wasn't long before Mike Lavacot and Kent Clausen, became the drivers to beat in So. Calif., and everywhere else, with their new RC12E cars.

Gene Husting

Note from Steve:
Talking with my Dad about this, he said that the Jerobee and 12e car were in development at about the same time. But because the Associated car was cheaper, Gene thinks it put the Jerobee company out of business.

[MK4]

il existe une photo de ce proto ?

[Asso_man]

il existe une photo de ce proto ?

je n'en ai pas sous la main, mais je peux essayer d'en obtenir...