The racing of tethered cars began in the late 1930s growing in popularity throughout the 40s and 50s in both Eastern and Western Europe, the US and Australasia. The concept of the sport is simple and has remained unchanged since its inception. Initially the models resembled full sized cars but over the years they have developed and become refined into extremely fast, streamlined vehicles. The car is connected to a rotating pylon via a steel cable of varying dimension depending on the class of car. The cars are pushed off and horsed up to speed, a process that has remained unchanged for seventy years. When the competitor is satisfied with the speed of the car the timing begins for the number of laps that equates to 500metres. At the end of the required laps the fuel is turned off by means of a trip lever on the car, which must be completed within ten more laps. Caps, rags and mats sufficed at one time but now it is a precisely adjusted mop. As with the hydroplanes it is the search for ultimate speed that drives the competitors on.
 

British enthusiasts have two styles of racing that can be pursued, modern FEMA style cars or retro and vintage models. OTW has a series of articles detailing the histories of International and British tethered car racing and the organisations that have been responsible over the years. 

Background and historical articles
 

FEMA International Classes
 

Current Records
 

	International		British
Class 1	Jan-Erik Falk              Sw	268.697kph  Dec 2006	Lynn Blowers	251.238kph June 2019
Class 2	Torbjorn Johannessen Nor	285.711kph  Aug 2016	Oliver Monk	262.711kph Aug 2018
Class 3	Andrii Yakymiv             Ukr	300.953kph  Mar 2017	Hugh Blowers	276.405kph June 2022
Class 3b	Mart Sepp                    Est	273.562kph  Aug 2015	David Giles	241.285kph June 2010
Class 4	Tonu Sepp                   Est	317.124kph  Apr 2014	Oliver Monk	293.458kph Aug 2019
Class 5	Ando Rohtmets          Est	347.490kph  Oct 2019	Oliver Monk	322.465kph May 2012

Torbjorn Johannessen	Andrii Yakymiv	Jan-Erik Falk	Ando Rohtmets

Mart & Tonu Sepp	Oliver Monk	David Giles	Lynn Blowers

Related information on building, running and maintaining tethered cars

Building a Class V Tethered car	Building a Class 3b tethered car	Digital Timing Device
Mark Osborne describes the building of a car from proprietary components	David Giles Describes his E3 tethered car machined and built from scratch	Oliver Monk describes this essential piece of equipment
Workshop Ramblings		Resources
Oliver Monk describes projects, engineering techniques and car preparation	2013 2014  2015  2016  2017  2018  2019 2020 2021 2022/3	Printed material relating to tethered cars
Buckminster Car Track Story behind the venture
Event reports 2024

Routes to running a modern tethered car

Tethered car racing like almost every other speed based modelling discipline that seeks to achieve ultimate performance requires dedication, persistence, knowledge and expertise, relying on a hard core of interested members and competitors. To this end, Oliver Monk who competes in all classes except 1 or 3b regularly publishes his ‘Workshop Ramblings’ on OTW detailing the development of his current cars, the rebuilding of older models and several new builds, both for the FEMA classes and retro events. He also has an in depth knowledge of the close knit group of those who can supply everything from complete cars down to individual spares, a necessity for anyone wishing to compete.

The car is the essential piece of hardware, and for those interested there are a number of routes available to become the owner of a modern FEMA car and, hopefully, competing. The first step being to contact the national authority. For the UK this will be  the  BTCRC, which is the umbrella organisation.

From there on there is the option of purchasing a second hand car by visiting meetings or perusing the speedmodelcar site that often has complete cars for sale, including some exceedingly successful examples and even record breaking models.

Sepp 3.5cc car	Russian 1.5cc car

There now exists the possibility to purchase the major components required and with a modicum of engineering, assemble a car yourself. Not as daunting though as building a car from scratch, which is another option for those with the facilities and expertise.

Cast pans from Gabor Dobrocsi	CNC pan from Linas Adomavicius	Kit of parts for Class V

David Giles has been the most successful British competitor of the modern era being the only Briton since 1956 to become a European Champion. After a lengthy period of retirement from active competition, a trip to a meeting at the Basel track rekindled his interest and he took the decision to design, build and develop his own 3.5cc car (originally Class 5). The car proved to be a consistent front-runner in competitions and achieved 4^th place in the 2005 European championships.

David very kindly provided an account of the development of his car in the article DJR3 and the innovative Papagai.

Mark Osborne, an Australian we met in Basel in 2013 provided OTW with a very helpful and illuminating article that described in detail, with relevant costing, a project to build a number of new Class 5 10cc cars, starting with CNC machined pans.

For anyone interested in international competition, the latest edition of the rules (both FEMA and WMCR) are available on the website www.speedmodelcar.com.

Potential drivers need to apply to the BTCRC for a national number that will be GB0**. Registration of a car is initiated by contacting the BTCRC for the submission of a ‘Daten Erfassungsblatt’ (specification data sheet) that is filled in and submitted to the FEMA Technical Secretary by the BTCRC Technical Secretary after he has inspected and scrutinised the car to ensure that it has satisfied the technical specification and design criteria for the relevant class. The car then receives a registration number, which has to be engraved on the bottom pan. All car and driver registrations will now be made online and a list of car registrations is available on the speedmodelcar.org website.

There is no subscription to either the BTCA or BTCRC, but there is an annual fee per active driver of 10 Euros and an annual national fee currently of 100 Euros, to be paid to the FEMA treasurer around the start of the racing season. The national fee is simply divided by the number of members, collected by the FEMA point of contact and passed directly to the FEMA secretary.

For further information: email:   flatbadger@btinternet.com     oliver.monk@btinternet.com    h.blowers@btopenworld.com

Class 1: Lynn Blowers' 1.5cc  British record holder	Class 3: Jan-Erik Falk's 2018 European Championship car

Class 2: Torbjorn Johannessen's record holder	Class 3b: Mart Sepp's  3.5cc record holder

Class 4:  Oliver Monk's Picco/Profi British record holder	Class 5: Gilbert Huguenin's 10cc Picco car