THIS MODEL IS A TRUE WORK OF ART..
This Craftsmen Produced Model pays tribute to enthusiasts who raced the original model cars in the 1930's, Long before the days of helmets seat belts airbags and traction control. In the day, The BB Korn Manufacuring Co. produced several of our models that now, as vintage antiques, command great sums at auctionIt was a hobby for the rich and winning a race would give great prestige to the model car manufacturer.
Called "Tether Cars" they were powered by model aeroplane engines and run on fuel contained in a tank within the car.
These tether cars were extremely popular in the 1920s and 1930s and are very valuable and highly collected today. With tracks in the USA, Australia, new Zealand, Russia, Great Britain and many other countries, tether cars were popular throughout the world
In the early days, cars were built by enthusiasts at home, some using ashtray rubber rings as tires although still able to reach speeds of up to 40 mph on the track. Owners would model their cars with realistic items such as windscreens, steering wheels, imitation gauges and in some cases even model drivers.
The race tracks of the day were sometimes just dirt or asphalt, the cars were tied via a cable to a central spike on the circular track, then push started. In no time the cars would build up speed around the central pivot, with timing instrumentation in place to monitor the cars speed, some cars eventually reaching over 100mph Plus.
When the owners wanted to stop cars they would actuate a small kill switch on the car via a pole or broom-handle.
This exciting hobby died out in wartime with only a few manufacturers surviving but post war, many manufacturers popped up again, sadly the hobby lost its audience when cars became much too fast to be viewed by the spectator, plus in the hunt for higher speeds, owners would drop authentic details such as windshields etc. for streamlining, this making the cars less interesting to the audience who had enjoyed watching authentic looking cars.
