Announcer

Go behind the wheel and under the hood on everything automotive with High Speed Stuff from howstuffworks.com.

Scott Benjamin

Hi everybody and welcome back to the podcast. I’m Scott Benjamin, the auto editor at How Stuff Works. And with me is Ben. How are you doing, Ben?

Ben Bolin

Hey-o.

Scott Benjamin

Oh, okay, Ed Mcmahon there, huh? Very cool.

Ben Bolin

I am pleased. What’s going on, man?

Scott Benjamin

I am – I say this sometimes, occasionally; maybe a little too often, but I’m excited about today’s topic again.

Ben Bolin

Really?

Scott Benjamin

Yeah. It’s a racing topic.

Ben Bolin

Oh, that explains it.

Scott Benjamin

It’s a racing topic, but miniature.

Ben Bolin

Miniature racing?

Scott Benjamin

Miniature racing. Not called racing; it’s called tether car racing.

Ben Bolin

Oh, tether cars.

Scott Benjamin

Tether car racing, yep.

Ben Bolin

Okay, so give me a second here. Catch me up to speed. We’ve talked about racing before. We’ve talked about miniature cars, slot cars.

Scott Benjamin

Pinewood Derby cars.

Ben Bolin

Pinewood Derby cars. Tether cars though.

Scott Benjamin

Tether cars.

Ben Bolin

What are tether cars?

Scott Benjamin

As the name implies, they’re tethered to something. Well, I’ll fill you in on that in a minute, but tether is really something that – well, just like tether ball. The ball is tied to a string or rope or some type of -

Ben Bolin

Okay, so they’re going in a circle around a central point?

Scott Benjamin

Correct. That’s what a tether car basically is. It’s a model car that goes around a central point.

Ben Bolin

Scott, my friend, you’re making sense, but from the explanation you’re giving me it smacks of a laymen’s description. I think you’re cutting out some details.

Scott Benjamin

It needs a lot more. Yeah, it needs a lot more and we’ll – okay, let’s just get into what these are really.

Ben Bolin

Okay.

Scott Benjamin

They’re small cars. They’ve got two-cycle en
gines. They are – well, two stroke engines. They’re really, the small engines that are the same type that power model airplanes. They’re real small with a glow plug. And usually, you fuel them with the Cox Fuel that comes in a box. I don’t know if you remember those from a long time ago or not, but – and you have to spin the propeller with your hand to get it going. That’s the kind of engine that I’m talking about. The cars are kind of a streamline vehicle. That’s what they’ve evolved into.

We’ll talk about that in a minute, but they go in a circular path around a pole in the center and they’re tethered to that pole with steel cable. And these things hit incredible speeds that we’ll also talk about in a minute, but they’re ridiculously fast cars. I had no idea that tether car racing was so cool until I just stumbled across this video – I don’t know – it must have been about a month ago. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. You’ve watched it as well, right?